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ABANDONED

They've taken up the railroad track
that joined together all these places
and they'll likely never be laid back.
All that's left are gravelly traces.

Iva, Starr and Lowndesville too,
small southern towns along the line,
(and many more I never knew)
left to wither with no vine.

Mere remnants of those byegone days
when textile mills were going strong
where looms echoed through the summer haze
a background beat to dryflies' song.

Most of these towns now quiet, still.
Mill ruins empty, stores closed down.
They'll stay that way until.....until...?
The question which makes old men frown.

Yet in the oldsters living there
recollections play of way back then
and late at night they nearly swear
those ghost trains whistle yet again.

Style / type: 
Structured: Western
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Comments

Reminds me of Billy Connelly and his trip down Route 66, a great road that straddles the USA, then they go and put By passes in to ghost town a lot of places that's progress for you...
A great write as I may have said before, lol Yours, Ian.T

.
There are a million reasons to believe in yourself,
So find more reasons to believe in others..

yep, when these already struggling little towns get bypassed it's often their death knell. Thanks for dropping by...........stan

author comment

read agenda 21. Might give you some answers why this is happening.

Very visual, enjoyed the write

Linda

He who conquers self , has won a great battle

I assume "agenda 21" is a book title? I've got a pretty good idea that it all goes back to basic economics. Jobs migrate to where they can be done at lowest cost. Eventually transportation costs will increase to the point of overcoming labor savings derived from moving jobs over seas. Appreciate your dropping by...........stan

author comment

agenda 21 not a book, Stan,it is an agenda by out own govenment that has been going on slowly but surely, in effort to force people into city areas, so gov can take over as much land as they can. People will be forced to live as gov will dictate. Sounds far out but it is true. There are organizations that are aware what is going on and have been fighting this thing. but as usual the American people are asleep at the wheel. Research it. I have never been policical, until the last few years, We all need to start paying attention
There is a lot more to this than I have commented on. Linda

He who conquers self , has won a great battle

In my opinion the main thing Obama will be remembered for is awakening the country to the danger of not being involved in politics. The result was his being elected. How did you run across agenda 21?..........stan

author comment

on tv, cannot remember the name of the man that is the head of one of the organizations trying to fight this thing, or the name of the organization. I think it is for real.

Linda

He who conquers self , has won a great battle

I am of the firm opinion that there is a group of people who are determined to see that all countries have equal wealth. The sad part is they have decided it will be easier to bring the wealthy counries down than to lift the poorer countries up. The Trilateral Commision is just a small part of this group and I think Obama is a shill for this group............stan

author comment

The urbanization of countries is an Idea that has been going around for a long time.
You take all the people and put them in their own little box which is cleaned and disinfected each day and the ones that need to work are whisked away to their jobs if they really have to go out.
The www captures them one at a time and sorts out all their needs.
Outside of the cities there will be great swathes of land run by robots that grow and circulate the food to where it is required at the press of a button if at that time people will need to even press anything.
It will be like massive cruise liners but going no where, the humons will then become more lazy and rely on the Robots more each day, growing fatter and fatter, in the end not being able to move at all.
End product, lots of bodies exploding inside pods, inside cities that will become tombs, later to be discovered by Outsiders that will scratch their large heads thinking it couldn't happen to them, lol.

Do you ever see those pictures from Walmart of the shoppers there??? if you do then you will see what I am talking about
Yours Ian.T

.
There are a million reasons to believe in yourself,
So find more reasons to believe in others..

As long as there are those few who refuse to be herded like cattle (which includes a disproportionate number of those with southern accents) There will always be those who will refuse to live in such "hives". Hell, I won't even visit a megalopolis like New York od DC lol..........stan

author comment

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment.

Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the Statement of principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests were adopted by more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992.

The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created in December 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of UNCED, to monitor and report on implementation of the agreements at the local, national, regional and international levels. It was agreed that a five year review of Earth Summit progress would be made in 1997 by the United Nations General Assembly meeting in special session.

The full implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the Commitments to the Rio principles, were strongly reaffirmed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26 August to 4 September 2002.

Not much has been actioned by this Agenda since 2002 so maybe it was a stupid error, if you can find more a Blog will do, Yours Ian.T

.
There are a million reasons to believe in yourself,
So find more reasons to believe in others..

Sounds like something Al Gore would support............stan

author comment

In the textile business in NY I found myself in the southern mills and factories quite often. Say 1975-1990. The industry then moved to the Caribbean and and by 1995 to Mexico because of NAFTA. Finally everything went to Asia. Once, the textile factor was the largest employer in the US

After a stint in all the factories of the world for 10 years I ended up wanting to do a domestic fashion product, in 2010. Went to the factories in Columbia, Spartenburg...what few factories were open had thousands of sewing machines in acres of empty aisles, and 6 people working there.
All the mills were gone. Where did these hundred of thousands of workers go??

It ain't ever coming back. Robots will replace the Vietnamese children now sewing for $.30 an hour, because they work 24/7 for free. They can now sew t shirts and underwear. Soon they will sew everything. In the next 10 years.

Same in Penn (sewing) , NJ (printing, embroidery) New England (knitting mills) factory towns all over the country abandoned.

Just progress and the way of things. All the factories are quickly becoming fantastic loft style apartments. Love those tall ceilings!

Eumolpus
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings

I'm aware that jobs move to the places where they can be performed cheapest but by removing even the railroad tracks that serviced these mills it makes it even harder to attract replacement mfg to these little towns

author comment

it's like a structured
LOL-a- by for me
so soothing
spread across so many years

Stan to read you
I have spent many a tear
to wash my eyes ...clear!!

my poetry is so bad it brings you to tears? lol. Didn't think it was That bad

author comment

your old works are
still worthy of a read
RFLOL STan

I knew what you meant

author comment
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