George W. Howe

Date published: 3/5/2006

Twenty years ago this month, my wife and I moved into a corner apartment in the Monticello Square apartments complex.

My wife developed a mini-park by planting periwinkle, azalea bushes, a bed of daffodils, and other early-blooming flowers.

There was animal life on the ground and a variety of birds in the air.

About two years ago, contractors came to extend Cowan Boulevard to Central Park.

In the air, no more robins, blue jays, mockingbirds, crows, orioles, bluebirds or hummingbirds.

As apartment-dwellers, all we have left to see are the school buses carrying their precious cargo of children to and from the Fredericksburg public schools, Mondays through Fridays.

We think about their future, and what once was my wife's mini-park.

George W. Howe

Fredericksburg

Date published: 3/5/2006