The Good Old Days

i am a sucker for "the good ol' days". you know what i mean, the days back when a community acted as such rather than the now-a-days every man for himself attitude. more specifically i miss what i have heard of what my city used to be (keep reading, more on that below). unfortunately i never knew it as that community-oriented place. but i still miss it. i think you all have an idea of what i mean though, you have probably heard similar stories about places near you or even your own towns. like this photo of downtown brockton...it was a HOT place and anyone who was anyone was there (especially when hometown hero Rocky Marciano came home as in this pic)!

while campaigning for his presidency even JFK made several stops in brockton because it was such the place to be. movie stars used to come here because they chose to. so my question is what makes a place turn from such splendor into a rather depressed area? sure we've all heard that it was when the shoe factories moved production overseas or the clashing of different cultures, but i argue that it was the fall of neighborhoods and communities. of course i don't think this is fully to blame, however i do think it had a large part in the demise of a community oriented city. just think about it: when the shoe factories moved overseas and people from different countries starting moving into the city if we had continued our community oriented thought process everyone would have supported each other and lent a hand to their fellow man. instead, people were thinking of themselves and how they were going to survive.

being recently unemployed myself i do understand the panic that can come with that so let it be said i am not trying to minimize how scary being jobless can be. however, what i am trying to say is that there is a certain balance to that as well. when we started worrying so much about ourselves that we began stealing or worse killing our friends, families, and neighbors, that is when i believe we crossed the line to selfishness.

brockton was a really cool hub at one point. my boss tells me stories of when he grew up here how he used to drive up and down main st. and it was THE place to be! all i can picture is the movie "american grafitti" when he talks about "the good ol' days." during the whole movie the characters are cruising up and down the street because that is what you do. anyone who is anyone is doing the same thing. brockton used to be just like that. drive up main st, turn around at the clock, and drive right back down (main st used to be a 2-way street). this is also when downtown was safe for families to go and shop and watch the movies and just walk around.

did you know that brockton was the first place to have a department store santa clause? yup. that idea came from here. and we used to be the shoe capital of the world (i know, it is so fitting that i live here)!! i truly believe that brockton is still a great city. that even though we certainly have our fair share of issues it really is a great place to live and work. i get teased at all of the places i work because of my view point, but i don't care. i love what this city has to offer. i love the mix of cultures and races. to me it is a beautiful place; maybe not aesthetically, but the 'heart' of it.

i know that we will one day see people working to help each other again. i don't know if it will be in my lifetime, i can only hope it is. but i do know that it will not be a news worthy story when neighbors offer help to each other because that will just be common practice. you may call me a dreamer or naive, i just call it hope and optimism. hope that we will stop killing each other over our difference and celebrate them. optimism that i will not be judged because i am white or a woman but on who i am and what i have to offer.

someday, hopefully not too far away.