The past couple of months, I've been wallowing in nostalgia with fellow Burien old-timers.

It all began with a couple of columns about a 60th birthday trek from my adolescent hangout, Sylvester Junior High, through downtown Burien to my boyhood home.

In the columns, I dropped the names of as many dearly departed landmarks as I could cram in.

That brought feedback from old hands who added other names while challenging me, "Do you remember that place?"

It was all great fun, but through it all was an undertone of sadness mixed with an unsettled feeling about where our community is and where it's going.

"You have to leave Burien to find a real hardware store," was the most popular lament, followed by, "There's no lumber yards here anymore."

I optimistically pointed out that Burien's Main Street is blossoming with a new Restaurant Row.

But they grumbled that the eating establishments are geared to twenty-something Belltown belles. You can't hear yourself talk and they offer pub grub and de$igner burgers.

Maybe Burien should change its name to Burgerville.

Not only unsettled about the central city, they worry about plans for the outer edges.

Last month, Burien City Council members voted to place no restrictions on the size of retail businesses in the Northeast Redevelopment Area near Des Moines Memorial Drive.

That clears the way for "big box" stores.

Big box stores pose a philosophical problem for a bleeding heart liberal like me.

I believe money should flow up from small business owners and middle class consumers not be the leftovers trickled down on us from the corporate elite.

I believe a young pharmacy student should dream about owning her own drug store, not just strive to become the pharmacy department manager at Sam's Club.

I believe Americans should have a choice and not have to shop at Wal-Mart because that is all they can afford on their Wall-Mart wages.

But the reality is that big box stores with their lower prices and larger selection is the economic model for where we are in 2008 in America.

If we want a hardware store back in Burien, it will have to come in a big box.

And ironically, the people you hear crying the most about the lack of small businesses are the first to hop in their car for the five-minute drive to Southcenter.

Or when you run into them at Fred Meyer, they say, "Oh, this is a little big box store."

It's fun to fantasize about placing a big bubble around Burien and returning to the 1960s. Old Doc Morrison would make house calls.

We'd grab a chocolate malted at Lou's or a double cheeseburger from Whizburger with Annette and Frankie.

We'd shop for clothes with our old man at Dad and Lad or look for poodle skirts at Bells of Burien.

But faced with the realities of the 21st century, nostalgia is not what it used to be.

Speaking of nostalgia, the celebration honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday reminds us that not too long ago the dominant view of religion in our political life was as a positive force.

Religious leaders looked into voting booths and demanded inclusion instead of peering into our bedrooms and demanding exclusion.

The clergy you read about in the 1960s and 1970s focused on social justice.

Dr. King noted, "A religion true to its nature must also be concerned about man's social conditions.... Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion."

Some churches, including many in Highline, are practicing a positive social gospel.

I salute them.

Eric Mathison can be reached at hteditor@robinsonnews.com or 206-388-1855.