Vanishing USA
An introduction to the column
By Jerrold VanNocker

You can see their ruins as you drive through the USA country side. Some of them have been restore as part of USA nostalgia , some have passed away completely, a few have managed to thrive in the 21st century marketplace. Advancing technology and ever changing lifestyles have been the driving force behind their demise; barns, covered bridges, drive in movie theaters, dance halls and cross road villages are but a few examples of this vanishing America.

As Allison and I travel the USA we will be keeping an eye out for these fading remnants of our culture. We may do an article on an aging tourist trap or direct you to a drive-in movie theater still in operation. But, what I really am interested in writing about is the vanishing America we see around us everyday and never think twice about. Like those little turn of the century country gas stations that were put out of business years ago.