I like the dynamics of small towns, the way everyone minds everyone
else's business, where secrets are hard to keep, but there's always someone
who'll help out when you need it.
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| Hillsboro, OR, 4th of July Parade |
Most of all I like the small town
festivals--most have them, of one sort or another--Pioneer Days, the Harvest
Festival, a Fourth of July Social, the May Fest, or any of a hundred other
reasons to celebrate. They often involved old fashioned parades, with tractors
and fire engines and decorated farm wagons carrying the local May Queen or the
members of the Ladies Sewing Circle or the officers of a fraternal
organization. And always there are the proud veterans of wars past and present
in full dress uniform, marching tall and proud, saluted and cheered by their
neighbors who line the streets all along the route.
But automobiles are killing small towns. It's taken more
than a century, but it's happening. When anyone can drive to the nearest Costco
in a couple of hours, the sixty-year-old family-owned grocery or hardware store
just can't compete. Although the small town I lived in for thirteen years is
still viable, Main Street just isn't what it was when I was there. I remember a
jewelry store, a bookstore/gift shop, a newsstand that sold comic books,
paperbacks, cigarettes and candy, two banks, a department store and an appliance
store. I'm sure there were others, but those are the ones I could put a name
to, if asked. Oh, yes, there was a movie theatre, but it was transformed into a
church while I still lived there, a victim of television, not the automobile.
Now some of the storefronts are empty, and the rest house
smaller enterprises. For the big items like furniture and appliances folks can
drive to a city a bit over an hour away, or to the Walmart across the river (in
another town, another state). That small town is now more of a bedroom
community than a real town, because people go elsewhere to shop. To play, to
dine, to see their doctor, dentist, whatever. I really hope there are still a
few small towns left, perhaps less conveniently close to a shopping mall or a
big-box retailer. Or just more stubborn.
Some small towns have deliberately re-purposed themselves as
tourist destinations. There is a charming pseudo-Swiss village in the Cascade
Mountains, a bit over an hour east of Seattle. A fun place to visit. In Oregon's
Willamette Valley is a small town that fifteen years ago had more empty
storefronts than full. Today is it a thriving wine center, with tasting rooms
in what seems like every third storefront, as well as in the old,
long-abandoned depot, and several nice restaurants ;along the main street. But
those small towns are exceptions. On a recent trip to Yellowstone, we passed
through several deserted settlements, with old grain elevators or saloons
slowly decaying into ruin. I remember most of them--perhaps not thriving, but
living towns or villages--from the first time I traveled that route, a long
time ago. People lived in them, shopped in them, went to church and school
there.
On this most recent trip I counted the warning signs along
the highway: NO SERVICES FOR 57 MILES. The mileage to the next gas station
varied, but I counted five signs in an 850-mile journey. Even in the open,
sparsely populated deserts of eastern Oregon and southern Idaho, there used to
be gas stations in those small settlements, with restrooms and usually snacks,
soft drinks, and sometimes even a small lunch counter. Now the traveler has to
plan ahead, to hope for a highway department rest area, to bring snacks for
those long stretches between cafés.
It's sad. Something lost, perhaps never to be regained.
A couple of my books are about small towns. Yes, I confess
to having shown mostly the good sides of them, and I don't apologize. If you
want to look at darkness and despair, watch the news. The world needs more
Pollyannas, and I am unashamedly one. Solomon'sDecision and Improbable Solution
are both set in small towns that are perfect candidates for decay and eventual
disappearance, but the people in them aren't ready to give up. They are very
different stories, and the towns aren't much alike, except that they are small,
a bit off the beaten track, and handling their potential demises very
differently. I wish those stories could be true for small towns everywhere.
Don't you?
Jude
