Time

[layoutshooter]

We have been spending time visiting with relatives that we no longer get to see very often because of this business we are in. It has been good to see them, in a way.

They are getting very old. Several now, although they know who we are but they are no longer able to carry on a conversation. Their minds are going away. It is very hard to see these once vital, fun loving, people reduced to mere shells of who they once were.

I am glad we were able to see them, while they are still with us and have some idea who we are.

Then I made the mistake of driving down the street where they all once lived. One entire side of one block, every house, a family member. Coal miners then, houses were not fancy, but they were kept up and the area was clean.

Today it is a slum. Houses are un-kept. Lawns are mainly just dirt and broken glass. Porch roofs falling down. Dirty people everywhere.

My one aunt, the one who's mind is still here, was telling me that they no longer even go into town anymore, it's has become far too dangerous there since the "low lifes", as she put it, have taken over.

I wish I had never driven down that street, I would have like to have been able to always see it as it once was, not as it is now.

Time passes, it does not always pass well.

 

[zorry]

I'm sure this happens a lot.
I grew up on Chicago's So Side.
In the 10th Ward.
A beautiful/safe area in the 50's/60's/ and 70's.
It has decayed. I probably wouldn't drive my family through there if I could avoid it.
You can tell the same story could be told of Detroit and many cities around the country.
It's sad to see a park or neighborhood that brought so many fond memories when we were innocent youth , fall into disrepair.

 

[layoutshooter]

It is sad, there is no need for it. Some will blame "poverty", other's the age of the homes. I don't buy either argument.

Poverty and filth are not connected. Miners, when I was a kid, were far from "rich", they did not have "nicer" things. The area was plain, but clean and neat. Older homes were cared for, kept up. If a window was broken, it was replaced. As boards went bad, they were replaced.

That street/area is just horrible now. Broken windows. Filthy people. NO attempt to be neat or clean. No class of any kind. The house my grandmother lived is a shambles. You can hardly see it for the bushes that have not been trimmed for YEARS. The houses where my uncles lived are falling apart.

It is so sad and there is no excuse for it. Those "people" should be ashamed of themselves, but I am sure they are not.

 

[Ragman]

We see this same scenario through out the country.
Look no farther than our own backyard.

My Grandparents would rave to their friends about their visits to our home when I was a child. They were from Brooklyn, N.Y., I grew up in Detroit.

 

[layoutshooter]

I cannot imagine why people would CHOOSE to live in filth. It makes no sense. Rich, poor, it does not matter, there is just no excuse for this.

You are right, it is very wide spread. When I was a teen I watched thriving neighborhoods in the Detroit area just die in less than 10 years. Houses that were the built at the same time the one I was raised in, entire streets, trashed.

I don't understand. Those who lived there worked in the same auto plants, steel mills etc as everyone else, they made the same money. Some chose to live in filth while other's chose to be clean.

The sad part is how many now seem to want to live in squalor. They make NO attempt to clean their own homes, let alone their yards or the streets.

I can CLEARLY remember, my grandmothers, every morning, weather permitting, washing their porches, the sidewalks and the street in front of their houses. The grandmothers on the other side of the street did the same. Each out to the center. The neighborhood was always. Clean.

Clothing was sometimes patched, but clean. They did not have automatic washers or laundrymats, some had ringer washers, some still used a tub and a washboard. I saw this well into the '60's.

They were "poor", but soap was not expensive.

It makes no sense.

 

[Ragman]

It makes no sense.

None, whatsoever.

 

[layoutshooter]

People who live like that SHOULD be ashamed of themselves, but they are not. Shame is no longer considered a "good" thing. They SHOULD be shamed into cleaning up their act.

I would love to have someone explain how standards have fallen so far, so quickly. I just don't get it.

 

[zorry]

Lack of pride and self worth.

It stills warms my heart to see someone with enough pride to sweep their sidewalk.

 

[layoutshooter]

Lack of pride and self worth.

It stills warms my heart to see someone with enough pride to sweep their sidewalk.

I see it less and less and it almost seem futile now. One person on a block, keeping up their home, cleaning the sidewalk, an endless battle when they are the only one who cares.

Just think, if EVERYONE just kept up their own area, just a few thousand square feet, how much cleaner the country would be.

 

[Unclebob]

You can bet that all of those houses you drove past was owned by the same person. That's how those slum lords operate. They buy one house in a neighborhood and never keep it up. Over time more of the original homeowners sell out. Pretty soon the slum lord owns the whole block.

The people who rent from him don't care what the house looks like since the slum lord never spends a penny on repairs or maintenance. They just figure that living in a bug infested broken down old house is the best that they can do. And it probably is.

They don't know how to better themselves and they don't BELIEVE that they can. You have to have confidence in yourself before you can succeed. They've never had that type of role model in their lives.

The rich teach their kids how to make money work for them. The middle class teach their kids the value of hard work.

The poor teach their kids to not get an education since they won't use anything they learn in real life. If you have a job the starting time is more of a suggestion. If you want something the nice people at the rent a center will let them have it for low payments (at twice the normal retail). If you don't have enough money to pay your bills this month the nice people at the payday loan place will let you have some money and you can pay it back from your next check since you won't be short of money then (yeah right) and the interest is only 4%. You know that's a good rate because you've heard 4% is what people pay to buy a house. They don't realize they're paying 4% a week!

Some of them do find their way out despite the obstacles. Some of them try to give back and help others learn what they need to know to succeed. It's just a drop in the bucket though.

The government has thrown money at the problem hoping to change people's attitudes but that never works. I don't know if it can be fixed. Every society will have this type of people just like every family has a loser who could have done so much more with their lives. If JESUS couldn't solve the problem all we can do is the best that we can.

 

[layoutshooter]

I was asking my cousin what was going on, drugs. Heroin is the thing now. Drug dealers got pushed out of Pittsburgh and they have moved in, and taken over, many parts of Uniontown.

My cousins husband is a cop on Connelsville, he was telling all kinds of horror stories of what is going on in the area.