The world is changing. I guess we’ve always known that, but two upcoming changes in Marshall really bring that fact home.

The Cattoor Oil Company will be a thing of the past after this month. It was always the heart of West Main Street, a perfect location for a service station and convenience store.

All my life I’ve filled up my car at Cattoor’s. Our family connections go way back to when my grandfather had a service station in Ivanhoe.

I remember when Toni’s Pizza founder Frank Schultz returned to the restaurant business in a partnership with Cattoor’s. I’ve enjoyed many Poor Boys and Little Italy sandwiches at Toni’s Depot over the years.

We had a good old fashioned charge account for fuel. It’s the traditional way cooperative did business, a convenience enjoyed by long time customers.

I’ll miss that. You just don’t find very many places in the 21st century that have those kinds of connections with their customers

I have a place picked out where I’ll go after Cattoor’s closes. It’s a nice neighborhood station with a good well-rounded convenience store. It won’t be the same, but it won’t be bad either.

The second big change will happen over the next several years. Plans call for the Marshall Aquatic Center to move from its home at Legion Field to the West College Drive area. It will be very different not having a pool in the park.

I remember as a little kid how my dad drove us to the pool almost every day. Our local radio station almost always played the song “The Entertainer” when we’d go.

We didn’t have a large water slide in those days, but we still thought our pool was a neat place. We had a slide in one corner, a six foot depth area for shallow diving, a diving well with a high board, and a large sun deck.

The pool has gotten old. It would cost more to keep it the same than it would to build something new. There have been some questions about whether West College Drive is the best location, but all evidence from an engineering standpoint indicates that it’s a better spot than Legion Field.

The plans for the new aquatic center are exciting. I’m glad that it will include a lazy river. I’ve always wanted one. I might have to try it out.

Still it won’t truly be my local pool. It won’t be the one where my dad took me, or where I took my bicycle when I got old enough.

We’ve lost some other great Marshall landmarks in recent years, particularly Marshall Bowl on East College Drive and the Key Roller Rink on Minnesota Highway 19 by the airport.

We now look for ways to build a recreation center. We had them. We were a small city with plenty of great attractions.

I hope that new generations of kids enjoy the new aquatic center and a new recreation center. I hope they have the same good fun that I had in my childhood.

Marshall was and is still a great place to grow up. We have a school district that awards $175,000 annually to graduating seniors. We have the Marshall Area YMCA, a well-rounded fitness center that was much needed back in 2003 and that still serves a vital purpose.

We also have Southwest Minnesota State University, which gives us everything from intercollegiate sports events to science-related visitor centers.

I’ve stayed here because Marshall has always served its purpose for me. In my younger days it was a great place to grow up and get an education. Now it seems like a good place to grow old.

Our city leaders should be commended for taking the next steps, for doing things that will make Marshall attractive to new residents and to families who want to build a future here. We have a huge amount of potential. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.