Main Street USA Gone

As I travel around and go through small towns I see most of the buildings on main street boarded up and vacant. To me its sad to see that sort of thing.
Back in aboot 60 years ago the town I grew up near was Corydon, Indiana.
I can remember there were aboot 7 car dealerships, 5 or so tractor dealers, 3 feed mills,4 hardware stores, half dozen grocery stores, Five & Dime stores 2 drug stores, some clothing stores movie theater, several resturants. Most are gone now.
What is it like in your town?

Same here in the local town, Reading, but over in Jonesville where I graduated from high school many years ago there seems to be as much "business as usual".....except that a lot of it is on the outskirts of town instead of all on the Main Street downtown like it was 60 years ago. (I graduated in 1952).

Thank the consumer's "What's your bottom dollar?" mentality. They all shop at Wal-mart.

Some people in my town just renovated a city block that was slated for demolition. It is said they spent $2 million to do it and it's worth $800,000. They have a bakery, clothing store, computer repair shop, and another one I can't think of right now. Just up the block sits a very large empty furniture store. The four car dealerships are now two. One closed and the other got bought. 4 gas stations where there used to be a dozen. Towns population is down about 500 people since 1980 (currently 3950), but there's about 150 more houses and more going up.

While a lot of blame is due to the big box stores prices an issue that downtowns cannot compete with is parking. Try as they might they cannot restart the downtown here because there is simply nowhere to park! Compared to the parking lots at the out on the edge of town stores, who wants to drive around and around the block waiting to park.

Businesses no longer have customers captured by the distance they can walk or drive a horse and buggy.
Economy of scale has moved business to fewer but larger stores.

2 gas stations with convenience stores,Dunkin Donuts,coffee shop/bakery and 2 full service restaurants and one breakfast/lunch.One auto repair shop.We also have one traffic light.


Vito

I agree with most of the observations as we are a much more mobile society nowadays. Really before my time but it had to be nice to have a Deere dealer down in the village as it was years ago where I am from. I can remember as a kid Dad grumbling if we had to go more than 10 minutes for parts. Oliver, MF, NH, and AC used to be "downtown" with dealers. IH was one more village over. Used to be a feed mill/ store in every village and canning factories in about every other village. Only lost one car dealer but two others have changed owners in the last twenty years. Doctors are present be less have offices here. Lawyers have remained the same.

Rocky came close to the answer, WalMart. Would you be able to run a business when the city, county, who ever gave you TIF money, tax breaks, etc. Did they do that for the businesses that were already here. I don't know of any.

The next brick wall was ag after the 80's. We producers are very small in numbers today compared to the past but we still turn BIG dollars many times. If it weren't for the cheap dollar and ag exports where would the economy be today. BUT look out for the impact of all of this negative press about ethonal now probably from the Koch brothers and big oil.

One of these days robots will be running the equipment producing products that will directly go to multinationals. The rest of us will be working at McDs and WalMart.

The small towns of today are taverns or Caseys to support them. A generation ahead of me saw a small town of Dewitt, IL that had 2 banks, 2 grocery stores, lumber store, elevator, school, and was passed over for the county seat because the railroads crossed Clinton. Today there are 2 taverns and a bait shop. The PO is still open for now. Clinton Lake is close for recreation, which helps because of the Blue Bomb, Clinton Power Plant.

I live near a small town that has some fella that moved from Chicago that was a stock broker or something. He started some local business group where, SURPRISE!!!, he is the leader and the members pay dues to...guess who? So, his office is on the main drag where a state highway passes through, and he doesn't like the traffic, especially the truck traffic, so he wants a bypass for trucks that stop in town and purchase nick nacks and stuff like that. He maintains that with a bypass, things will be better...by his office windows...for everyone, AND that the truckers can park their trucks outside of town, and the truckers can WALK into town to purchase nick nacks and things like that. Nitwit.

Back in the 1970's, then Indiana governor, Dr. Otis Bowen of Bremen decided that he didn't like all of the traffic through downtown Bremen, and built a bypass around it. Bremen grew up around the bypass around Bremen, and now there are pretty much tumble weeds blowing around downtown Bremen. Oh, there are some businesses there, not much though.

Downtown Bristol, near me, we have an autoparts store, Bristol Auto, a local outfit that has the parts to build just about anything from the ground up, including a bicycle. Yep, there's a lot of dust on some of the inventory, but squeeze between the shelves in the aisles, and its like going through a mueseum only in the sense that if it was manufactured, they probably have it. Tom and Barb, good people. Bristol, IN is a small town, and truckers are welcome to stop through or by anytime they want. That fella renting desk space over in the bank? I've seen them come and go. He will go in time too, and I will still be getting haircuts on Main Street, walking over to the Opera House, filling up at one of the two service stations.

Mark

rockyridgefarm I know the town you are talking about. I live 10 miles south of it. The towns name is lancaster. Correct?

Been to Historic Corydon many times to see the old capitol, it still looks kinda like an old southern Indiana town. I grew up not far form there in Loogootee Martin County. When I was in High School we got out first stop light, there's 3 of them now lol. The population was like 2000 but we still had 4 Hardware stores, Western Auto, Mosier and Hoffman, Hasler Borders and Pate, and Reynolds & Brooks and they all raised a family and sent kids to college. Haircuts were 25 cents at Harry Butchers or 50 cents at Buck Greenes or Bob and Brownies, they also raised families in their businesses.

gee Im getting olddddddddddddd

John T

I live in the small town of Chesterton In. in northwest Indiana.
It's approximately 45 miles from chicago.
Most of the buisnesses in town are "Boutique"
type stores and antique shops with chicago prices.
And then You have the people from "The City" all weekend long.
A ghost town might not be so bad!

Steve A W

I could go to the nearby town and take pictures of scary examples of decay of 100+ year old buildings that aren't worth fixing but also too expensive to tear down. It's a dilema and will be interesting to see how it plays out.

The town we live nearest too, used to be about 800 - 900 people in it's "hey day" (1920 - 30's). Now it's down to around 200. Most are either retired, or "just passing thru". There are THREE businesses - gas station, a mechanic, and a plastics manufacturer. There is also an on again-off again hair salon. Cafe closed last spring. Most of the buildings in town NEED to be torn down. Most of the whole town could be bulldozed, and nobody would notice....

I am a Chesterton Person (from 1949 through 1967) Then everywhere from Ohio to CA, to MN. You are exactly correct on your definition. It has been a long time since Bartles Hardware was open. Jim

Worked at Mark one for eight and a half years and eat at the pink panther most days at least once. Bought a lot of stuff at the hardware on the North Side. Bought gas at the station across form the town hall. Got my hair cut next to the gas station. I bought two cars from the fellow that owned the Dog & Suds. I quit there in 1976. I Probly wouldn't know the place now.

Drove thru Reading at least twice a day. Had cousins that lived in Reading. All named Lemmon.

Back when I was "growing up" in the 60's and 70's, Emden, Illinois had 3 car dealers, grocery store, clothes store, drugstore, 2+ bodyshops, bank, feedmill, grain elevator, implement dealer, trucking firm, 2 taverns/restaurants and the grade school in a town of 500.
Today, it still has the bank, grain elevator, 2 taverns/restaurants, computer repair service, heavy truck repair, the grade school and the feedmill for a little while. Even got about 3 new stop signs!

Guess we're doing bettter than most - Right toolz?
What did I forget?

I live 10 miles from county seat of 500 population here in Southern Virginia. It has always been that size going back to before Civil War. However it used to have thriving Department store, grocery store, feed and implement store, resterants. It when thru a period of decline in the "90"s, but has since been revived into medical clinic and office buildings. Looking really good now!!

Yep Home town of Big Springs, NE is down to only a business or two. I now live it Salida, CO and the business is good. Lot of Hay, Cattle county around here, but also skiing, tourist (Art), Hunting. Big towns are 2-3 hours away. Just right for me.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that we were one of the last in the state of Illinois to get rotary phones back then!

Maybe that does make us country folk.

really the truth be said the biggest day in town is when
the open cupboard distributes free food in most small
midwest towns

My farm is over the fence from a town of 800. We have a hardware. small food market/licquior store. bank/ Insurance office. post office . grade school. medical center, two auto repair shops. a gas station. two restaraunts, skating rink and a curling club, as well as a drug store. And a weekly livestock auction. Just about the right mix. The town I grew up near, now that is another story. It had 1200 souls, when I was a kid, and all stores where on main street. Now the pop is near 5000, and has sprawled . Near all the fast food and big box stores, including Wall-mart are there. But no farm type stores now. The place sucks! Bruce

All the changes described here happened in my area many years before WalMart showed up.

I live in SE Il. I have been through your town. Our town is the same. But if I was going to build a new Bank/store, where would I build it? On the edge of town where there is plenty of land. Would I up-date an old building? No! you wouldn't either. I don't like it but that's the way it is. We have lost all our machinery dealers. Except my neighbor has started selling Kubota's. Mostly small ones. Big oil is coming to town. Can't wait to see the changes!

It's not just Main Street and the stores. I grew up in Rockford, Michigan, home of "Hush Puppies" and Wolverine World Wide. My mom cut shoes and boots from horse and cow before "Hush Puppies" took over. The shoe factory closed several years ago and the tannery closed a couple of years ago. Tourism is the only industry now. They converted a grain elevator to a restaurant and small shops took over the plumbing shop,lumber company, 5 and 10, grocery stores and barber shops. Car dealers closed or moved to the outskirts. Sad to see.

Larry

Steve and Janicholson, I used to drive through Chesterton on way to Burns Harbor. Ate many breakfast's there. I remember Porter Hardware next door. What a place! had anything you could want, loved the old stuff he had on display. When the bypass went in changed the whole town.

joe

While it is sad to see this happening, it's just change. It makes more sense to build a larger store. On top of that, have you seen the price of down town stores? In a small town that a business would struggle to survive in, they often want 200,000 for an old store that needs updating. Or you can build a nice new place for the same money. For the size of store you need to have a good selection of goods and survive, you need a good sized store, often 2 or 3 "regular size" main street stores. Very hard and expensive to come by. Add to that that parking is often limited versus having a store with lots of dedicated parking. If I were to want to open a business in town, I don't think I would look too hard at main street stores.

That all said, the main streets in most of the towns around me don't seem to be doing too bad. There are always a few stores empty or for sale, and of course that store that no business seems to make it more than 6 months in but overall, not mostly barren like you're describing. There are a few towns that the main street stores are dying, not that they(the towns) necessary lack businesses, but that they've chosen not to be on main street.

I grew up in Corydon, Indiana too.

Do I know you?

Mr. Buzzman,

I don't know if you know me or not. I lived on a hard scrabble farm south of Crandall. Was born on the property that wuz the buffalo farm in New Middleton. Born in 1939, tell me something about yourself.

My dad got the bid to salvage Porter Hardware when it burned. You would not believe the stuff we still have, from literally tons of glass, to bolts and plates and .......................... George Laurey was an interesting guy. And a safari hunter. Jim

Nothing new. What I see is more concentation, fewer stores, fewer storeowners, more employees.

Yes I rember the mounts and the player pianos. I liked to just walk through the place.
later joe

Our little town had 11 gas stations in the fifties all locally owned. Now we are down to two and not locally owned. Have a courthouse in the middle of the square and had stores all around. Here are the ones that are gone. Ben Franklin, JC Pennys, Sears, barbars(3) IGA, A&P, shoe only store, two hardware, Fedarated clothing, Gambles, appliance, Farm dealership(store front on square), Plumbing and heating place, and bakery. Whats left is two banks one applanice, two auto parts one barbar and now lawyers and doctors offices. Highway went around and Walmart come to town. Banks put branches on highway and grocery stores and gas stations went out there.

Hello Jim. How is Your Dad doing?

Old-9
What was in Burns Harbor when You were going there?

Steve A W

The only thing worse that having a Wal-Mart in your town is not having one. The decline in smaller cities across the US has many reasons, including bigger farms, economies of scale, basic economics,improved water and sewer methods, the ability to travel farther and the increasing complexity in doing/owning/running a business. Size of farms, where I grew up in Michigan in the 1920's the average family made a living on an 80 acre farmstead. From reading the 1940 census it appeared about every third farmer had a hired hand living at the farmstead. Anyone making a living farming there now is probably doing so on 1000 to 1500 acres, so even if they have a hired hand (who probably lives in a house or apartment off-farm) one family is farming what 12 to 15 did 100 years ago. That's a lot fewer families going into town for hardware, food, fuel, entertainment, clothes, medical, legal and personal services. Utilities- I work in an egg processing plant just outside a city of 2000 people. 50 years ago or more it would of been built inside the city limits to get city water sewer and reliable electricity. We have our own wells, water treatment and power sub-station, don't need the city. Economies of scale- the plant I work at was recently sold, the new owners have expanded, we are having a time getting the additional 10 people needed to operate what they have built. We have employees coming to work from 30 miles away, some from the market center city of 25,000 people 25 miles away. Conversely a far amount of people in this small city work for the RV manufacturer in the county seat of the county North of us and some in the big city of 25,000 25-30 miles east of us. With all the complexities of running a business and all the time it takes to comply with OSHA, EPA, DNR, AFHCA, EOT and our friends at the IRS and immigration and naturalization service if you've got 5 employees you'll need a 6th just to fill out the paperwork to keep state and local governments happy. Toss in the ADA act and new building codes the brick store front of the last 100 years in these small downtowns are basically obsolete. Add better roads to move people to work farther away and material to and from the city and next day air service for parts and supplies the small city isn't economically viable. Where I live in Iowa the railroads set up cities every 10 miles along the tracks, these cities were a place where goods and services were unloaded off the rail and products loaded on the rail to be taken to market. Most of the stuff sold in town like food and fuel now comes in by truck. Of course grain goes out on the rail but with most farmers owning semis and hopper bottoms it doesn't have to. Now about half these cities don't even have all the basic services (auto repair/sales, food stores, Doctor, Lawyer, dry goods, barber-beauty shop, hardware, appliance store, equipment dealer....)

I'm a city kid from "out West". I grew up in Burbank, California - home of Mickey Mouse (Disney Studios), Warner Bros. studios, Columbia studios, & NBC studios. As a youngster I used to play in the back lots & prop storage yards of the studios.

I grew up with and around "big name & high profile" movie stars, and was at their homes or they were at mine a lot of the time. We used to have stars such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, Gene Autry, Preston Foster and many others over to the house fairly often. I knew the Nelson family (before they became famous); Ricky, Dave, & I were pals. I grew up with most of the kids on the original Mickey Mouse Club show. In fact, I have even been "in bed" with Annette Funicello. NO it is NOT what you are thinking, we were playmates & all of 7 years old, and it was "NAP TIME".

Years later, as an adult, I've been in several movies such as "Smash Up on Interstate 5" with Dave Nelson, Harriet Nelson, Buddy Ebson, & Vera Miles. I have also been in numerous TV serials such as "EMERGENCY"; seven episodes of "MANNIX"; and many others.

When I graduated High School in 1965, the population of Burbank had just hit 100,000 . When I went back for my Mother's funeral in 2001, the population was over 1 MILLION . - TOO MANY PEOPLE FOR ME !

Doc

I was born in Corydon in 1954. My dad and grand-dad were the Hudson and International truck/Farmall dealers in town in the late '40's. They had the building next door to Hayswood Theater from 1945 to 1960, and the lot where the phone company office is was their used car lot. In 1961 they moved their farm equipment shop to the building, formerly an old barn, on the back of grand-dad's house, across from the fairgrounds and next door to the local tombstone merchant. My family's business was in operation from March 1941 thru September 1991, a period of 50-1/2 years. As a kid, I loved on the hill overlooking the fairgrounds, and around the corner from our house was the Buick dealer at the top of the hill.

Does that tell you anything?

My aunt and uncle used to own the Rosebud Country Store north of Corydon.

There was a ethanol tank car at the plant in Cambridge this week that had Corydon IN graffitti"d on it.

My mom's uncle ran the Shell oil distributorship. The guy who owned one of the two local truck lines also owned the railroad AND the Texaco distributorship. A cousin on Dad's side owned the Standard Oil distributorship, and a family friend owned the Mobil oil distributorship. None of those are still in business.

Car dealerships in town included Buick, Pontiac/GMC, Oldsmobile, Hudson [then Rambler/AMC], Chrysler-Plymouth/DeSoto, Ford, Chevrolet, and for a short time, Willys. Now one man owns the Chevy/Buick dealership AND the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealership, and another owns the Ford dealership.

Gone with all these businesses are the jobs there.

See I have been to Corydon Indiana also, but just to sleep when I visited the Lanesville show some years ago.....Loved the old mail pouch barn, even though we never got to shop in Corydon!
Sam

Bethlehem Steel, worked on the first mill 160 inch. Worked there off and on many years. lets see the 160, 80 inch , powerhouse, coke ovens, BOF, Blast furnace reline. IBEW LU 531
joe

Walmart isn't the problem, it's the result. Back in the day(1910-40's) the little crossroads near me had a general/grocery store, church, 2 schools, cream plant, IHC dealer, 2 or 3 cheese plants, a hardware store/blacksmiths shop, barber. The crossroads at the other end of my road had a cheese plant, school, church, post office. They were 3.5 miles apart. After WW2 most of that closed up and people drove to town, 11 miles away. That lasted into the 60's. Then people were driving to the city 40 miles away. Lots more in the town than in the crossroads, more in the city than in the town. It's a natural progression. Improved roads mean more cars, a higher standard of living means more cars. More cars means lots more traffic. Traffic requires parking space. Who here will drive 10 miles to town for lunch and put up with having to walk 2-3 blocks from a parking lot? That didn't even work in the 30's! Today in the town near me if you want a really good pizza you two choices- one established place you either circle the block waiting for a parking spot to open or you park in the municipal parking lot "out back" and hike 100 yards. The other new place has a good sized parking lot. Guess which ones is getting a lot of business and which one has seen a decline? And for the record, the older place is pretty darn expensive for this area, even though it's good. A large 3 topping with 18 wings on the side is going to run you $35.00. The other, equally good place it's $10-11.00 less expensive. Who's going to win?

Same thing for Walmart, Lowes, Applebees, etc. Yup, they put a lot of the "mom and pops out of business. How? Same product or more products at a better price. We had a great hardware/clothing store in Ogdensburg called Hacketts. They had everything it seemed and everyone shopped there. THey put a LOT of other businesses under over the years. Over 10 years or so their prices climbed higher and higher, the store got fancier and fancier and the hardware section got smaller while the high end clothing section grew. Mind you, this is in a pretty poor neck of the woods. People can't generally afford Woolrich, Columbia, Filson, etc. $45.-75.00 Levis don't sell all that well. But they had enough doctors and professionals in the city to support them, plus this was in the 90's and jobs were easier to find, credit was easy to get and the mall was 45 miles away. Then they decided to expand to 3 or 4 stores and prices went up even higher. The final straw for me was having to pay $18.00 for a 4 foot x 3/4" black iron nipple! Lowes opened nearby a week later and the same nipple was $7.00! Hacketts misjudged their customer base entirely and carried the same high end products in 3 other areas that were even poorer than ours. They lost business to Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Fashion Bug, Peebles, etc. Hacketts was, in a way, a "mom and pop" store but like so many other mom and pops they couldn't compete with larger chains, just as the real mom and pops couldn't compete with Hacketts. Truth is most of the mom and pops that had anything like a monopoly raped the locals. There were darn few mom and pops that kept their prices as low as possible. That's why Walmart and Lowes and what not succeed, parking, prices, selection. It works both ways though- I can pay close to $10.00 a pound for nails at Lowes or go to the Amish and pay $3.00. Guess where I buy my nails?

Sorry this was so long winded but the big chains are just the result of evolution in the market, not the reason the mom and pops failed. And parking, price and selection is why main street is pretty much dead these days.

I agree with the comments about the mom and pop running themselves out of business. You can't blame them to some extent in that they didn't have the buying power of a big chain.

But here's the kicker and why the big chains are here to stay and welcome.

In mom and pop days, you walk out the door with something and IT'S YOURS!!!!!!! Most of the big chains guarantee satisfaction and a lot of times it goes beyond any warranty. I just proved that with a Ford Solenoid from Tractor Supply......not happy with new one I had stocked for years, no sales receipt, got a new one with no questions asked.....guaranteed satisfaction. Course the new one was defective from the mfgr. also but that wasn't their fault.

I like the parking and wide selections and of course the prices.

Mark

gtractorfan,

If you do go take any photos... would love to see some posted. While they are sad, there is something intriguing about them.

I'm 95% done with taking pictures of every town in Kansas thats under 500 population.....The bigger share of them have a dead main street...The main reason for this is that farms that used to be 160 acres in the 1950's are now mostly over 1000 acres with lots in the 3000-5000 acre range..

With the dwindling farm population the small town business's started closing and lots of schools started closing and consolidating..That was the death of a small town..I have pictures of over 100 abandoned school buildings in Kansas....Pictured are the old schools at Hunter and Alexander,KS.

Lots of churches in the rural areas closed due to lack of members..Pictured is the beautiful old Catholic church at St Joseph,KS which no longer has services..

I feature small Kansas towns on an obscure website which I will provide a link for..



Small Kansas Towns

They're just finishing up a new main street project,repaving the street,new sidewalks and new lighting,but to be honest,I think it's just to get people through town faster. They narrowed the sidewalks and put in a left turn lane the full length of town so thru traffic doesn't have to stop on M66 if somebody is making a left turn.

Other than that,things have been holding their own for a few years. We used to have 5 gas stations,an Oldsmobile dealership,a milk plant,2 lumber yards,2 grocery stores,a 5 and dime,an elevator,a hardware store,a hospital,drug store,funeral home,two barber shops,two bars,two restaurants,one bank,post office etc. Down to two gas stations,one grocery store,hardware,one lumber yard,hospital,one bar,one restaurant,bank,post office,Dollar General,funeral home,auto parts store and a tire store.

I think about this once in awhile. From my perspective all this still stems from the 80s farm crisis. Im 41 and was in grade school at the time, a nice parochial school. 30-40 kids in a class. It cost extra, but most people didnt mind because they had the money before the problems hit. Then each and every year more farmers quit, money got tighter, and the class size shrank. School is still open today, but struggling terribly with class sizes of less than 15. It seems the general economy has followed the same sort of trend. Less people around to spend money locally, more people working in the bigger cities nearby, not having enough extra in the bank to spend a little more on quality goods. Its getting to the point now where the farmers are living in town and commuting to their farms.

Didn't see many towns in the NE part of the state listed. Marshall and Nemaha counties have many that fit into that category of under 400. Was just sitting here thinking, and from west to east, there is Bremem, Herkimer, Oketo, Home City, Beattie, Summerfield, Axtell, Baileyville, St. Benedict, Oketo, Kelly, Corning, Goff, and Wetmore. I'm sure I've missed some but there a lot of them in the area. Some are doing better than others, but all have some people there yet. Seems like the loss of schools is a major factor, and as of next year only three of the towns mentioned will still have schools.

My mom was born just outside Lanesville.

I know who you are, I remember your granddad when he was downtown and sold Farmalls and Hudson cars.
Several years ago I looked at an International pickup truck you had in front yard for sale. I spent a lot of time at Kittermans garage before they closed.
You can send me an email.

Actually, Corydon has been a big winner in this shift to "hubtowns". Corydon got the big box stores and the resturants and the surviving auto dealerships and the surrounding towns got a convenience store/gas station combo. and a post office.

As a kid the Corydon Fair was the highlight of the summer, with horse races, Death Dodger auto shows, parades and showing our livestock.

Best restaurant in town was Jockos for burgers, since kids could not go in the tavern on the corner by the court house.

Hurly Conrads music store was a real treat to visit.

That Buick dealer on the hill sold about a dozen a year. Kitterman Pontiac was mainly a wrecker service and Bill Gary junked cars and sold recapped tires all over the area.

Corydon was a fun place for a country kid to visit.
Bet it still is.

My dad is loosing short term memory and functionality on several fronts. He is still at home with mom, and sh is doing well. My brothers and sister (and other family) are visiting daily. Thanks for thinking of him.
Arcelor Mittal Steel (world wide steel maker)now owns the Burns Harbor Facility and seems to be improving and doing well producing product. Jim

Almost all my relatives have made steel, Gary nut and Bolt, Youngs Town Sheet and Tin, USS Gary works, Bethlehem, AirProducts, Nipsco, our extended family business has been Green Sand for B furnaces and Foundry. THanks for the memory rerun. Jim

(quoted from post at 08:32:49 11/17/13) In mom and pop days, you walk out the door with something and IT'S YOURS!!!!!!! Most of the big chains guarantee satisfaction and a lot of times it goes beyond any warranty. I just proved that with a Ford Solenoid from Tractor Supply......not happy with new one I had stocked for years, no sales receipt, got a new one with no questions asked.....guaranteed satisfaction. Course the new one was defective from the mfgr. also but that wasn't their fault.

Click to expand...

The way you say that insinuates that Tractor Supply happly took a loss on that solenoid. The truth is, Tractor Supply didnt lose anything, it got credited and the next one in the store was free. Its a paperwork and inventory shuffle but they have to do that anyway so in effect it was free for them. Now, look at how happy that made you, the customer... yep, sometimes eating the cost of a $10 or $12 part is better advertising than a 2 minute spot on TV and you just proved it.

I imagine you would recognize the old town, but the Pure Oil Station is no more, the barber shop is still there. Powers Clothing still there and so is the Hardware Store. Did you ever know Duane Sell at Mark One? Godfrey Bros. John Deere Have a big new dealership building...where the old one burnt down in 2002. All kinds of new businesses out south towards Hillsdale...by where the old sour kraut factory was. Addison Products sold out and it's now about 4 times bigger....Martinrea, Inc. Vaco/ Klein Tool is gone. Oh, and they built a new High School out on the south edge of town on North Adams Road.....cost 17 million. (Taxes are kinda high now). Panther is still there but got a new name. Guess that's about it...

Almost forgot, yeah, I know some Lemmons.......Corky, retired mechanic that worked for Spaid John Deere over south of Reading and Margo Fether who was a Lemmon and married Cliff Fether from Waldron area. .Duane Lemmon's sister I think. Duane died about 10 years ago? hmmmm small world huh?

After my Grandfather sold the farm and moved to town Grandma worked in the Hunter school kitchen for a number of years. One of my aunts attended Hunter HS before consolidation closed it. Hunter didn't have much of a business district when I was a kid and there really isn't much left now.

Until Granddad died in 1967 we went to Hunter (from Indiana) for vacation over the Fourth of July every year.

That's what big business learned that the little guy, a lot of
times, didn't. Not only was the customer happy, but just like me,
he told all his buddies how great a place it was to do business.

I have dismantled the one they gave me and see that it was wired
differently than I needed even though it had the 4th terminal. I
assume both were wired identically as they were the same p/n. I
have since rewired it to function in my tractor and put it back on
my shelf for future use. However I did find that the stud
contacts were not solid, but a shell to reduce copper content so I
doubt they will last as long as the old ones. Combatting the high
cost of copper I guess.

Mark