Today I spent a little time looking at a website that list different roadside attractions through out the country, http://www.roadsideamerica.com/. It was like a walk down memory lane. I remember when I was younger visiting some of the places listed. Sadly most are closed, but still it was nice to read about them and to see photos of some of them. It did bring back to mind the simplicity of youth that seems to be missing now. One of the remarks I read about the closing of one roadside attraction was on the spot, it basically stated that today’s youth are to tech savvy, if it’s not a the fastest or tallest or a video game its uninteresting.
I remember one place we visited when I was young, it was a western town. You saw gun fights took a train ride and walked around the town feeling like you were in the old west. I have not been there in years, but I do remember the happy feeling I got from being there. It was simplistic but at the same time I was completely entertained. But today youth seem to have a need to be constantly stimulated.
I noticed this when I take my nephew to Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan, an History attraction that Henry Ford created. I love that place that I even have a membership so I can go anytime I want. Even though I have seen all the attractions, several times, I still love to go, I love to just walk around and enjoy the park. But my nephew sees no use in visiting more than once, once was enough for him. No action, just old buildings and house, that’s all he sees. Me, I see living history, I see an America that was young and vibrant, one that was full of power and lust for life.
The memories of the roadside attractions are strong, and it must be something in me that makes me love them so much. I travel to Mackinac every year, the upper most part of lower Michigan, and it could be argued that the whole city is nothing more than one roadside attraction, but to me it is a slice of heaven. Not sure what attracts me to them, but if I had to venture a guess I would say its the simplicity of it all. The fact that no cars are allowed on the Island or the fact that you can ride a bike around the whole Island or is it the shops that all sell the same little trinkets. What ever it is, I just love it!
I will, once again go to Greenfield village and Mackinac this year and I will visit all the same spots as the years before and do the same things I have done in the years that have passed, and I will get the same great joy out of them that I did the very first time I visited them.
Sure I love to visit new places, and sure I like the big fast and tall rides, but I prefer the simplicity of a Mackinac or Greenfield village to anything else. Even when I travel to India or Germany or any other place I am sent, I always visit the roadside attractions, the castles or manor homes or Churches. They bring me the greatest joy of all. call me silly or any other name you wish, but I just love places like that.
God Bless
Paul
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Guidebook of Greenfield Village |
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Explore Michigan–Mackinac (Insider’s Guide to Michigan) |
| Ephesians 6:4“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”
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