The Demise of the Countryside

Today we attended the Basic Training Graduation for a friend of PD#1.  He has been in Civil Air Patrol with her the past two years, and they have attended several encampments/activities together. So we joined his family and girlfriend at the base to celebrate this great milestone in his young life.

On the way back home, we drove a different route through the countryside.  The number of derelict and abandoned homes were astonishing.  I counted 12 along a 5 mile stretch!  I was shocked.  This has all happened in the past year, because people were living in these houses last year.  It concerns me. I began wondering if it was economic issues or if the county officials somehow had a hand it.  These were all smaller homes lived in by lower income, predominantly Hispanic families in the past.  Has there been some ordinance passed about the square footage of a house? The number of people living in one house?  Historically, in the counties here people have been more free than living in the city, but all these abandoned homes have me worried.  I am going to keep my eyes open, to see if there is an increase in my area.

I have always made it a priority to notice abandoned homes, primarily for usable resources (ie., windmills, fruit trees, water, wells) and a back up location to head to in an emergency.  But this is entirely different. These homes are out in the country, but have really close neighbors and none of them have tried to be self sufficient in anyway, no gardening or livestock.  It still bothers me, as I sit here typing this post.

I miss the America of my youth. Was I blind? Did I not see or not yet understand what was coming? I remember the gas lines of the 1970s, but I don't remember the problems with the government being so bad, the nation on the verge of economic collapse.  Am I wrong? Did it exist even then?

I am also concerned over the possible consequences these families have faced? Where did they go?