The steadiness that is Gardner

One of the truly semi-interesting quirks of my town of birth, Gardner, is that, with the exception of 1980, the population has remained within 5% of 20,000 for 90 years. The 2010 census shows the Chair City with 20,770 residents , down 2.61% from 2000.  Back in 1980, there was an abrupt drop, to 17, 900, but it rebounded to 19,900 in the next decennial count. It's as though 2,000 people had decided to go for cigarettes in New Hampshire on census weekend.

A drive through my old town certainly shows a lot of changes. Each time I drive through the uptown common and see what had been LaGrassa's in the 70's, I ache a bit. Did you know that, in order to save time and money on mowing, the city installed artificial turf on the traffic islands at the rotary? We used to call LaGrassa's the Astro-Turf^® Lounge.
The many, many empty store fronts on Main and Parker streets, the rubble and hoped-for rebuilding of the third Heywood-Wakefield complex, all that suggests a city in trouble. And yet, people stay. Or, if they leave for cigarettes or because of cigarettes, others come and take their places.
It takes a lot of changes to stay the same.