America Lost

When I saw this old abandoned store I could almost taste the ice-cream that a young American kid bought long ago, whilst smelling the fruit carefully stacked by the shop owner and feel the newsprint between my fingers rubbed off from the daily paper.


It's shops like these I have seen plenty of in old American movies and photographs.

When I moved to the States back in March I hoped to see old authentic shops like these still open and active. Sadly though the reality is its mostly malls and big stores with little character that seem to exist in Utah today. So far, in my admittedly limited experience of Northern Utah of the past few months, a few small shops that I have seen have tried hard to replicate the look of the old store such as this one but lack a certain something to feel authentic.

So when I saw this store I couldn't help but dream a little of reopening it and bringing it back to life and making it once again an active, useful part of town. Sadly though a town as small as Bear River that is situated about 10 miles or so from the the Interstate with all its modern amenities sprawled by the roadside will probably never be able to bring life back to such a store ever again. The price of progress I guess.

It's a shame that such places that give a taste of what small town America must once have looked like for so many are now only stopping places for the curious to take a photograph or two.


At least they haven't yet knocked it down.


Listening to: Paolo Nutini - High Hopes