Never have considered myself a clock watcher. Most of the jobs I’ve worked at over the years have been fast-paced enough or entertaining enough that the passage of time was never important. I still believe that to be true.
But I’ve looked over several times – out the front glass – and came away without the time. The big-handed clock on the front of 1st National Bank is gone, along with the arrowheads that marked each five minutes around the clock face. I still don’t consider myself a clock watcher, but I do realize how I had come to rely on that big timekeeper to gauge the day’s progress.
1st National is getting a make-over, inside and out. They told me that everyone inside has had to move their offices to the south end of the building interior while workers remodel the north half. Later, they’ll swap back while the other half is completed. They have to be jammed up just a little bit inside.
The time piece came down quickly and in case you missed seeing it for one final time, you can click on the image – one of the last that will have been taken of the bank façade. Since the bank is directly across the street and we have glass windows here at the book shop, I imagine I’ve looked at those fading awnings and dull siding more times over the past few years than anyone.
It’s going to be a nice new front – one that will fit in nicely with the turn-of-the-century-feel that the Rose District has come to represent. Messy now. Magnificent later. That’s how the bank’s excuse-our-mess sign reads. And if it winds up anything like the artist’s rendition, I don’t doubt it.
In the meantime, plastic is flapping against the chain link construction barrier, siding is being chipped away, and awnings are being pulled down.
Another sign of the continuing evolution of our little district. Shaping up, looking toward the future.
A rosy one, without question.
Come visit!
McHuston
Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow, OK!