Cities/towns that's lost their charm

[kphoger]

My wife gets angry at me when I say we are old (I'm 39 and she is 38).  My reasoning is largely the stage in life we are in included career stability and an almost certain path to paying off the mortgage in the near future.  She doesn't like it, but I don't have the drive to bounce around to make career moves like I once did in favor of stability. 

My wife and I both turned 40 this past year.
She hates that her hair is turning grey.  I think her hair looks great with grey in it.  But telling her that doesn't change her opinion.

But yeah, people our age still remember their youth with fondness and without a whole lot of emotional distance between now and then.  So the movies we grew up with, the things we did as kids, the media we used–we're not yet too old for that stuff to feel outmoded, and we still feel young enough to spend our money on trying to recapture a little bit of it.

[Ned Weasel]

Breezewood.

Seriously, how did we get four pages into this thread without anyone saying it already?  So many of those businesses have closed their doors in recent years, and I doubt it's all because of the pandemic.  You can't even get Taco Bell there anymore.  Aside from the pandemic, I'm not really sure what the deal is.  New Stanton doesn't seem to be more popular.

[Rothman]

Pfft.  Millennials, the both of you.

[triplemultiplex]

I don't want to sound like I'm crapping on the Midwest, but what it that they supposedly offer now that wasn't already gone by the late 1990s? 

We have bountiful fresh water.

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

Had lots of that in Florida too, never really got too into water sports.  Wasn't for a lack of trying growing up. 

My wife gets angry at me when I say we are old (I'm 39 and she is 38).  My reasoning is largely the stage in life we are in included career stability and an almost certain path to paying off the mortgage in the near future.  She doesn't like it, but I don't have the drive to bounce around to make career moves like I once did in favor of stability. 

My wife and I both turned 40 this past year.
She hates that her hair is turning grey.  I think her hair looks great with grey in it.  But telling her that doesn't change her opinion.

But yeah, people our age still remember their youth with fondness and without a whole lot of emotional distance between now and then.  So the movies we grew up with, the things we did as kids, the media we used–we're not yet too old for that stuff to feel outmoded, and we still feel young enough to spend our money on trying to recapture a little bit of it.

The fact that I'm going to see a Sonic the Hedgehog movie tonight speaks volumes to power of nostalgia.  We aren't bringing kids, this is something stupid for my wife and I to enjoy because we have warm and fuzzy memories of the character. 

[Max Rockatansky]

Pfft.  Millennials, the both of you.

Depends, some of us adhere to the less popular social science start years for Millennials of 1982 or 1984. 

[triplemultiplex]

Had lots of that in Florida too, never really got too into water sports.  Wasn't for a lack of trying growing up. 

Yeah, but ours doesn't have alligators.

[Max Rockatansky]

Had lots of that in Florida too, never really got too into water sports.  Wasn't for a lack of trying growing up. 

Yeah, but ours doesn't have alligators.

Meh, they aren't too scary once you get used to them.  For the most part they are incredibly lazy and really just don't want anything to do with people, even when accosted.  I was highly amused at how much my wife was terrified of them when I took her to Everglades National Park.  I guess she grew up in California thinking that Alligators would descend upon her in en mass as soon they spotted a fearful human. 

[hbelkins]

Breezewood.

Seriously, how did we get four pages into this thread without anyone saying it already?  So many of those businesses have closed their doors in recent years, and I doubt it's all because of the pandemic.  You can't even get Taco Bell there anymore.  Aside from the pandemic, I'm not really sure what the deal is.  New Stanton doesn't seem to be more popular.

Some would argue that Breezewood never had any charm, that it was a notorious overcommercialized traffic tie-up where businesses sprang up to take advantage of a captive audience forced to navigate two blocks of surface roads to continue on a major interstate highway linking the midwest to the east coast.

[Max Rockatansky]

Breezewood.

Seriously, how did we get four pages into this thread without anyone saying it already?  So many of those businesses have closed their doors in recent years, and I doubt it's all because of the pandemic.  You can't even get Taco Bell there anymore.  Aside from the pandemic, I'm not really sure what the deal is.  New Stanton doesn't seem to be more popular.

Some would argue that Breezewood never had any charm, that it was a notorious overcommercialized traffic tie-up where businesses sprang up to take advantage of a captive audience forced to navigate two blocks of surface roads to continue on a major interstate highway linking the midwest to the east coast.

I've always found it to be charmingly charmless if that makes sense.  It's basically the "so bad it's good"  version of tourist trap.  For whatever reason it's infamy seems to have an odd draw to it.

[Rothman]

Pfft.  Millennials, the both of you.

Depends, some of us adhere to the less popular social science start years for Millennials of 1982 or 1984.

So desperate to be one of the cool kids.  Typical Millennials.

[NWI_Irish96]

Breezewood.

Seriously, how did we get four pages into this thread without anyone saying it already?  So many of those businesses have closed their doors in recent years, and I doubt it's all because of the pandemic.  You can't even get Taco Bell there anymore.  Aside from the pandemic, I'm not really sure what the deal is.  New Stanton doesn't seem to be more popular.

Some would argue that Breezewood never had any charm

Was just thinking the same thing.

[Max Rockatansky]

Pfft.  Millennials, the both of you.

Depends, some of us adhere to the less popular social science start years for Millennials of 1982 or 1984.

So desperate to be one of the cool kids.  Typical Millennials.

So desperate not to be young anymore.  One of my pet peeves people nominally older than me saying I have so many years left and I'm still young.  In all odds I'm half way through my likely lifespan.  My 46 year old brother does it all the time, even when I question what supposed greater wisdom he has obtained in 7 extra years of life.

[Rothman]

Pfft.  Millennials, the both of you.

Depends, some of us adhere to the less popular social science start years for Millennials of 1982 or 1984.

So desperate to be one of the cool kids.  Typical Millennials.

So desperate not to be young anymore.  One of my pet peeves people nominally older than me saying I have so many years left and I'm still young.  In all odds I'm half way through my likely lifespan.  My 46 year old brother does it all the time, even when I question what supposed greater wisdom he has obtained in 7 extra years of life.

Be grateful youth has been extended through ones 30s...

...or take it as the infantilization of American society that started when Boomers helicoptered the Millennials.

[Max Rockatansky]

Pfft.  Millennials, the both of you.

Depends, some of us adhere to the less popular social science start years for Millennials of 1982 or 1984.

So desperate to be one of the cool kids.  Typical Millennials.

So desperate not to be young anymore.  One of my pet peeves people nominally older than me saying I have so many years left and I'm still young.  In all odds I'm half way through my likely lifespan.  My 46 year old brother does it all the time, even when I question what supposed greater wisdom he has obtained in 7 extra years of life.

Be grateful youth has been extended through ones 30s...

...or take it as the infantilization of American society that started when Boomers helicoptered the Millennials.

It is interesting to look at pictures of my father at my age, he resembled an elderly man.  Me and my two siblings don't seem to have physically aged anywhere nearly as fast he did. 

[Road Hog]

Pfft.  Millennials, the both of you.

Depends, some of us adhere to the less popular social science start years for Millennials of 1982 or 1984.

So desperate to be one of the cool kids.  Typical Millennials.

So desperate not to be young anymore.  One of my pet peeves people nominally older than me saying I have so many years left and I'm still young.  In all odds I'm half way through my likely lifespan.  My 46 year old brother does it all the time, even when I question what supposed greater wisdom he has obtained in 7 extra years of life.

Be grateful youth has been extended through ones 30s...

...or take it as the infantilization of American society that started when Boomers helicoptered the Millennials.

It is interesting to look at pictures of my father at my age, he resembled an elderly man.  Me and my two siblings don't seem to have physically aged anywhere nearly as fast he did.

Smoking ages you surprisingly. I'm guessing he probably smoked as most people did.

[formulanone]

Breezewood.

I believe the thread title said "charm", not "harm".

[Max Rockatansky]

Pfft.  Millennials, the both of you.

Depends, some of us adhere to the less popular social science start years for Millennials of 1982 or 1984.

So desperate to be one of the cool kids.  Typical Millennials.

So desperate not to be young anymore.  One of my pet peeves people nominally older than me saying I have so many years left and I'm still young.  In all odds I'm half way through my likely lifespan.  My 46 year old brother does it all the time, even when I question what supposed greater wisdom he has obtained in 7 extra years of life.

Be grateful youth has been extended through ones 30s...

...or take it as the infantilization of American society that started when Boomers helicoptered the Millennials.

It is interesting to look at pictures of my father at my age, he resembled an elderly man.  Me and my two siblings don't seem to have physically aged anywhere nearly as fast he did.

Smoking ages you surprisingly. I'm guessing he probably smoked as most people did.

Never smoked, only ever saw him drink half a beer too.  He was completely grey by the age of 32.  All and all I would say his health was even pretty decent until he gained a lot of weight in his 40s.

The really strange was that he ended up getting two types of cancer (brain and some sort of gross tumor in his chest wall) despite not really engaging in the typical vices of the day.  My Mom lived a decade past my Dad, she was diagnosed with lung cancer after 48 years of heavy smoking

[HighwayStar]

Pfft.  Millennials, the both of you.

Depends, some of us adhere to the less popular social science start years for Millennials of 1982 or 1984.

So desperate to be one of the cool kids.  Typical Millennials.

So desperate not to be young anymore.  One of my pet peeves people nominally older than me saying I have so many years left and I'm still young.  In all odds I'm half way through my likely lifespan.  My 46 year old brother does it all the time, even when I question what supposed greater wisdom he has obtained in 7 extra years of life.

Be grateful youth has been extended through ones 30s...

...or take it as the infantilization of American society that started when Boomers helicoptered the Millennials.

It is interesting to look at pictures of my father at my age, he resembled an elderly man.  Me and my two siblings don't seem to have physically aged anywhere nearly as fast he did.

Smoking ages you surprisingly. I'm guessing he probably smoked as most people did.

Never smoked, only ever saw him drink half a beer too.  He was completely grey by the age of 32.  All and all I would say his health was even pretty decent until he gained a lot of weight in his 40s.

The really strange was that he ended up getting two types of cancer (brain and some sort of gross tumor in his chest wall) despite not really engaging in the typical vices of the day.  My Mom lived a decade past my Dad, she was diagnosed with lung cancer after 48 years of heavy smoking

Secondhand smoke is not good either, which he presumably had some exposure to after he got married.

[Max Rockatansky]

Pfft.  Millennials, the both of you.

Depends, some of us adhere to the less popular social science start years for Millennials of 1982 or 1984.

So desperate to be one of the cool kids.  Typical Millennials.

So desperate not to be young anymore.  One of my pet peeves people nominally older than me saying I have so many years left and I'm still young.  In all odds I'm half way through my likely lifespan.  My 46 year old brother does it all the time, even when I question what supposed greater wisdom he has obtained in 7 extra years of life.

Be grateful youth has been extended through ones 30s...

...or take it as the infantilization of American society that started when Boomers helicoptered the Millennials.

It is interesting to look at pictures of my father at my age, he resembled an elderly man.  Me and my two siblings don't seem to have physically aged anywhere nearly as fast he did.

Smoking ages you surprisingly. I'm guessing he probably smoked as most people did.

Never smoked, only ever saw him drink half a beer too.  He was completely grey by the age of 32.  All and all I would say his health was even pretty decent until he gained a lot of weight in his 40s.

The really strange was that he ended up getting two types of cancer (brain and some sort of gross tumor in his chest wall) despite not really engaging in the typical vices of the day.  My Mom lived a decade past my Dad, she was diagnosed with lung cancer after 48 years of heavy smoking

Secondhand smoke is not good either, which he presumably had some exposure to after he got married.

Usually was on business trips most of the work week.  Usually I wouldn't see him until Friday evening growing up.  My Mom didn't smoke in the house or car either.  Can't speak for what went on in his first marriage, but his first wife wasn't a smoker. 

Interesting to note, all three of Grandparents who smoked lived to the age range of 67-88.  I suspect the bone cancer with the one who died at 67 was somehow smoking related.

[roadman65]

Asbury Park is totally lost its charm.  At one time it had one of the most popular boardwalk along the Jersey Shore.  Its Paramount Theatre was a popular concert venue and many named acts once performed there including the Rolling Stones and Molly Hatchet.   Springsteen wrote songs about the city and even dedicated his debut album to the community.

Now its just a typical city and no longer the resort it once was and its boardwalk is just about defunct.

[Rothman]

Asbury Park is totally lost its charm.  At one time it had one of the most popular boardwalk along the Jersey Shore.  Its Paramount Theatre was a popular concert venue and many named acts once performed there including the Rolling Stones and Molly Hatchet.   Springsteen wrote songs about the city and even dedicated his debut album to the community.

Now its just a typical city and no longer the resort it once was and its boardwalk is just about defunct.

I don't think Asbury Park had the kind of charm that you're implying when those concerts were happening there.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I don't want to sound like I'm crapping on the Midwest, but what it that they supposedly offer now that wasn't already gone by the late 1990s? 

We have bountiful fresh water.

I've said this before on here but I think there are elements in this country (I've even gotten this impression from a couple of the usual suspects on this board) that don't want the Rust Belt to recover or be successful, and think we need to more aggressively incentivize even more people to move south and west.

[Max Rockatansky]

I don't want to sound like I'm crapping on the Midwest, but what it that they supposedly offer now that wasn't already gone by the late 1990s? 

We have bountiful fresh water.

I've said this before on here but I think there are elements in this country (I've even gotten this impression from a couple of the usual suspects on this board) that don't want the Rust Belt to recover or be successful, and think we need to more aggressively incentivize even more people to move south and west.

Speaking for myself, none of the blue collar union job prospects around Lansing were exactly exciting coming out of high school.  At had some informal training with automotive mechanics but it wasn't really something I wanted to pursue as a career.  The strong union presence around the entire automotive industry was also was kind of sketchy given I didn't hear a lot of good second hand experiences regarding the UAW from both my parents.  If I didn't move to Phoenix with money I saved in high school to pursue a law enforcement career I would have just enlisted in the military.

What really sold me on Phoenix was all the hiking and ATV trips I spent with my half brother (who moved there in 1993) when I was in middle school and high school.  He had a room he was renting for $400 dollars (a month) and offered it to me when I graduated high school.  I just had to drive across the country and find a job when I got to Phoenix.  Sure made getting established way easier given that I didn't have to worry about credit and having to sign a formal lease agreement for a little over a year. 

[roadman65]

Asbury Park is totally lost its charm.  At one time it had one of the most popular boardwalk along the Jersey Shore.  Its Paramount Theatre was a popular concert venue and many named acts once performed there including the Rolling Stones and Molly Hatchet.   Springsteen wrote songs about the city and even dedicated his debut album to the community.

Now its just a typical city and no longer the resort it once was and its boardwalk is just about defunct.

I don't think Asbury Park had the kind of charm that you're implying when those concerts were happening there.

It had its charm up until the Boardwalk died.