Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moscow Zoo in the 1990s. All the animals had mostly died and the cages were just empty. There was one old tortoise all by himself, and one really old elephant all by herself. You've never seen such a skinny, depressed looking elephant. I sometimes think about her and wonder what happened to her. I was frankly surprised anyone remembered to feed them. Also seemed like a good place to get raped, so I didn't go back.

In case my post depressed anyone, I have a happy (?) update to report. Apparently she was not the only elephant there -- there was at least one more that I guess I didn't see. Their "dilapidated" (according to the zoo website, not me) house was renovated a couple years after I was there. And she went on to have at least two baby elephants -- a daughter in 2009 and a son in 2017. In sum, she's probably doing better than a lot of folks in Moscow, and I'm happy to learn that her situation improved and she has a little company now.

Thank you for the update!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moscow Zoo in the 1990s. All the animals had mostly died and the cages were just empty. There was one old tortoise all by himself, and one really old elephant all by herself. You've never seen such a skinny, depressed looking elephant. I sometimes think about her and wonder what happened to her. I was frankly surprised anyone remembered to feed them. Also seemed like a good place to get raped, so I didn't go back.

In case my post depressed anyone, I have a happy (?) update to report. Apparently she was not the only elephant there -- there was at least one more that I guess I didn't see. Their "dilapidated" (according to the zoo website, not me) house was renovated a couple years after I was there. And she went on to have at least two baby elephants -- a daughter in 2009 and a son in 2017. In sum, she's probably doing better than a lot of folks in Moscow, and I'm happy to learn that her situation improved and she has a little company now.

Thank you for this. Your first post was indeed depressing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wheeling, WV

+1

Oh gosh, I love Wheeling, actually. My mother grew up there and we would go several times a year growing up. When the steel industry went bust downtown died and it's had a hard time coming back, but I still love it. Still go every other summer for a week at Oglebay. I would totally agree that Wheeling island is super creepy. It was the site of summer homes of all the steel barons they were these incredible mansions. Now they're just shells. So sad.

Anonymous wrote:Moscow Zoo in the 1990s. All the animals had mostly died and the cages were just empty. There was one old tortoise all by himself, and one really old elephant all by herself. You've never seen such a skinny, depressed looking elephant. I sometimes think about her and wonder what happened to her. I was frankly surprised anyone remembered to feed them. Also seemed like a good place to get raped, so I didn't go back.

In case my post depressed anyone, I have a happy (?) update to report. Apparently she was not the only elephant there -- there was at least one more that I guess I didn't see. Their "dilapidated" (according to the zoo website, not me) house was renovated a couple years after I was there. And she went on to have at least two baby elephants -- a daughter in 2009 and a son in 2017. In sum, she's probably doing better than a lot of folks in Moscow, and I'm happy to learn that her situation improved and she has a little company now.

Elkton, MD It felt like meth central

Downtown Salt Like City. Such a big homeless population of young people...guessing it must be a bunch of kids who left the Mormon faith and got excommunicated.

Walking down side streets in Turin, Italy. Parts of the city are beautiful but one day I found myself in a neighborhood of mainly middle eastern men and they looked at me with my uncovered hair and shorts with such hatred. It was nuts.

Liberty University

Moscow Zoo in the 1990s. All the animals had mostly died and the cages were just empty. There was one old tortoise all by himself, and one really old elephant all by herself. You've never seen such a skinny, depressed looking elephant. I sometimes think about her and wonder what happened to her. I was frankly surprised anyone remembered to feed them. Also seemed like a good place to get raped, so I didn't go back.

Johnstown, PA and vicinity
Stuebenville, OH

My parents have a condo in Indian Rocks Beach, FL and the drive across the "peninsula" (is that what it's called?) from the Tampa airport to the beach is always ...interesting. Four lane "highway" with strip malls and endless chain restaurants. Oh look, a 55+ senior trailer park community. Cracker Barrel. Pain management doctor's office. Five more strip malls. Walmart. Publix. Apartment complex. Another strip mall. Disheveled sunburnt shirtless man pushing a shopping cart along the sidewalk. Another strip mall. DENNIS HERNANDEZ HARVARD LAW SCHOOL GRADUATE AND PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER billboard. TJ Maxx. A group of boys who look to be about 14 walking down the road (it's 11am on a Tuesday). Mobile home community. Another personal injury lawyer billboard. Bible Bob's Christian Academy. iHop, CVS, Golden Corral, Chipotle, Olive Garden, McDonald's. Pet store with sign stating "all puppies and kittens 50% off today only!" Baptist Church. Drive up motel. RV park. Another Publix. Public elementary school. Dilapidated house with a car on blocks out front. Gas station. Souvenir shop. Denny's. Aaaand we've made it to the beach.

I feel like every single lower to middle class area in suburban Florida that I've ever been to follows this exact pattern. WHY?!

Whittier, Alaska. Rainforest, but the town has two large buildings (basically) -- one of which is completely abandoned.

Corpus Christie, and basically most of coastal Texas. Weird combination of scorching sun, ever-present wind, and tobacco ads on every corner. Found a nice place to swim one day and DD got stung by a jellyfish. Nice guy appeared out of nowhere on the beach with a medicinal jar of pickle juice.

Place was weird af.

Anonymous wrote:A few that come to mind from my personal experience --

Butte, Montana (in the mid-80s - maybe nicer now?)
Suhl, eastern Germany (mid-90s, right around the time that racist skinheads attacked an African-American member of the US luge team there)
Mostar, Bosnia (early 2000s -- pretty town but you could still feel the oppressive hatred in the air between the Croats and Bosniaks)

There was a good podcast about Butte called Richest Hill. It definitely doesn't sound nice.. it has a giant superfund site

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Western PA. The mountains are pretty but the rest of the place creeps me out.

We recently drove to Nemacolin and on the way there, there were some creepy small towns. Same for when we were driving Kiawah, SC. There were some dilapidated homes along the way.

Wow. You realize there are towns and homes with this description in every state, right?

+1

I grew up in NH, and there are houses like this all over the place, as well as many beautiful ones.

Toledo, OH.

Waterbury and Torrington CT