Small Town Changes

Some readers had comments on my posting about economics of the nation and a small town:

Ray Ille said:
My brother, Bill and I grew up on a farm north of Grandfield. It was part of the Big Pasture. In the fall of 1942 our family moved to Temple when our Dad purchased his first farm south of town. Part of the land was connected to the Temple Cemetery. Temple was a thriving little town and filled with cars and shoppers each Saturday until late in the evening.

Last June, Dorothy and I had the opportunity to return to Grandfield for a short visit with my cousin, Theresa Anderson and her husband Clarence. It was the first time we had stayed overnight in the town in over 60 years. Grandfield, like Temple, had been an active small town. It had an oil refinery for many years that provided employment for a great number of families. Both the Katy and Rock Island railroads served the town. The surrounding area produced high yielding fields of wheat and cotton. On Saturdays the town was full of shoppers.

The refinery has been gone for many years. The main street is now almost a ghost town. Like Temple, there is no main grocery store and it looks as though no new homes have been built in several years. My cousin drove us through rural communities that once had numerous farm families. Now the farmsteads are long gone, with only open fields remaining. Several large grain elevators still overlook the town but trains seldom pass through these days.

It is sad but the young must look elsewhere to find their future in today's world.

Jerry Bowles wrote:

Harold did an excellent job writing the article about Temple's past and future. As he wrote, the past seems better than the future. Maybe everything will change in 2012?