Caught up with an old buddy today, it was fun but also depressing

[stirs]

3 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Yep. The furniture and textiles industries leaving left this area gutted of good blue collar jobs. The same story is prevalent all across America. The area is making a big comeback focusing more on tourism and attracting the folks looking at Asheville and balking at the prices. The problem is that tourism driven jobs don't pay. All the good middle class blue collar jobs have been replaced with $10-12 an hour type jobs. The old Henderson plant site is a prime example. That plant used to support a lot of good paying blue collar jobs that supported a lot of local families. It's been replaced by a shopping center. Wal-Mart, Dick's, PetSmart, TJ Maxx, etc. The managers of those stores make decent money but everyone else is making $10-12 an hour.

 

Henredon

[LinvilleGorge]

8 minutes ago, stirs said:

Henredon

Yeah, evidently autocorrect doesn't like that

[Khyber53]

On 3/17/2022 at 10:57 AM, thefuzz said:

I come from a small NC town, less than 4,000 I'm pretty sure.

Left when I was 17, only went back for a very short time...the folks that stayed...some are in good shape...most are not.

There are days when I miss small town life, but there simply isn't enough to do to keep kids (boys) from getting into trouble.

My old hometown used to be a wonderful place and I left there when I was 30. Since then, they became a part of the National Geographic Channel's Southern Justice show. Meth, alcohol and low prospects for any employment just ruined the place. 

It was always a great place to live but a hard place to make a living. I guess that entropy wins in the end. I wouldn't go back and raise my kids there anymore, that's for sure.

[OceanPanther]

On 3/19/2022 at 9:39 AM, LinvilleGorge said:

Yep. The furniture and textiles industries leaving left this area gutted of good blue collar jobs. The same story is prevalent all across America. The area is making a big comeback focusing more on tourism and attracting the folks looking at Asheville and balking at the prices. The problem is that tourism driven jobs don't pay. All the good middle class blue collar jobs have been replaced with $10-12 an hour type jobs. The old Henderson plant site is a prime example. That plant used to support a lot of good paying blue collar jobs that supported a lot of local families. It's been replaced by a shopping center. Wal-Mart, Dick's, PetSmart, TJ Maxx, etc. The managers of those stores make decent money but everyone else is making $10-12 an hour.

 

There are a lot of empty Industrial Parks in NC ,, not just NC , but nationally.  
I witnessed Cumberland County ( Fayetteville ) built the right way.  I live in Wilmington , but traveled to Fayetteville weekly.  

Back in the late 70's and 80's  they brought in Black & Decker, Monsanto, Purolator , Goodyear , and a small Dupont facility.  Good clean industry,  paid their employees decent.  They had a huge work force to pick from  (  many Military vets once they got out ) .  

Now many of these are closed, and like our textile industry, moved to different states of out of the country.

I don't know how much credit should go to their local politicians ( Cumberland Cty ) . or what, but someone got it right.

Its a shame that in most counties ,,  the largest employer are the governments.  ( local, state, national ) . Your court systems, DSS, and all the federal programs, ( now  HHS ) , law enforcement,  local colleges and community colleges, school systems  etc etc.    So no wonder government keeps getting bigger,  it's feeding so many in every county.

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, OceanPanther said:

There are a lot of empty Industrial Parks in NC ,, not just NC , but nationally.  
I witnessed Cumberland County ( Fayetteville ) built the right way.  I live in Wilmington , but traveled to Fayetteville weekly.  

Back in the late 70's and 80's  they brought in Black & Decker, Monsanto, Purolator , Goodyear , and a small Dupont facility.  Good clean industry,  paid their employees decent.  They had a huge work force to pick from  (  many Military vets once they got out ) .  

Now many of these are closed, and like our textile industry, moved to different states of out of the country.

I don't know how much credit should go to their local politicians ( Cumberland Cty ) . or what, but someone got it right.

Its a shame that in most counties ,,  the largest employer are the governments.  ( local, state, national ) . Your court systems, DSS, and all the federal programs, ( now  HHS ) , law enforcement,  local colleges and community colleges, school systems  etc etc.    So no wonder government keeps getting bigger,  it's feeding so many in every county.

I drove through the nearby small towns of Drexel and Valdese yesterday. They look the same as they did 20 years ago. Just gutted. Most commercial building deserted.

[Khyber53]

On 3/18/2022 at 7:35 PM, onmyown said:

Not sure if time makes a difference. Instead of hearing about old friends when I was older I went through all that my whole life, now around age 40. Friends overdosing, ex girlfriends and friends committing suicide, others dying in war, death or disability from early age cancer or illness, death from drunk driving, overdoses. Some in prison, some that should be in prison lol. Some of this poo deserved, some of it just happening on its own will. No patterns or reasoning to a lot of it.

The older I get the more I realize ‘luck’ or what you will call it actually has a poo ton to do with how you’re life will go, I’ve always been an intrinsically motivated ‘manifest destination’ fellow but I would be ignorant to say some truly get a bad hand and at the same time, some truly get a lucky hand. I don’t take credit as much as I used to for a decent shot at life. I’d say easily over 75% of the people I knew aren’t doing so hot.

Such is life, take advantage and be thankful for everything you got and don’t sweat the small stuff.

Sometimes it's as simple, and as tragic, as a single bad decision that didn't look like a bad idea at the time.

[OceanPanther]

5 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I drove through the nearby small towns of Drexel and Valdese yesterday. They look the same as they did 20 years ago. Just gutted. Most commercial building deserted.

Some of it's the jobs moving away.  And a lot of it's people moving away to find better opportunities.   In those small towns,  many probably moved to Morganton , Hickory or  Charlotte etc.  They can't stay in places where there's little opportunity.

 

[Khyber53]

13 minutes ago, OceanPanther said:

 

Its a shame that in most counties ,,  the largest employer are the governments.  ( local, state, national ) . Your court systems, DSS, and all the federal programs, ( now  HHS ) , law enforcement,  local colleges and community colleges, school systems  etc etc.    So no wonder government keeps getting bigger,  it's feeding so many in every county.

^This is so much the reality in much of rural NC now. 

[Khyber53]

2 minutes ago, OceanPanther said:

Some of it's the jobs moving away.  And a lot of it's people moving away to find better opportunities.   In those small towns,  many probably moved to Morganton , Hickory or  Charlotte etc.  They can't stay in places where there's little opportunity.

 

It was referred to as the "brain drain" as the best kids often left town after graduation and never came back. No opportunities, no future for them there means that what they leave behind has even less opportunities and less of a future.

Just a downward spiral. And it's not that the kids don't want to live there, they just know they can't. So many hope to come back some day. It just never happens.

[thefuzz]

1 hour ago, Khyber53 said:

My old hometown used to be a wonderful place and I left there when I was 30. Since then, they became a part of the National Geographic Channel's Southern Justice show. Meth, alcohol and low prospects for any employment just ruined the place. 

It was always a great place to live but a hard place to make a living. I guess that entropy wins in the end. I wouldn't go back and raise my kids there anymore, that's for sure.

I was very fortunate that my grandfather saw into the future with his boys...bought a dirt cheap lot on one of the beaches here.  Parked a school bus on it for a while and converted it himself into a "trailer" that they could sleep in and stay dry.  You could walk to the beach in 2 minutes, or walk out the back door and jump into the waterway.

Had a total of $2,400.00 in it.  Total.  His reasoning, if I keep the boys busy, and tired...there's only so much trouble they can get into.  Back then, the island was almost unoccupied, so they surfed, swam, fished, crabbed, floundered, learned how to net for spots, etc....

The two boys and all their buddied would go down every Friday night...work all day Saturday...they were building a small home weekend by weekend for years....and then they could fish on Saturday night, and play all day Sunday.  Pretty good trade off for a bunch of 12-15 year old boys from the country....and free labor for him.

He kept that home his entire life...it kept my father and his brother out of jail...and kid free....along with a gaggle of their closest friends.

I sold that home last year...it just so happened to keep me and my brother out of jail...along with a gaggle of my friends as well...nothing at all changed...except we worked on the pier and landscaping rather than stick framing a home.

$2,400....kept 2 full generations of WILD boys from going downhill.

Sometimes ya gotta think outside the box a little...he sure did...he saw where things in our little town were heading and tried to correct course for his children, and theirs.

Miss ya man.

[LinvilleGorge]

18 minutes ago, thefuzz said:

I was very fortunate that my grandfather saw into the future with his boys...bought a dirt cheap lot on one of the beaches here.  Parked a school bus on it for a while and converted it himself into a "trailer" that they could sleep in and stay dry.  You could walk to the beach in 2 minutes, or walk out the back door and jump into the waterway.

Had a total of $2,400.00 in it.  Total.  His reasoning, if I keep the boys busy, and tired...there's only so much trouble they can get into.  Back then, the island was almost unoccupied, so they surfed, swam, fished, crabbed, floundered, learned how to net for spots, etc....

The two boys and all their buddied would go down every Friday night...work all day Saturday...they were building a small home weekend by weekend for years....and then they could fish on Saturday night, and play all day Sunday.  Pretty good trade off for a bunch of 12-15 year old boys from the country....and free labor for him.

He kept that home his entire life...it kept my father and his brother out of jail...and kid free....along with a gaggle of their closest friends.

I sold that home last year...it just so happened to keep me and my brother out of jail...along with a gaggle of my friends as well...nothing at all changed...except we worked on the pier and landscaping rather than stick framing a home.

$2,400....kept 2 full generations of WILD boys from going downhill.

Sometimes ya gotta think outside the box a little...he sure did...he saw where things in our little town were heading and tried to correct course for his children, and theirs.

Miss ya man.

Unless you really needed the cash you should've never sold that place. You're gonna regret that.

[thefuzz]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Unless you really needed the cash you should've never sold that place. You're gonna regret that.

Not my call.  I didn't benefit 1 penny, I just sold it....certainly didn't take a commission...it actually cost me money to do it.

There were two brothers and a sister that owned 1/3's.  They no longer got along, and the other two didn't really have the desire to keep it up, nor the ability to pay the taxes and insurance.

It costs about 30k per year to maintain the property, that's if you don't hire out labor for maintenance and do it yourself.  My father and I had maintained it for the last 10 years on our own.

It's not as easy as just saying "keep it in the family" I wanted that, but buying the other two out would have been more than I was comfortable taking out a loan for at the time.

[Carl Spackler]

On 3/26/2022 at 9:29 AM, LinvilleGorge said:

I drove through the nearby small towns of Drexel and Valdese yesterday. They look the same as they did 20 years ago. Just gutted. Most commercial building deserted.

I think Valdese, at least downtown, actually looks better than it used to -- but not by a ton. Did you go to Freedom?

[Carl Spackler]

But to the point, yes -- when I check my hometown paper, as I do a handful of times a year, I look at the Crime section -- and nearly every single time, at least one longtime classmate is in there. I think there were 14 people in my first-grade class, and of those 14 like 5 have served extended time in jail or prison and two died of overdoses.