Today I worked (as usual, though I do have tomorrow off - YEAH!!) and while I worked, a part of my hometown died. My husband is fortunate (?) to not be employed (per se) at this time so he was in town to see the travesty occur. The removal of the town spire. Now I'm not typically nostalgic and I'm also not typically so attached to something like a town building, however, I am very angry that the people of my town would opt to let this beautiful old landmark fall to pieces while putting millions (literally) into a library ADDITION! that's right, not a NEW library, not even an improvement on our historic, beautiful old stone library which still stands in its entirety but an ugly addition to the library which isn't even open full time! It is so sad for me to see the heart of this little town be taken down due to what comes down to neglect. I spent much of my childhood in that building for one thing or another (great girl scout productions on that big stage) and the last time I walked through it, it was in such a state of disrepair that there were puddles in the main hall! HOW do we make these decisions for ourselves and future generations? How can we let our apathy change the face of our small towns so they become virtually unrecognizable. This isn't the case of a neighborhood changing, this is a case of a town giving up and not caring about its soul. Jason and i joked that if we had the money we would buy the place, fix the place and do it all for nothing more than the naming rights (of course it would become the Jason and Michelle Petraitis Memorial Town Hall) but alas, we don't have the cash so the old girl falls apart. My childhood loses a notch, my heart is saddened a bit more today.
As with all things that come to pass, it's people like you who honor the memory by documenting what that 'thing' meant to them. The town might forget the town spire, but you won't.
ReplyDelete