Athens, OH
Athens is a difficult place to describe.
It’s a place of vile debauchery, notable education and a vast social gap… okay, it’s an easy place to describe.
Ohio University, the mainstay of Athens, OH, is a cherished institution in the state’s higher education system. Of its many recent and fine distinctions, OU is now home to Athens County’s first escalator.
To the delight and amazement of locals and intoxicated students, one can stand motionless in one place yet still ascend the stairway. Outstanding.
Escalators aside, the most notable thing about Athens is that it’s fun. Day or night there is something to do.
Athens is the world’s littlest big city. It has all of the amenities of a big city, but packed into a wee tiny package.
Melissa’s cousin let us stay at his apartment directly above Court Street.
Court Street is the main street in the town, named such for the courthouse situated halfway along its length.
It seems the local business owners decided that since everyone was on their way to court already, they had might as well streamline the process and place every watering hole in the county in close proximity.
Last I heard, there were 32 bars on Court Street in less than 1 mile. There isn’t a lot to do in Athens County.
Sleeping above Court Street is impossible.
It sounds like an island reserved for pirates on shore leave.
Bottles clanking, fights brewing, people thrown out of bars, people thrown into bars, hooting, hollering and possibly pillaging and plundering rise up from the asphalt adult Chuck E. Cheese.
I don’t know if there is another place in America, or on Earth for that matter, where the concentration of young adults is so high.
Everyone is between 18 and 24. Babies, children, the middle-aged and the elderly are rare enough to draw a crowd.
Athens only has one industry --- education.
The tenants of Athens are either students at OU, employees of OU or employees of one of the vast number of establishments that serve the needs of 30,000 students.
There’s no industry in Athens because there’s no way to get materials in or products out.
Route 33 is getting better, but still passes through a 25 mph zone and over a dozen stoplights.
The labor in the area is ready, willing and cheap, but without an artery the industry is dead.
Athens is a vibrant place, and an interesting cross section of society. The party scene is great, food and drinks are cheap and everyone is friendly.
If nothing else, OU now has a spectacular escalator.
Thanks to Crandall and Chris for taking care of us.