West Virginia might be the strangest state I have ever visited. What struck me the most was the wild variations in houses. You'd drive by a couple that were in good shape and then you'd see one or two that were complete disasters.
Ones like the lower photo were common enough. They looked like no one could possibly live there, but then there would be a vehicle parked outside. One of them had a quarter of its roof caved in, like a tree fell on it and the residents never repaired it.
I tried to puzzle out what had happened. The only thing that made sense was that the derelict houses were markers of opiate or alcohol addictions. They must have been in good shape at one time, but over the years, they had been allowed to decay. You'd do that if you were continually spaced out on dope or booze.
I stopped by a couple of general stores, too. There were no Walmarts or Home Depots along my path, so the locals used general stores to get hunting, fishing and hardware supplies. There was typically a diner included. The customers smoked and chewed and looked pretty weathered. I decided, in my total ignorance of the place, that West Virginia was the "Why not?" state. It's a rough place that has suffered economically lately, particularly under Obama. Life expectancies might not be that high, so why not smoke, chew, drink or whatever? It's not like life has a whole lot of sophisticated pleasures for you.
Coming back into Virginia, I stopped for gas at a suburban strip mall about 45 minutes in from the West Virginia border. There was a row of Tesla charging stations, many with cars attached. The contrast in wealth was shocking. It was like a completely different planet.
Apology: Sorry for the poor photo quality. I took these through the windows of the car as I drove. I'm a fan of derelict houses and boats, but I always feel awkward getting out of the car for a photo.
A lot of Northern Michigan is like that too, as are the most rural parts of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota and Ohio (and northern Ontario, for that matter, as we just saw on our trip last summer). In my experience, that's what rural areas are like once you get out of commuting distance from a major city (usually more than about an hour out). The nice houses are the people who actually own land, or businesses, or are wealthy retirees, or are able to work remotely or to live with significant commutes to the city. The not-so-nice ones are everyone else. It's particularly obvious in places where you get significant snow loads in the winter, because a somewhat neglected structure turns into a partially-flattened structure pretty quickly when it gets a few tons of snow dumped on the roof. It really amplifies the differences between the people who can put in time and money for maintenance, and those who don't.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't a new phenomenon, its been like that for as long as I can remember, and I've spent most of my life in northern rural areas. Houghton is a weird case, with the nicer houses mostly clustered around the University and the hospital, and gradually fading off into houses that are varying degrees of decrepit as you go out of town (and then it's a two-hour drive to Marquette, the only nearby city of any size, so there are a lot of run-down properties). A lot of the houses were built back when the copper mines were active, and depending on how able to keep them up the inhabitants are, they range from pretty nice to absolute wrecks (and a lot are outright abandoned).
And I think it's mostly alcohol, not opiates. Alcohol is available and pretty cheap, but who's going to hike all the way out into the boondocks to push expensive opiates?
I am often amazed at the look of the houses up in the UP.
ReplyDeleteMy son's house last year was an old miners house, actually in pretty good condition, it was across the portage in Hancock.
This year he is in a newer generic house built on an old foundation, much closer to campus in Houghton.
Those houses look better maintained because they are rental property. But generally, Houghton and Hancock houses look better than say Calumet. And every other little town is much lower than that. I can't believe some of those houses in South Range are inhabited.
You would have a great time taking pictures in the Kewenaw KTCat.