One of my favorite past times is to spend a few minutes on either side of a trip downtown to explore the city. I have lived in the same town most of my life. The downtown was a place we went where I was very young to do a bit of shopping, but much of the posh department stores moved into the malls across town. The downtown began to get run down. In high school, the mayoral race focused on whether or not to revive downtown. By the time I graduated from college, the artists had moved in. A lone coffee called Crazy Ladies was home to the artists, musicians, neo-hippies, and few wandering spirits. A few lofts became the seats of philosophical think-tanks of the day. A friend reported about that time that they had heard once the artists move into the downtown it would be a decade for it to start thriving again. Well, a decade has passed and sure enough…new life.
However, there are definite remnants of the tough times. And those places become like archaeological sites for me and my camera. Sometimes I find something old made new to me as I discover parts of my hometown I never knew existed; other times, I find something I thought was only a long-ago memory. In either situation, I feel as if I find a bit of myself in these crumbled places made new by my thriving interest in them.
Here are a few shots taken today on a detour downtown.
Until next time, take….the long way home!
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