<story><title>Shit life syndrome</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit_life_syndrome</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>padolsey</author><text>This is quite darkly hilarious tbh. And consistent with my experience of Blackpool.&lt;p&gt;I once went there on couple-week-long driving course when I was a teenager, hoping but eventually failing to get my license. I was put up in someone&amp;#x27;s house that was run as a sort of unlicensed b&amp;amp;b. The entire place, the curtains, the linen, the pillow,.. all smelled of old nicotine and damp. On my first evening I went out by myself to a fish-and-chip shop, feeling like a silly city boy in a greasy gritty concrete town. Stuck out like a sore thumb. I remember walking, late evening, lonely, on a bridge over the railtrack. The entire place felt deserted, metallic and concrete.&lt;p&gt;I went back to my room and ate the oily chips on my bed. After the first day with an old crusty – but perfectly lovely driving instructor – and a rather large heavy-haulage driver who was renewing a license, we went out for some drinks. Beers. Lots of beer. And they took me to a gay club – of which there are oddly many in Blackpool – because they thought it&amp;#x27;d be a laugh. It was actually a massive spectacle for me. It was the first time I saw older men kissing, right there, by the entrance on a old tawdry sofa. I was still on a journey of coming out, so it felt oddly enlightening or validating or something. It was an old-england gay club – the type you hear about in the era of stonewall.&lt;p&gt;The entire town was like a time capsule to a poorer apocalyptic britain. Betting shops, cheap nail salons, boarded up derelict buildings everywhere! Even the beach was deserted. It reflected the same depressing crumbling economy of coastal towns all over the UK. It felt like a shadow of its former self, but somehow, there was a old english magic to it that I can still feel. My nostalgia is probably getting the better of me, but I remember it fondly.&lt;p&gt;So yeh I think I understand this SLS thing. In places like Blackpool – forgotten remnants - you can feel the depression in the paving stones – the grey withering vitality – swallowing you whole.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>placesalt</author><text>(beautiful writing, as others have said!)&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; the same depressing crumbling economy of coastal towns all over the UK&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m surprised to hear that coastal towns in the UK are doing poorly. In North America, it&amp;#x27;s generally the coastal areas that are more prosperous.&lt;p&gt;Was it overbuilding during the era of British sea power? Or a great sucking-up of wealth by London?&lt;p&gt;It makes me wonder if, long term, seaside areas would make good places to buy property. Surely, on the whole, they have more natural beauty than inland areas.</text></comment>
<story><title>Shit life syndrome</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit_life_syndrome</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>padolsey</author><text>This is quite darkly hilarious tbh. And consistent with my experience of Blackpool.&lt;p&gt;I once went there on couple-week-long driving course when I was a teenager, hoping but eventually failing to get my license. I was put up in someone&amp;#x27;s house that was run as a sort of unlicensed b&amp;amp;b. The entire place, the curtains, the linen, the pillow,.. all smelled of old nicotine and damp. On my first evening I went out by myself to a fish-and-chip shop, feeling like a silly city boy in a greasy gritty concrete town. Stuck out like a sore thumb. I remember walking, late evening, lonely, on a bridge over the railtrack. The entire place felt deserted, metallic and concrete.&lt;p&gt;I went back to my room and ate the oily chips on my bed. After the first day with an old crusty – but perfectly lovely driving instructor – and a rather large heavy-haulage driver who was renewing a license, we went out for some drinks. Beers. Lots of beer. And they took me to a gay club – of which there are oddly many in Blackpool – because they thought it&amp;#x27;d be a laugh. It was actually a massive spectacle for me. It was the first time I saw older men kissing, right there, by the entrance on a old tawdry sofa. I was still on a journey of coming out, so it felt oddly enlightening or validating or something. It was an old-england gay club – the type you hear about in the era of stonewall.&lt;p&gt;The entire town was like a time capsule to a poorer apocalyptic britain. Betting shops, cheap nail salons, boarded up derelict buildings everywhere! Even the beach was deserted. It reflected the same depressing crumbling economy of coastal towns all over the UK. It felt like a shadow of its former self, but somehow, there was a old english magic to it that I can still feel. My nostalgia is probably getting the better of me, but I remember it fondly.&lt;p&gt;So yeh I think I understand this SLS thing. In places like Blackpool – forgotten remnants - you can feel the depression in the paving stones – the grey withering vitality – swallowing you whole.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hkt</author><text>Beautifully put, an answer approaching literature. I have the same feelings about Blackpool.&lt;p&gt;Coastal towns really are monuments to another time. The houses are beautiful, too - a two bedroom flat in one of the old guesthouses on the sea front with bay windows is a steal in most towns, if you can cope with the town itself.&lt;p&gt;Scarborough is another one. It was clearly so much more full of life than it is now, but its status as an elder resort is part of its charm. The poverty, so much not.</text></comment>