The 90s turns out to have been very important to my world view. I grew up in the 70s and 80s which was a time when local government (in my area, at least) was always shorting infrastructure and decay seemed to be the only option.
In the 90s, I finally got to see local government fixing and building things. Conditions on the ground actually *improved.* As a young man, I was shown that civic improvement instead of decay was possible.
When I was a kid, there was always talk about the decay of the bridges going over the Whitewater River in Richmond, Indiana. When I was 13 or so, I asked my Dad — how did they ever *build* those bridges if they can’t even *maintain* them now? (Incidentally, it seems like I had just recently read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series where the Galactic Empire is in decline and nobody knows how to fix the stuff that’s breaking). Dad just kind of shrugged off the question — I don’t know if he just didn’t know or because he was busy with something else. But, I remembered the question, and in the 90s when it seemed like there was more money for improving infrastructure, I realized that my snapshot of the 80s wasn’t the inevitable state of things.
Teenagers today could be forgiven if they also thought decline was the inevitable state of things. In fact, there seems to be a non-trivial portion of the population who think that the past was always better and the future is always grim — as if Eden were real and not a myth, and humans have been in a constant state of decay since then and will continue to decline until the Rapture. But that’s not the way it is. It’s actually possible to improve things. That’s sort of a banal point, but something we shouldn’t forget.
As Robert Frost said,
“As Dawn Goes Down to Day,
Nothing Gold Can Stay”
It was pointed out to me long ago in France that it’s an American way of thinking to believe in continuing progress and that the future is always going to be better. But that was before we were taken over by conservative political religion, making the Garden of Eden the zenith of civilization. That explains the lifelong obsession of many for preparation for a Heaven after death and many of the rest of us are becoming more and more cynical as a result.A couple more generations and Americans will have become as cynical as the French and then maybe we can all work together in a golden age of ‘Voltairian revivalism’
I remember those bridges well, Doug. In 1981 or 1982, the Dennis Jr. High band marched in the homecoming parade. It started in the municipal parking lot, went across Main Street bridge and ended at the high school. I remember the band director telling us we couldn’t march in step across the bridge because the city engineers were afraid that the repetitive motion would bring down the bridge. Do you also remember the bridge getting the hump in it on the east end each winter as water would get under the surface and freeze?
I also remember in high school the band practiced marching on the football field. Occasionally a semi would go across the G Street bridge (with a weight limit of 5 tons). We would all take bets on if this would be the truck to bring down the bridge.
Glad to have now three bridges in town that are less than 20 years old. Also glad to not have to say a prayer each time I cross one of the bridges.
I never noticed the hump on the east end of the Main Street bridge — north or south side or both? (Any time I was westbound in that direction, I almost always would’ve been using the G Street bridge.)
It was usually more on the south side, but sometimes made it’s way across the whole bridge.
I used to go across the G Street bridge at about 50 mph-just to get over it as quickly as possible;-)
The hump was the biggest when I was maybe ten years old. It was on the east-side end (just short of the Pizza King).
Home of the Royal Feast.
Discuss.
Damn, I’m within five pounds of my goal weight and you have to mention Royal Feast. Ge behind me, Satan;-)
For some reason I always liked that Pizza King the best. Maybe it was because it was kind of a dive next to the bridge.
Plenty of police protection there, if I recall correctly.
Rev AJB said:
Rev, that wasn’t reflective of the bridge – all groups marching (or even walking) in cadence are instructed to break step across bridges; there is a chance that the cadence can match the wave frequency of the bridge (my physics is a little shakey here) and bring it down.
Yeah, I knew it had to do with wave lengths and all…but if you had ever seen that old Main Street bridge you’d understand that the concerns were more than just superficial!
Of course we could have heled getting it replaced 20 years quicker if we had marched across it…