Small Town Shrinking

Back when I was a child growing up in my small town, there seemed to be more life within its boundaries. There were more businesses, more families, more kids; you name it, there was more. That's not to say those conditions no longer exist, but it's far less vibrant than what it once was. I can recall back to the days when I rode the school bus to and from school. I mean my town practically had a bus route all its own! Now they merely drive through, dropping off/picking up kids here and there. One stop in particular on one of the local streets, I remember there being easily ten or more kids there. I'd be surprised if there's two or three there now. Yes, it's a far cry from what it used to be. But honestly, it's a sign of the times.

On the business front, several prominent businesses shut down over the years within the village boundaries. The village used to be home to two separate sawmill operations. One of them shut down in the early 1990's for reasons unknown to the general public. One can speculate that they ran into financial difficulties. Another rumor that I heard was their employees were older and within "retirement" range. They had no one to pass the torch onto, so to speak, so they shut down. Whatever the case, that stretch of property remains run-down and vacant. The majority of the buildings on the property have fallen into disrepair and need to be leveled. The land has been up for sale for quite some time; but I honestly wonder who would buy it? The site needs extensive clean-up, as there is plenty of rotting wood on that property as well. And what could be put on that piece of land? I'm sure someone has the potential to really fix that area of town up. But it would take someone with money and a grand vision. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.

The other sawmill operation burned down in the early 1990's. I remember waking up one morning and driving to school. One of the first things I heard was that the sawmill had burned down. I honestly had no idea, and I lived probably a quarter-mile from the sawmill that burned! Needless to say, that sawmill was never rebuilt. That land also remains vacant except for one small building. It, too, is for sale and probably requires less amount of clean-up than the other former sawmill property. But who's to say this property won't sit for awhile just like the other sawmill property down the road.

Other businesses like an auto shop and an oil and gas distributor have shut down over the years, leaving some people needing to find work elsewhere. And I can tell you one thing, they surely couldn't find it in my small hometown. I would say that during the 1980's, the peak of the town's population was probably around 350 or so. You had families with three or more kids living in each home and that really drove up population. Nowadays, couples are having less kids or some people are occupying homes by themselves. You have less people living within the village, partly because there are no good paying jobs within the village limits. Most people that live there have to drive more than 20 miles to find good jobs, and even those are hard to come by these days. The Co-op store which has been in operation for many years has had its own struggles recently. There's no longer a gas station within the village like there had been for years. And there's less vehicular and pedestrian traffic within town. Most people are driving through, rather than stopping.

Needless to say, with our changing times, small towns are dealing with their own struggles in staying afloat in this economy. With less jobs and people facing an increasing cost of living, many people are having to move away to find work. And the sad part is for those that grew up within and around the small town where I lived, there's only a select few that still remain. Even I don't live there anymore; albeit I only moved 25 miles away so I still frequently visit the area. But there's hardly anything left there to hang onto. Yes, there are plenty of great memories, but the present and future of the area does not look promising. We need more jobs, for one thing. But I just don't see that happening for quite awhile. I don't see the town completely dying out, but it may never again be as vibrant as it was during the '80's.

Hometown Celebration

It's been about three years since I was able to attend the last homecoming and county fair activities in my home town. The work schedule I was on didn't allow me to travel the short distance home to attend the festivities. This year, I switched work crews with another individual which allowed me to have this upcoming weekend off. And you know something, I'm pretty excited about it. Now don't get me wrong, this is a small-town, small-county celebration we're talking about. Year in and year out, things basically remain the same. But this celebration allows people to come back and reminisce about the old times, if you will. I like to refer to it as reunion-weekend, as well. Many class reunions from the high school are held during the weekend, so it's not uncommon to see a few old faces from the past. In ten years, it'll be my classes' reunion (which totally blows my mind). I wouldn't be surprised to see a few familiar faces from the class of '99 this weekend.

The homecoming and county fair celebrations have been a part of my summer for as long as I can remember. There have been a few family reunions and gatherings held during this weekend, as well. The parade through town is probably the biggest highlight for me. I've even been in the parade on a few instances when I was younger. Again, it's a small town parade but it seems like in the smallest of parades, that's when you get the most candy. And I'll tell you, candy is no longer a big priority when you're an adult, but my niece and nephew will be joining us at the parade in a few days and they'll get a kick out of being thrown all that candy. No matter how old you are, you can never get tired of a parade. And it typically features just about every local business in the area. I mean, this is probably the biggest weekend of the year to experience hometown pride.

As part of the county fair, we used to submit exhibits to put on display and to be judged. It was actually a really good way to earn money, because if your displays were awarded a blue (first place), red (second place) or white (third place) ribbon, you also earned money depending upon the ribbon you won for your respective display. The majority of the ribbons my sisters and I won through the years were blue. Heck, one of my sisters consistently won top prize ribbons for her sewing and for my mom's vegetables. It was actually a nice way to earn some money in the summer time especially if you're a young kid. Not only that, but it was neat to see all of the animals on display and to check out some of the vendors that had merchandise on sale. This particular county fair was never known for having any rides for the kids to enjoy as there's not a tremendous amount of space for such things, but they offer many different activities for kids. So it's not a total snooze-fest for the kids that do attend.

So needless to say, I am pretty happy about getting the opportunity to attend this year's homecoming and county fair for the first time in three years. Hopefully the management where I work doesn't decide to switch crews on me again like what has been rumored, otherwise this might be the last weekend I'll be able to attend the hometown celebration for awhile. And although it's a small town celebration and typically not much changes year in and year out in this town, its still always about the people. And this is one chance throughout the entire year for the whole community to get out and see what's going on in the community and to reunite with individuals they may not have seen in years.

A Small Town Closure

As some of you may know, I grew up in a small town; population of around 300 people. I know some people consider living in a small town to be a drag, because many of the people are like your neighbors and there's not a whole lot to do. But to be honest, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else when I was younger. It provided a great upbringing and I always found something to do. You develop a great loyalty to that place, even though you may not live there regularly anymore, which I don't. However, I frequently visit and continue to keep up with everything that happens there. Not a lot goes on, but when something does, you tend to hear about it pretty quickly.

In the past month, the local gas station in town shut down. It's been in the community for a long time and everybody has bought gas there at some time or another. Yes, gas does tend to be more expensive there than the larger populated areas nearby, but when you live some distance away from those places, you don't really have much choice than to fuel up there. And if you need a small amount of gas for a lawn mower, it sure beats driving miles down the road. It provides a great convenience for the community and the tourists driving by. And they didn't just sell gas, either, but many other items. Now there is doubt that it will ever reopen again.

According to talk around town, a gas line started leaking fuel into the ground. It's unknown how long it had leaked and the extent of the pollution, but it sounds it could be significant enough to where they may have to demolish the building. It appears the fuel even got under the building. A small co-op store a couple miles up the road had a similar problem 15 years ago and ended up shutting down for good. The costs for such a clean-up are quite expensive. They never tore down the building, but they had to excavate much of the polluted soil around the building. Plus they built a pollution monitoring station for the ground water and drilled many different wells. Something very similar could end up happening at this most recent case. And it's unfortunate it had to close down, because it has always done good business.

The business went under new ownership earlier this year and the new people seemed to be making some real positive changes with the store. They were putting some money into the place by doing a small amount of remodeling and rearranging the store. You hate to see someone who just moved into the area end up shutting down because of something like this. Usually it's because of finances or radical changes that turn people away. But this is an environmental issue and something that will likely take a long time to get fixed. When it's something like pollution, state environmental agencies will be on your back making sure everything is right before it's even possible to start selling gas. And what will hurt the most is that this business won't have a presense in our community for some time to come, if ever again.

As I mentioned earlier, the store ended up closing down about two to three weeks ago, so many of the details are still unknown. But when you live in a small town, you end up finding out one way or another. I'm sure this will be very much the same. Who knows exactly what will end up happening. Maybe the pollution is only minor and it'll take a few weeks to clean up. However, that's probably the best case scenario and usually it never ends up being that way. Time will tell and if we end up being without this gas station, maybe someone else in the community will step up and build a new store. You never know what will end up happening in a situation like this.