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Guest column

I live here

Crowds, traffic now gather where cows once roamed. But you can eat or shop till your heart's content.

By RITA SMALL
Published May 20, 2005

BRANDON - You want to move where? That was my first reaction when my husband suggested that we build a house in Brandon. It was 1996. The last time I had been in Brandon was in the '70s.

We came and, yes, it had grown some. But there were the cows. As a matter of fact, when we moved to Heather Lakes, the cattle came up to my back yard.

It was quiet. Not the hustle and bustle of Miami and St. Pete where we had previously lived. I like the idea that the kids could walk to school and there were no fences with barbed wire around the school. I liked it that people were friendly and would say hello, that the grocery store and mall were close.

It's still quiet, however, it seems like everyone is moving to Brandon. So much that a trip that used to take 10 minutes can sometimes take 30. The traffic is bumper to bumper at times.

My children joke that there is nothing to do in Brandon except to eat and shop. My gosh, on Causeway/Lumsden alone you could eat out for three weeks and never eat at the same place twice. The county is reactive instead of proactive when it comes to Brandon. Think about it. When the high schools were overcrowded and they needed to build a new school, they said the the school would hold the overflow of approximately 1,500. They did not factor in that it would take two-plus years to build and that homes were being built so fast that they needed to actually build a school for 2,100 students. It seemed they only looked at what they needed at that moment.

Don't get me wrong. I like the neighborhood I live in. I like living in Brandon. I want to make a difference in my community. I can accept change. I just miss the homey feeling I felt when I first moved to Brandon.

I miss the cows.

Small lives on Flaxwood Avenue.

[Last modified May 19, 2005, 08:41:13]