Well, I guess I can no longer claim to be from the smallest town in the world.
Behold! :
Turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes, people; Carthage, Illinois is getting a stoplight!
This is a big deal because the signature characteristics of my tiny hometown, since the beginning of time, were:
- being home to a man named Wendell who greeted every single person he saw, giving them their own nicknames like “Little Darlin’ ” (or, depending on your lineage, “Alvin’s Son”),
- sending high school sports teams to state championships, and
- a red light at the 4-way, hanging on a wire between the Hardee’s and the DQ, blinking away at the non-existent traffic.
Now, as I told you previously, this project has actually been in the works for quite some time. In fact, construction on the intersection was supposed to start 15 years ago, when the Methode car-parts factory was still functioning at full steam and there might be a stream of cars when a shift was letting out. (You can read all the details on the Hancock County Journal-Pilot online.)
But, with all due respect to the mayor, who tells the paper, “I think we’re very lucky that we haven’t seen accidents where people have been seriously hurt,” I respectfully submit that we’re still talking about Carthage, here: population >2,800.
Tags: Carthage, small towns
It never stops. Such a shame. A number of very well built “antiques”, in and around my home town in W.PA, have been left to the elements and eventually torn down. The good old fashioned quality of construction and materials should have allowed for MANY more years of use! Here’s wishing my family had the where-with-all to establish a salvage business !
Yet another symptom of what I call “Spoiled American Syndrome”.
The stoplight is not particularly purposeful now, but I do appreciate the total tear down and rebuild of the intersection — which no longer floods in half an inch of rain.