Post by brassmonkey on Feb 16, 2009 23:58:47 GMT -5
I had an appointment in Gardner today, so I decided to take my camera along and take some pictures of the interesting architecture and character of the city. The pictures are posted in the photography section of my site, accessible from the main page.
But as I drove around all I could concentrate on was the blight. That city is really sad if you drive through it with your eyes open. Even the center where you turn right at the bank-the stores look really terrible. There's a bridal store there where I got the tuxes for myself and my two boys because it was the only place around, but that place looks like hell from the outside. It's just so ugly, and so are the majority of the stores along that strip. It's just so old looking and sad looking. The Gardner Ale House is a really nice restaurant, but even there 4 out of 5 of their lights on their exterior sign are burned out. My wife and I went there Friday before Valentines day for dinner, and we absolutely love the food and the live music.. So when we got back outside and were heading to the car I looked back at the sign with that great food still fresh in my mind, and it was pitiful. It looks like a dump from the outside. We wouldn't have gone in had we merely driven by and saw the place. We went on the recommendations of several friends who have eaten there.
Gardner, like many New England cities, is a mixture of old and new, and they don't mix very seamlessly. Driving out of the old strip-mall center of town toward Route 2, that CVS just looks out of place. At least when Ayer refurbished their main street they have rules for how the signs would look in order to maintain that old charm.
With most of the manufacturing leaving Gardner, it has become a place with no real attraction aside from the many tenement buildings and affordable rents (well, compared to Boston or Worcester.) Even R. Smith Furniture has a sign up now advertising a bank-ordered liquidation of inventory. Nobody cares about quality any long when it comes to furniture.. New is new, and they don't think about 5 years down the road when the Chinese crap will be falling apart or the 10 years down the road when the American made quality furniture will still be an heirloom.
It's strange living in Winchendon and having to go to Gardner for just about everything.. Sure, you've got Rindge with a Wal Mart and Market Basket, but all government offices are in Gardner, doctors are at Heywood or Heywood Rehab, bowling is in Garnder, good food is in Gardner (Santinos is rumored to be good, but they just take the same sauce and make it in ten different dishes..) It's like the 10 minute drive to productivity, but Gardner is still such a ghetto! Both my girls were born at Heywood, and I have no complaints at all about those experiences. The rooms were nice and the accomodations were adequate. I don't know if husbands are allowed to stay, as they were in Sierra Vista, Arizona where my son was born, because I could have stayed if I wanted to.
All in all, for a city-boy, this place is pretty weird. I don't like having to drive so far to work, but I do like the rural surroundings. It's a situation with no solution, but hopefully the economy will recover and I can move my family to Virginia or North Carolina. I'm ready for some good ol' Southern hospitality.
But as I drove around all I could concentrate on was the blight. That city is really sad if you drive through it with your eyes open. Even the center where you turn right at the bank-the stores look really terrible. There's a bridal store there where I got the tuxes for myself and my two boys because it was the only place around, but that place looks like hell from the outside. It's just so ugly, and so are the majority of the stores along that strip. It's just so old looking and sad looking. The Gardner Ale House is a really nice restaurant, but even there 4 out of 5 of their lights on their exterior sign are burned out. My wife and I went there Friday before Valentines day for dinner, and we absolutely love the food and the live music.. So when we got back outside and were heading to the car I looked back at the sign with that great food still fresh in my mind, and it was pitiful. It looks like a dump from the outside. We wouldn't have gone in had we merely driven by and saw the place. We went on the recommendations of several friends who have eaten there.
Gardner, like many New England cities, is a mixture of old and new, and they don't mix very seamlessly. Driving out of the old strip-mall center of town toward Route 2, that CVS just looks out of place. At least when Ayer refurbished their main street they have rules for how the signs would look in order to maintain that old charm.
With most of the manufacturing leaving Gardner, it has become a place with no real attraction aside from the many tenement buildings and affordable rents (well, compared to Boston or Worcester.) Even R. Smith Furniture has a sign up now advertising a bank-ordered liquidation of inventory. Nobody cares about quality any long when it comes to furniture.. New is new, and they don't think about 5 years down the road when the Chinese crap will be falling apart or the 10 years down the road when the American made quality furniture will still be an heirloom.
It's strange living in Winchendon and having to go to Gardner for just about everything.. Sure, you've got Rindge with a Wal Mart and Market Basket, but all government offices are in Gardner, doctors are at Heywood or Heywood Rehab, bowling is in Garnder, good food is in Gardner (Santinos is rumored to be good, but they just take the same sauce and make it in ten different dishes..) It's like the 10 minute drive to productivity, but Gardner is still such a ghetto! Both my girls were born at Heywood, and I have no complaints at all about those experiences. The rooms were nice and the accomodations were adequate. I don't know if husbands are allowed to stay, as they were in Sierra Vista, Arizona where my son was born, because I could have stayed if I wanted to.
All in all, for a city-boy, this place is pretty weird. I don't like having to drive so far to work, but I do like the rural surroundings. It's a situation with no solution, but hopefully the economy will recover and I can move my family to Virginia or North Carolina. I'm ready for some good ol' Southern hospitality.
