Those old beauties just can't keep standing...
Iowa's small towns are having challenges in keeping their old downtown buildings in usable condition. You're dealing with 100+ year old brick structures whose structural integrity gets compromised by time, weather and owner neglect. Many share walls with neighboring buildings and if one side is deteriorating, then the building on the other side will soon be affected. It's a shame because these beauties are a memorial to the past, when small-town life was like a Donna Reed or Leave It To Beaver show. You didn't have to worry about some psycho kidnapping your kid if they walked off of your property nor was there such a thing as not knowing your neighbors. Everyone knew each other and it was a safe, comforting and easy lifestyle. I knew something of that lifestyle as a child when I would go into our local store owned by my buddy "Charlie", clutching my 5-cent pop can to return in exchange for a piece of bubble-gum. We would run rampant for hours and the entire town was our playground. Those were good memories but kids today will never know those feelings. Now our world is filled with Amber Alerts, murdered and kidnapped children, war, poverty, and employment. It is filled with increasing numbers of gangs, drugs, underage drinking, reckless driving, and a society that prefers to point fingers in accusation rather than take responsibility for what we've created.
The small town where I spent most of my childhood days has old buildings that had been neglected. Now they are a pile of rubble as volunteers work to demolish the structures and make room for new construction. My memories will always show the town as it stood when I was a child and it will always be a special place in my heart. The buildings may no longer be standing, but all I have to do is look at my flower beds in order to see a piece of it...because I retrieved a truckload of those bricks for my bed edgings!
2 comments:
.... or in the case of Milton and Pulaski, two towns where I grew up in and around, they are just left with piles of ruble and no new construction. Are there still quite a few bricks left in Pulaski? Maybe we will run down for a load this weekend if there are.
One of my prize possessions is a brick with the word "Milton" stamped on it from the days when Milton had a brick manufacturer. I have only seen one other.
Actually, they are building something on the east side of the block. A large metal building that will house the Shopper, Fire Dept and Senior Center (possibly other things also, but these are the few that my grandparents mentioned).
I'm in Pulaski today and there are still buildings being torn down. People are free to take bricks on the east side of the block, but the west side bricks have been purchased by someone.
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