she could not afford to live in vestavia hills. every employee of the vestavia hills system of schools enrolled his or her children for me. i knew that vestavia hills was the best, so i decided to drive the bus. so here we are. we have reached oxmoor. that's where you set the campfire, she said when we ran by. she calls out a few other landmarks here and there. but oxmoor is no longer the place it once was. in just the past few years, this one-time industrial scrapyard has been consumed by suburban sprawl. the old chats and cities are still there. still inhabited. but they are surrounded by a sea of mansions and golf courses and condominiums. one of the streets, three-story monstrosities tower over tumbledown shacks across the street. when we reach the stop, she pulls over to let her words out. they have to switch to the middle school bus. and we pick up the high school kids. they climb in one by one with their ipods and a yammering about the baseball game. we head off to the school, doubled in size since i was here. there is a ste