“As they carried the bags to the car, Stan looked at the stores and buttoned-up pushcarts. “How long do you suppose all of this can last?” “How long can what last?” “I mean Seventh Street and its little specialty shops and pushcarts. It’s a relic, like the Liberty Bell or something like that. They ought to declare it a national monument and preserve it.” “I don’t get you,” Ben said. “Look, they’re building houses like crazy out in the suburbs, Lower Merion, Bucks County, even South Jersey for Christ’s sakes. Young people like Mort and Tracy, ten years ago they would’ve bought a row house a couple blocks over, but they can’t wait to leave. When Mort and you and everyone else moves to the ‘burbs, what will be left? Not the pushcarts, the little shops, the people. The stores in the suburban shopping centers are an easy drive from where people are moving and you don’t have to fight for a parking space. They’re building discount department stores, too, and I bet the prices are as good as the stores on Seventh Street, maybe better. I’m telling you, ten years from now you’ll be asking where everyone went. Twenty years from now, you won’t recognize this place. Take a good look. I bet this will all be gone in twenty years.” HistoryNostalgia City Book:Whiz Kid Source: Whiz Kid