Once upon a time, you could get in your car and get on a random road and just drive. You could drive for hours and hours, and pass through hundreds of small towns that boasted vibrant city squares filled with quaint storefronts. You would see people gathered outside the country courthouse, sitting in gazebo's, talking to each other. You could stop at the old Dairy Queen or the Soda Shop for some Ice Cream or a bottled drink.
Fast forward forty years, and those small towns are almost dead. The once vibrant squares sit empty, nobody sits in the gazebos and talks. The old theaters sit empty, testaments to days gone-by.
What killed the small towns? Honestly, I blame their deaths on the advent of the Interstate Freeway. Those long stretches of straight road don't cut through the small towns anymore, they go from one big city to the next, taking all of the traffic with them.
People no longer stop in these small towns, they no longer eat at the Homegrown hamburger places, or stop at the soda shops, or even stop and talk to people on the town squares. All that is left are dying towns that will, in the next ten to fifteen years, be ghost towns.
It's really a shame, since each small town is full of history and the people have interesting stories. Just in the area where I live, one forgotten town was the birthplace of Dan Blocker,
Another was the birthplace of Ron Ely, another the birthplace of The Big Bopper. Sissy Spacek and Rip Torn also came from small towns in Texas.
What will happen when all of these small towns are gone? When they all sit empty and abandoned?