Today I saw this post on Facebook:
I can’t imagine abandoning such cool architecture, so I did some digging:
#3 – As jobs left the area, people followed. The population of Helena has been declining steadily since the 1960s, leaving many homes abandoned.
This feels like the opposite of the SF Bay Area. We have jobs and people keep moving here for work and apparently abandoning their hometowns. Not because they always want to, but because they have to. I am so grateful that I don’t have to leave my hometown in order to find work. I can’t imagine growing up in an area where there are no jobs.
Even though I have been focusing on my relatives that came to the Bay Area from Ireland to start their new lives, that is just one tiny branch of the family. My Grandpa Frank came to the Bay Area in the early 1930s (I think) from Zanesville, Ohio. I’m guessing he was looking for work too and ended up at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Alameda. At some point beforehand though, he worked at Owens-Illinois Glass Factory in Oakland where he met my Grandma Gerry. They got married and raised a family in Alameda. He made himself a life out here in the Bay Area before retiring with Grandma in Nevada. He never did go back to his hometown in Ohio.
Grandpa Frank and Grandma Gerry
Monday, February 17, 2025:
Theresa Donahoe 