Excuse Me, Can You Tell Me the Way to Main Street?

When I was young, which actually wasn't that long ago, I used to love to go down town with my father and look into the windows of all of the unique and interesting "ma and pop" stores that were there. Now you are lucky if you can even find a Main Street in most towns anymore. Particularly ones that have all these wonderful shops along it. Specialized shops in which everyone knew your name are being replaced, or rather put out of business, everyday.

Small town Main Street that used to be filled with neat looking shop that specialized in all your needs are being replaced with highways that are lined with strip malls. These strip malls are filled with chain stores that cater to everyone, not you as an individual. Meanwhile what is happening to all of these small stores? Stores that have been passed down from generation to generation, giving each subsequent generation financial security? They are run out of business. Where do they people go to that once had all this financial security along with specialized knowledge of their particular products? They go to the huge chain stores that offer an all-in one shopping experience. That doesn't sound so devastating, does it? Yes...it does. I will tell you why.

First of all, these people have lost a huge part of themselves in the process. They have lost the closeness they had to the community and also have lost a big part of their well deserved pride. Perhaps they ran an appliance store where they gave honest opinions and real knowledge to customers they personally knew. Now they are reduced to wearing an issued uniform and selling products that they may or may not know anything about or believe in. Also, instead of being a business owner, they now are part of the underpaid workforce that runs these hyped up department stores.

Secondly, the town has lost a piece of their history. Instead of buying products from a store that their great-grandfather once shopped at, they have no choice but to give business to these mega-stores that have no history whatsoever. Their Main Street slowly becomes a ghost town. Beautiful store fronts have their windows boarded up. The street that would be full of hustle and bustle of towns folk that once had some relations with one another go quiet. The townspeople will never regain the camaraderie that it used to have. Families that have been friends for generations become strangers in the next generation because habits and routines that once brought them together have now changed.

Next, will go the festivals that took place on Main Street. A lot of towns remember a time when there were gatherings throughout the year that brought everyone together. Since the venue for these gatherings were Main Street, they too will either stop or change. If they continue, then they will have a different feel. For a place in which everyone was once your friend, you will rub shoulders at a parade or firework show with people who are now strangers. How sad, we have changed the whole feel of downtown by allowing the big corporations in. Have you walked down a busy street in your town and congenially waved "Hello" to a passer-by? Sometimes you get a nod, sometimes just a strange look, but not very often do you get a few minutes of real conversation that used to take place along the route that most people ran their daily errands on. The atmosphere has changed. Remember the corner store where there was that old table and a couple chairs that the town elders used to sit around for hours and share stories, play cards, or just shoot the breeze. Some of us looked forward to the days when we could pull up a chair at that table and hang out with the big boys. Now that we are grown, those tables are disappearing with the rest of down town.

Main Street used to be a place to not only run your errands but also to socialize. Many relationships were started and then maintained on those streets. As the main businesses in our town get more and more impersonal, so do we. The people we meet on the street are not there to chat. If you try to do this, you will be looked at as the town weirdo. There has been more damage done by these mega-stores than any of us may realize. Not only have they run many good business into the ground, they have created a more impersonal atmosphere in our towns. For places that used to look at the whole town as an extended family, we have now lost a good portion of those feelings. Down town USA has changed and not for the better either. More and more, we miss out on an important part of our humanity, human contact. We run through our daily lives and not only forget to stop and smell the roses, but we forget to simply say "hi" to these people who are our neighbors. We don't live together anymore - we live amongst one another.

As you drive down that high way that used to be your Main Street, try to remember the good old times. At least as these changes that are out of our control take place, we can preserve them in our memories. Tell your children about the little corner store that you used to play on the floor in while your grand-pappy caught up with his friends. Tell them about the dry cleaners where your mom picked up your "Sunday best" and spent a few minutes gossiping with the ladies from town. Don't forget to tell the kids about the ice cream parlor or the burger joint that you and your friends hung out at every Friday night. Because that is where Main Street is now, it is frozen in time in your mind. The only way to get there is by thinking back to a simpler time. The only way to pass on the directions to someone else is to share your own personal journey down Main Street, thats how we preserve the "ma and pop" shops, the relationships that grew there, and the hustle and bustle of an extended family doing their weekly errands together.