One of the surest signs of the death of a community is when people build businesses by the airport or railroad yards, then complain about the noise. Or, when people move from the City to the Small Town, and complain that the locals are putting pictures of dead deer in the paper again, or they want to change something else about the town they retired to.

In Billings, Montana, hotel chain built their buildings only to find the whistles kept people awake at night, and away from their hotel in the future. Apparently, they no longer teach "Location, Location, Location" in business school. So the city is being forced to figure out a way to silence the trains.

Here in Paradise, deer season is approaching, and as the locals traipse down to the office of the local paper to get their picture taken with their trophy (this is a farming community, or at least it used to be), the auslanders, as I have begun calling them, are about to start the annual deluge of letters to the editor asking them to stop putting those pictures on every page and put them in a special section they can dispose of without being reminded of where their food comes from. The people who were born and raised here are understandably upset by these letters.

So, an open question to the auslanders: If you loved Fredericksburg so much to move here, why are you trying to turn it into the town you left?

Feel free to respond in the comments.