It

I scribbled this piece on three sheets of paper two and a half years ago. Now, just today I came across it again, edited it and am sending it out to you. It has age to it, but is still relevant today, not just to me, but to other people around the world who suffer from the same type of circumstance that I describe here. Each one who lives this experience takes a different look at it and takes a different amount of time to get over it, if that is possible at all.

I am not sure how long it was there.
Frankly I do not even care.
The thing that really matters you see.
It is all the lives it touched, including me.
It started out small as many others do.
Year by year it just grew and grew.
It began out on the edge of town.
Then it grew to one of the biggest in around.
More and more people drove down the street.
Many of them stayed and grew up on two feet.
It continued to grow, to spread out here and there.
More people came down that road from everywhere.
Some folks stayed because they did well.
Others left screaming and claimed it was hell.
There were many there 30, 40 years at hand.
They stayed until the collapse pushed them from the land.
Now the land is barren, empty and bare.
A passerby might wonder if anything was ever there.
I think about the old Litton factory.
I think about my 20 years and the 20 before.
I think about all the improvements done to make a better product.
I think about all the people who worked there through the years.
Some spent their entire working lives there.
I think of how many homes were bought with money earned at Litton.
How many cars and trucks were purchased with money from Litton?
How many people in Detroit earned wages from cars bought here in Springfield with money earned from Litton?
I wonder how many circuit boards made here at Litton traveled across the country, and to different continents around the world.
The reality is that one star in a sky full of stars has burned out.
People around the world look up at the stars at night and see no difference in the sky.
Millions of people stare at millions of stars and see no change.
It is only us, the ones who hung our past, present and future on that one star called Litton who feel the change in the solar system.
It was a good run; but the star we hung our hopes upon is now gone forever.