It happened Sunday morning, in the early stages of Newswatch 16. I wandered in to the newsroom during the sports break, just in time to hear the scanner going nuts and a photographer running for the door.
A building at Main and Storrs in Dickson City had just collapsed under the weight of all that snow.
And another part of my childhood crumbled.
Until Sunday, this was a Chinese restaurant on the first floor and some vacant apartments above.
Back when I was in junior high school, this was the Dickson A/G Market, a place for a good, cheap, and filling lunch time submarine sandwich. It was a welcome change from the cellophane packaged and heat lamped trash they served back at the school.
I stopped by for a last look yesterday. It's just a pile of rubble. Soon, it will be a hole in the ground, presumable followed by an empty lot. It's a good location and I hope someone does something useful with the property.
Dickson City lost a lot of its character Sunday morning. There's not much left here. A pretty old bank was replaced with a generic looking bank building several years ago. The post office is vacant. A pair of nice family owned bakeries are long gone.
Small towns aren't what they used to be.