In today's totally wired world, one never knows what the next e-mail will bring.

Last week, I opened a file from one of my long-ago classmates at Alexander Graham Junior High School and got catapulted 44 years back in time.

Linda Winecoff Davis, now of Weddington, wanted to share with me some photos she had discovered of the old gang hanging out after school at Niven Drugs on Park Avenue near South Boulevard.

There they were in black-and-white: Eddie Barbee, Bud Stewart and, of course, yours truly -- three cool dudes from Wilmore sipping cherry Cokes.

The drugstore was demolished a couple of years ago to make way for the Park Avenue Building, a parking deck and a condominium project.

The original A.G., built in 1919 on East Morehead where the YMCA now sits, was condemned and torn down in 1958.

Progress marches on.

But I can't help wondering what would have happened if the Dilworth shopping hub, where Niven's was an anchor, and the old school had survived.

It was a living, breathing model of the neotraditional neighborhood our municipal planners are trying so hard to create today.

The South Boulevard-Park Avenue commercial strip - we referred to it simply as Dilworth - had a movie theater, two grocery stores, two dime stores, a hot dog stand, a barbershop, a shoe shop, a furniture store, a jewelry store and the drugstore.

It was conveniently located between the neighborhoods of Dilworth and Wilmore, within walking distance of many homes.

There wasn't much need to travel farther for shopping and services.

Urban renewal is under way along South Boulevard, from developer Jim Gross' pink condominium tower near uptown to the South End mill restorations around Tremont Avenue.

That's a good thing. It's just too bad we have to let the old neighborhoods deteriorate to learn how important it is to embrace our history.

Kids growing up in Charlotte today ride the bus to school and get chauffeured everywhere else.

We walked.

That old photograph was made during our halfway-home-from-school break at Niven's.

We'd leave A.G., walk past the old Lance cookie factory (now Factory South condos), wave to the workers waiting out front for the city bus and then cut over to the railroad tracks that parallel South Boulevard.

The same tracks are being upgraded today to carry the trolley cars that will run from South End through uptown in late 2002.

Back in the '50s, they were ruled by winos who slept in the underbrush along the rail line.

That's what made walking the tracks so much fun. My pals and I could pick up empty wine bottles and smash them on the steel rails until we reached our drugstore watering hole.

Then it was over to Dilworth Poultry Co. on Camden Road. Now known by the upscale name of Price's Chicken Coop, it trucked in live chickens in wooden crates and stacked them behind the building to await their date with destiny.

As a final tribute to our feathered friends, we'd share the snacks we bought at Niven's.

Occasionally someone in our group would be packing birthday money, and we'd walk down South Boulevard to Kingston Avenue to share in the excitement of a shopping spree at the Crest 5-and-10-cent store.

If anyone bought a baseball, bat or glove, we rushed home to try it out in a pickup game on the Wilmore School grounds on West Boulevard.

You misbehaved at your own risk. Neighbors knew each other by first names, and stay-at-home mothers maintained constant vigil from their kitchen windows.

Take a drag off a cigarette in the woods off West Boulevard, and you could be sure your mom would get a phone call before you arrived home. Bummer.

Renewal efforts are under way along South Tryon, where South End meets Wilmore, and in other parts of the old neighborhood.

There's still plenty of work to be done, but I'd love to see the time people are walking daily from their homes in Wilmore and Dilworth to catch the trolley and enjoy the amenities expected to cluster along the tracks.

I don't think history will repeat itself. Cherry Cokes are passe. Surfing the Net is in. And these days everyone has wheels.

But, you know, the neotraditionalists could learn a lot from what we had then.