Staff Columns: Before you call Milledgeville boring, think life without the Waffle House

In the last Voice, we touched on how boring Milledgeville is to people who have come from better places with more stuff to do. Coming from someone who’s been here going on 22 years, trust me, things have improved.

Staples of modern GC&SU college life, like Waffle House, Sonic, Krystal and Capital City are relatively new phenomena.

The only after-bar option before the Waffle House was Huddle House. While at one point there were three Huddle Houses, they just couldn’t measure up to an order of hash browns scattered, smothered, covered and chucked.

And as far as the bars go, there was no Buffington’s, Amici or Locos. The Brick has been around for a while, but the hottest places in town used to be Cameron’s, Opera House, and even before that there was the Briar Patch.

Given, there are plenty of people who are around now were around then, but to most, Drink or Drown at Opera House is a a distant memory.

I never knew the Milledgeville Mall, previously known as the Hatcher Square Mall, was called “The Small” by non-locals until a year or so ago. Complain all you want, but even our mall has undergone some major improvements. Way before the new carpet and sign were installed, there was no Maurices. Belks used to be a shadow of its former self and there was no Chinese food, Goody’s or Office Max. In fact, Wal-Mart used to be where OfficeMax is now, Goody’s was in the K-Mart/Kroger Shopping Center and Kroger was a Bi-Lo.

The biggest change: Lowe’s, Brewster’s and the China Buffet shopping center on 441 used to be an elementary school.

Things have changed at the college, too. Many still remember the giant ramp leading from the walkway in front of Parks Hall directly to the cafeteria. The old courthouse on front campus was our only courthouse and there was no Chick-fil-A. All the dorms were old, there was no Bobcat Village and West Complex was a baseball field and a picnic area. We used to be called the Georgia College Colonials and our colors were gold and brown.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some things that have gotten worse. Milledgeville drivers have become more brazen, the journey to Wal-Mart feels like a road trip and finding an off-campus apartment is a six-month ordeal.

Milledgeville, like all towns, has its pitfalls, but the next time you hear someone say how awful Milledgeville is, think back to when there was no Hop-In, GC&SU’s mascot was a colonial with a big cartoonish head and the only place you could get good hash browns was in Macon.

Bo Shell
Editor in Chief
The Colonnade

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 22 2005. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry