I wonder if Lovecraft was thinking of Montesano, Washington, when he imagined Innsmouth.

[Aristus]

This little burg has the dismaying scent of decay everywhere.

I'm staying here while doing a hospital rotation in Aberdeen for P.A. School. A local doctor set up his rental house as student lodging, and I'm staying here because it's too far to drive back to Puyallup every day. Plus, I need to be close to the hospital if something happens.

But Montesano has the feel of a post-industrial town in a Springsteen song. Boarded-up houses, empty businesses, lonely, near-empty restaurants that provide mediocre food and lots of oblivion-offering liquor. The tumble-down houses grow lawns of moss, instead of grass. The legendary Northwest overcast is here a permanent fixture, and an unending drizzle drip-drips outside my window.

Everyone native to the town seems to be middle-aged. There are almost no young people. I guess they get out while the getting's good. And no very old people. I guess shuffling off the mortal coil is preferable to living here for any length of time.

I walked a couple of blocks to an Italian restaurant/lounge that I wouldn't look at twice back home. Wanted some dinner and a few drinks. The waitress/bartender barely looked twice at me, either. I wasn't a local, and not worth her time, evidently. I practically had to arm-wrestle her best two-out-of-three to get a plate of manicotti and a couple of beers. I ate as quickly as I could while the smattering of locals gossiped and reminisced in very loud voices. Every one of them had beer-bellies, beer-brand tee-shirts, and baseball caps.

I came back to my lodging and went to my room. I'm depressed, and stuck in this place until the weekend...

I'm glad I have my DU friends. Don't know what I'd do without you in this place...

[Haole Girl]

1. Aww

Aren't you glad you don't live there, permanently?!!

:hug:

[Aristus]

2. You have no idea...

:hug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. No, Montesano is Kingsport.

La Conner is Innsmouth.

Acme is Dunwich.

Anywhoo, I seem to remember Aberdeen having a neat old library. At least it did thirty years ago. That's where I'd spend my free time.

[cemaphonic]

4. Aberdeen isn't so cheerful either.

That whole area has been economically depressed since the late 70s or so, so as you say, decay is everywhere, and young people get the hell out of there when they can.

[SoxFan]

5. Actually, it's Newburyport, Mass.

In Lovecraft's time, a lot of smaller New England port cities (Newburyport, Salem, Portsmouth, Portland) were depressed and decaying.

The funny thing is that now, these towns are gentrified, upscale places, brimming with restaurants and art galleries. Lovecraft would never recognize Newburyport today.

Most of Lovecraft's work is set in either Providence or in the North Shore and Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts.

[Aristus]

6. I always wanted to visit Newburyport and the other towns-in-disguise he wrote about.

I guess if they're gentrified and prospering, I wouldn't get a feel for the Innsmouth Lovecraft imagined.

Oh well. Like I said, I'm getting a pretty good idea of it right here...

There's no lock on the door of my room. At night, I imagine a platoon of squishy, flapping Deep Ones sponging up the stairs to my unguarded room...