{"id":6486,"date":"2012-08-30T11:37:36","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T15:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=6486"},"modified":"2012-08-31T13:06:28","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T17:06:28","slug":"well-it-used-to-be-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/08\/30\/well-it-used-to-be-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Well, it used to be here…."},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of the staff here at North Country Public Radio are real lifers in the North Country. Some, like our general manager Ellen Rocco, who hails from Manhattan, didn\u2019t come from here. But as anyone who knows Ellen knows, she\u2019s hugely rooted in the North Country and has a depth of memory about the area that belies her southern origins.<\/p>\n

That depth of memory is something you run into a lot here. Recently I had occasion to drive to Philadelphia with our news director Martha Foley and web manager Dale Hobson. As we drove down 11 through DeKalb Junction and Gouverneur, Martha and Dale talked about restaurants and stores that used to be along the road, and people they\u2019d known throughout the decades.<\/p>\n

\"Abandoned<\/a>

This used to be a gas station. Route 68 between Canton and Ogdensburg. Photo: Nora Flaherty<\/p><\/div>\n

As we drove by mysterious, seemingly-abandoned buildings I\u2019d long wondered about, Dale and Martha chatted about what had happened to the people who\u2019d owned those businesses, and in some cases still did (although they only opened them sporadically), how their lives had moved on, and, a few times, the wild times had within.<\/p>\n

Some former institutions that come up pretty often include Connie Barr\u2019s in Canton (I just found out it\u2019s Connie Barr\u2019s because the guy who owned it was called Connie Barr, and I\u2019m told by Dale that it\u2019s \u201cmemorable for its chili cheeseburger topped with raw onions and mustard, cheap pitchers of beer, and long-lived house softball team\u201d) that used to be where the Nice & Easy gas station and convenience store is now, and the Canton Diner, where the McDonald\u2019s is now.<\/p>\n

And our chief engineer Bob Sauter told my husband about a vegetarian restaurant where Canton\u2019s island park is now.<\/p>\n

There are also many abandoned buildings in northern New York\u2014places that \u201cused to be\u201d something, and are now just shells. In fact, there\u2019s even a web site<\/a> devoted to them.<\/p>\n

\"Cascade<\/a>

Open for more than 40 years, this still is the Cascade Inn in Canton. Photo: Nora Flaherty<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m really intrigued by all these \u201cused to be\u201d places, and I\u2019m sure there are many, many more that I\u2019ve forgotten.<\/p>\n

As a newbie to the area, I don\u2019t have a lot of \u201cused to be\u201d knowledge about the North Country. But I\u2019m very curious about what used to be in the place where I live now. And in the place where you live now. Can you help? Comment below with your favorite \u201cused to be\u201d place\u2014the weirder, the better. It may end up the subject of future inquiry in this space, and you may end up learning something new about what it used to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of the staff here at North Country Public Radio are real lifers in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[6992,7,6991,9,6969,6990,6989],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6493,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6486\/revisions\/6493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}