Return to Cambria

I studied Cambria from the hilltop. It was not the utopia I dreamed of. The streets were dusty lanes and stores were boarded up. Houses were a dirty gray. Cambria Canning Factory and the school were gone.

The narrow lane was rough as I drove into town. Bits of pavement poked their heads up in uneven jags. Unkempt easements allowed grass to spring up amid what was left of the road.

I was saddened when I saw once-familiar shops boarded up. Ramshackle "for sale" signs with rusty nails were attached to vacant buildings. A rusted barber shop sign hung haphazardly by one hook and swayed uneasily in the breeze. There was no sign of activity and I shivered as I realized my Explorer was the only vehicle in sight.

I decided to find the old home place which was next to the Welch Church. I looked for the spires of both this church and the Episcopal Church which sat across from it. The stained-glass windows of the Episcopal Church were broken and what had been the entranceway was a heap of brick, mortar and splintered word. The Welch church was in about the same shape. Its steeple was cocked at an odd angle and clinging to virtually nothing. Then I spotted what had been our home.

I cried as I saw the broken windows and caved-in roof. The porch floor sagged and the stairway was in splinters. Pieces of handrail pointed in all directions. It had been reduced to a shack.

I moved on to where the school and Cambria Canning Factory had sat side by side. They now consisted of rubble piles with open fields all around. The silence was eerie as my mind drifted back to when I shuffled from one classroom to another. There were no children laughing and no teachers pointing fingers of disapproval. Nothing but silence.

As I looked up, I spotted an old man collectiong cans. I rolled down my window as I drove to where he stood.

"Mister, where is everyone?"

"Gone," he said as he wiped his chin on his sleeve. "Coble Canning bought us out. Left us to rot."

My return trip home was not a pleasant one as I thought about Cambria. The once tidy streets lined with clapboard houses were no more. Shops bustling with people were gone. There were no children to shuffle school hallways and there was no canning factory to support the town. It was a sad awakening for me.