Disappearing Act

On my Meryl's Musings blog (which you can access by clicking on the link "Meryl's Musings" below Fowlerville News and Views), I have been exploring some of the things that are quickly disappearing from our culture here in the United States.

Over the course of 24 subjects, two of the items jumped off the page as pertaining to our town. This information came to me through an e-mail so I have not necessarily checked statistics, but the emotional side of it is more of what interests me. The two items are as follows:

#10 (on the list) . . . The Milkman

According to the USDA, in 1950, over half of the milk delivered was to the home in quart bottles, by 1963 it was about a third, and by 2001 it represented only .4%. Nowadays, most milk is sold through supermarkets in gallon jugs. The steady decline in home-delivered milk is blamed, of course, on the rise of the supermarket, better home refrigeration, and longer-lasting milk. Although some milkmen still make the rounds in pockets of the US, they are a dying breed.

And,

#1 . . . The Family Farm

Since the 30s, the number of family farms has been declining rapidly. According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the nation in 1950, but this number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census (data from the 2007 census hasn't been published). Ninety-one percent of the US farms are small family farms.

My husband and I are city folk -- we came here years earlier to be a part of small town America, to call this home, and to grow our little garden. Ours is all very modest, but it is our country home and we appreciate it. So then I consider how all of this could disappear and wonder why.

Is this because of modern day advances or the economy? While both of the above items affect the entire nation, this area takes a harder hit when it comes to agriculture because that is what Fowlerville is all about.

I applaud those that continue to work hard, struggle to make it in this economy, and provide this area with its true identity. That's what small town America is all about, am I right?