“You can’t go home again.”

That saying was going through my mind last Sunday when my wife and I went to my first church service at the First United Methodist Church since 1980.

At first thought, that saying doesn’t make much sense, since this is my third time to “go home.”

Of course, what it means is that you can’t go home again and have it be the same as it was before.

I can’t walk to Traeger’s Bakery and get bear claws or cheese straws. I can’t lead the Key Club song (off-key, ironically enough) or stuff toilet paper into chicken wire for the class Homecoming float.

I can’t go to Food Fair and see Ms. Holman or Mr. Atkieson doing their grocery duties, and I can’t go to Rutledge Drug Store for a vanilla Coke.

However, back then, I couldn’t get on a computer to get information about news, sports, weather or whatever.

I couldn’t carry a phone with me and I couldn’t listen to non-radio music on the road without lugging a tape recorder along with me.

There is a lot to be said for the good ol’ days, but it’s all right there.

They were good. They were old. And they were days.

While it is fun and heart-warming to remember good days from times gone by, I still wouldn’t try to replace 2008 with 1980. The friends I had then are still my friends now, many of them still here in town, plus I have made many new friends.

A lot of people have told me that they are glad I’m back, and I’m glad I’m back, too.

Demopolis is a special place for me because I grew up here, from 1974 to 1980. But, it is the modern-day version of Demopolis that I am enjoying right now, seeing how things have grown and, in many ways, remained the same.

Yes, I am home again.

David Snow is the news editor for the Demopolis Times