When the author was a boy, his father ran a drug store in left half of this building. At the time (1950s) this little town of 500 people had more than a dozen stores in its downtown. Now most of them are gone, and replacing the drug store is a convenience store that carries a small mishmash of products. All serious shopping in done in a larger town six miles away. This story of the change in retail downtowns caused by the automobile has been repeated throughout most of the United States.