RoadsideOnline

If you want to live in a walkable community you could do worse than to move to the town of Putnam.

Putnam sits hard against Rhode Island as part of what Connecticut likes to call its "Quiet Corner," the state’s northeastern region. This is a beautiful part of Connecticut, far removed by more than distance from where the state shares the grime and gloom of New York City. The Quiet Corner of Connecticut is made up mostly of rolling rural hills, quaint New England villages, the occasional private boarding school and some of the most scenic roads in America.

It’s easy to imagine that Putnam once was the center of commerce for the region. Its small downtown flanking the Quinebog River is filled with solid brick buildings and surrounded by giant porched and gabled homes, many long-ago subdivided into apartments as prosperity left the town behind.

All this talk about doing business with small shops in the community and dealing with the owner of the business who’s the person actually providing the product or service and being able to look that person in the eye and getting what you want because of the personal commitment to be found there...

And then I go and buy a computer from Sears.

Let it be a lesson to me.

All I wanted to do was put something on my Sears Charge. It’s the only charge-card I own, and I hardly use it. I keep it so I have some recourse if we need some appliance or something in an emergency and don’t have the cash to cough up. But I’d paid off the new washing machine, and hearing all about maintaining my credit and all I figured I needed something on it or they were going to tell me to go away. And I’d decided that with my new gig for Roadside a computer a little more modern than my current steam-driven unit might be a good idea.

Everybody's in a mad race to tomorrow. People can't get their hands on new things fast enough. To them "new" always means "better," and anything old is easily dismissed. Plenty of old stuff has been rejected to the point of obsolescence for no reason other than its age. Never mind the possibility that the stuff actually atttained its age precisely because it kept working so well all that time.

This is worse that just a preoccupation with new stuff.  America's entire system for delivering the goods has endured a revolution. It used to be that eveything sold in your neighborhood was provided by your neighbors. Your neighbor owned the business, called the shots, baked the bread, ordered the merchandise, mailed the bills out, accepted the occasional return. You didn't mind if your neighbors found success. It proved the quality of their "business model." Besides, any dollar you spent with your neighbors, your neighbors spent with you - for the bread you baked or the merchandise you sold.