I grew up in a rural town just outside the suburbs of a US rust-belt city. I had a similar experience, but not nearly so severe. Luckily for me, the suburbs were a 40 minute drive, and we had access to 2 metro areas worth of radio stations (thanks to being across lake Ontario from Toronto). So I not only heard the talking heads thanks to CFNY, I saw Depeche Mode, New Order, etc in concert with my high school friends.
The point I was going to make is that I just returned to the town for the first time in 20 years (my parents moved away in the mid 90s) due to a family vacation to Niagara Falls. I was AMAZED at how little the town had changed. If I squinted, I could be back in high school in the mid 80s. The only real differences were some of the shops had changed hands and the cars were newer. This is in stark contrast to the places where I've lived in my adult life (Raleigh-Durham, the Bay Area, Virginia) where things change at a rapid clip.
I grew up in a rural town just outside the suburbs of a US rust-belt city. I had a similar experience, but not nearly so severe. Luckily for me, the suburbs were a 40 minute drive, and we had access to 2 metro areas worth of radio stations (thanks to being across lake Ontario from Toronto). So I not only heard the talking heads thanks to CFNY, I saw Depeche Mode, New Order, etc in concert with my high school friends.
The point I was going to make is that I just returned to the town for the first time in 20 years (my parents moved away in the mid 90s) due to a family vacation to Niagara Falls. I was AMAZED at how little the town had changed. If I squinted, I could be back in high school in the mid 80s. The only real differences were some of the shops had changed hands and the cars were newer. This is in stark contrast to the places where I've lived in my adult life (Raleigh-Durham, the Bay Area, Virginia) where things change at a rapid clip.