I find it interesting how some small, rural, hard-scrabble southern towns like the one I grew up in seem to last forever. Lee, Florida has lasted from the 1800s to today as a town of about 200 - 250 people surrounded by subsistence farms and poor, sandy soil and scrub oak woods that had originally been pine forests. From headstones in local cemeteries, one can see that most families in the town lasted only two generations, at most three, in the areas. Most of the young men who could have always left for a chance at a better future.. Yet there has always seemed to be a supply of new families who drifted in for a time and then disappeared.
Lee has lasted through the clear cutting of original growth pine forests in the late 21900s, the collapse of cotton farming in the 1940s, , and the overall collapse of most of the subsistence farming in the 1960s. It has always been a town in which almost no one had any money, and in which there were no bright horizons. Why towns like Lee still exist is a puzzle to me.
6
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I guess whatever floats their boat, but small towns are usually nice if you look past their racism, sexism and every ism and phobia there is out there.
wonderer4343
Level 4
Mar 1, 2019
1
Yeah. Those are all existing in Lee. As a matter of fact, there were no Blacks in Lee because they had all been chased out of killed by a KKK gang led by a man named Rowe in the 1920s
But, it sounds charming! Like the ‘salt of the earth!’
Freedompath
Level 9
Mar 1, 2019
1
I think there is always a certain percentage of people who will never leave where they were born on raised. Now the interesting thing you established was the 2 - 3 generation "family cycles". So who is moving in????
BrentMBA2004
Level 6
Feb 28, 2019
0
To a large degree those moving in those who have encountered some degree of failure who are looking for a place to enable them to lick their wounds and try to get a new start without being looked down upon..But, you are also right, in that there are a few family names that seem to persist throughout time -- though not due to economical of educational success.
I moved from NYC to Fort Myers (Lee County) and this is a nice little city. No way does it compare to NY but not what you describe...where in Lee are you talking about?
Dandewine
Level 7
Feb 28, 2019
0
Walking in to a Rural King store in SW VA today, it appeared everyone shopping there hobbled or limped ..in slow motion. Broken down before their time.. Started me wondering … what’s up? Tractor accidents, or just a hard life in a tuff area? Likely both.
It’s all they know, and all they want to know. Living in these isolated pockets allows them to be the ‘kings of nothing.’ They’ve tons of guns & ammo ..to defend themselves from each other as well as the outside world. Their social pecking order allows them to wield power & influence disportionate to their intelligence or education.
Yup, the kings of a small world, and paying the price daily. I often miss the land I had, but as I looked over those having done the same for generations … not so much..
Varn
Level 8
Feb 26, 2019
2
if i were poor in the US i'd prefer to be poor where the climate is decent.
callmedubious
Level 8
Feb 26, 2019
4
Yes. I grew up without air conditioning in Florida heat and humidity.
The fact that automobiles may be the present answer. The town may have become a "bedroom community", where in there are no local jobs or sources of employment but nevertheless, people can buy the existing homes there and drive some distance each day to their source of employment. However, this is just a guess...
dahermit
Level 7
Feb 26, 2019
1
The automobile doesmake some difference, but not much. There are damned few good paying jobs within a 60 mile raius. To, some degree, I think is a matter of people struggling in some other locale, and settling in towns like Lee where they will not be looked down upon for their lack of success.
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