Thursday, October 8, 2009

Lowdown textile town blues

Cindy and Kate have left for a movie. I am here in the office. I finished up with a potential new client just a few minutes ago. I have been taking calls and trying to work on matters today. Meanwhile, I get a sharp remark about getting back to work when I take a very short quiz on facebook. You can't win. I am supposed to get dogfood, ice and bleach at the grocery store before I go home. I fed the dog Chinese food leftovers earlier today. I know he liked it because he gobbled them up as fast as he could gobble. Feeding dogs Chinese food may not be the optimum dietary move, but I will get him regular dogfood this afternoon.

I have an eye doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon in PTC. I would like to follow that up with a bison burger at Ted's Montana Grill. It probably won't happen. The Spalding County Fair begins tonight. Corndogs, dust, flu germs. What a lovely combination. Last year, Kate went to the fair with us and took some really impressive pictures. For some reason, I am thinking about the black and white pictures she took of the abandoned telephone booths.

There have been a lot of changes. I was reading a magazine article about earlier times in Griffin. There were so many different businesses in Griffin back in those days. Textile mills. Bakeries. Men's Clothing stores. Pharmacists. A lot of industry and commerce going on.

Now, there is commerce going on, but the big ticket industries are long gone. Unemployed numbers are near 20%. It is sad. Everyone is waiting on an upturn in the economy. Meanwhile, there is no industry. No new jobs. Nothing changing, other than it is quite clear that no one is cooking at home anymore, since new restaurants seem to open up every month or so.

Oh well, the Central of Georgia Railroad train chugging down the tracks in downtown Griffin, a continous pile of smoke belching from its stack, that is a long gone image of the vibrancy of Griffin. No cotton. No pimento peppers. Damn few peaches. No textiles loaded on the trains. Sounds like a blues song.

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