With the news of the demolition of the Riddick Field House at NCSU, I am reminded of something Alan Moore said in an interview several years ago.
In this interview, which was a series of several back in the 2000's, he noted how any place, any town, any city, had the potential for stories and tales that could entrance, and even mystify, those who are fortunate enough to live in such places.
Raleigh is a place that is littered with such stories, and the campus of North Carolina State University is no exception.
Having the honor to claim the institution as my Alma Mater I do take some extra time and attention to see what goes on with the place where my final transformation into full adulthood took place.
I had passed through the Field House many times during my years at NC State, and every time I passed under, I wondered what it's history was, what stories it held, what secrets it had been keeping.
And with it's destruction eminent, I am saddened to think of all those stories that will be forever lost, lost to the name of progress.
While it is impossible to stymie the growth of a city when it is experiencing an increase in residents, it cannot be understated that when you remove the places that helped to build the city, places that become as honored as customs and are traditions in themselves.
With the loss of this building, we are losing a part of ourselves; and sadly, we are a people who do not take pains to retain their history.
I hope that there is a true effort to retain the legacy of the building, of the field it remained loyal to over the years since the football field's destruction.
Since I have seen a pattern that whenever we lose a piece of our past, and fail to retain it in some way, we begin to lose ourselves.
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