"Have you seen her lips? It's like a Baboon's ass on her face," - Lois Griffin on Julia Roberts.

Where did Old Dora go? I've figured some things out. In the 70's, Bruno's came. Bruno became Food World. They didn't want to go to Old Dora and buy land. They bought cheap land two miles north-west of the place. Well, they needed a fire station in case they place went up. So they built that half way between Old Dora and Food World. You add in City Hall and new Police Station, you've got a shift in town focus. Businesses followed. Around that time a drive-in opened up in Sumiton, the town across the street. The theater in Old Dora couldn't compete with ultra-cheap prices. The theater closed down. The butcher's shop couldn't compete with Food World (then still known as Bruno's). It closed down. Soon the bank had to be moved. Alabama power needed a larger building. The Dora Ford Motor Company was now useless. Mining had quit around here. The Railroads tried to sell the Depot to the City. They turned it down. The Depot was torn down.

Now, there is one business left just on the edge of Old Dora, James' Lumber Company. And I think they came after the collapse of Old Dora.

Today I took another tour of Old Dora. What I was really searching for was the sewer system. Back in 1912 or so, a huge system was put in. The tunnels are six feet in diameter. They stretch all over Old Dora and there are plenty of legends of people hiding things down there. There certainly were enough robberies in the old days to support this.

Somewhere in the 80's, all but one entrance -- all that the city knew of -- to the sewers were sealed up. There is one still open. I know where it is today. I looked inside. Water, cool and clear, pours out of it. It is no longer used as a sewer. There is a new one for that, a much smaller system. Soon I hope, I want to go inside the sewer system. It goes all the way up to all the buildings of Old Dora. It may even come up and out at the Mission House, which is still standing and used to be a Church.

The old buildings. Some still stand. The Dora Ford building is collapsing on itself, more so than the last time I was in it. There's the Mission House, which people have saved. Then there's Carl's Furniture and Appliances store, which I remember being in as a child. Then there's the old Bank. The vault is supposed to still be inside because it was too large to move. And then there's the old Masonic Lodge building. It's still there. The doors are off and you can see the floor is almost completely gone. It's very small, but I've learned that there were two hallways to it, one that most folks never saw.

Here's where it gets interesting. The road loops around to the back of these buildings. There is still a power line running to one of them. There's even a meter that's running. Take a guess which building the line still runs to. The Masonic Lodge. The same building where if you step through the front door, you fall through the floor to somewhere below. Did I mention that the entrance to the old sewer system is not too far off from it? Did I mention that it's supposed to run right under it and toward the old Church?

I'm sure there's a lot more to all this. I hope to find out, too. There's something unsettling about Old Dora. Today, I looked again at where the old, clay tennis courts were, where the library sat, and where the old water works building is hidden behind a dozen trees. There are so many forgotten things.

If Old Dora moved because of Bruno's (Food World), the same is happening again. Wal-mart is just up the road. Wal-mart is killing Food World. Wal-mart is killing small businesses. Wal-mart kills. They entice you with jobs, but pay less and work you harder. The only good thing about them is that they'll hire anybody, which as a consumer, is a bad thing. I don't want to be left alone with most Wal-mart employees. Why would I like them around my underware and food?

I wonder in ten years what's going to happen to Dora. Are we moving again? I wonder if most towns drift. The sign that says Welcome to Dora on the South side is off by about twenty five feet. It's been moved North. I know this because it's supposed to line up with the road to Second Baptist. I used to cut the grass there as a child. Now, according to the sign, Second Baptist isn't in Dora anymore. According to my maps of Dora, Dora extends well past Second Baptist. Well, it did at one point, somewhere in the past.

  ¶ 3:01 PM