Thursday, July 9, 2009
Around Town / Phillips Visitation, 9:00 a.m.
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 9:11 AM
In the New Urban Shopping Center parking lot, there are at least ten police cars. There are police cars on every corner where Clarksville Pike crosses 25th Avenue. The police are wearing orange vests and step out into the street to stop traffic to let more people into the parking lot or to let them across the street.
The line at the Lewis and Wright Funeral home already stretches out the door and across their parking lot, clear down to the clusters of police cars at the corner. In line right then seemed to be mostly older people, women in their large hats and Sunday dresses, men in suits.
But the people crossing the street while I waited were younger and the kids seemed more dressed for summer than for viewing. It's hard to find fault with them; it's already hot out and the line is already long. A couple of young girls seemed to be in a hurry, craning their necks around at the spectacle. A young boy held back and his father had to turn and call to him as he hesitated crossing the street.
A block away you could see men in pairs, standing in the grass half turned away from the crowd, half keeping an eye on it. And farther down the street, police officers not wearing orange vests stood by their cars, arms crossed over their chests, smiling and chatting with each other.
Finally, the policeman pointed at the car in front of mine and waved us through.
Just down Clarksville Pike, at Robinhood Tires, two men crouched next to a middle-aged Buick, wholly focused on the tread.
The line at the Lewis and Wright Funeral home already stretches out the door and across their parking lot, clear down to the clusters of police cars at the corner. In line right then seemed to be mostly older people, women in their large hats and Sunday dresses, men in suits.
But the people crossing the street while I waited were younger and the kids seemed more dressed for summer than for viewing. It's hard to find fault with them; it's already hot out and the line is already long. A couple of young girls seemed to be in a hurry, craning their necks around at the spectacle. A young boy held back and his father had to turn and call to him as he hesitated crossing the street.
A block away you could see men in pairs, standing in the grass half turned away from the crowd, half keeping an eye on it. And farther down the street, police officers not wearing orange vests stood by their cars, arms crossed over their chests, smiling and chatting with each other.
Finally, the policeman pointed at the car in front of mine and waved us through.
Just down Clarksville Pike, at Robinhood Tires, two men crouched next to a middle-aged Buick, wholly focused on the tread.
