One of Americas Ghost Towns. This is where I grew up. It is where I graduated high school and it is the place I planned to get away from at 16. When I was younger, this town was a busy little place. You could walk down Market St and shop at GC Murphys, old Rexal drug store, 2 big banks with the huge red velvet drapes and brass fixtures. It had a Wards catalog place, a newspaper (where I worked for a summer cutting up clipart of fruit for grocery store ads), a jewelry store, an A&P and a restaurant under the old iron bridge called Fiddles, (best fries on the planet), the Zodiac Bar, 2 beer distributors (The state regulates liquor sales in that you cant buy a 6 pack in a store), and the hardware store where you bought dog & fishing licenses. I think there was even a train station at one time. But now it is a ghost town. Faded yellowed newspapers covering broken windows & boarded up store fronts. The mines, mills and boats have slowed or shut down. There is nothing there but a police station, a bail bondsman, a payday advance business and a prison, even the library is closed. All signs of a town in abject poverty. A developer came in and bought some of the riverfront to make a riverboat casino. But as with most things in the area, nothing happened and the town just sits there decaying. When we visited there, I could feel the depression of the area as soon as we drove through downtown and crossed the bridge. With that kind of depressive air, how do you ever get out of it? How many parents are encouraging their kids to get the hell out of this morass before you wind up like me. Start drinking at 10AM and dont stop unless you have to call the distributor again. When I graduated high school (1978) my friends and I had dreams, we had goals. Most of us knew we were leaving in one form or another. I wanted to go to college Unfortunately I didnt realize it earlier). That is what I did. I had to apply for a scholarship (and got one thanks to my late father working for US Steel) , loans and grants, still paid for some of it myself, but I went. I took night classes as well as going to college (no wonder my brain is fried). Several of my friends went to colleges as well and we keep in touch. A few decided to go back. I want to shake them and ask WHY? Why waste your life here? The only employer in the area is Rose Plastics and the Prison. Oh, wait, you could work at the college in the next town. Notice that most of the jobs are state jobs, the college, prison, police, or they are jobs that prey on the poor, pay day advance places, bail bondsmen, etc. The attached link describes Brownsville as a virtual ghost town, there is nothing virtual about it, it IS a ghost town. Does that sound like a place you would want to live in or raise a family? I may have made some bad decisions in my escape from the town, but I escaped. So why do those who choose to stay do it? - I have no idea. insideedition/headlines/4346-pennsylvanias-ghost-town
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 19:22:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015