Seems I am not alone in mourning the loss of unique places. A week after my Village Memories, Terry Teachout was home in Smalltown USA and wrote “I sometimes wonder whether the rural Missouri town where I grew up is losing its individuality.” (read the whole piece here .) Killin’ Time Being Lazy responded with Death of Smalltown USA which also linked to a January piece that quoted this recipe:
RECIPE FOR AN AMERICAN RENAISSANCE:
— Eat In Diners
— Ride Trains
— Put a Porch on Your House
— Shop on Main Street
— Live in a Walkable Community
(“Recipe For An American Renaissance” by Randy Garbin, publisher of Roadside Magazine, Worcester, Massachusetts)
Call it a recipe or a prescription, it sounds like good advice to me. The closest thing to a diner near me is a local establishment called Fox’s where I eat breakfast 2-4 times week. As I think about it, the place is worthy of a blog entry all its own, so I hold off on further description for now. I can’t afford any house renovations at the moment, but my immediate neighbors do tend to congregate out front, and we are not adverse to standing around or siting on the curb. The closest I can get to shopping on Main Street is the stretch of little shops in Sierra Madre that includes a few gifteries, an old fashioned cobbler/shoe repair (albeit folded into the local cleaners), a jewelry store, and tea shop. Millie’s Dancewear, much missed, used to be there too. I admit that I prefer living on a strictly residential street and that popping down to the corner for a quart of milk has lost its allure, still I support the small shops wherever I can find them. As for the trains, well, I ride the Metro North trains in New York, and like the Metroliner between Boston-NY-DC, but out here in Lalaland, mass transit is difficult at best. Still, the Gold Line is now nearby and the next time I have to go to downtown Los Angeles — an infrequent need, but perhaps jury duty next year — I will take a ride.