Very sad ...



I'm from Illinois - north central Illinois, though - and while I haven't specifically investigated it, I think there are probably other small towns in Illinois that may be on their way to suffering this type of fate.



There just isn't that much to do in small towns in Illinois, and frankly, the employment opportunities are not great, either. The towns I lived in during my childhood were dominated by farming, factories and mills, and over time as production and labor moved overseas, as the rivers and canals lost their importance in the movement of goods, and as the nation has become increasingly enmeshed in the global marketplace, the economies have spiralled downward if these small towns didn't figure out how to re-invent themselves.



Additionally, places like Cairo breed a VERY small-town mentality, such that you either grow up itching to "escape" or you grow up and fear leaving - the "outside" world just looks and seems too scary. I personally grew up itching to leave, fueled by "modern" parents who valued and obtained college educations while I was growing up. Also, my mom, being from another country, was good about taking my brother and I to Chicago and places up in the Northeast so we could learn more about the world in which we lived. None of this characterized the people I spent my early childhood around.



Florida became my home state at the age of 11, and I've never been tempted to go back. I have some nice memories of my early childhood - winters sledding, throwing snowballs, and "real" fall, where the trees change colors, and the amazing feeling of spring, with the snow melting and things turning green again, flowers blooming, return of the birds ...



But beyond that which nature offered, there just wasn't much to do unless we drove up to Chicago, or at minimum, places like Peoria.



In any case - has the population largely left Cairo? The place looks deserted in the pics ... I almost thought I was looking at one of those old westerns with the deserted Main Street. All that was missing was the tumbleweed ... 8-!