There will be a brief quiz just after lunch, so pay attention.
In order for my tales of woe and mirth to flow as smoothly as a summer Hershey, I gotta lay out some facts for y’all. And now, our overture:
First, we start with Rich Town.
Rich Town was built on the fortunes of huge textile factories–hundreds, thousands of workers. The town itself was not made for its workers, though. It was made for the rich and semi-rich. The lots were big, to keep out the riff raff.. Very little room at the end of the day for blocks of doubles or lines of connected two story structures. There were two criss-crossing boulevards, medians of huge trees. Two monstrous mansions from heaven, many acres and 20+ rooms. The standard house, however, was 3-4 stories with dens, bridge rooms, multiple porches, separate garages, 5-6 bedrooms, 3 or 4 baths. Impeccable weed-less lawns with flowers that gave landscapers wet dreams. In ground pools, tennis courts, stained glass, stone walkways, elevators, tennis courts, and ornate brick work was optional, but not uncommon. You know, just typical slum conditions for these poor underprivileged white folks.
And I mean white. No black kids anywhere in sight–they lived in the city. Of course, just like the old man being a racist devotee in WWII, we began with racist jokes and nicknames. It was so cliche, but true–the only black faces were lawn workers.
Two churches–Methodist and Lutheran. Both on the main street. No synagogues. The only Catholic Church was maybe 20 yards from the town’s eastern border. Draw your own conclusions.
One bar in the whole borough until well into 90’s when a restaurant got a license. the first bar:
Note the title (Textile Inn)–it was a block from the mills. It was ripped down in the 60’s….here’s the replacement:
This was the first post office, later became a candy/comic book store that everyone stole shit from (note the small side door):
The main boulevards had alleys, as did most of the streets. This meant no street parking in some areas; the garages were in back. All telephone/electric poles resided in the alleys. This bathed the town in a kind of noble sterility. Lush greenery so serene, it could pass for movie sets. One house just off the traffic circle (where the boulevards met) had a large granite fountain. When I was very small, we’d drive to watch the fountain at night–the owner would run the water and shade it in hues of red, blue, and green. It was quite a site–I’ll always remember it.
From the time the town materialized from diamond dust, it became the destination for anyone in the entire county who had bucks. They outgrew the first school (3 stories, all grades) in less than 10 years. The new larger high school didn’t last ten years, before being converted to an elementary school when an even bigger high school was built. Behind the elementary school was a huge playground (with 8 tennis courts) and next to that, the borough’s first public pool.
Here’s the elementary school:
My little town was north of rich town–literally across the railroad tracks. Our big houses on the hill had nothing on rich town’s shanties–hell, one mansion near the high school even had huge front facing pillars like the White House. There was no businesses in the residential area (with one exception). All commercial properties were shoved onto the main drag.
Right next door (connected by a four lane ‘main drag’) to the east was poor man’s town, which fed the textile plants. This land was already full by the 1930’s. Worker houses, factories large and small in the neighborhoods, dotted with little corner stores and shops. It was also the bedroom town for the thousands of workers in the big city a mile down the road. Working class people in the homes they still live in–no pools, no garages, many had no lawns. Stand alone houses were uncommon. Lawd have mercy on the poor boy from down in the boondocks.
The twain did not meet. The rich had no interest in the poor. Two different towns, two school districts. There wasn’t open warfare, but both sides were happy in their worlds. Insular cultures.