This story is going to be told in several parts.

Part one: Growing up in Union South Carolina. Growing up here one of my favorite places to go was the newsstand beside the bank on Main Street. It was the size of a hallway. One side covered in magazines and comic books, etc. They popped fresh popcorn out of an actual old-timey popcorn machine beside the front door on the sidewalk. Downtown was bustling and alive. Then Walmart just kept growing and stuff kept closing. I remember clearly when they built the 4 Lane highway that goes from Union to Spartanburg South Carolina. Before it, it was two lane back roads. Now downtown is dead except for a very good coffee shop and the local branch of the University of South Carolina has apparently bought a lot of the buildings. The tallest building in the city is on Main Street. At one point it was a hotel. Now it's poor people housing. Everything has moved to the four lane. There is miraculously traffic in a town that has done nothing but shrink. Apparently there's a sidewalk on one side of parts of it. Lol I live on the other side of town. No one ever comes. Let me tell you how often I have visitors. There is only one county in Upstate South Carolina that has seen negative population growth. Union County, South Carolina. Every other county in the Upstate has grown.

Part two: downtown Greenville, South Carolina. I lived in Greenville, South Carolina for about three years. There are beautiful waterfalls in the center of the city in downtown. When I moved there was no way to see these falls. There was literally a bridge over them. While I was there they removed the bridge. There is now a suspended walking bridge that arcs around the waterfalls. Greenville, South Carolina is scheduled to have the tallest building in the state. It has grown exponentially. BMW is in Greer, South Carolina. It is the headquarters for so many things. Greenville, Greer, and Spartanburg are in between Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia on Interstate 85. This is where the majority of the growth has come in the state. Last time I checked, the capital of the state did not have an international airport. Only a regional metro airport. Greenville-Spartanburg has always had an international one and there's a smaller, near downtown airport.

I guess there are only two parts. Not much else needs to be said.

I hear people say all the time how blessed my hometown is. A lot of really poor people actually tell me the truth because of how I am. And the despair is real.

Written by B. on July 8th, 2026.

If you die it's front page news. If you get put in jail there's a special paper just for that. When the gas guy knocked on my door to tell me about the gas leak I mentioned I was blind and he said yeah he thought so. I don't look blind unless something has dramatically changed, I just don't. That is people in this town talking. They ain't got nothing better to do than to talk about other people.