Model Train Journal

Is small town America disappearing ?

Has been, for years.

Around here, small towns are hanging on, but they've been economically gutted. No local store, no local bank, other than maybe a chain drug store or a convenience store, or maybe a "dollar" store. The folks that live in them are either retired or commuters to major metro areas.

The future looks bleak...young people don't want to live in the backwaters.

Small towns are dying off just like model railroading is..........

MurphOnMillerAve wrote:Is small town America disappearing ?

I think a lot can depend on where that small town is located in this country

I live in a small town, population 7500. up from 6500 in the late 90s. There used to be a Little Tikes manufacturing plant in town but they left with the rest of the toy companies that moved to China. Most of the old businesses in town don't exist anymore but there are new businesses that have set up shop in this area.

We have a Super Walmart in town. It's the third Walmart. It keeps getting bigger. You have to remember that Walmart was the company that set up in small towns when the rest of the big box stores would not. Walmart survived and the others didn't.

The old Frisco RR that is now the BNSF goes through town and has lots of traffic with all the containers coming and going from the west and gulf coast to the east and back

We built a brand new high school and we have a new police and fire station in town. To the west we have Monett (10 miles) that has manufacturing and Tyson and another Chicken processing plant. To the east we have Republic and Springfield, both are growing by leaps and bounds. Always working on the roads to handle more traffic.

To the south we have Branson and table Rock Lake. Both are big tourist attractions.

2 miles from my house any direction and I am out in the country. I love small town Living

Around a century ago, 50% of Americans, give or take, lived on farms. That's now less than 5% I gather, perhaps much less. industrialized food production and better paid jobs in manufacturing (initially and now, fewer and fewer) and then in service industries (particularly health care, education and government services) have made those changes, and reduced the role of railroads (via trucks and the automobile). You cannot stop change or what some call progress and some call going to hell in a hand basket(usually those in late middle age or beyond).

With the advent of all solar/wind driven electrical power and electric automated vehicles, rural life may yet recover, if the cost of electricity is low enough, and I'd bet it will be. The need for railroads, centralized living, etc. will continue to decrease over the coming decades. The problem will be making sure people have enough to do that is useful and worth doing/meaningful in all likelihood. And finding a way to survive whatever global climate change occurs. Whether warming or another ice age, technology will be key to dealing with the consequences without depopulation.

We have a few areas without cellphone service i live in a town that grew full of overpriced housing. 5 years ago you could hunt here. Now it’s illegal. You cant get 150 yards from a dwelling

Anything I would say about this would probably be cynical and I am not good at that so I will try to not comment.
I will read whatever you all write.

I would imagine that such changes as you folks have mentioned, so far, might have been affecting American colleges and universities. I saw a News report that many students on that level are food-deprived / wanting. I never imagined such a situation, so I have no idea if it is a fact of contemporary life, nor of how widespread such a phenomenon might be.

Do any of you?

MurphOnMillerAve wrote:I would imagine that such changes as you folks have mentioned, so far, might have been affecting American colleges and universities. I saw a News report that many students on that level are food-deprived / wanting. I never imagined such a situation, so I have no idea if it is a fact of contemporary life, nor of how widespread such a phenomenon might be.

Do any of you?

I think they all moved to Tucson.

MurphOnMillerAve wrote:I would imagine that such changes as you folks have mentioned, so far, might have been affecting American colleges and universities. I saw a News report that many students on that level are food-deprived / wanting. I never imagined such a situation, so I have no idea if it is a fact of contemporary life, nor of how widespread such a phenomenon might be.

Do any of you?

Hardly a new condition. Many of my fellow grad students 40 years ago were food-deprived / wanting and struggling to make ends meet.

With all of the media tools it is much easier to become aware of these situations. They were happening before but they weren't "newsworthy".

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:Hardly a new condition. Many of my fellow grad students 40 years ago were food-deprived / wanting and struggling to make ends meet.

Guess they didn't have 10 cent Ramen, Kraft diner or chicken pot pies

HONDO74 wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:Hardly a new condition. Many of my fellow grad students 40 years ago were food-deprived / wanting and struggling to make ends meet.

Guess they didn't have 10 cent Ramen, Kraft diner or chicken pot pies

Doesn't matter what food costs when you run out of money after the rent and all the other bills are paid.

It's an educational experience living on ~$5k a year and having to maintain a 3.0 GPA to keep it.

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
Doesn't matter what food costs when you run out of money after the rent and all the other bills are paid.

It's an educational experience living on ~$5k a year and having to maintain a 3.0 GPA to keep it.

Sounds like when my wife and I first got married and had a house and car payment and were still going to Jr Collage. I used up all the money I had for the down payment. I remember eating pot pies for months. If you bought a case of them they gave you a discount.

However struggling paid off down the road. Taught us some good lessons