Life On North Franklin

Franklin Street, North and South, runs the entire length of the city. I think only Main Street can make the same statement, but the two are radically different: Main goes from Hanover Township to Plains in one fell swoop, while Franklin is divided into at least five sections. One of them ends up in a half-block segment; another, right outside my window, is but a block long and ends in a cliff dotted with gravestones; it picks up a few blocks later, only to end (final destination, as they say) in a stream. For all I know, there may be another cut up there, as well, making it a six-section street.

The "Unite or Die" colonial flag snake got off better.

Franklin Street is also one-way, except the sections where it is two-way; in one area, it is one-way, changes to two-way, then back again.

Up this way, there was a speakeasy which moved across the street, as well as a man who decided there were too many people in the world and so he never had children as his part of keeping the population down. At one time, there were three radio stations on the street. One was presided over by an owner who was a dead ringer for Col. Sanders; the other two had remarkably similar-sounding call signs and frequencies. A fourth station had been bought out earlier.

Franklin Street also has four banks, three churches, two colleges and one VD clinic.

With all this, it's not even a main road. Just a northbound sliced-up street that takes you nowhere in five or six pieces. You just can't get there from here; try the less-exciting Main Street.