Introduction

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Small town culture reaches way beyond a small population count. The small town is associated with either a certain kind of nostalgic charm or loss. Those two sentiments are both a product of recall and fleeting memory, intimate scale and physical deprivation. A small town is somewhere where everybody knows everyone, but also a place with an inherent lack of privacy. These places, resonant in the collective imagination, are generally rural, often conservative, and in many cases fighting to stay alive. Towns with a healthy local business and job culture to keep residents in town are sustainable, but others are left to a slow demise. Small towns in America are being hit hard by a loss in industry and agriculture. With large commercial entities bogarting every market, the demand for farming and industry in rural areas is depleting. With no strong job base, citizens find themselves commuting elsewhere for work, causing cash-flow outside of their community. However, small-town culture is still appealing to many. Nostalgia will never leave us, it is what we as humans yearn for, and it is what will save small-town America. How can we consider nostalgia as a commodity, bringing into fruition the idea of memory tourism? How might this save one town in particular, a small town in Kentucky called Falmouth?