Small towns and villages throughout the North Country are losing the institutions that make them a going concern, instead of just another rural housing cluster. It might be the last bank, as in
NCPR is supported by:
About All In
All In is a place for everyone who works at NCPR to share behind the scenes activity, and surprising, curious, lovely or distinctly local tidbits from our travels around the region. We’ll post the best of what we find online, too. From time to time, you may hear from others—if you’d like to write an entry, send it to [email protected]. What makes this place what it is? How do we connect to each other and the world? That’s what ALL IN is all about.
A good hardware is absolutely essential. Most of St Lawrence County’s outlying small towns have lost their hardware stores over the last thirty years. The annoying drive into a bigger town when you’re trying to fix something turns into a routine trip after a while…then we buy our gas, and our groceries, and do a bit of banking…and pretty soon there’s nothing left in the little town where we live.
Schools are the most important. They trump everything. Next I would list convenience stores that sell gas, followed by a grocery store and a hardware store.
Pete’s right. Take a look at those towns where schools have been “combined” . Russell, Edwards, Hermon, Dekalb…just about every town that once had a school has become a bit of a ghost town after having it’s heart removed.