We saw the paper yesterday. Now let's visit the town!

God’s Shuttlecraft:

Really, it looks like a big alien bug that landed and folded its wings.

“I got an idea, Clem - let’s make the roofline a chart that notes the town’s population over the years."

It’s like they had to make a downtown very quickly out of scrap:

“Sorry to see you went out of business, Hank.”

“What? I didn’t.”

“But your store’s windows are all boarded up.”

“Yes. Doesn’t mean I’m out of business.”

“But - why?”

“A man can do what he damned well likes, and if he’s sick of glass, that’s his business.”

“Well, if Hank’s doing it, maybe I should too.”

Here’s a story on the joint. If you’re wondering, yes - it was a movie theater. The Unique, opened in 1914.

Uh oh. The gauzy, Vaseline-lens early picture can only mean one thing.

Yep.

One of my favorites. It’s rare you see people in these shots.

Aside from the trans dimensional warping on the glass, which happened when they fired up the supercollider at the college a few hundred miles away, it’s still in good shape.

Severe, but it gets the idea across.

Looks like the blocked it up with particle board:

Do any of the people who do this ever regret the decision, and wince years later when they go downtown? Or are they just to dad-gummed practical to care?

“Windows with air conditioning units will be supplied upon request.”

Okay, maybe “The Rusty Razor” isn’t the best name, what with the tetanus connotations. And did they leave out plastic Halloween pumpkins so long they turned blue?

Don’t think so; there was a sheaf of corn on the bench in #8, so this could be October. Unseasonably warm, too.

The top of the building has the original owner’s name, but you have to read Morse Code.

So close. If only the windows on top were still glazed. Or perhaps that was the floor where the little people were enslaved, and they were always blocked.

Absolutely standard-issue small town post-war municipal structure. Large or small, same thing.

Now I have a headache

Obviously two stages of construction. Or not? The door to upstairs is square in the middle. But I think it was inserted when they built the Tribune Block. This picture shows different colored bricks, as well as noting something interesting.

Why the Z?

Proud details for the local paper, here to serve all with neither fear nor favor, no doubt. How’s it doing today?

Okay

What’s that on the facade?

Anita Clothing? Plumbing? Whatever it was, it had distinction.

“We’ll just keep driving and see if there’s a motel in the next town over.”

Hey, the town's still standing. That's something.