Yesterday afternoon – Camera House and I visited a little local town for Christmas on Main Street. 
It was cold and windy but this is the second such evening the town of Cullom, Illinois has hosted and as the light was fading the cars were arriving and the families were gathering.
The middle of America, down here in the poorer areas of the midwest, with a declining population, there is a great danger of losing the last of the small towns, with businesses and Post Offices and Bars closing one after the other. Many such towns around this area don’t even have a grocery store anymore. Many have even lost their churches – the saints loaded onto the backs of trucks and taken who knows where. Many towns are ghosts of their former selves. Their untended souls drying out, going grey. No, not grey, a bleached bony white.
Not this one though. This town and a few others in the area are fighting that trend.
To shop locally and even celebrate locally literally keeps a town alive. Literally. This is one of the most important things a country person can do. Go to the local store and the local library and the local bank, have lunch at the pub.
I heard a rumour last night that the local tavern in Cullom is for sale. If I could rustle up a few investors I would be thinking seriously about that as my next step. Farm to Table at its best. Good food, good beer, my own sausage on the pizza! And NZ steak and cheese pie as a special treat! Simple and Good.
When I lived here with John’s family, as an AFS student, when I was sixteen, all these buildings were alive with stores and businesses. Only one store is left opening every day – the grocery store. Imagine the awesome challenge of bringing a town back to life.
The light faded too fast as we were leaving town, to get busy with the chores but the cars were all pouring into the tiny Main Street. Every small town in America seems to have a Main Street. Christmas on Main Street.
Merry Christmas, Cullom. Happy Holidays. Take care.
Have a lovely day.
Love celi
WEATHER: Getting a little warmer.
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
50 responses to “MAIN STREET”
Those snowflake lights on the street lamps… We have those here in Cleveland too, in the big city downtown and in our wealthy suburbs. Almost makes me wonder if they’re manufactured and sold on a large scale like some sort of collusion. All the municipal holiday lights companies get together and decide that these cities get the snowflakes this year, but next year those cities will get the Santa faces or something.
I bet they are sold by the million – but I like them!
I think the same thing is happening all over, no matter where you live. What happens next depends so much on the residents. There’s a town in central NSW that just featured on the news. They were down to just over a hundred residents, floods and droughts had done their usual work, and no-one could see a way ahead. The residents refused to lie down, agreed to donate a little money and a lot of time each every year, and got their shop back open. Then they built a swimming pool around their mineral spring, and a caravan park. Now the grey nomads come time and again and spend money in the shop and the pub and the pool and the park. The town is growing and new businesses are opening up.
That mineral spring sounds lovely – I am cold from chores and sinking into a hot pool would be bliss!
I’d love it too, so long as the minerals weren’t too stinky…
I ❤ this! Beautiful pictures and sentiments. I hope you CAN buy that bar!! Our small town of Shelbyville is trying hard to revitalize.
Another concept–if you have a location–is to only have a special meal once per month. Make it an event and people buy tickets so your clientele is guaranteed. There is one here local who host a full moon evening, weather permitting, and people drive 2 hours to attend. I agree good fresh food is the best!
We LOVE our small IL town as well and support it as best we can! We are proud to help keep it thriving and beautiful.
I’m happy that Cullom is hanging on. My own small Indiana hometown is very slowly withering away. Many fewer farm families on the land as huge operations buy and lease vast acreages. The local consolidated school system now has fewer students than each of the two districts had before consolidation. It’s a hard trend to counter, but my best to you and the people of your town for putting forth a strong effort.
It is hard- and many of the kids in these country schools now are part of s mobile population- the teachers here say the kids move on very fast
So nice
we also live outside a small town of 3000 people. The lumber industry has been decimated and we truly need
a new industry to move in with well paying jobs. That will take a City Council and City Manager with a drive
to seek out new innovative businesses. Excellent post.
Merry Christmas Cullom … hang in there! Gosh wouldn’t that be a challenge bringing the town back to life… 🙂