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Foster, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA (North America) — 2017 — Not much existed in Foster as far as entertainment for kids. So when my church, St. Paul the Apostle, started holding a carnival each summer, (late 1960s or 1970s) it was a very big deal to me. I was still in elementary school when it started. Out in the “boonies” of Foster, a giant Ferris wheel would rise up on the church grounds a few days before the carnival was to begin. The church is located on Route 6, and when I saw that Ferris wheel as we drove by, the excitement would start to build. When the day came that my family was actually going to the carnival, I was so excited that my stomach felt funny. The Ferris wheel was just one of many thrilling rides at the festival. One ride that spun people around made my brother sick. There were booths and games and prizes and cotton candy. And it was all out here in Foster, where most of the year….nothing happened. I don’t know how many years the carnival lasted. But I do remember the letter coming in the mail from the church, informing us that a decision had been made to change the event drastically. The church had decided to eliminate the rides! The money spent on the rides was going, the letter said, to the out-of-town operators who owned the rides. I do not know exactly what the adults were thinking, but as a kid, it was as if someone had let the air out of a giant balloon. I knew right then that the event would never be the same, and it wasn’t. I still went for a couple of summers, but the excitement was gone.
Providence County, Rhode Island, USA (North America) –2017 — When I recently visited my hometown of Foster, RI, I got a sense of just how “rural” it remains since I grew up there in the 1960s and 1970s. Driving around for nostalgia, I turned off Route 6 onto Balcom Road. It was so narrow that I wondered what I would do if a car came in the opposite direction. No lines, no shoulder, and thick woods crept right to the edge of the road. Some large, nice houses, but also some with a collection of “stuff” in the yards, including what look to be non-functioning automobiles. I figured I would continue my nostalgia trip by taking the next right turn – until I saw that it was a dirt road. I kept going, and saw another dirt road. There are still dirt roads in Foster? Finally, I turned onto North Road, also narrow and encroached upon by woods. Foster is backward — that is what came to mind. Then again… maybe it is a good thing that Foster remains so undeveloped. Wait…no maybe about it. When I consider the town I live in now, where woods are disappearing to make way for more unnecessary retail. How many supermarkets, pharmacies, fast food joints, and strip malls does a town need? Somehow Foster’s rural character remains intact. It is not entirely the same – I have been told that some of the farms are gone. But the extent to which Foster has escaped development is remarkable. Would it have turned out differently if the plan to run a major highway through Foster had gone through? When I was in elementary school, it seemed everyone in Foster was trying to “Stop I-84”. The signs were everywhere. Interstate 84 in Connecticut would have been extended to run between Hartford and Providence. It was the early 1970s, the ecology movement was strong, and environmental damage was one of the arguments opponents raised against the highway. I-84 would have been an alternative to the treacherous Route 6. A stretch of Route 6 in Connecticut is actually referred to as “Suicide Six” because of the many fatal accidents. I remember my family discussing at the dinner table what we would do if our house was taken by eminent domain to make way for the I-84 project. “Maybe we’d take the money and move somewhere else entirely,” my Dad speculated. Opponents of the project won. As an adult, when I worked and lived near Hartford, I discovered how hard it was to drive back to see relatives in Rhode Island. Maybe they should have built that highway, I sometimes thought. But what would have happened to Foster? Would there have been an exit to Foster from the highway, and the typical services springing up near the exit – McDonald’s, etc.? Would Shady Acres, the restaurant that has been on Route 6 in Foster since I was a kid, have been replaced by a Burger King or a Wendy’s?