For those that have lived here their whole lives, like myself, you've seen how Tyler has grown just in the last 20-25 years.

You look at South Broadway and how the shops and restaurants line the street all the way to Loop 49.

I can remember, in the early 90's, once you got to the mall, that was it. I think the furthest building south of there was the Red Barn.

Walmart was not a supercenter and had only two locations, on the West Loop where Atwoods used to be and on Troup Hwy next to Super One, that wasn't there at the time.

Other than the Brookshires Warehouse, Old Jacksonville Hwy didn't have much. I had to drive to Gresham at that time, and I thought that was the longest trip because it was so empty.

The Caldwell Zoo was free.

That was the early to mid 90's. Even my hometown of Lindale. There was downtown, Dairy Queen, Sonic, the movie store whose name escapes me right now and Brookshires. When you got to the interstate, there was Burger King, McDonalds and a couple of gas stations.

We would go to the bowling alley in Mineola to hang out because there was nothing like that in Lindale.

These towns aren't little anymore.

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. I'm always looking for ideas for looking back on East Texas. E-mail me at michael.gibson@townsquaremedia.com with an idea.

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