Rural Atrophy

The degradation, erosion, withering--whatever you want to call it--of rural America is most definitely taking place.  The movie-going public was recently made aware of it in the animated Pixar feature a few years back called Cars.  In that movie, the residents of the fictional town of Radiator Springs, located along the non-fictional (and famous) highway Route 66, lamented the decline of their once-proud and thriving town.  Since the the expansion of the freeway system had taken over traffic through their town had dried up.

Suzie and I witnessed some of it this last weekend.

Our photography trips are very fun for us.  We really like to travel the "road less traveled" and stay off of freeways if at all possible.  Old, broken highways, small roads, dirt roads--whatever.  I've made the observation several times at how the small highways and roads are very often in much better condition than the freeways are--probably because they don't get used very much.  Anyway, our wanderings take us through a lot of small towns.  During our weekend we went into lots of small towns and we only saw two or three that looked like they were still getting by.  They still had activity.  The rest were basically empty shells.

Remember in those stereotypical old western movies when somebody would wander into a sleepy town and you would hear a little bit of wind blowing followed by a tumbleweed or two blowing across the road?  That's not far from what we experienced.  Like I mentioned in my previous post, more than once it felt like we should be whispering when we got out of the car in one of those small towns.  It was eerie.  With only a few exceptions there were no sounds of car traffic, lawnmowers, barking dogs, or any other of the usual activity we take for granted in Smalltown, USA. It's like the towns of rural America are drying up and blowing away in the wind.

I'm no socio-economic major but here's my take on it.  I figure there are several factors at play:

• The farms have gotten bigger.  Farming machinery has gotten more complex, and now it takes far few humans to run a farm that's probably even considerably bigger than in the old days.  Aerial seeding, huge combines and harvesting equipment, and other advancements in farming have removed a lot of the farm workers from the towns.
• Leaving the nest.  There are always going to be the children that find greener pastures (so to speak) in other places.  Nowadays everything costs more, and for someone who is just starting out on their own and trying start a family and succeed in life they need to pursue well-paying jobs.  As we all know, most of the well-paying jobs are all located in big cities and urban areas.
• The funneling of traffic.  I already mentioned how the main stream of drivers in the U.S. have been herded onto the faster-moving freeways.  They are just a better way to go when speed is your only criteria, and face it--we all know the faster you can get somewhere the more time you have to yourself after you arrive.
• The current economy.  The economy of our country since the financial meltdown of 2008 has been in steady decline.  Just when we think things are starting to turn around, another ripple appears.  I'm wondering how many years we are going to be affected by those ripples.

One town we stopped in was Lind, Washington, self-proclaimed "Home of the Combine Demolition Derby".  The town was a pretty good size, but is a shell of what it probably once was.  At one point I was taking a picture of Slim's Bar & Grill from right next to the curb when an older gentleman walked by.  He was moving pretty slowly--not hurrying at all to get to where he was going.  I was surprised to find that his destination was the very place I was taking pictures of as I watched him walk up and unlock the door.  It was early afternoon but he apparently had no customers even though it was a nice day and it was right after lunch.  By the looks of his pink face I'm thinking that Slim might have been his own best customer.  No matter where you looked it was hard to tell which businesses were open and which were not.  There was just no activity.  At least they have the combine demolition derby to look forward to.  Oh, and someone somewhere has to keep the website going.  Maybe it's Slim.

Part of me thinks it would be pretty cool to live in a town like that, but another part of me screams, "What are you--CRAZY?!" I guess rural America as we once knew it is fast becoming a closed chapter in the history of our country.  When you go into a small town like I've described here you don't stop for gas or food, you stop for curiosity and interest.  To most of us it's a wondrous glimpse into the past of our country--A place full of curiosities, collectibles, and artifacts, but to the few remaining citizens of those small towns it's different.

It's the end.