With all the construction currently taking place downtown, this seemed like a good time to remember what passing through town used to look like.
Forty years ago there were less than half the number of students at VPI .... the same goes for the town population. This photo might have been the extent of the heavy traffic on any given day. What is amusing to me is that anytime I see an old movie or photo from the late 60's into the early 70's you always see a VW Beetle in the scene.
Who knows where the folks in these cars were headed? Radford Brothers grocery? (which became Wades, which became the YMCA Thrift store) .... much beyond that there was little commercialism, and you felt like you were starting to get WAY away from town.
LOL - There is my own personal Christmas Nite Lite which shined through my bedroom window when I was a child. I was born and raised at the Campus Inn - right across the road from this photo. (aka Raines Real Estate...Creekmore Law Firm) I am truly Blacksburg's Child of the 60s! In fact - those are probably most likely MY butt marks in the snow as I rode down the hill on my piece of cardboard box. That's what I did every time it snowed. Downtown Blacksburg was my personal playground.
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