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Charleston I think did have one good small-ish record/CD store in town. But yeah you are right it didn't seem as vibrant for a Midwest small college town, vs. say even like others like DeKalb, IL, or Bowling Green, OH. Or say like Carbondale, IL(Southern Illinois University), which has a litte more going on. Be thankful you didn't visit Macomb (home of Western Illinois University), which also seemed slow as well. And to me, I think Macomb was even slower. Also, to me it seems like a nice thing I noticed there was a separated bike path between Mattoon and Charleston.
I did visit Macomb during my college years, actually, to see another buddy from high school. Except there was one "problem": I lost my virginity there, to a girl I met at a party. Then a 40-something woman flirted with me and bought me a beer during the Amtrak ride back. So my impression of Macomb was, how you say... "tainted". So the town's vibe was mostly irrelevant after my first night there.
Sex aside, I liked Macomb a lot better than Charleston. Even though people, including a cop on foot patrol, gave me funny looks as I did my walk of shame in clubby clothes from the night before, the town felt OK for the most part. Perhaps the multistory buildings and the fake-historic streetlights made it feel more approachable, I don't know. Even if it was far from vibrant, it didn't have the hostile "Straw Dogs" vibe Charleston had; it was simply a small town where I knew I couldn't live long-term. I saw a museum, a reasonably-preserved train station, and a semblance of a real downtown. (Come to think of it, it was more similar to Mattoon than Charleston.)
Last edited by MillennialUrbanist; 06-12-2021 at 10:26 AM..
I think a lot of the Northeast is often stereotyped as creepy by those not native to the region. Certainly many areas can give off eerie vibes given the "old world" patina that many towns have, especially in the wintertime.
One place I did not expect to find creepy but definitely did in much of the state: New Mexico. From the mysteriousness surrounding Roswell to the secretive atomic bomb research in Los Alamos to the White Sands area to the various "ghost towns," I definitely did not find the "Land of Enchantment."
Cape May, New Jersey is very into historical preservation. As a consequence, there are tons of restored old Victorian mansions, and historical tours. They do kind of a big business in the "ghost tours" trade. Their beach front is also kind of unusual for New Jersey -- a short stretch of asphalt with not many stores on it, instead of a boardwalk.
Lots of New Jersey is kind of odd, actually -- in fact there's a whole book series called "Weird N.J." just about the strange places, people, and history in New Jersey.
I think Woodbine has that kind of feel to it. It's a small/rural town. Lots of places in the pine barrens feel eerie -- not many people live in most of them, and the people often keep to themselves. When I was a teenager, I was friends with someone whose parents had a house that was the only one on a short, dead-end street in the middle of the woods. Some of the towns are completely abandoned former industrial towns.
Many of the shore towns in New Jersey can feel eerie in the off season because there aren't a lot people around or stores open. And the sound of wind rushing through and around metal railings and street lamps late at night is a unique experience unlike anything else I've heard -- especially late at night, with ocean in the background.
I make a distinction between weird/eerie and seedy/dangerous, too, so there's that.
I haven't been to either of them, but from what I've heard and read, both Salem MA and New Orleans, LA can have a weird or eerie vibe to them. Salem kind of does it as their tourist trade. The East Village in New York is definitely weird, and New Hope, PA used to be, but I don't know if it still is -- and I wouldn't call either of them eerie.
A lot of Eastern NC can give Appalachia a run for its money in this department but with Appalachia, fair or unfair you would kind of expect an "uneasy feeling" in certain parts.
Eastern NC excluding Greenville just doesn't have a lot going for it until you get to the coast. The overall vibe is very negative, dead, hopeless, etc. Plus, winter, summer, spring, fall you can count on the smell of hog/chicken farms to consume the air. There is some damn good food out in this area though, props to them on that.
On a side note, don't drive Highway 70 East of Kinston at night
Atlantic City felt really weird and depressing for me. Like if you turned a washed-up former celebrity into a city. Or maybe if Buffalo and Reno spawned a city. Didn’t like that place at all.
Atlantic City felt really weird and depressing for me. Like if you turned a washed-up former celebrity into a city. Or maybe if Buffalo and Reno spawned a city. Didn’t like that place at all.
Despair and broken dreams are never far from the surface in any city built around vice.
Not a city but the ghost town of Pitcher, Oklahoma had the creepiest vibes that got even worse after most of the town was demolished. Greensburg, KS also has a weird vibe with all the modern construction in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere surrounded by dead and stripped trees from the tornado back in 2007. As far as actual cities go, Flint, MI and Waco, TX both felt like places just waiting to die. The people appeared despondent and disconnected in both places...really gave me the creeps.
Did no one mention Johnstown, PA? It is mostly abandoned with a desolate feeling, as it never recovered from the collapse of the Steel Industry as it was a much smaller city compared to the Pittsburgh region.
Having driven through WV on I-77 a couple dozen times I will say it seems like its January in WV year round. Just grey skies 24/7.
I've heard that it is almost heaven. It was a beautiful, sunny day when my husband jumped, skydived, off of the New River Gorge Bridge.
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Then a 40-something woman flirted with me and bought me a beer during the Amtrak ride back. So my impression of Macomb was, how you say... "tainted". 
So the town's vibe was mostly irrelevant after my first night there.
