Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
In doing research for my longer work - Growing Up Stories, I came across a very troubling sight. I've written about it on my Mansions of the Mind blog:
A Death in the Country
America has been eviscerated and no one noticed.
http://mansionsofthemind.blogspot.co...n-country.html |
Very powerfully said, Kenny. My own world doesn't begin to resemble the world I was born into; most of it doesn't even exist anymore. All of the mom and pop stores are gone, including my Grandfather's Sharpe's Groceries on Effingham Street in Portsmouth, Virginia. All of the familiar hangouts for people of all ages (but sadly, not of all colors) are gone. From time to time I'll revisit an old formerly familiar part of town only to find a new expressway in place of the old familiar roads with signs that tell me, appropriately it seems, where to get off. The external changes, as disconcerting as they are, are nothing compared to the internal changes each of us has undergone. Sometimes I feel as if I have been reamed out and all that's left is a hollow shell of somebody who once was; a puppet without a clue as to the puppet master's identity.
Some of the changes are for the better; the fifties were a repressive time for many people. We are certainly better educated if we want to be than we could ever imagine being 50 years ago. But the loss of community is a true tragedy.