My parents used to talk about the county’s farmers streaming into town on Saturday and shopping until midnight.
From my own childhood, I still remember Petula Clark’s then-new song “Downtown” blaring from the radio at my hometown’s first Dollar General Store (located about a block from the public square).
During junior high, I sketched a map of all the businesses and landmarks surrounding the courthouse. (You’re right; that venture should have been a genuine chick magnet, but somehow I got the polarity reversed. Or maybe it was the fact that this one particular zit was bigger than the town’s Civil War statue. At this late date, who knows?)
Alas, the nation’s downtowns (or central business districts or “that tumbling tumbleweed wouldn’t give me the right-of-way” zones) have faced cataclysmic obstacles in the ensuing decades.
Once upon a time, downtown reliably included drugstores, jewelers, shoe repair shops, a movie theater, a grocery store, “dry goods” stores, the “five-and-dime,” churches and so much more.
A combination of parking problems, bypasses, strip malls, online ordering and budget-busting maintenance costs for century-old buildings has really done a number on downtown (and in extreme cases that number is “666”).
True, a precious few communities haven’t missed a step, maintaining diverse and thriving downtowns against all odds. Others fell into decay but managed to revitalize themselves with clean-up projects, boutiques, retro malt shops and themed festivals. (“Come for the rhododendrons. Stay for the explanation of why our founder wasn’t so terrible as racist misogynists go.”)
Others towns, however, continue to struggle year after year. Seriously, courthouse yards are supposed to be decorated with historic monuments — not humongous defibrillators. (“Clear! Clear! Mom! Pop! Keep that licorice-and-coal-bucket emporium open!”)
Copyright 2024 Danny Tyree, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.