by Curt Kovener
In our youth, some of us now nearly old-timers remember the real old-timers talk about how busy the business district of Crothersville used to be. The business district being defined as US 31, pretty much the same in 2014 as it was in 1914.
“It was a busy bustling time back then” the old-timers would tell we now nearly old-timers.
Sidewalks were narrow and crowded, streets were lined with cars and horses and buggies and north-south traffic made for sometimes treacherous travel.
And the busy-ness continued through the early 1960’s when the I-65 bypass allowed north-south motorists to travel quickly to their destination not having to pass through the small communities like Uniontown, Crothersville, Austin, Scottsburg, Henryville.
It also allowed Crothersville residents to quickly get to big city destinations. And we found we liked the shopping, dining and entertainment opportunities of those bigger cities…even if it was to the detriment of our hometown businesses.
Today, that I-65 bypass has been, is getting, and will continue to get for a considerable longer period of time some much needed maintenance. Two-lane traffic is reduced to a single lane which results in lengthy interstate backups. So both north and southbound by-pass drivers detour through those same little communities along US 31 that they either had been avoiding or didn’t know existed.
And local motorists and residents get a taste of what the community must have been like in the pre-bypass days.
And to a person, they don’t like it.
In our microwaved, tweeting & texting, I want it and I want it now instant gratification world, if we have to wait more than 30 seconds to cross US 31 we get impatience. Walking from one side of US 31 to the other is like crossing mid block in Indianapolis (not that any of us would ever admit to such a perilous pedestrian practice.)
It seems we like to think about good ol’ Crothersville back in the day, but don’t want to experience it. And we want everyone else to be patient…but not us.
