Decline...Change...Any difference......

Growing up I spent a lot of time in Kansas, so at an early age I got to see first hand how small towns where slowly dying. Call it the Wal-Mart effect or what ever but people tend to grow up and think they have to head out into the world as soon as they get out of school. It's kinda sad because little do you know when you are of high school age it doesn't get much better than small town life.

One of my dreams is to live in Ashland KS at some point before I die. That is where my parents grew up and went to high school. It is also the town where I spent my childhood every summer. I ran every square inch of town, my grandma would have my bike ready every year when I got there. I was always there when the county fair was going on also. The fair grounds where across the street from my grandma's house.  By now you are probably wondering where I am going with this.

Since we have gotten the camper we have been going a lot this year. I have seen a lot of places that I used to see when I was trucking. A lot of them that used to be open and now they are closed, it just kinda makes me sad to see a building that used to be so full of energy and life slowly declining!
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Recently 2 places that I used to frequent quite a bit have closed up shop. The one below was on one of my routes when I ride my bike down in SC, now I have to re plan my route because there is not another store in that area. I have been stopping in this little western wear convenience store for several years. Now it is gone, and I liked that store.

this is the SC state line





Next we have a feed mill out in Seven Springs NC that I used to haul to. In it's hay day it only had 5 employees! Now it's gone! What happened to the people that worked there? Why did it close, I wonder what went wrong. Oh well at least I had the privilege of getting to know the place while it was still full of energy! Lakeside Mills was the name on the right side of the building it used to have a water wheel that was still in use up until hurricane Hugo in the late 80's. It was going to be to expensive to fix so they changed it over to electric. It has a big lake behind it, I scouted the whole place at one time or another.

Next time you are on your way somewhere notice all the little places that are closed and just imagine what it was like when they were still open. I promise it will make the drive go by faster..............