I recently went through a town that was part of my youth growing up in the 1950s. It was where my favorite aunt lived. My father was the youngest of that generation, and this aunt was the 2nd oldest. But what made the town memorable was that I had a cousin who was born two days after I was. I really enjoyed visits there because it was in the country, and I was living in the “big city” at the time. I have many pleasant memories of the times with my cousin. I always used to kid her that she had to listen to me because I was older.

When I visited her town in the 1950s there were numerous businesses along Main Street, which at the time was a pretty well-traveled US highway. Just for old time sake I went back a couple of years ago to see what still existed. It turns out that the house where my relatives lived along with most of the other houses no longer exists, and only one business is still open.

When I was traveling the U.S. in the 1970s and 80s I vowed not to take any Interstate highways, because I would miss what the “real” America was all about. Sadly, most of the rural towns along the way now are simply ghosts of what they were. In the 1980s it was not unusual to go through town after town of closed buildings.

In the 1990s, it was just too depressing to do this more, so I then traveled mostly on Interstates to get to the places I wanted to see.

Since I won’t be around in the 2050s I can only wonder what the world will look like then. Will people finally abandon the huge cities with all the poverty and crime? Maybe the small towns will be the places to live again. I can only imagine.