HudsonHawk
I'll Lock Up
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What happened to small towns?
- Thread starter BlueTrain
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vitanola
I'll Lock Up
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- Gopher Prairie, MI
The town about which I wrote held up well into the 1980's. The sash mill closed and was replaced with a manufacturer of kitchen cabinets. The engine manufacturing plant became a maker of specialty cable, a large plumbing manufacturer moved into town, as did a maker of furnaces and air conditioners, a half-dozen automitove suppliers, tool and die shops, a screwdriver company, a paper tube compnay, two printing plants. The Flouring Mill was purchased by Pillsbury and turned out their cake mixes by the carload. A hospital and the local college also provided work. All of these businesses closed over the past decade or so, (save, of course the hospital and the college, which is supported by massive infusions of out-of-state money, thank heaven!) Several were eventually acquired by a major maker of home products, and were shuttered because stock analysts were rating the parent company's stock a "sell" because they were making all of their products in the USA. Production has since been moved to Asia, and oddly enough the company is less profitable, but is now rated a "strong buy". The Flouring mill was closed and its equipment scrapped when Pillsbury began importing mixes in bulk from China. Wal-Mart moved in in 1995, and by 2002 the downtown (which had been pretty successful until then) had all but closed down. The town has a population of around 8000 today. Some vary large new automotive shppliers have moved in. They have been a godsend, though wages in that industry these days are only about two-thirds of what they were in 1990 (in actual dollars, not in purchasing power).
One of the most interesting things about Midwestern towns that were laid out in the nineteenth century is the lack of economic stratification in the neighborhoods. The Pre-War (Civil War, that is) neighborhoods generally have cottages standing next to mansions. By the turn -of-the-century there began to be special streets for the prosperous, but the alleys behind the homes of the rich were shared with the homes of the middling sort on the next block. The movers and shakers and the hoi polloi mixed in their daily affairs, in their lodge activities, ant to a suprising extent in their social lives. Of course Mrs. Murphy (who taks in washing) or Mrs. Dallasandro (who runs the fruit stand) would not expect to go to tea at Mrs. Waldron's, but they would 'know" one another, and (as long as their character was beyond the reproach of the town grape vine) would interact in the public sphere.
One of the most interesting things about Midwestern towns that were laid out in the nineteenth century is the lack of economic stratification in the neighborhoods. The Pre-War (Civil War, that is) neighborhoods generally have cottages standing next to mansions. By the turn -of-the-century there began to be special streets for the prosperous, but the alleys behind the homes of the rich were shared with the homes of the middling sort on the next block. The movers and shakers and the hoi polloi mixed in their daily affairs, in their lodge activities, ant to a suprising extent in their social lives. Of course Mrs. Murphy (who taks in washing) or Mrs. Dallasandro (who runs the fruit stand) would not expect to go to tea at Mrs. Waldron's, but they would 'know" one another, and (as long as their character was beyond the reproach of the town grape vine) would interact in the public sphere.
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I didn't know Pillsbury imported mixes from China. That is disturbing. With a country as large as this one, it should be a national policy to import as little food as possible. But I guess that's free trade for you. You other comments about how the various manufacturers moved around is interesting, too.
I have noticed the curious fact that especially nice neighborhoods are next to not so nice neighborhoods, too. I think that is more likely to happen in smaller towns, though, although it might only be a matter of everything being closer together. Newer developments in small towns, and there are such things, seem to be more spread out (larger lots) and laid out in irregular patterns with no straight streets. We forget sometimes that at some point in the past, a town was nearly always something that had been laid out by surveyors and usually in a grid pattern. If you go to the upper Midwest and old Northwest, everything is laid out that way as far as was possible. It seems unnatural to think of a small town as a development but in a sense, they usually were, even the first New England towns.
The history of a small town in most parts of the country do not go back as far as they do on the Eastern seaboard, where the country was first settled, at least by the English and a few other Europeans. I am not so familiar with small towns in the Southwest, which was settled at exactly the same time by the Spanish. Santa Fe was founded in 1610, Jamestown in 1607. At some point, however, in the history of all small towns in America, with few exceptions, nobody had lived there for generations. I have already mentioned how none of my relatives or antecedents had been born in the town where I had been born. But both my parents were born in places where their families had settled before 1800, but in rural communities rather in towns. So anyway, it is probably true that none of my relatives felt all that much attachment to my hometown. In fact, one of my uncles actually moved back to the country not so far from where he grew up and so did someone else who also grew up there but lived most of his life elsewhere before retiring. As it was, I knew that person and his family almost as well as some I saw every week. He, or rather, they were almost like relatives.
I have noticed the curious fact that especially nice neighborhoods are next to not so nice neighborhoods, too. I think that is more likely to happen in smaller towns, though, although it might only be a matter of everything being closer together. Newer developments in small towns, and there are such things, seem to be more spread out (larger lots) and laid out in irregular patterns with no straight streets. We forget sometimes that at some point in the past, a town was nearly always something that had been laid out by surveyors and usually in a grid pattern. If you go to the upper Midwest and old Northwest, everything is laid out that way as far as was possible. It seems unnatural to think of a small town as a development but in a sense, they usually were, even the first New England towns.
The history of a small town in most parts of the country do not go back as far as they do on the Eastern seaboard, where the country was first settled, at least by the English and a few other Europeans. I am not so familiar with small towns in the Southwest, which was settled at exactly the same time by the Spanish. Santa Fe was founded in 1610, Jamestown in 1607. At some point, however, in the history of all small towns in America, with few exceptions, nobody had lived there for generations. I have already mentioned how none of my relatives or antecedents had been born in the town where I had been born. But both my parents were born in places where their families had settled before 1800, but in rural communities rather in towns. So anyway, it is probably true that none of my relatives felt all that much attachment to my hometown. In fact, one of my uncles actually moved back to the country not so far from where he grew up and so did someone else who also grew up there but lived most of his life elsewhere before retiring. As it was, I knew that person and his family almost as well as some I saw every week. He, or rather, they were almost like relatives.
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In Germany, because of the fuel-prices, the small towns like mine, got actually more and more of the old-fashioned little stores, basic clothing, sewing, copy-shops, coffee-roasting and so on.
Since 2001, it's just not worth, to start your car and drive to the next bigger city for daily things.
Since 2001, it's just not worth, to start your car and drive to the next bigger city for daily things.
LizzieMaine
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Many of the towns here followed old Indian trails, and had whatever pattern they would have later imposed on the original route laid out by those trails, with consideration given to natural features that impeded straight roads. Our Main Street, otherwise known as US 1, follows the curve of the coastline and side streets sort of branch off it, but I don't think there was ever any deliberate plan to lay them out in any sort of a grid. Some developed that way naturally, but many of the other streets could have been laid out by no sober surveyor. My street was originally an early 19th Century cattle path, as were most of the others in this part of town, which was originally farmland inhabited mostly by Finnish immigrants, became a center of petty manufacturing by the Civil War era, and eventually evolved into simple working-class housing by the 1910s.
Another factor involving development here has been the terrain. They talk about the "rocky coast of Maine," and they ain't kidding. Most of the land along the coast that isn't made up of solid chunks of granite has already been developed, so building any kind of new roads requires extensive blasting just to clear a path. Entire cliffsides had to be blasted away to open land for the Big Box development that came here in the '90s and early 2000s.
Another factor involving development here has been the terrain. They talk about the "rocky coast of Maine," and they ain't kidding. Most of the land along the coast that isn't made up of solid chunks of granite has already been developed, so building any kind of new roads requires extensive blasting just to clear a path. Entire cliffsides had to be blasted away to open land for the Big Box development that came here in the '90s and early 2000s.
Inkstainedwretch
One Too Many
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In the pre-industrial era towns had to follow the natural contour of the land. You can always tell a town that was laid out before dynamite and the bulldozer were invented.
Socioeconomically, the town where I was born in Ohio (the family moved there from Texas right after WWII) the situation was much as Vitanola noted. Our house was in a prosperous middle-class neighborhood of houses built around the turn of the century. The block was divided by an alley. On one side of the alley was our house and yard and a dozen or so others like it. On the other side was a single mansion and its outbuildings. Not an unusual layout in Midwestern towns. The poorer section was "down by the river." Smaller houses on small lots occupied by factory workers and the like, subject to occasional flooding. The shanty-dwellers lived right on the river flats. The main street of town was the same way. The part on the town square was occupied by the best shops, the hotel, the banks and the movie theater. As the street neared the river the shops got smaller and shabbier with marginal businesses, pool halls, dive bars and all the places our parents told us not to go.
Socioeconomically, the town where I was born in Ohio (the family moved there from Texas right after WWII) the situation was much as Vitanola noted. Our house was in a prosperous middle-class neighborhood of houses built around the turn of the century. The block was divided by an alley. On one side of the alley was our house and yard and a dozen or so others like it. On the other side was a single mansion and its outbuildings. Not an unusual layout in Midwestern towns. The poorer section was "down by the river." Smaller houses on small lots occupied by factory workers and the like, subject to occasional flooding. The shanty-dwellers lived right on the river flats. The main street of town was the same way. The part on the town square was occupied by the best shops, the hotel, the banks and the movie theater. As the street neared the river the shops got smaller and shabbier with marginal businesses, pool halls, dive bars and all the places our parents told us not to go.
LizzieMaine
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Sounds a bit like the next town over from where I grew up. It was mostly based around small manufacturing, and fish and poultry processing, and the workers mostly lived in rough little houses along the river. When I was growing up I'd ride my bike thru there, along the railroad spur, past two poultry slaughtering plants, a frozen food factory that made stuff from reclaimed potato skins, a shoe factory, a coal yard, and a factory where windows and doors were made. There were also gesoline bulk plants for Texaco, Shell, and Amoco mixed in among the resdiential end of the area. The neighborhood was called "Puddle Dock," and it was where you ended up when you had nowhere else to go.
The river itself was something Lovecraft couldn't have dreamed up. It was beyond horrific. There is no other way to describe it. Imagine a solid, floating mass going on for about a mile on any side, made up entirely of chicken heads, feet, and guts, feathers, clotted blood, and congealed fat. And then flush some fish guts underneath it. And then imagine the smell in August. And then imagine living right along side that.
The river itself was something Lovecraft couldn't have dreamed up. It was beyond horrific. There is no other way to describe it. Imagine a solid, floating mass going on for about a mile on any side, made up entirely of chicken heads, feet, and guts, feathers, clotted blood, and congealed fat. And then flush some fish guts underneath it. And then imagine the smell in August. And then imagine living right along side that.
Well, towns that I lived in that were hilly and that is most of them, the streets were still laid out in a grid pattern with streets going up and down the hills no matter what. If you look at a map of the city, it is obvious there were more than one set of grids, with the intersections forming odd angles, probably because different parts of the town were developed at different times. And like Miss Lizzie's hometown, pre-existing roads and highways were overlaid with the grids, and sometimes one or the other was forced, that is, moved, to mesh with the latest plan. Other small towns in that part of the world largely did the same thing as far as the development went and as far as local geography allowed.
Some towns and even larger cities in West Virginia are squeezed in beside a river but the planners still laid out a traditional grid pattern of streets as far as possible. Some of the smaller villages never had much in the way of planning, much less development and to a large extent are nothing more than a collection of houses and other buildings spaced out along the highway. There was usually more growth around a significant crossroads or if it were a county seat but real growth before cars became common was generated mostly by economic activity either in the town itself or in the surrounding area.
Some towns and even larger cities in West Virginia are squeezed in beside a river but the planners still laid out a traditional grid pattern of streets as far as possible. Some of the smaller villages never had much in the way of planning, much less development and to a large extent are nothing more than a collection of houses and other buildings spaced out along the highway. There was usually more growth around a significant crossroads or if it were a county seat but real growth before cars became common was generated mostly by economic activity either in the town itself or in the surrounding area.
That river sounds worse than conditions in any coal camp I've ever seen. Coal itself has something of an odor and more so when it is burned but it isn't terrible and it doesn't get worse when it's hot. Coal dust itself is not good to breathe, however, and that's the one thing that makes that particular industry unhealthy and underground mining is also dangerous. There used to be some tanning industries in West Virginia and that produces a strong aroma but I don't know about the effects on worker's health.
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52Styleline
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Washington State is split (north to south) by the Cascade mountain range. The western third is a maritime climate, with frequent rainfall (although not so much the past several years). Historically, timber and fishing were the mainstay economic engines that supported the small towns, both costal and inland.
Commercial fishing has diminished severely, along with the fish populations. Large fishing fleets have disappeared and on-shore fish processing plants are no more. Pollution has decimated the crab, clam, and oyster fisheries so all those jobs are gone.
Logging and saw milling operations have declined precipitously since the 80’s. Once, nearly every small town had at least one lumber or plywood mill in operation and logging provided good family wage jobs. No more.
With the small town jobs gone, people seeking work had to move to Pugetopolis (basically the I-5 corridor from the Canadian border through Seattle and Tacoma to Olympia.) I suspect in a couple of decades or so, development will continue along this freeway until it stands unbroken from Canada through Oregon.
On the dry (semi-arid) eastern two thirds of the state, New Deal era projects such as the Grand Coulee Dam provided irrigation for dry land farming which took off and supported small towns for decades. Then corporate mega-farms took over and small farmers went the way of the buggy whip. Again, with no economic base the small towns withered.
Today, all over the State, the small towns are full - of empty store fronts, with only highway convenience stores and gas stations remaining. Some towns have tried to exploit tourism, and other towns have become retirement targets for the big city types. My own little home town has suffered this fate. The downtown is only empty buildings, but the hospital has exploded, expanding to provide care to all of the retirees from Pugetopolis and the large military bases around Puget Sound. They bring their bodies for quality of life and cheap land, but spend their money at the base exchange or other stores in the big city.
Commercial fishing has diminished severely, along with the fish populations. Large fishing fleets have disappeared and on-shore fish processing plants are no more. Pollution has decimated the crab, clam, and oyster fisheries so all those jobs are gone.
Logging and saw milling operations have declined precipitously since the 80’s. Once, nearly every small town had at least one lumber or plywood mill in operation and logging provided good family wage jobs. No more.
With the small town jobs gone, people seeking work had to move to Pugetopolis (basically the I-5 corridor from the Canadian border through Seattle and Tacoma to Olympia.) I suspect in a couple of decades or so, development will continue along this freeway until it stands unbroken from Canada through Oregon.
On the dry (semi-arid) eastern two thirds of the state, New Deal era projects such as the Grand Coulee Dam provided irrigation for dry land farming which took off and supported small towns for decades. Then corporate mega-farms took over and small farmers went the way of the buggy whip. Again, with no economic base the small towns withered.
Today, all over the State, the small towns are full - of empty store fronts, with only highway convenience stores and gas stations remaining. Some towns have tried to exploit tourism, and other towns have become retirement targets for the big city types. My own little home town has suffered this fate. The downtown is only empty buildings, but the hospital has exploded, expanding to provide care to all of the retirees from Pugetopolis and the large military bases around Puget Sound. They bring their bodies for quality of life and cheap land, but spend their money at the base exchange or other stores in the big city.
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I understand what you're saying but two questions come to mind: where does lumber come from now and where does fish come from now? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, please understand. In some older coal mining regions in the United States, such as eastern Kentucky, they actually import coal from other states that is less expensive. Of course, people there see it as proof of the war on coal but that's not really the case.
LizzieMaine
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Much seafood today comes from Asia. Unless you're buying fresh Maine shrimp from a truck at the side of the road, the shrimp in your shrimp cocktail is shipped here in gigantic frozen blocks from Thailand, after being picked and packed by slave labor.
Then I'm glad I don't eat shrimp. You sure about the slave labor, as opposed to labor that is paid less than people used to earn in Maine? We used to use slaves down here to grow tobacco and cotton. I actually work on a tobacco farm, except that it was in Massachusetts of all places. It didn't pay very much but it wasn't slavery.
LizzieMaine
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From the article linked, it sure seems to fit the definition of slave labor. Most of them are Burmese migrants who've been rounded up and sold in herds to Thai "entrepreneurs."
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By the way:
I think, it's better, to get rollmops(herring), coming directly from the Atlantic, naturally coiled by hand in Germany or maybe your Wisconsin. It's an old, more honest business. And there is still no coiling-machine for this.
I think, it's better, to get rollmops(herring), coming directly from the Atlantic, naturally coiled by hand in Germany or maybe your Wisconsin. It's an old, more honest business. And there is still no coiling-machine for this.
ChiTownScion
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The village I live in now is usually deemed to be part of suburbia, but that designation only arose with the advent of commuter rail service. It was originally founded in 1863 and acquired its current name a few years later. I get the impression that at one time it was a center for the then primarily agricultural surrounding area. I think that at one time there may have been small manufacturing concerns here, but I cannot imagine them as major employers of the town's population.
What makes the place nice is that it isn't another post- World War II tract housing "village/ town/ city in name only" kind of a place. It has a past, an interesting history to it. Marlon Brando and Adlai Stevenson called it home at one time, and John F. Kennedy campaigned here in 1960. There's a fair amount of economic diversity as well, at least for this area: small apartments to the several acre Taj Mahal homesteads of the well to do. Not the North Shore, but not really trying to be, either.
We have a downtown with several new restaurants for the foodie crowd. The center of the town is dominated by the mansion (actually, in square footage, it's quite modest by today's standards) of one of the early fathers, a man who had a horse farm that supplied the horses that pulled the pre- electric streetcars of Chicago. The mansion adjoins the public library.
The vast majority of those who reside here are corporate types for whom this is a step up the ladder. Here today, gone in six years or less. There are the families, however, who have been here for generations. I'm "native of the greater area," so I'm in between, I suppose. We have decent schools, and so the property taxes are pretty steep.. but the upside of that is that property values show a steady rise.
It is, at day's end, a great place to live while you're raising a family- but when my wife and I both are retired, we're moving elsewhere. As I have said elsewhere: Portland Oregon area. Can't see living among a bunch of crabby old codgers griping about how bad life has become 24/7 (The Lounge fills that need on a more cerebral plane.).
What makes the place nice is that it isn't another post- World War II tract housing "village/ town/ city in name only" kind of a place. It has a past, an interesting history to it. Marlon Brando and Adlai Stevenson called it home at one time, and John F. Kennedy campaigned here in 1960. There's a fair amount of economic diversity as well, at least for this area: small apartments to the several acre Taj Mahal homesteads of the well to do. Not the North Shore, but not really trying to be, either.
We have a downtown with several new restaurants for the foodie crowd. The center of the town is dominated by the mansion (actually, in square footage, it's quite modest by today's standards) of one of the early fathers, a man who had a horse farm that supplied the horses that pulled the pre- electric streetcars of Chicago. The mansion adjoins the public library.
The vast majority of those who reside here are corporate types for whom this is a step up the ladder. Here today, gone in six years or less. There are the families, however, who have been here for generations. I'm "native of the greater area," so I'm in between, I suppose. We have decent schools, and so the property taxes are pretty steep.. but the upside of that is that property values show a steady rise.
It is, at day's end, a great place to live while you're raising a family- but when my wife and I both are retired, we're moving elsewhere. As I have said elsewhere: Portland Oregon area. Can't see living among a bunch of crabby old codgers griping about how bad life has become 24/7 (The Lounge fills that need on a more cerebral plane.).
My hometown, of which I speak because that's what I actually know about, had a few restaurants when I was little. The big hotel in the middle of town that had a live band sometimes during the swing era also had a restaurant but the only time I set foot in the building was long after that day and then only because I was dating the granddaughter of the owner. I didn't marry her and I just learned she died in 1998, a fact I have no business knowing.
The restaurants were little more than "blue plate special" sort of places that served the lunch time crowd downtown or the same up around the courthouse, because that's where everything was. The drug stores all had lunch counters then, too.
One of the things about small employers anywhere is that somehow everything seems more direct. You realize that everything you do is ultimately for his benefit. By no means does it follow that they are in any way better to work for or that you'll make more money that way. Chances are, though, he's not going to leave town. What happens when he dies is another story, of course. But small business are hardly confined to small towns and large businesses which might be controlled from somewhere else, usually referred to as "out of state," can be found in small towns, too.
The restaurants were little more than "blue plate special" sort of places that served the lunch time crowd downtown or the same up around the courthouse, because that's where everything was. The drug stores all had lunch counters then, too.
One of the things about small employers anywhere is that somehow everything seems more direct. You realize that everything you do is ultimately for his benefit. By no means does it follow that they are in any way better to work for or that you'll make more money that way. Chances are, though, he's not going to leave town. What happens when he dies is another story, of course. But small business are hardly confined to small towns and large businesses which might be controlled from somewhere else, usually referred to as "out of state," can be found in small towns, too.
52Styleline
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"understand what you're saying but two questions come to mind: where does lumber come from now and where does fish come from now?"
Logging continues but the smaller companies and independents that were main employers in small towns are gone. The giants (think Weyerhaeuser) are in the log business, not the lumber business. Feller-buncher machines with which one man can do the work of large cutting and yarding crews are now the norm so what logging is left generates few jobs. The logs are loaded on ships and sent to Asia where the lumber is cut and veneer is made...then shipped back to the USA. Canadian mills and the pine forests of the South also provide plywood and lumber to the domestic market.
There are still fishermen in WA State...just not very many and their seasons are highly restricted. Salmon, which used to be harvested offshore and in the Columbia river now mostly come from Canada and Alaska. Of course in international waters the huge factory ships scoop nearly every thing that swims in the Pacific. You probably wouldn't really like to see the creatures that Mrs. Paul or Gorton's put in your fish sticks.
I wish it all weren't so.
Logging continues but the smaller companies and independents that were main employers in small towns are gone. The giants (think Weyerhaeuser) are in the log business, not the lumber business. Feller-buncher machines with which one man can do the work of large cutting and yarding crews are now the norm so what logging is left generates few jobs. The logs are loaded on ships and sent to Asia where the lumber is cut and veneer is made...then shipped back to the USA. Canadian mills and the pine forests of the South also provide plywood and lumber to the domestic market.
There are still fishermen in WA State...just not very many and their seasons are highly restricted. Salmon, which used to be harvested offshore and in the Columbia river now mostly come from Canada and Alaska. Of course in international waters the huge factory ships scoop nearly every thing that swims in the Pacific. You probably wouldn't really like to see the creatures that Mrs. Paul or Gorton's put in your fish sticks.
I wish it all weren't so.
LizzieMaine
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That and a "drive in" type place that sold chicken in a basket and fried clams was all we ever had. I never knew there was any other kind of restaurant, except on television, and I never actually ate in a restaurant that didn't have a counter and stools until I was in my twenties. Didn't like the experience at all, it felt like eating in church. Given a choice of all the meals prepared by all the great chefs of the world, I'll take a pastrami sandwich in a greasy spoon any day of the week. With a sour pickle spear and a pile of Humpty Dumpty's potato chips on the side.
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