I put off writing this particular column for fear that I am not old enough to share my "old coot" status of nostalgia with many readers. But I am encouraged by the fact that hopefully many of you will gladly share your own favorite memories of monuments to the Black Hills' past that have been lost to time.

Some, such as the Black Hills Kennel Club, fell just outside my field of recollection. I can vaguely remember being there once with my father, but most of what I know about it is in the crusty remembrances of the crowds that now fill up Deadwood's casinos in the off-season months.

And the Passion Play in Spearfish, the wonderful realized vision of the late great Joseph Meier, so recently left us that it is hard to wax nostalgic about it.

But there are a number of things I do remember fondly, among them are …

Homestake Opera House

By the time I first stepped foot in the Homestake Opera House in Lead in the early 1980s, the grand building had seen better days.

Having been built in 1914, it was known as the "Jewel of the Black Hills" and brought in some serious talent to the small Black Hills gold mining town. The first time I saw anything in there, it was some God-awful martial arts movie featuring hard-headed boxer-turned-actor Tex Cobb.

But even though the entertainment wasn't top notch and the building showed a bit of the wear and tear expected on a building nearly 70 years old at the time, the theater was truly the best spectacle. Much like the Castro Theater in San Francisco, the architecture and grand stage evoked simultaneous feelings of nostalgia and grandeur.

In 1984, a devastating fire destroyed much of the opera house, essentially shuttering it for decades. Remarkably, historic preservation efforts have brought the grand old theater back, at least on a limited basis. It's a true testament to the hearty folks of Lead who refused to let the Jewel be discarded.

The Old Avenue of Flags

Perhaps the biggest argument that newer doesn't always mean better, the new parking area and rebuilding of the grounds at Mount Rushmore continues to be a sore spot among many Black Hills residents.

A recent story simply previewing a meeting discussing the future of the Shrine of Democracy with National Park Service officials brought more than two dozen Rapid Replies, and a good number were still deriding the parking changes.

Although the changes did demand the implementation of a $10 parking fee, it's hard to argue that although not more sightly, the new parking structure does allow a much more orderly way to park and leave the area. And progress demands changes to accommodate the ever-growing tourism trade in the region.

What I miss most from the "old" Mount Rushmore is the former Avenue of Flags, which twisted along a wide path nestled in among Ponderosa PInes and seemed as much an experience of being at the monument as the faces themselves. And, of course, I am not alone.

Did I quit going to Mount Rushmore since the change? Heck, no. I mean, I do have relatives and friends that still haven't been out to visit the Hills. But I will say that the folks who weighed in on Rapid Reply and turned out for the meeting have a right and a reason to be heard about the future of the park.

A&W Drive In (Deadwood)

I could have just as easily listed Polka Dots in Spearfish as the last and greatest of the independently owned drive ins lost to the march of progress, but to be honest, I didn't make it up there enough, even when I occasionally worked in the Queen City in the early 1990s.

Instead, I go with the old A&W on the south end of Deadwood.

A recent story in National Geographic Traveler derided the historic town as a mere tourist trap and decried its lack of attention to the interior of its downtown casinos. A number of Rapid Replies were quick to join the chorus, decrying that they missed the "old Deadwood" and that it was ruined by gambling.

Of course, the "old Deadwood" they were missing was the the Deadwood from the 1950s, '60s, '70s and maybe even early 1980s. If they were missing the Deadwood post-1983, they were missing a small handful of retail stores/drug stores, a few seasonal T-shirt shops painted in dayglo colors and the rapidly deteriorating core historic district.

If you want to know the greatest loss of gambling in my eyes, it was the end of the A&W Drive in on the south end of Deadwood. Of course, it was likely on the way out anyway, but many a fond memory I had of hurrying over to the drive in to order up a big old helping of soft serve root beer ice cream or a burger after playing some pick up ball in the old Pluma school gym.

The drive in, on the location of the current Deadwood Gulch Resort, likely wouldn't have survived as most A&W drive ins have been replaced by fast food drive thrus. But the re-emergence of the drive-in here in Rapid City with the building of a Sonic on Mount Rushmore Road at least offers up a sort of substitute.

If it was the food you were more interested in than the drive-in, there are still a few in existence, including one right here in Rapid City.

Hills Drive-In Theater (Spearfish)

The disappearance of drive-in movie theaters across the national landscape is as tragic as it was inevitable. The advent of movie rentals (beta, vhs, dvd anyone?) essentially spelled the doom for the outdoor theaters with their penchant for promoting tinny sound and teenage romance.

I was among those who helped pound the nails in the coffins of such enterprises, being among the first to own a VCR and begin renting movies down at the Sears store in Deadwood.

But I do remember more than once heading up to Hills Drive-In on the service road outside of Spearfish, making the drive along the two-lane Highway 85 from Deadwood to Spearfish in a mere 12 minutes once. And the fond memories of late-run and B-movies hard to hear over the low chatter of the movie-going crowd is one I'll treasure much longer than any movie I plopped into the VCR.

There's still a few left out there, but they are maintained more for nostalgiacs than a business in a world in which kids now are more likely to download their favorite movie and watch it on a 2.5 inch iPod screen instead of a screen the size of the side of a building.

For a quick list of South Dakota Drive-Ins still in operation and those that have been lost to time, click here.

Air Force traffic on I-90 and auxiliary highways

I got to thinking about this when the Base Realignment and Closure hearing was held here in town to try (successfully) to get Ellsworth Air Force Base off the base closure list.

There was a lot of talk about how integral the Air Force personnel were to the fabric of our community, and I agree. But there was also an undercurrent in the discussion by some of those who were stationed at the base and others who had moved on to other assignments that Rapid City wasn't always working to make or Airmen welcome.

I got to thinking about it and the fact that you could go for months without seeing a visible sign of the Airmen as they shopped in local stores, dropped their kids off at school or ate out a restaurant next to you. In many ways, that was good.

But I could also remember moving here in 1980 and being struck anytime we drove out of town seeing the military jeeps and trucks from the base driving out to the missile sites or other locations throughout the region.

Of course, that had a whole lot to do with their mission at the area missile sites and their need to move personnel. But it wasn't just a reminder of the Cold War; it was a reminder that there was a group of men and women who had dedicated themselves to the defense of our country.

And that's always a good thing to be reminded of.