As I drive around on my way to doctor visits ,the pharmacy or to the grocery stores, I come to notice just how really dead my city is. Where as a child there was a Mom and Pop little store you could get fresh made pie’s and Butchered meats from to the old style hardware store . That had some very odd one of a kind items ,no one today would have a idea what it was used for. And only seen hanging from the ceiling of the Cracker-barrel restaurant. Once grand houses in disrepair and empty business with busted windows and roofs falling in. The once bustling city that fueled the auto industry has ground to a near stop. It once had 3 high-school’s that fought on the sports fields and Gym floors to prove to their cross town rivals who was king of the city. Basketball was played in the grandest of cathedrals. Ours was called the Wigwam. It was the 2nd largest gym in the entire state of Indiana . Basketball was not just a game here it was a religion.
But now that is nearly gone, our industrial base has left for greener pastures. Gone south then even farther south across into Mexico. Where once stood 20 plus auto plants in its prime now sets acres of empty abandoned fields of concrete lots and rubble. And the houses where all these fine workers lived 4 out of 10 set empty. The biggest industry now is that which demolish homes and that the city pays for.
The only industry that is growing in our entire county is the Department of Corrections and Privatized jails. Sad that once our children were trained to be apprentice in the auto plants . Our schools don’t even offer Industrial arts anymore. The kids are being taught to pass a state test but not to be-able to survive out in the world.
People have even stopped going to church’s . Where churches had congregations that were proud and full of spirit and faith. Once grand chapels and cathedrals are falling down, abandoned. Homeless people hiding for shelter against the weather within the once grand walls. Now the parking lots that once were busting at the seams are dust bowls on Sundays. And so many churches have combined that you have no idea if your going into a Friends meeting or a Southern baptist revival. Just last week I over heard to elderly lady's saying”Where have all the Good people fled to”.
I ask myself that and I can be truthful, even tho it hurts deep inside. The people who could leave , that had no roots holding them here left. Not unlike those people in the south that left there in search of the American dream and the good money that the auto industries offered for you hard work back in the 40’s,50’s and 60’s. We were a boom town after the 2nd world war. But now we have grown old, retired and moved on. Our factory's closed and moved away. Children left and the people have died off . The Boomers are dying or being housed in nursing homes suffering from dementia or other illness’s of the brain. They have become zombies left to decay like the city they once loved.
Yes my city is dead. My American dream is lost to the wind.