Oh to be a native or somewhere

I love, love, love talking to Townies. In fact, it's becoming an obsession of mine ...

But I gotta tell ya, I could tell a few stories of oddity myself.

I think I've mentioned before how when you're researching someone (or after you write a story, someone comes up and says, "oh you didn't mention he was jailed for holding up an armored car and made off with $1 million in booty ..." or things to that effect).

That kind of stuff usually comes from someone who wasn't born here but who has lived here for a while. I'm finding that Townies do not usually rat out other townies and would rather forget the crimes and misdemeanors of their fellow natives.

Surprisingly, Little Miss Blabberhead (that would be me) goes right along with this.

"Oh? In 1963 he drank himself stupid and ran naked down State Street? That's interesting ... but not relevant to what I'm writing."

But I expect that at least Ralph Ayers, who has told me himself that other Townies don't appreciate his candor, will be blurting out anything and everything this Sunday.

Counting Mr. Ayers (the only person I can think of who still lets people smoke in his house), I have had the privilege of talking with 4 Townies since Friday.

The woman I was speaking with today was talking about something else, but our conversation wandered in the direction that all my conversations with Townies go - about the sense of belonging somewhere.

She said - and not to belittle anyone - that when you get an influx of new people and a simultaneous exodus of natives, a town starts to lose its identity and sense of community.

And this, in turn, leads to an increase in poverty. No one there to pick you up when you fall down because there's no one left who knows you well enough.

The whole United States, which is dipping ever so close to alarming levels of poverty, has become a fragmented society because people move away or don't come back after college; I think this has a lot to do with the success of blogs such as Flint Expatriates.

Readers of that blog actually send the author of it money to support him ... which reminds me, I meant to send him money.

If you have read any John P. Marquand - which I haven't, but I got this from his granddaughter, Beth Welch - you see that in his books, the hero almost always returns home to find his true self.

Gone are the days when someone stayed with the same employer for an entire career. Gone are the days when you could turn to your neighbor in times of trouble ... and it's getting worse but better at the same time.

How is that?

I think Facebook and MySpace and Twitter contribute to this social isolation on a local level while increasing it on a national and/or global level.

People are more aware of what's going on with someone in CA than they are with what's going on next door (unless one's neighbor is on FB or Twitter, of course). They will contribute to some global cause being championed online but not to some local charity or organization that's going down the tubes for lack of funding.

People spend hours playing a computer game, or on Facebook and/or Twitter or a BLOG (I can't speak to MySpace, not having a space) but the city is hurting for volunteers to serve on boards and commissions.

I get the sense of loss this woman was feeling, but I don't necessarily get that from younger Townies, who are the ones on FB or playing computer games.

Although I do envy the ease with which they move about this town.