Two thousand, six hundred souls.

Remember what I said about small obscurely named towns in OK or TX? Experience taught us that we wouldn’t be seeing much, just a lot of sad old empty buildings? I wasn’t entirely right, at least with the last example. It wasn’t bad. Let’s see what this iteration brings.

Not an auspicious start.

HAVE A SEAT

TAKE THE LOAD OFF

Well, as I like to say, we all know what that was.

NO DEPOSIT NO RETURN

Some words you hate to see removed. A town is never better when the food mart closes. And that was a long time ago.

Front side.

Li’l bit o’ Buckaroo for that Western vibe.

Thank you for calling Need To Know, Inc. None of our operators are available to take your call

Interesting how the boards, or sheet-metal pieces, echo the usual configuration of the old storefronts. Broad windows, then thin band of windows on top, frequently covered up in renovations, used to get more light (and ventilation) into the stores.

No ventilation going on here now.

!!

Classic 30s cafe, unchanged, and waiting.

Context for the block. You can see how the Oz Embassy stood out.

Well, the Gummint is always a going concern in these places.

Another civic structure, with the stripped-down modernism of the genre. Nothing exciting. But solid. But dull.

A place for men with close-cropped hair and short-sleeve dress shirts in the summer.

I’m beginning to wonder if this was a neutron bomb testing ground.

The block was rehabbed to modern standards, but now looks like a haphazard agglomeration.

I’d say this was a bank. Once.

Then it was the Pastry Place. Once.

D’oh; I was sent here by a matchbook. (I never look ahead when I’m writing this.) So yes, my suspicion of it being a bank, based on my keen eye, and maybe the recollection of the reason I came here, was correct.

Those piled-up sheets really liven up the ol’ downtown. Like a ghost got bored and fell asleep.

I’ll bet this was a bank, too. Now it looks like someone came up behind it and put hands around its eyes and said guess who.

Or, don’t make a sound or I’ll kill you.

Business is good at the taxman’s office. Could afford a little spiffy facade work.

Yeah, great, nice you’re flush.

Again, we all know.

What the hell happened?

“Wal-Mart,” you say. “Killed the downtowns.”

There’s no Wal-Mart around.