Growing up in the Eighties

Growing up in small town America has its ups and downs. In Armadillo Creek, in the 1980's, there was no movie theatre. There was no "fast food" restaurant, unless you count the Dairycream, but there were a couple of "family" restaurants. There were two grocery stores, the Piggly Wiggly and the IGA. These changed names, over time, and eventually one shut down.

There weren't too many jobs, either. The old shoe factory seems to have pre-dated the Constitution, but somehow has managed to survive even into today. The glove factory had shut down by then. Livestock had once played a big part in local life, and weekly auctions were held - until the sale barn burned down. Farming and agriculture are still fairly big there, but there's no large local market and so farmers found it tough to hold on.

Logging and lumberyards once kept many people busy, but over time, people became aware that logging was destroying natural habitat, so the Forest Service started reducing the amount allowed, until the only logging allowed were small tracts, and often it became so expensive to get to an area for the amount that was allowed to be cut, that it wasn't worth the trouble anymore. And so the forests grew more wild and beautiful than they had been in years, but sawmills began to close.

Tourism was the last hope of keeping the economy alive. With a large lake and forest all around, tourism is the one industry that prospered. Kids didn't have a lot to do with their time, and took advantage of every opportunity to "get out" that they could find.

Youth groups at local churches used to take trips into the city for their outings. On one such trip, Johnny Miller and his friends rode in the church bus all the way to a bowling alley some forty miles away. Johnny had never been bowling before, and did not do so well... but, as did the rest of the kids, he had a lot of fun.

On the way back through the city, the group stopped at a McDonalds. This was a rare treat. Johnny could count on both hands the number of times that he had eaten at such a nice restaurant. One thing memorable about the nineteen-eighties was the "Where's the beef?" ad campaign from Wendys. Being as how this group of kids had just come in from bowling and were pretty wound up, one of the kids, Jim, went to the counter, yelling at the wait staff, "Where's the beef?" Then he got a funny look on his face and said, "Wait, this isn't Wendy's!" and ran out the door.... Jim just wasn't right in the head.

On another outing, this one a school trip upstate, some of the local kids were allowed to participate in a state-wide "quiz bowl". The questions were not memorable, and the Armadillo Creek kids won a round or two, and then lost, and went home satisfied that they did ... well - that they had tried. The only thing that Johnny took home from that trip was the memory of a conversation:

Another kid, a "transplant", as it were, from somewhere up north, Timothy, was sitting there, explaining the world to all these small town kids. Somebody piped up, "Tim, why is it that people from up north, they ride their brakes when driving up a hill?" Tim did not bat an eye... "Well, they don't want to roll back down the hill." Johnny guessed that Timothy was pulling their leg, but.... maybe Yankees really were that dumb!