Travis Johnson
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Its an old New England tradition, the annual town meeting where everyone gets together, votes on everything to keep the town running until the next 3rd Saturday in March. I won't get into the political part of it because of COC rules, but its kind of neat because you get to see your town every year. Yes the finical part of it, seeing how things change and stay the same, but also the people of our town...well 200 people out of 350 people anyway.
Yeah I get to talk to my old Industrial Arts teacher about dovetails, lovetails and hounds tooth dovetails,so that is cool. And talking to the family about logging and forest markets was cool too. I even got to see my two month old second cousin for the first time. Secretly I was happy when she started fussing right along with Alyson during a heated new town office debate, because there was only two babies there.
Now wait a minute...there was only two babies. A few middle aged people like myself, with 75% over the age of 60. So I flipped to the back of the towns annual report and I see that the births just barely squeezed out the death rate. That is fine, but as I read the last names of these new babies, I don't recognize the family's. We have a low income apartment complex so that is more then likely babies of family's that are not staying here for the long term. I mean, I know everyone here. So this leaves me to only on conclusion...
Our town is dying!!
Little by little the older people go, and the middle aged people, they just don't have a reason to stay here. Areas for jobs and shopping are 40 miles away in any direction, and with the cost of fuel these days...as I said, there is no reason to stay. A few people from out of state do move in from time to time, but even they come and go,the average stay about 8 years before they move on.
All in all Thorndike is a pretty good town, the real quintessential new England town with a nice church with towering steeple, a big stream running straight through town, and a post office because the other towns around us don't have them. The same can be said for the fire department with a new building right on main street. We even have the big maple trees lining the village as you drive up the hill with rolling farm ground all around.
Its just too bad, as I looked at "my town" today, there were no babies. No real sign of a future even if that meant listening to a toddler getting squirmy, or a baby fussing for milk. Its just sad, despite carrying on business as usual for another year, it became glaringly obvious, my town is slowly dying.
Yeah I get to talk to my old Industrial Arts teacher about dovetails, lovetails and hounds tooth dovetails,so that is cool. And talking to the family about logging and forest markets was cool too. I even got to see my two month old second cousin for the first time. Secretly I was happy when she started fussing right along with Alyson during a heated new town office debate, because there was only two babies there.
Now wait a minute...there was only two babies. A few middle aged people like myself, with 75% over the age of 60. So I flipped to the back of the towns annual report and I see that the births just barely squeezed out the death rate. That is fine, but as I read the last names of these new babies, I don't recognize the family's. We have a low income apartment complex so that is more then likely babies of family's that are not staying here for the long term. I mean, I know everyone here. So this leaves me to only on conclusion...
Our town is dying!!
Little by little the older people go, and the middle aged people, they just don't have a reason to stay here. Areas for jobs and shopping are 40 miles away in any direction, and with the cost of fuel these days...as I said, there is no reason to stay. A few people from out of state do move in from time to time, but even they come and go,the average stay about 8 years before they move on.
All in all Thorndike is a pretty good town, the real quintessential new England town with a nice church with towering steeple, a big stream running straight through town, and a post office because the other towns around us don't have them. The same can be said for the fire department with a new building right on main street. We even have the big maple trees lining the village as you drive up the hill with rolling farm ground all around.
Its just too bad, as I looked at "my town" today, there were no babies. No real sign of a future even if that meant listening to a toddler getting squirmy, or a baby fussing for milk. Its just sad, despite carrying on business as usual for another year, it became glaringly obvious, my town is slowly dying.
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