We usually stay within Shelby County for our weekly recap of Suburban Spotlight, and rightfully so. There is plenty of news in the six municipalities around Memphis without venturing to DeSoto.

But this week’s news about a development in Maywood brought back memories of middle and high school years from decades ago.

To get today’s basics out of the way, Bhupender “Bruce” Patel plans to build a work-live-play development near the former site of the Maywood swimming pool – otherwise known as “the beach within reach” through much of the 1900s until 2003.

Just the mention of Maywood conjured up memories of days gone by and the enjoyable times at the spring-fed pool with the fountains, slides, high dives, low dives and floating “dock” in the middle. These were the days of end of the school year parties when we would travel from Whitehaven at the end of May for a day in the sun to celebrate escaping another year of school and hopefully a promotion to the next grade.

But May could mean everything from cloudy, chilly days to a sun beating down enough to suffer the first sunburn of the season.

Maywood opened in 1931 when a Memphis couple – Maurice and May Woodson – were looking for a way to escape the big city, according to the historic-memphis.com website. At the time, Maywood, across the state line in DeSoto County, was a fur piece down the road from what was the Memphis city limits. They transported sand from Destin to the site, filled in the lake with the white grains and created a beach hundreds of miles from the Gulf Coast.

I remember first hearing the B side of The Rolling Stones single “Brown Sugar” on the jukebox that sat in the corner of the dance pavilion. The song was released about a month before the end of my junior year in high school. Radio stations didn’t play songs with such titles, so hearing it was unusual and memorable.

There may have been another year or two of trips down Lamar/U.S. 78 to Maywood after that junior year, and as the city expanded to the state line, the trip didn’t seem as long as it once did.

When you talk about the houses built in the area and now Patel’s development proposed for the vicinity, it is hard to imagine exactly where such a place existed. My last visit was almost 50 years ago, so there are more trees and Old Craft Road and Old U.S. 78 have made way for new routes.

But somehow, the memories of those days remain when many a-Memphian hears the name Maywood. - Suburbs editor Clay Bailey

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Once known as the “Beach within reach,” the Maywood community could soon become a meeting destination with a conference center, retail and hotels.

DeSoto County will receive millions of dollars to help expand its wastewater capacity under and amended agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Boyle Investment Company submitted a revised plan to Germantown for its Viridian project. The proposal replaces multifamily units with townhomes and row houses, still a concern for nearby residents.

Germantown’s Design Review Commission looked at architecture and a tree plan for the former Germantown Country Club. Developer Spence Ray proposes 366 homes.

“That peace today is over. It’s done. Putin has reemerged, and Russia has reemerged as a new world power,” Congressman David Kustoff, R-Germantown, told the Collierville Rotary Club.

Erin Berry and Bryan Woodruff have both served on the board since its inception when the municipal district was formed nine years ago.

Not all recently annexed citizens are eager to add an urban glow to rural neighborhoods where starlight still outshines LED illumination.

Bartlett wants to study its streetlight network to see if LED lights are more beneficial from a cost standpoint and provide better lighting than traditional bulbs.

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