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the strander
Explorer



Registered: 06/16/20
Posts: 138
Last seen: 2 years, 6 months
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Re: Small town America [Re: trees] 1
#26876835 - 08/12/20 12:40 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
trees said: You ever wonder what if you were born into one of those small towns. Would you realize it? Whenever i drive through these small unknown ghost towns i stop at the gas stations and stuff and always wonder about the person working in there, how bizzarre it is to me that they were born and raised in that super desolated ghostly place, do they know whats outside? Have they ever left that place? What do they do for fun after work? I try my best to imagine a day in their life in their shoes.
I think you do know once you get old enough.
The ghost towns would not be fun to live in. But before they were ghosted, there's a lot to be said for living in a small town. I lived in a small town until I was 10 and, part of me wishes my family had stayed there. I live in a city now, and although having access to lots of experiences can be cool, I'm happiest doing things with friends in my own neighborhood, a town in and of itself.
Edited by the strander (08/12/20 02:19 PM)
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Niffla



Registered: 06/09/08
Posts: 46,755
Loc: Texas
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Quote:
the strander said:
In 100 years Google and Amazon are going to own everything, due to their quest to get bigger and bigger as fast as possible. It will not be good for us.
Yep.
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HAIL OUR NEW OTD KING
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Niffla



Registered: 06/09/08
Posts: 46,755
Loc: Texas
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Quote:
the strander said: there's a lot to be said for living in a small town. I loved in a small town until I was 10 and, part of me wishes my family had stayed there. I live in a city now, and although having access to lots of experiences can be cool, I'm happiest doing things with friends in my own neighborhood, a town in and of itself.
Yeah even though they seem to be a dying breed these days, there are still neat, small towns that still do well. And even thrive. They've figured out how to make it work for them and their community. And I guarantee their residents on average are so much happier and significantly less stressed than your average big city resident.
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HAIL OUR NEW OTD KING
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blewmeanie



Registered: 10/01/06
Posts: 28,984
Loc:
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Re: Small town America [Re: Niffla]
#26876846 - 08/12/20 12:47 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Niffla said:
Quote:
blewmeanie said:
A dog was the mayor. 
was this him

This is the current mayor.
http://www.rabbithashhistsoc.org/the-mayor/buy-votes/
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tyrannicalrex
Strange R



Registered: 04/24/03
Posts: 38,331
Loc: subtropics
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Will you be here 100 years from now? Do you have kids or want them? If not, then fuck it all and let's go out in a blaze of big city life glory!
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Crazy_Horse
I’m Rick James, bitch!


Registered: 08/15/16
Posts: 13,355
Loc: Hampsterdam
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Re: Small town America [Re: Niffla]
#26876878 - 08/12/20 01:09 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Niffla said:
Quote:
blewmeanie said:
A dog was the mayor. 
was this him

I would vote for him.
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Niffla



Registered: 06/09/08
Posts: 46,755
Loc: Texas
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Quote:
blewmeanie said:
This is the current mayor.
http://www.rabbithashhistsoc.org/the-mayor/buy-votes/

Brynn looks like he'd sell his soul for a vote
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HAIL OUR NEW OTD KING
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tyrannicalrex
Strange R



Registered: 04/24/03
Posts: 38,331
Loc: subtropics
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I was trying to avoid this, but ya'll made me do it!
Small Town John Mellencamp Well I was born in a small town And I live in a small town Probably die in a small town Oh, those small communities All my friends are so small town My parents live in the same small town My job is so small town Provides little opportunity Educated in a small town Taught the fear of Jesus in a small town Used to daydream in that small town Another boring romantic that's me But I've seen it all in a small town Had myself a ball in a small town Married an L.A. doll and brought her to this small town Now she's small town just like me No I cannot forget where it is that I come from I cannot forget the people who love me Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town And people let me be just what I want to be Got nothing against a big town Still hayseed enough to say Look who's in the big town But my bed is in a small town Oh, and that's good enough for me Well I was born in a small town And I can breathe in a small town Gonna die in this small town And that's probably where they'll bury me
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Amanita86
OTD Keymaster


Registered: 09/26/12
Posts: 89,464
Loc: hades
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Re: Small town America [Re: Niffla] 2
#26876907 - 08/12/20 01:24 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Niffla said: Here's some small town decay porn 





Those gas pumps are a good example... those buildings make me want to sneak through all those long forgotten places and see what kind of shit got left behind. Run over it with a metal detector or what have you.
Some of those places get sad, there’s a similar mental decay you see in cities where everyone just resigns to doing drugs and alcohol and you see a lot of high school pregnancy type shit. Real sad stories. I lived in a nowhere place for a few years and I swear the place was cursed. Lots of deaths and suicides and horrible stories of people who just kind of gave up, like they forgot the whole world isn’t the same as that exact town. It’s like the swamp of sorrow in The Neverending Story... people just forget and give up.
Anyways, as illegal as I imagine it probably is I’d still like to go snooping around in some of those old forgotten places and see if any cool shit got left behind.
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Orange clock, pencil "They threw me off the hay truck about noon..."
*Mark 15:34  Gam zeh ya’avor...
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blewmeanie



Registered: 10/01/06
Posts: 28,984
Loc:
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tyrannicalrex
Strange R



Registered: 04/24/03
Posts: 38,331
Loc: subtropics
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OMG no! I posted JCM because the title only. I really do not like that song, but rock on it if you like. Country music = to me. Glad you're back posting regularly though.
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Niffla



Registered: 06/09/08
Posts: 46,755
Loc: Texas
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Re: Small town America [Re: Amanita86] 1
#26876922 - 08/12/20 01:36 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Amanita86 said:
Anyways, as illegal as I imagine it probably is I’d still like to go snooping around in some of those old forgotten places and see if any cool shit got left behind.
Same here, man. I always get the urge to pull over and walk through some of these. Never do, though. I need to though one of these times.
Quote:
Amanita86 said:
Some of those places get sad, there’s a similar mental decay you see in cities where everyone just resigns to doing drugs and alcohol and you see a lot of high school pregnancy type shit.
Heck even the physical decay. Look at Detroit. Look at a little bit of this video.
There are bad parts of every city too that are rampant with decay (although that video of parts of Detroit is about as extreme as you'll ever see)
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HAIL OUR NEW OTD KING
Edited by Niffla (08/12/20 01:39 PM)
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Crazy_Horse
I’m Rick James, bitch!


Registered: 08/15/16
Posts: 13,355
Loc: Hampsterdam
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Re: Small town America [Re: Niffla]
#26876944 - 08/12/20 01:55 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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tyrannicalrex
Strange R



Registered: 04/24/03
Posts: 38,331
Loc: subtropics
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Re: Small town America [Re: Niffla] 2
#26876947 - 08/12/20 01:56 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Ghosts up in those old small town buildings. You should have done an EVP session niffla.
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CookieCrumbs
Fucked off to the pub


Registered: 12/10/11
Posts: 14,151
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Re: Small town America [Re: Niffla] 1
#26876954 - 08/12/20 01:57 PM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Most of the boomer generation of my family grew up in rural appalachia or its small towns.
My mom's family was largely isolated on small farms. You had a bread winner (my great grandfather usually) and the wife and kids stayed worked the farm. Who couldn't drive. So visiting town was really special for them. Visiting other towns was an event.
My grandpa taught himself to drive at 12. He saved his brother's life with that knowledge when my great grandfather was at work and his mom couldn't drive. My little 12 year old grandpa drove his mom and brother to the hospital when my great uncle had a horrible accident with an axe.
Sadly... the way of these people seems to be to suffer in silence. I only heard this story by my great uncle at my grandpa's funeral. I knew my grandpa was a wildly ingenuitive special man but I regret that so much was lost with him.
Just as I watched him get old and die I'm watching that little town and the surrounding land do the same as the coal mines continue to shut down.
Much of my extended family that still live in the area are living off of welfare and black lung payouts (horrible disease many up there have and the payouts are disgraceful.) The vast majority of people living up there are doing so on welfare or disability. The only jobs up there are manual labor. So most folk work them until they get hurt or sick and can't work them and then live below the poverty line.
It's just sad.
Proud self sufficient communities that suffered from the isolation that made them self sufficient. And they suffer silently. You see the symptoms more than you hear the stories.
My mom and my uncle inherited the farm they were born on. If my uncle doesn't have any kids it will be split among me and my brothers. We keep talking about what we want to do with the land and keep only vague ideas and putting the due by date further and further back because you basically need to be ready to retire self sufficiently in order to move back there.
Also my great great great grandfather sold the mineral rights to the land. Which were harvested a couple years ago. so not only can we not get the full value out of it... it's also alot harder to do alot with land that's been mined.
I can't blame him though, that's just what happens up there. It's called an extraction economy. Companies move in, make jobs, extract the minerals, and leave. And they don't really care about the people they leave there.
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Free time is the only time
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Niffla



Registered: 06/09/08
Posts: 46,755
Loc: Texas
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Quote:
tyrannicalrex said: Ghosts up in those old small town buildings. You should have done an EVP session niffla.
Quote:
CookieCrumbs said: Most of the boomer generation of my family grew up in rural appalachia or its small towns.
My mom's family was largely isolated on small farms. You had a bread winner (my great grandfather usually) and the wife and kids stayed worked the farm. Who couldn't drive. So visiting town was really special for them. Visiting other towns was an event.
My grandpa taught himself to drive at 12. He saved his brother's life with that knowledge when my great grandfather was at work and his mom couldn't drive. My little 12 year old grandpa drove his mom and brother to the hospital when my great uncle had a horrible accident with an axe.
Sadly... the way of these people seems to be to suffer in silence. I only heard this story by my great uncle at my grandpa's funeral. I knew my grandpa was a wildly ingenuitive special man but I regret that so much was lost with him.
Just as I watched him get old and die I'm watching that little town and the surrounding land do the same as the coal mines continue to shut down.
Much of my extended family that still live in the area are living off of welfare and black lung payouts (horrible disease many up there have and the payouts are disgraceful.) The vast majority of people living up there are doing so on welfare or disability. The only jobs up there are manual labor. So most folk work them until they get hurt or sick and can't work them and then live below the poverty line.
It's just sad.
Proud self sufficient communities that suffered from the isolation that made them self sufficient. And they suffer silently. You see the symptoms more than you hear the stories.
My mom and my uncle inherited the farm they were born on. If my uncle doesn't have any kids it will be split among me and my brothers. We keep talking about what we want to do with the land and keep only vague ideas and putting the due by date further and further back because you basically need to be ready to retire self sufficiently in order to move back there.
Also my great great great grandfather sold the mineral rights to the land. Which were harvested a couple years ago. so not only can we not get the full value out of it... it's also alot harder to do alot with land that's been mined.
I can't blame him though, that's just what happens up there. It's called an extraction economy. Companies move in, make jobs, extract the minerals, and leave. And they don't really care about the people they leave there.
Wonderful post. Thank you, Cookie. Yes it's sad and looks like you know firsthand. It really did break my heart driving through them.
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HAIL OUR NEW OTD KING
Edited by Niffla (08/12/20 02:05 PM)
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CookieCrumbs
Fucked off to the pub


Registered: 12/10/11
Posts: 14,151
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This building was in the town center owned by wealthy extended family of mine. It's now a museum that sees maybe a handful of visitors a week.

The town has the fortune of possibly surviving as a roadside diversion and supply center on the way to some rather beautiful parks and nature reserves in the state.
But everyone knows it's just one highway away from complete doom. As most of the nearby towns can attest.
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Free time is the only time
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blewmeanie



Registered: 10/01/06
Posts: 28,984
Loc:
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the strander
Explorer



Registered: 06/16/20
Posts: 138
Last seen: 2 years, 6 months
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Quote:
tyrannicalrex said: Will you be here 100 years from now? Do you have kids or want them? If not, then fuck it all and let's go out in a blaze of big city life glory!
No, I won't. But since we have brains capable of imagining the future and planning for it responsibly, it seems lame to just not do that for the sake of a handful having ungodly amounts of money today. Money that doesn't buy them a proportionate amount of happiness over a certain threshold.
I also just don't understand the urge to always do better and more and bigger. I have a small place to live for just myself. I don't feel like I'm missing out because it's not a mansion. I have enough money to live comfortably. I'm actually considering looking for lower paying jobs that will be less stressful because I'd prefer happiness over more money.
Every company I've worked at had a job I liked at first, and then the company was sold, or taken over, or they brought in a new team to make things work better for when the company got bigger... and every time one of these things happened, the job I liked turned to shit.
I honestly don't understand why we can't learn to be happy with what we already have. It's just not in my nature, so while I recognize it, I don't relate to it at all.
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tyrannicalrex
Strange R



Registered: 04/24/03
Posts: 38,331
Loc: subtropics
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I agree, and I am in a place I thought I would never be in and very grateful and humble about it. How much is enough? Some people just want more and more and more! I came from being poor. Section 8 housing, food stamps, lawn furniture for living room furniture at one time. The aluminum and plastic strips ones. So I do know what it's like to be without. As little as we had we were still better off than others and I won't/don't ever forget that. The house I'm in now is a mansion to me, but would be little to some people. I grew up in apartments and moved almost every year or two. Been in some bad places.
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