WHAT WAS THE AMERICAN SMALL TOWN LIKE?

WHAT WAS THE AMERICAN SMALL TOWN LIKE?


I'm glad I was born soon enough to have seen the American
small town, if not at its height, at least in the early days of
decline into its present forlorn status as a conduit for cars
and people, all headed for some Big City over the horizon. The
small town was not always a stultifying trap for bright young
people to escape from; in the years before wartime travel
("How're you gonna keep'em down on the farm/After they've seen
Paree?") and the scorn of the Menckens and Sinclair Lewises
made the cities a magnet for farm boys and girls, the town of
five to twenty thousand was a selfsufficient little city-state
of its own.

The main street of those Midwestern towns I remember from
the thirties varied little from one place to another: there
were always a number of brick Victorian buildings, labeled
"Richard's Block" or "Denman Block," which housed, downstairs,
the chief emporia of the town--the stores which made it a shire
town for the surrounding farmlands. Each of these stores was
run according to a very exact idea of the rules of its
particular game. A hardware store, for instance, had to be
densely hung inside with edged tools--scythes, sickles,
saws--of all descriptions. It had to smell of oil, like metal,
and often like the sacks of fertilizer stacked in the back
room. It had to have unstained wood floors, sometimes sprinkled
with sawdust, and high cabinets of small drawers containing
bolts, screws, nails, and small plumbing accessories. It had to
be owned and run by a middle-aged man in a blue apron, assisted
by one up-and-coming young man and one part-time boy in his
middle teens. It had to sell for cash on the barrelhead, and it
did.

The drugstore was a horse of a different color (and
order), but it was circumscribed by equally strict rules. Here
you would ask the white-coated and (often rimless-spectacles)
druggist for aspirin or Four-Way Cold Tablets or Bromo-Seltzer,
or perhaps for paramedical advice, which he was glad to give....

These towns are by and large gone in 1974, their old
stores shut up with dusty windows, or combined, two or three at
a time, to make a superette, a W.T. Grant store, or a
sub-and-pizza parlor. The business has moved to the big
shopping center on the Interstate or on to the city over the
horizon, and the depopulated old towns drift along toward
oblivion, centers of nothing in the middle of nowhere.

From "Int'l Jet Set Hits Watkins Glen" by L.E. Sissman in
Selections From 119 Years of the Atlantic. Copyright
* 1974. Used by permission.


1. According to the essay, what is the major reason for the
decline of the American small town?


(1) Cars made people more mobile.

(2) Lack of variation from one town to another drove people
away.

(3) Big cities drew people away from the towns.

(4) Their main streets were all the same.

(5) Writers criticized small town life.


Correct Answer: 3
Difficulty Level: Easy


Many of the questions on the Interpreting Literature and
the Arts Test are like this one: they require you show that you
understand an important idea contained in the selection. The
idea may or may not be directly stated in the selection.

The information needed to answer this question is
contained mainly in the first paragraph of the selection, where
the author comments briefly on what drew people away from the
small towns. It is here in the first paragraph that the author
refers to the way the cities lured people away from the small
towns.

As stated in option (3), big cities drew people away from
the towns for many reasons; the way small towns were referred
to in writings of the time was only one of the reasons. Option
(3) is the best answer because only this answer offers the
major reason.


2. How does the author feel about the American small town?


(1) angry

(2) nostalgic

(3) spiteful

(4) embarrassed

(5) relieved


Correct Answer: 2
Difficulty Level: Moderately difficult


The writer's attitude toward the subject, or the way he or
she feels about it, is another area about which questions are
asked in the Interpreting Literature and the Arts Test. Rarely
does an author directly state his or her feelings about this
subject. Instead, you must detect or infer those feelings from
the way the author writes about the subject. Answering
questions like this one requires an understanding of the total
selection.

The writer's attitude comes through clearly throughout the
selection. In stating that he was happy to have seen the small
town "at its height," the author is making clear his positive
attitude toward the subject. In addition, the use of the term
"forlorn" in the first sentence suggests a sadness regarding
something wonderful that has passed by. Only option (2),
nostalgic, expresses this attitude towards the subject.


3. Given the descriptions of the small town stores, the
author would most likely view modern shopping malls as
places


(1) catering to small town people

(2) taking over the role of small farm stores

(3) lacking the friendliness of small town stores

(4) providing variety and sophistication to small town clients

(5) carrying on the tradition of small town stores


Correct Answer: 3
Difficulty Level: Difficult


Several questions in the Interpreting Literature and the
Arts Test ask you to use your understanding of the reading
selection to predict how the author or a character will act in
a different situation. The detailed descriptions of small town
stores provided in the second and third paragraphs of the
selection emphasize their neighborliness and emphasis on
personal service. Since the author views the decline of the
small town as a source of regret, it is most likely that he
would view modern shopping malls as places that lack the
features that characterize small town stores. Option (3)
expresses this idea best.