Ever been to a Ghost Town?

Itâ??s always an eerie and poignant experience, walking through the ruins of a once vibrant community. Everywhere you look, you can see the evidence of life, but now all is in decay. A lost place, littered with the detritus of lives let go. The color leached away, leaving only ashen shades of gray.

Some Ghost Towns are the result of sudden disaster in which everyone abandoned the community suddenly, right in the middle of doing something --- tables set with plates and silverware and meals left uneaten, beds made up but never to be slept in, stories left unfinished.

More common are those Ghost Towns where the thing that brought everyone together in the first place disappeared --- the mine played out, the well ran dry, the crops failed. The community drifted away slowly, looking for the thing they lost. It makes you wonder what it was like for the last stubborn ones who held out as long as possible. And why did they stay after the life was gone from the place? How long did they linger? You also wonder if any of the departed gathered together in some other place. Did they manage to keep any part of their community together in a new home?

Ever been to a Ghost Town?

There are apparently loads of abandoned hamlets in the Highlands of Scotland. I intend to vist them some day, and stay there for a night or two.

well the entire underground of london is a ghost town,

hundreds of tunnels the size of the average train tunnel spanning out all other the place,

lots of unused world war bunkers, aswell as used and sealed up ones (for unknown reasons)

lots of unused tube stations too built ready for use then never used and left to stand unseen for years and years shutters never opened ticket offices never used,

for some reason i find myself fucking intrested in this stuff i mean what under me right now? i read on a website a guy explored 19 underground unknown bunkers and found in one a case of gas masks and a case of single shot rifles, but due to the moisture the metal of the rilfes had fused together.

When I went to Mexico City we went like an hour or two to the outskirts. I forgot the town name but it was a huge Silver mining town.

Now if anyone knows anything about Mexico City theres a shitload of mountains. We went to this town that was on the side of a mountain in the middle of fucking knowhere almost. It was real cool we went into Cave tunnels and entrances. Checked out some places but we took off cause it really was spooky especially the tunnels.

And none but 20 mins later we're at another place just like it but busstling and busy as all hell mostly this town was Selling the Silver that was bein extracted even farther out.

i been to 2 ghost towns old mining towns called virginia city one in montana and the other nevada

When Margaret Thatcher effectively closed down Scotland by systematically destroying our coal, steel and ship building industries there were a number of ghost towns created it is pitifull to drive through these places now the soul has been ripped from them, only now that we have taken the first steps towards independence can we start to regenrate these towns an villages.

Ghost Town by the Specials is a track worth listening to it can be dowloaded from various sites if anybody is interested.

Cheeers

NCM

Dragonrider- you write beautifully.
NCM- You ever listen to any Oysterband? 'Trawler' is an absolutely spectacular album.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stinkyattic

Dragonrider- you write beautifully.
NCM- You ever listen to any Oysterband? 'Trawler' is an absolutely spectacular album.

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Yes I've got to agree there, beautifully written.

No I have not listened to Oysterband but I will now I shall let you know what I think once I have downloaded onto my nice new Sony Walkman MP3 player santa brought me.

Cheers

NCM

NCM, in particular, their beautiful rendition of the classic 'coal not dole' is what made me think of that album in response to this thread.
But 'another quiet night in England', 'granite years', and especially 'the lost and found' give me the chills they are so beautiful. I really like folk rock. Their album 'The Shouting End of Life' is more rocking and political, and 'We'll be there' is a VERY VERY well done track by any standards. The references to the Crown's historic supression of Celtic tradition don't go unnoticed either.

Loads... I am drawn to the distressingly nostalgic overtone that blankets ghost towns like a light fog. That mist, nearly imperceptible to the eye, that blurs all edges, and exaggerates movement in the peripheral vision. Alaska is loaded with towns that once supported gold mining and small trade. The mines dried up, and the trade route changed... everybody just packed up and left. Sometimes local natives would take over a town left for dead.

With the right kind of ears, you can hear echoes of the lives of the people who walked those streets regularly. Phantom smells tickle the nostril so enticingly.. so fleeting.. you could almost place that smell if you could but catch one more whiff of it...

Hairs on my body will stand up when I cross their path; memories.. remnants... residual energy left over from the people who walked these steps many times over. Tracing and retracing their steps in pre-programmed fashion. I never see them. I dont know if its because I am not looking with the right eyes, or rather because they do not want to be seen by me. But I always know when they are around. I feel empowered.. a vigorous and manic energy, slightly disconcerting, but invigorating none-the-less.

The sadness of a ghost town penetrates everything. The memories that are left behind are always sad.. the happy ones are rarely left behind, but the sad ones... they permeate more than just our 4 dimensions of space-time. It is this residual low-frequency energy that draws me the most. I dont know if I feed on it, or what, but it is compelling all the same.


Europe has some fantastically ancient sites of abandonment. Some are veritable ghost towns, while others are analagous; stone structures such as stonehenge, the many roman baths that dot the continent, the destroyed bunkers at Idaho(I think thats the one) beach in Normandy... all different settings, but they all share that same melancholy feeling of nostalgia. As if the remnant energies realize they are nothing more than memories of a time nearly forgotten.