I'm a lifelong Maritimer, and I used to live in this small town up by the NS/NB border. 20 years before, Stuart McLean wrote about that town in his travelogue "Welcome Home" and it could have been written yesterday. Nothing had changed. And nothing continues to change. It's quaint, in a way. Refreshing.

Even when things do change, we still call them by what they once were. We have three intersections on Saint John's west side named for businesses which no longer exist. The Simms factory at Simms Corner was demolished a couple of years ago, but it's still Simms Corner. Purdy's Garage closed almost 30 years ago, but it's still Purdy's Corner. I don't even know what Tilton's Corner is named for, but it predates the Dominion Store that opened there in the 60s.

We talk about the park where Centrecare was, or the K-Mart Mall, or the Woolworth's. The old Dominion Store I mentioned hasn't even been a grocery store for 30-odd years but it's still the Dominion Store (or sometimes the District Office). I give directions to my house based on where the Aquarius Pub was, or tell my doctor which pharmacy I use by saying "the one that used to be a Sobey's". We're stuck in the past, somehow. It's kind of nifty.