If my town were tore down? Might as well be already.

[singedwingangel]

I come from a small town in Kentucky. I have lived here for most of my life aside from the few years in school age when i was forced to move with my mother to Virginia, due to her divorce, and my 2 years in Colorado with my first husband. When I was a little girl town was a busy place, at least until dark cause the sidewalks rolled up then lol. At one point my mom and aunt even had a restaurant right in town and I loved going there after school. My small town is located in a tiny county called Bath. We have several little places inside this county, some have named themselves "towns" though they barely are more then a sneeze in the road. I mean even within my town of Sharpsburg there are different mini-towns if you will. We have back street and tater town as well as Old springfield, and Goddard all contained within the limits of what we call our home. IN the last 2 years my small town has basically turned into a version of Radiator Springs from the movie cars. They ran a bypass around our town, even going so far as to building a wall behind it as if to hide it from the world of today. Things go slower in our town, you see more people walking, and talking, and giving to others. We don't give hand outs we give hand ups, if one is down someone else in town will leap to find a way to make a difference. Despite having only 1 stoplight at one point there were 3 little gas stations within our city limits, all 2.5 miles of it. But just like many other small town gas stations because they were small town America, without an attachment to some parent company they have gone under all but 1. 2 stores remain, though not nearly as flashy and modern as the Wal-Mart mega store. They are small and homey with tables in the middle of the store right up front. They serve cold sandwiches made as you order right from their mid-50's refrigerated cases. We still have the old soda coolers you see in movies, with the sliding tops and the bottle opener still mounted to the side though the only pop that requires it around here is our own Kentucky namesake. They also have hot lunches made fresh while you wait, with ground beef fresh from local cattle, ofttimes previously owned and raised by the store owner. Our stores still have penny candy jars, though more often then not it is given out freely to the dozen kids who stop in on their way home from school. I can remember riding the bus with my aunt and when we waited for another bus to trade some passengers(yeah you would transfer buses in mid route and some still do) we would all get to go in Robert's grocery for a cold pop and some candy. That cooler makes the best pop in the world, so cold that on hot days just opening the lid would make ice crystals in the bottle, steam from its coldness rising out of it like a geyser. You have not tasted anything till you have had an Ale8-1 so cold it makes its own ice in the bottle(btw we still get money for returning the bottles .30 each).We still have a five and dime that was once owned by my kindergarten teacher. I remeber going through her tight aisles and the smell of old wood and dust as my eyes explored every nok and cranny of every shelf and cubby hole, looking for a treasure someone may have missed. Stepping into her store now is like walking into the past. She did not stand at her regiter like some soldier guarding her money, she would more often be in the back of the store where she had a t.v. set up next to a gas stove( a modern achievement when she put it in). Many times she did not even know you were in the store until you walked back to where she was. She died several years ago but her brother still runs the store. There is even a storage area off to the side many people don't go to. Who knows the wonders it contains, I know there were some OLD costumes still in the box from when I was a child. We have a feed store, that is the local farming pulse of our town, we can go there and find out the status of every crop in town and who has cattle issues or any other animal trouble. My hometown, a little bitty speck on a map of Kentucky, now cloistered away behind the stark mufflnig wall of the bypass.

Our growing desire for faster, swifter, move quicker is wreaking havoc on the small towns of America. We have been over run or completely bypassed by the lure of speed. Which is worse? the influx of supermarket giants with lower prices and shoddy materials in most cases or the complete alienation of an entire town of people with hopes and dreams, not to mention the tenacity to endure despite every economic meltdown and crisis in our country. When did it become okay to nullify the glory of a small town? Why is it so hard for us to understand that maybe, just maybe, those people have a lot more joy and peace because they have learned to slow down and enjoy. Who do you think these mga giants learned the art of customer service from? And even then their particular brand of it leaves something to be desired, it has even become waiting line production and a game of numbers. I love my small town. I love being able to walk in those old stores and KNOW that they are glad to see me, not because I am spending money but because to them I am family.

[AnnHah]

Oct. 8, 2008 at 9:14 PM

The towns near where I spent summers are like your town:  no stoplight or only one.  The grocery stores barely fit one cart because stuff is crammed in to brimming over in every space available.  And people know each other's names.  When I go home, I like to go out to breakfast by myself and sit at the counter at the nearest cafe four miles away.  I eat my scrapple and eggs and listen to the mayor pontiicate about the stuff that needs to be done.

[AnnHah]

Oct. 8, 2008 at 9:15 PM

pontificate, whoops