Old Dealership Demolished at Jellico

     I received a telephone call Wednesday, August 31.  The caller urged me to go take a last photo of a Jellico establishment that had stood for decades.  The old Jellico Ford building was being demolished. 

     I drove my old Ford F-150 to the lot where it was purchased years ago, now the home of a brand new, recently completed, state-of-the-art Jellico Housing Authority office complex.  The actual old dealership building was just adjacent to the new sturcture where several pieces of machinery were taking it down at a fast pace.  A trackhoe made short work of the main structure while skid steer loaders and dump trucks did their due. 

     Being a lifelong Jellico resident I recalled in my mind the auto dealers that had filled the building over the years, most of them long since departed.  I recalled pining over many shiny new Fords as a teenager on the surrounding lots.  Many driving dreams were fulfilled at the facility down through the years.  The dealership had been vacant for a few years, something not uncommon after the country entered the so called "Great Recession."  Many small towns across America saw their local dealerships meet a similar fate.  I'd reckon it's just a sign of the times we live in. 

     The demolition brought a flurry of comments from passers by.  Some were sad.  Some were glad.  Some were melancholy.  Some saw great progress.  I saw the vision of a town's past when folks came from all over to buy a new vehicle at Jellico Ford.  I actually thought, although I don't believe in spirits and such, that if I looked close enough in the dust venting into the atmosphere from the demoliton, that I might see the ghosts of some of those old-time auto dealers leave the building for the very last time.