Home Pt. 6: Wrong Side of the Tracks

Sussex, NB - CE - Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 : goo

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This post is, in no way whatsoever, meant to insult the residents of the area I'm profiling. This is actually one of my favourite parts of town; it's interesting, there is a great deal of social cohesion (likely the most in what is largly a pre-suburban rural town), and, among a few bad apples, there are lots of great, hardworking people living here. If I were to ever move back to Sussex (which isn't going to happen), this is where I would choose to live.

The labeling of this area as "The wrong side of the tracks" isn't my own, it's a perception held by most people who don't live in the neighbourhood. It is true that to a middle class resident of the town, it would appear to be literally the wrong side of the tracks as the nicer part of Downtown is on the other side of the railroad track and it is indeed a little rough around the edges.

The contrast can be seen in the first two pictures:

The beginning of Park Street:

Downtown from roughly the same spot:

Nelson Street has always been somewhat of an anomaly in Sussex. Sure there are other older, somewhat rundown parts of town, but Nelson Street was always the worst. It's fixed itself up quite a bit in recent years. The road used to be so patchy from repairs that it was almost impassable and literally arced in the middle.

The end of Nelson street is marked with one of two of the town's grain elevators and the Co-op farm supplies store and gas bar.

We then make our way down the adjacent Park Street:

This is the livestock auction where once a week, cows, pigs, horses and other livestock are auctioned from one farmer to the other. I've been to them a long time ago, they're quite fun (auction day is often the only day many farmers "go into town" and buy their supplies for the week). The attached stables are a really neat maze (atleast for a kid). A drivers ed office is located beside it in the yellow building.

Across the street:

A view of the old railway yards and a bit of Broad Street. The Brick building at the far left is Hotel Sussex.

Next in the series: Carwashes

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