Quomodo sedet sola civitas.

General readers will need to bear with me. One of the basic functions of my blog is to pass along items I would otherwise be emailing to friends.

I grew up in the Anthracite region of Northeastern Pennsylvania, one of the principal centers of Lithuanian settlement in the United States. The coal mining industry expired after WWII. Americans had en masse converted to oil for domestic heating, and new post-War environmental regulations made extracting coal below the water-table impossible.

Nothing ever replaced Anthracite coal mining. Over the next 60 years after the last colliery shut down for good, essentially everyone who could walk left after graduating from high school. Populations dwindled, and once prosperous towns became almost ghost towns.

One renowned local institution after another closed down as the years went by.

A friend from back home, now living in Maryland, last night, sent me this video remembering our long-gone local amusement park.

———————————–

At least the fine old Lakewood carousel survives and is today still being enjoyed by young and old in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Would you believe that I can look at this video and find the particular horse I preferred as a small child?

Hat tip to Henry Bernatonis.