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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

The Spirit of Skidmore

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  September 18th, 2009 at 11:18 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Josh Trevino just sent me this picture. He’s standing in front of the sign right now.

The sign is for the Skidmore Historical Society Museum. The sign says, “Built and maintained by local citizens without benefit of state or federal funds.”

We need that spirit in this country. We need the Spirit of Skidmore.

skidmoremuseum.jpg
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COMMENTS

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  • Kowalski

    Sorry but the sign looks a little, um….er, distressed, shall we say?

    And the “lawn” around it doesn’t look like it’s been maintained all that well, either.

    Maybe we should take up a collection for the Skidmore Historical Society and help them make a new sign and do some yard work.

    I mean, I agree with the spirit of the post but frankly that sign ain’t that impressive given the message.

    ;)

  • Kowalski

    In fact I think the takeaway from that sign could be:

    “Stop taxing us so much so we can afford to make a nicer sign and clean up the yard.”

  • banzaibob

    but times are tough for the small towns along US181. I’ve watched many businesses close as traffic shifted to I37 and made worse by the current economy.

  • reason60

    can anyone point me towards a politician or party that actually holds this concept?
    Name one governer of any state who refuses federal money. One congressman or senator who does not strive to bring home the pork.
    When was the last time a politician got elected by promising to refuse federal assistance?

    The government spends about a gazillion dollars each year- and every single penny of that is jealously guarded and defended viciously by an entrenched special interest, whether they be ACORN or ADM.

  • Kowalski

    And I’m willing to make a nice new sign for the Skidmore Historical Society on adhesive vinyl or durable Tyvek with UV-durable ink and a nice, solid substrate and a plexiglass cover and I’ll do it at cost if we take up a collection. My estimate is less than $250, both sides.

    And I’ll chip in the first $10.

  • blooch

    then the thought occurred to me that it is probably the town’s elders who founded the museum in 1974 as younger men and women, and they still do all of the maintenance and hosting at the museum…after church on Sunday, it appears.

    That’s alot to ask of these old folks. Perhaps the local clergy should include a little prodding in their sermons to get the younger generations to take up the slack.

  • Kowalski

    In the past 45 days I’ve driven more than 6,000 miles through more than 20 states across the U.S. picking up equipment for my business. I’ve driven along the entire eastern seaboard from Massachusetts to West Palm Beach and west along the interstates through the heartland out to Jefferson City, Missouri across the Mississipi and back.

    And I’ve talked to a lot of people along the way. And they’re hurting in a whole lot of places, bigtime.

    I honestly don’t know how a lot of towns in this country continue to survive — they’re certainly not going to survive once their residents get whacked with the new, new reality of the taxes that are going to be necessary to cover Obama’s magnanimous gestures.

    I drove through Akron, Ohio about a month ago and during the light of day it felt approximately as dangerous as Newark, NJ *at night*. The place is falling apart. Trash is strewn along the shoulders of Interstate 76/77, the grass and weeds along the highway haven’t been cut in months, and the place looks like it’s in a fine state of dilapidation/stagnation.

    This is the headquarters of Goodyear Tire and Rubber. I guess they no longer manufacture anything there, it’s just a middle-management purgatory. My advice is to carry a gun if you’re driving through Akron at night, because if you break down you might need one. Sorry if I offend anyone, but Richmond, Virginia is not much better, and there are at least a half dozen others around the country on the routes that I took recently. America’s industrial base, in my estimation, is almost completely wrecked.

    Obama’s economic policies are going to make that problem worse, not better. I really believe he wants it that way.

  • http://dreamsfrommyforefathers.com RoguePolitics

    How much for 1000 really well done for a really poor conservative business cards? rok at roguepolitics dot com

  • Achance

    from the train! Remember, American industry developed largely before the Interstate system so it located on the railroads. I’ve ridden trains from Boston to DC in recent years on what were once among the richest and most storied mainlines in the Country. There’s nothing but rust, rot, ruin and slums.

  • Kowalski

    A

  • blooch

    When I was a kid, there was a grassy median between the lanes a block from my house. My dad would go and mow the grass there every two weeks because the County didn’t do it often enough for his aste. Before my dad, Colonel Feind, who lived across from the median, had done it until he died in 1968.

    My father appreciated his effort and took up the slack until I was old enough to mow lawns. One of my first clients was the Colonel’s widow, and my dad told me, “when you cut her grass, be sure and cut the median, too.” I did just that for three years, and when I grew up and moved out, my dad took up mowing it again.

    After my parents sold the house and moved out of the city, nobody bothered with it anymore. The County came in after a couple of years and filled the median with cement.

  • Achance

    there aren’t any “younger generations” there any more. Of the 128 people I graduated from high school with in ’67, three remain in my home town. I travel a lot, and in my experience, America is empty except where it is crowded. Small town America will be gone altogether in a generation.

  • Richard Mullins

    I saw that on my way from Spring to Dallas to go to my Grandfathers funeral. Lots businesses that are dead and the only place a big amount of business is in larger towns like Huntsville. Sad really. I guess I should take a picture of Old Town Spring. This economy is making that area look bad.

  • http://dreamsfrommyforefathers.com RoguePolitics

    The city near me here in WV had a small farmers market basically run on land the owner charged no rent for, in stands set up by the proprietors.
    Until the $500K grant came in to build a “real” farmers market. The city asked for the money but I was at the city hall meeting where it was being discussed and no farmers were there or at least they didn’t bother to say anything.
    We are talking about a town of less than 20K people with a $500K farmers market. There is probably not $500K in sales in ten years from this place. And no the land owner doesn’t neglect to collect his rent now. Nor does the city neglect to charge rent from the farmers.

    Is the community organizer purposefully destroying the sense of community that use to be the essence of America?

  • http://dreamsfrommyforefathers.com RoguePolitics

    The city near me here in WV had a small farmers market basically run on land the owner charged no rent for, in stands set up by the proprietors.
    Until the $500K grant came in to build a “real” farmers market. The city asked for the money but I was at the city hall meeting where it was being discussed and no farmers were there or at least they didn’t bother to say anything.
    We are talking about a town of less than 20K people with a $500K farmers market. There is probably not $500K in sales in ten years from this place. And no the land owner doesn’t neglect to collect his rent now. Nor does the city neglect to charge rent from the farmers.

    Is the community organizer purposefully destroying the sense of community that use to be the essence of America?

  • blooch

    are the ones which are lucky enough to be where Boomers want to retire. Even that is a mixed blessing, as city councils and locals are just beginning to find out. Everything, from municipal services to zoning and property values, is about to change for these towns.

    BTW, the median I referred to is at the Roxboro Road/ North Druid Hills fork. You probably drove by it a hundred times when you lived in Atlanta. I still live just 15 minutes away from it.

  • Richard Mullins

    smaller towns will be absorbed in to larger towns. Its not that surprising at all. Also, those not close to bigger cities, get smaller and die away.

  • Kowalski

    And BTW if anyone smells ‘racism’ in that statement about Newark, NJ *or* Akron, OH, please let me ratchet you down a few notches before you flame me:

    I lived in Newark, NJ for more than a year with three roommates of color, two from Jamaica and one from Newark proper, while I was a student at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. All us roommies got along swimmingly in my suite, where I was the only white guy, and we had a lot of fun together — and a couple of scary moments together because I happened to be the only one of the four who had a car (a cheap Volkswagen Scirocco). We used to go out for Chinese in Newark at night and the basic tactical situation was that I was the lookout who stayed in the car while my Newark-born roomate went in for the food and my two Jamaican buddies served as colorful escort.

    And we still ran into a couple of unpleasant circumstances. I loved those guys and still talk with one of them via email.

    So don’t give me none of your beef, comprende?

  • Achance

    mostly with a short stint in Doraville and another in Brookhaven. So, yeah, went by Roxboro Rd. N. Druid Hills a zillion times. Last place I lived there was some real nice townhouses on Plaster Rd. off Shallowford Rd. Gate, clubhouse and pool, all for a whopping $250/mth., which was actually pretty expensive rent in ATL in those days. Damn near died of shock when we went looking for an apartment in ANC and the only one we could find that would allow a kid didn’t have any of that stuff and was $800/mth.

    Anymore though, I remember ATL just well enough to be really lost when I figure out I’m lost. If I’m coming from here, I come into Hartsfield and can’t get on 75 South fast enough. If I tie a trip to see my family into a trip to the east coast, I just fly into Savannah and avoid ATL altogether.

  • http://www.thecampofthesaints.com robertbelvedere

    Linked to at:
    CLEANING OUT THE CACHE

  • janis