How Do You Spend Your Weekends?
The internet is great for a wealth of information on just about any topic and with government sites online dumping tons of data for the world to look over I’ve benefited from easy access to information on the topic of population decline.
The US Census website has been amazing for this, but let me just say there is no shortage of stuff to dig through and I’ve spent countless hours doing just that. This weekend and past weekends (maybe even late week nights after putting the kids to bed as well) I’ve been digging through mounds of data on the population numbers of each county, Parish, Borough in the U.S. from 1900 to 2016. Only, most of these files are separate and many are not even in a spreadsheet format. So I’ve been going through and doing a copy & paste from each county to match them up with current & previous versions.
Luckily the 2016 census estimate had a spread sheet that I’ve been able to use as a primer, but with some states not even being in the union as of 1900 and some files arranging their data oldest decade to newest, or newest to oldest, I’ve worn out the “V” & “C” buttons on my keyboard. Needless to say, I’m very happy to say that all this work will most likely lead to about only 30-60 seconds of actual screen time when the film is made, but will help direct some of the locations I choose to visit and people to be interviewed.
Do you know of any great reports put out by your state, county, university, or other expert that shows relevant data for a rural area you think is hard hit by population decline, go to the connect page and send me a link. This goes for news stories, or personal experiences as well. Don’t be shy, I love being contacted by folks.
Also, if you find Lost Americana interesting and can’t wait to see the film, get the word out on social media and at the local grain elevator, or community center. I’m currently in the process of setting a date for the photo book to be published and will be looking most likely to crowd fund the majority of the financing for the movie. The more people following me on social media, subscribed to the email list the better I’ll have of making the goals I set.
Help me get the word out and I’ll keep spending my weekends researching and my vacation time traveling the countryside.
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