where history goes to die

I've got to say that the towns of Western Pennsylvania have a kind of run-down, rustic, delapidated, abandoned charm to them, greatly accentuated by the gray, cold, snowy weather. As a history nut, I love looking at ruins; however, these towns, although old, are still too young to be in the condition they're in. In cities like Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA history is alive. The buildings are maintained, people live and work in them, and actually strive to make their cities more beautiful. It seems that this is the exception in our country and the general rule is that cities and towns are treated as disposable. The reason there aren't more places like Charleston in America is because we live in a disposable, Wal-Mart/ McDonalds society which judges everything based on newness and discards anything old. As a society, we value youth over experience and wisdom, we are quick to discard anything that is "soooo last year" like cellphones that don't have cameras and internet access.
This is not a new phenomenon in our country. America began as a break from history-- a break from the tyrannies and old social orders of Europe. From the very beginning, Americans were moving to new frontiers where they could start anew. After we reached the Pacific Coast and could no longer flee westward, we began leaving our cities to build suburbs in the twentieth century. When those suburbs became old ("old" defined as homes and stores more than 20 years old) it was time to knock down more forests and build entirely new suburbs, leaving the old ones to rot. Shopping malls sit empty and houses sit boarded up after only a few decades of use. The cycle seems to keep repeating itself, with the exception of during recessions. Who ever thought that the shopping mall would be threatened by a gigantic store named Wal-Mart? It goes to show that everything has its turn on the chopping block. We are the victims of our own progress.
In Europe, they maintain and use buildings for hundreds of years for two reasons: 1) Because land is very expensive and 2) they actually value their history. Historic preservation in America is catching on, slowly. Hopefully, the trend will catch on so that entire towns aren't neglected and/or abandoned simply for the novelty of newness.

Worse than the Crash of 1929

My dad and I are always having conversations about history and the economy. He worked on Wall Street for about two decades, up until the crash of '87, and he also happens to be a history buff. I wasn't interested so much in the economy until I started doing research for my first book, which took place in the 1920's. I noticed an uncanny number of similarities between the 1920's and the past decade, which led me to predict two years ago that we were heading for a depression. When I said it back then, some "smart" people used to snort at me and tell me I was crazy and brainwashed by "left-wing media propaganda." Those same individuals told me that the economy was going to be on the upswing by the fall of 2008.

Not to be the pessimist, but our economic indicators are actually worse than they were in 1929. Percentagewise, the market has plunged just as much as during that year and the major stocks, especially bank stocks, have plumetted far more than during the end of that year. First consider this basic fact: In the 1920's and 1930's, the US made a large portion of the world's goods and provided a significant portion of steel, coal, iron, food, etc. to a global market. The US had the biggest port in the world (New York) and exported more goods than all of western Europe combined. World War II created a demand for manufactured goods from the Allies on a scale never seen before. Also, when that war was over, all of our global economic rivals were smoldering piles of rubble, literally, without functioning infrastructures. We had a monopoly on most manufactured goods because England, Germany, and Japan were too busy trying to rebuild their cities, bridges, roads, powerlines, sewage, running water, etc. We will never have that kind of monopoly on world markets again, unless, in theory, all of Asia and India were destroyed. WE DON'T MAKE ANYTHING ANYMORE. Take a walk through Wal-Mart and try to find goods, besides T-Shirts and socks, made in the USA. Good luck. It was our manufacturing capacity that saved us last time. What will save us this time?
That question stumps both me and my dad. There will definitely have to be some kind of unforseen change to pull us out of this mess.

The Steelers are going to the Superbowl!

I just recently moved to the Pittsburgh area from Charleston, SC. I usually don't care about football, but I must say that the Steelers are like a religion in western Pennsylvania. Since history is not paying the bills for me, I'm delivering pizza for Dominos full time. On my many travels up and down the snowy, dark, icy, winding, hilly roads of Connellsville and the surrounding area, I have noticed that the locals only root for one team. Being from New York, this is a strange concept, because we had two football teams and two baseball teams while I was growing up there.
In Charleston, people rooted for different teams. Although most Southerners really don't care about NFL stuff because they're into college football, there were quite a few Steelers fans down there too. Amazingly, there were even Steelers' bars in South Carolina. Can you imagine that? Southerners rooting for a Yankee team?
What I've learned about Pittsburgh is that it's a big city that thinks and acts like a small town. People in this area root for the Steelers with the same enthusiasm and die-hard devotion that people normally only show for their old college or high school. (As a Citadel grad, I would know this, although the Bulldogs keep getting creamed.)