The little town of Mendon is changing. The truth is it has always been changing and that change has always been met with opposition. The first such opposition was when the Nipmuc Indians burned down Mendons’ first Meeting house. We are more civilized now. We use the media, Town meetings and the courts to voice our objections. Every time a house is built someone loses a view, wildlife is displaced and someone gains a neighbor they don’t want. I have experienced all the above and am guilty of creating all of the above to some degree. It was always my dream that if I won the lottery I would tear down every building built after 1962 and restore my town to what it was when I first moved here. I am sentimental and nostalgic almost to the point of being handicapped. I am also a practical person and the two personalities often clash. While reducing the town to 1962 status may satisfy my longing for life as it once was there are many of those still here that would just as soon the Post office building was never built in the late ‘40s, that the Center School was never expanded in the ‘30s and Rt. 16 never was built in the ‘50s. Two sayings come to mind as I reflect on Mendons changes: “You can’t go home again” and “the more things change the more they remain the same”. Home is never the same as when you left it because things are always changing. Some changes are clearly for the better. Whenever an ugly building is replaced by something new, clean, state of the art, and even revenue producing it has to be for the better when the alternatives are just not practical. Things get a little messy when we start tearing down attractive historical buildings and replacing them with new attractive buildings. While I personally hate to see that happen I recognize the right of a property owner to do as they wish within the limits of the law. The passion for preservation is what provides checks and balances so that we do not eliminate our architectural and natural history all at once. But then again, whose history are we protecting? There are more trees in Massachusetts now than there were 200 years ago when every square inch of land was farmed. A walk thru any wooded area will reveal the stone walled evidence of what the landscape once was. I doubt any landscape was ever improved by cutting trees or building buildings but it is what we do, it is very basic to our survival on every level. It has always has been and will always be so. I mourn the recent loss of the Comstock house, and the Silas Dudley house, they were old friends I was used to seeing every day, they said goodbye as I left town and greeted me when I came home perhaps that is what made these buildings more important than others that have disappeared. I barely remember the two buildings that used to be behind “Rebeccas”. Two more across from Myrtle St. are gone still others are renovated beyond recognition as has most of Taft Ave. and Kinsley Lane. The huge “Kelley” house was razed to make room for Rt. 16., long before all that, small mills and shops dotted the Mendon road sides and river banks. Many of their stone and granite foundations still exist as reminders of changes that have come and gone. Rev. Adin Ballous former home is now in the shadow of the new Clough Elementary School, neither the Reverend, or Mr. Clough would recognize Mendon today just as they would not have recognized each others “Mendon”.”You can’t go home again”, “The more things change, the more they remain the same”, the former is my lament and the latter my rationalization that allows me to treasure the past and embrace the future.