Now main streets whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there aint nobody wants to come down here no more
Theyre closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they aint coming back to
Your hometown, your hometown, your hometown, your hometown.

–Bruce Springsteen, “My Hometown”

So I made my way to my hometown of Longview, Washington on Tuesday. Only reason I haven’t blogged about it until now is because I hadn’t had a chance to upload the photos.

To set the scene, I wanted to make my way back to where I grew up for some photos of the area. I also delivered a futon to a friend since I was in the area anyway. After the delivery, I made my way down to Martin’s Dock at Lake Sacajawea.

Lake Sacajawea was one of my favorite places to visit as a kid. Mom and Dad used to take Jason and I down there — we’d load our bikes up in the van and head on down to the lake to bike or walk a couple segments of the park. Jason and I used to play on the Martin’s Dock playground as well, which as of yesterday was exactly as I remember it.

Of interesting note to me is the fact they still have these metal plates nailed into various trees around the park to show what kind of tree it is. Jason, Dad, Mom and I used to have fun running down to the trees and reading the names off the trees — it was like we got a prize if we read it first or something.

After my visit to Lake Sacajawea, I drove into Kelso and headed over to the Three Rivers Mall. I wrote a blurb about it in a blog post last year when Aftan and I were still together and we had visited the now-decaying retail hub of Kelso.

Well, it hasn’t changed much since then. It’s anchored by Macy’s on one end and JCPenney on the other. Sears is sandwiched in the middle. Those places are doing okay, but the middle of the mall, not so well. Ever since Emporium shut down in 2001 the mall has been on a steady decline — and the opening of the Triangle Center in downtown Longview sucked a lot of the smaller stores out of Three Rivers as well.

Most of the food court is gone, the former Tilt Arcade is no longer there, and a lot of the retailers have been replaced with local businesses such as art galleries, candy vendors, etc. Shoot, when Radio Shack leaves your mall you know something’s wrong.

Anyway, here’s how it looked at 5 PM on a Tuesday. When I was in high school the mall was packed out in the evening, but not in 2007.

No trip to Kelso would be complete without visiting the church I once attended, as a young kid and once again as a teen. The Kelso Church of God of Prophecy on 1008 Walnut Street is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and it looks like it’s doing a bit better than last time I was there. I like the lighted cross on the front of the building.

I wanted to stop in and say hey to the Dillons (they’ve been pastoring Kelso for 10 years now and are the longest tenured pastoring couple there), but alas, they weren’t around. Would have been nice to be able to see inside the place as well.

As much as Kelso COGOP has been fodder for a few jokes on this blog, I have to give the church and its people credit for hanging in there and plugging along through tough times. The building isn’t in a good neighborhood at all, in fact, probably the worst in Kelso/Longview. But it’s stood for 50 years and it’s seen many people come and go through its doors. It only seats about 50 people maximum but I’ve never seen a time where it’s really needed to. It’s a smaller church and even that fact is a testimony to the perseverance of the Dillons and everyone in ministry at the Kelso COGOP.

After my visit to the church, I headed across town and back over to Longview — but not before I stopped in at a school I attended as a kid. Kelso Christian Academy is an annex to the First Assembly of God on 4th Avenue, and it’s still doing well today. I attended kindergarten, 1st grade, and 4th grade there.

Tidbit of trivial knowledge: I skipped the third grade, then was homeschooled through middle school and redid my freshman year, opting to take the 9th grade “again” at RHS. Complicated I know, but at least I graduated at age 17 instead of 16.

Anyway, here’s KCA and it too looks exactly as I remember it.

Across the street is their gym with a parking lot that doubled as a kickball field. Passing by it reminded me of the kickball games we always used to play in 4th grade against the 5th graders. They were always heated battles, and we’d routinely kick “home runs” over the fence and onto 4th Avenue.

So I drove back across the Cowlitz Way Bridge into Longview, and I decided to wander downtown for a bit. My transmission started acting up, so I figured I’d let my car nap for a bit and walk a few blocks.

Downtown Longview looked like it was deteriorating as well. Much like Three Rivers Mall, it has had the life sucked out of it. However, passing by the Merk on Broadway was refreshing as it looked like they had opened up some new stores and restaurants — they even had a soda fountain with 50’s style decor in one place. I should have snapped a photo of it.

Many businesses have up and left downtown, and it was sad to see. The old Korten’s music store, now “4 Day Outlet” or something like that, is shutting down soon as well.

It’s depressing seeing local businesses shut down as they are in Longview. There’s a few reasons behind why it’s all happening so rapidly and it all starts with the economic recession of a few years ago. Reynolds Metals declared bankruptcy and laid everyone off. Other industries laid many laborers off as well. The decline of the industries was felt in places such as downtown Longview and the entire retail sector in Cowlitz County has suffered.

Take the former Cibo Con Amici restaurant for example.

There’s a sign up in the door that reads “Due to the continued decline of the local economy we have decided to shut down our businesses. Please support other local businesses.”

How sad is it, that has become the recurring theme in Longview? I hope for their sake the city finds a way to rebound.

The local Christian bookstore, The Treasure House, is still going strong. Their store in the Three Rivers Mall shut down (just one of many quality retailers there that bit the dust as mentioned above), but the flagship downtown store moved into a different retail space on Commerce, completely different from the one Mom and Dad used to take us to as kids. They even have an espresso place there now too. They had such nice people working there when I was growing up, and as I stopped in yesterday, the atmosphere was no different. Of course everything was switched around but it was still a pleasant environment. The fiction section was a bit lacking but overall they had more to offer than in the old store.

Thus ended my visit to Longview/Kelso, and as I waved it goodbye I crossed over the Lewis and Clark Bridge back into Oregon and the town I grew up in, Rainier.

I decided to chance it and take my car up the steep grade of Highway 30 on Rainier Hill so I could grab some photos of the landscape. I stopped at the second viewpoint, took six photos and stitched them all together to create a panorama. (You can click the below photo to enlarge it.)

I then somehow made it up Rainier Hill the rest of the way and after a few twists, turns and stops, I made my way to my old school, Rainier High School, which isn’t physically deterorating but the morale is thanks to one bonehead Michael Carter. I actually kinda miss the place — I made a ton of good friends there.

I then descended Old Rainier Road (basically old Highway 30), full of ruts and potholes, and wouldn’t you know it — my car got stuck in one gear. Thank God it was all downhill, I just coasted 25 MPH in neutral the entire way. That’s right, the entire winding, lurching, pothole-laden way.

Once back into the city of Rainier, I made my way to the city park where I got a nice shot of basically the entire town from what used to be the basketball court. Once again, another personal connection — Dad used to drive Jason and I down here where we would both take him on in basketball as youngsters. Those were the days when Dad could run and I couldn’t shoot. Jason would always do this routine that made Dad laugh and he’d end up stealing the ball and somehow hitting a three-pointer. Good memories.

Anyway, the park is completely redone now, A Street runs through where there was simply a path before, there is a new Little League field, and it just looks nicer. The basketball court has been moved to the other side of the park entrance road (which by the way is called Veterans Way now), along with a skate park.

Here’s the photo of Rainier, the quiet little hamlet across from Longview.

Thus was my visit to Longview, Kelso and Rainier. I thoroughly enjoyed it as most of the trip took me back in time to when I was a kid and life was a bit simpler. It was great to relive some good memories that our family had, and every time I would pass certain places that were significant to our family, it triggered a set of memories and emotions to go along with it.

I know I’ll be reunited with my family in Springfield, but it’s just not the same as the years gone by…the years we were happy to call the Pacific Northwest our home.

Yesterday was my last visit there for an indeterminate period of time. It had a bit of finality to it, because even though I moved away in 2002 and my family moved away from Rainier two years ago, I still felt some sort of connection to the place. The connection will still remain as that’s where I grew up, but it won’t be as accessible as it was, when I move out in ten days.

Here’s to starting a new chapter in life. Scratch that — a new BOOK.