Nanaimo
1892 - Population less than 5000, Had a shoe factory, tannery, cigar
factory, 5 breweries, 2 soda water bottlers, a foundry, carriage
builder, a steam carriage works, door and window factory, and 2
bakeries. All of these were local industries owned by Nanaimo
residents. The 1892 foundry, which operated in one guise or another
until the 1980's was by the early 1900's, building locomotives for
logging railways!
Nanaimo
2006 - population 76,000. Has no shoe factory, no tannery, no cigar
factory, no breweries, no soda water bottlers, no foundry, but it
does have half a dozen bakeries. All the missing industries products
are imported from afar and/or are produced by foreign multinational
corporations.
Many towns are probably like this. What I remember about this place in the 50s and 60s were businesses which seemed to be established for decades at a time ... not six months and bankruptcy. Today even "going concerns" are always moving around. The east end of this town of 200,000 is now a rats'nest of big box atores very difficult to navigate especially for older people.
ReplyDeleteNowadays the industrious of Nanaimo are busy producing the world's best pot. Beats cigars!
ReplyDeleteUntil WWII, just about every moderate-sized town had a brewery, and every town of any size at all had at least one cannery. It's especially sad to see the crap the mass market beer companies are churning out--I think the hops content has gone down by at least a third since the '50s. But it's great to see the market share that microbreweries are picking up.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll have you know, mr. beer n. hockey, that the world's best pot is grown in Arkansas.
ReplyDelete