Every time I need to write a column, my fellow coworker John Staton seems as if he is in my mind and stealing my idea.
Humor aside, since John already wrote about being a native of Wilmington (which I am, too) and how much it's changed, he suggested I write about Brunswick County, since that's where I've lived for the last 26 years.
More specific, I live in Leland, which calls itself the "Gateway to Brunswick County." To say I have seemed a lot of changes would be an understatement for a town that's grown in a flash.
When I first moved to Leland, the one thing I remember is how long and how much traffic there was getting across the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. Some things don't change.
I live off of Mount Misery Road. Mount Misery Road is not named because of how miserable it can be at times. But there's a possibility that Mount Misery Road was named that because enslaved Africans were being taken off boats near Mount Misery, then being forced to walk the 90 miles to Fayetteville.
Mount Misery was a single-lane road, and it would get so busy during school days because one reason was that I would get stopped by trains (most times about 15 minutes or longer) and also there was no turning lane to get to Lincoln Elementary School.
So once the train passes, I will still have to wait for all the people that will be turning left to get to Lincoln Elementary.
Thank goodness now there is a devoted turning lane to Lincoln Elementary and the Mount Misery Road overpass opened June 10, 2017, which is a "heaven sent" for me and my children.
I will always remember when my son said he got stuck by the train and he was so tired that he fell asleep waiting for the train to pass. He woke up when a sheriff's deputy knocked on his car window because the train had finally pass.
The overpass sends drivers up and around the rail crossing leading into CSX’s Davis Yard.
There were only two grocery stores ? Piggly Wiggly and Food Lion ? in "town" off of Village Road over 8 miles away and it took over 10 minutes to get there. There was also a Family Dollar and Dollar General store in the Clairmont shopping center.
Now there is a Food Lion off of Mount Misery Road on Reed Road. A Dollar General is across the street it once was in the same area of Food Lion. In July 2022, because of the growth in Leland, a new traffic signal was being installed at the intersection of U.S. 74 and Mt. Misery Road.
Mount Misery isn't a long road. Once you pass the second railroad track (before the overpass was built), the road turns into Lanvale Road, which leads me to Leland Middle School and North Brunswick High School (on Old Fayetteville Road). It was hard getting to those schools because it only had a flashing signal. In 2022, the N.C. Department of Transportation installed a traffic signal just south of U.S. 74 at the intersection of Lanvale and Old Fayetteville roads. That was truly a blessing and a great improvement.
When I moved to Leland, there was the DuPont-Cape Fear Plant, built in the late 1960s, that produced Dacron polyester fiber and intermediate materials. It was one of the largest facilities in Brunswick County. Any day of the hour, traffic coming and going to DuPont was always so heavy and busy, so at the time there was a dedicated stop light just before Dogwood Road off of Mt. Misery Road. The DuPont-Cape Fear Plant discontinued production in 2013; the manufacturing facilities were decommissioned and 600 people lost their jobs.
Some major changes that I have welcomed and love the most is when Harris Teeter open along U.S. 17.
When I worked in Wilmington, I will stop by Harris Teeter, so that was a big deal for me.
There are now many businesses along U.S. 17, so now I do not need to visit Wilmington as much when I need to shop. What a relief!
A Walmart opened in October 2006 at the Westgate mixed-use complex in Leland. And a Burger King recently opened.
At Leland Town Center, there are businesses such as Lowe's Home Improvement (opened September 2023), Aldi, Starbucks, Firehouse Subs, Chick-fil-A, Cook Out, Eggs Up Grill and one of my favorites, a Dollar Tree store when "everything was a dollar."
Growing up I used to visit a 7-Eleven and now there is one located in the Ocean Gate Center Plaza in Leland. And in the Brunswick Forest community, there is Lowes Foods and Chipotle Mexican Grill, which opened Nov. 1.
When I needed gas, I had to travel to Village Road or U.S. 17, both over 10 minutes, so when the MayWay Lanvale Station finally opened. I was ready to "gas up" my car.
I can go on and on about the changes I have seen, but another final thought and one that turned out to be a "big blessing" was when I-140 (also known as the U.S. 17 Wilmington Bypass), connecting U.S. 421 in New Hanover County to U.S. 74-76 in Brunswick, opened in December 2017.
It was a blessing because when the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge closed this past January for repairs and when I needed to go to Wilmington, the I-140 bridge was the alternative route that I used.