It can be challenging living in a town that time forgot. It takes some time to learn that it is forgotten because the residents don’t seem to know. They will talk about 30 years ago as if it were just yesterday. Their entire branding is based on the past, not the present or future.

I live in “America’s Patriotic Home”. That branding was from a period where the Hawthorne Army Depot served a meaningful purpose. You see, the base used to be active and swarming with active duty and civil service personnel. Today, it is almost entirely contractor ran and dilapidated.

Instead of serving as critical storage, I have lovingly termed it America’s Junk Drawer. The base now only really serves to store munitions that are set for destruction. Much like the base, the munitions represent an era long gone.

In recent years, even that purpose has begun to fade. The number of shipments and storage has dropped sizably since I lived here. There used to always be trucks heading for the Depot, now it is extremely rare to see anything go in, it almost always is leaving the Depot.

The town is always so busy applauding the 50’s and 60’s that they fail to see the imminent fate. The base will ultimately become a ghost town just like the community. Slowly, but surely, unused space will at some point be forgotten and the staffing needs will decline to trickle.

The problem with reminiscing and living in the past is that the town will be blindsided by reality at some point. 80% of employment is at that base. There is no fall back, no fail safe. As the base declines, so will the community. Yet, there is not even a whisper of a plan to do anything different.

Someday Hawthorne will become a warning story to others. You cannot live decades behind the present forever. Eventually the present will catch up with you, prepared or not.