Mary Sue - Coming Home

The Town of Placeholder

The town of Placeholder is in the middle of nowhere. There's a funny story about the name, but you can probably guess what it is. It's one of those places that's boring but important, a significant breadbasket, a former oil town, and a hub of multiple trains that pass through it, change directions and head out again. As a result, it really should have tons of crime.

Most hubs of railroads are hotbeds of petty crime, and it steadily gets worse and worse until they are filled with nightmares of people. Placeholder isn't like that. No one really knows why. There must be a reason, but it simply isn't so. It is the kind of place that has regional and state meetings, simply by virtue of location. This virtue also leads it to have slightly more business than other surrounding areas. There is a bowling alley, five bars, and three grocery stores. There are half a dozen fast food restaurants and three semi-fancy places.

Maybe the story isn't so boring after all. Or at least, if it's boring, it's not unimportant. Two major railroads, unplanned, crossed in the middle of nowhere. This was back when this part of the world was empty, and a lot of land was just owned on paper, and no one really had even seen it, even though they owned it. So, this land was bought, sight unseen, to allow for railroads and growth. If you haven't seen a railroad up close, they do not like sharing the land directly in their path with anything. So, having two railroads cross, even in the middle of nowhere, even if everything runs on time and the trains on those railroads should never see each other, it is a recipe for disaster. There had to be a crossover built... and a building and or switching station. That was a necessity, and cheaper than rerouting the cargo that was scheduled to run on those railroads. A switching station needs attention, as they didn't have automation back then, and a person to run it. So, they built a building to house this person, and the person built a house to live in, because who wants to live where they work?

This person, nameless as they are for the purposes of this story, was a friendly sort, and had to get supplies. So, initially, he would travel the distances required and haul back supplies. He, again, was friendly, and made friends with his suppliers. So, they started bringing him supplies. And one of them had an attractive young daughter. She had fallen for the charms of this nameless railroad employee, and after some reasonable discussion possibly relating to future children and such, there was a marriage and shortly after, the aforementioned children.

Despite, or perhaps because, it was the middle of nowhere, it was also kind of equally distant from everywhere, and so the supplier, while visiting his daughter, needed somewhere to stay and maybe keep his stuff. So, another house, and something resembling a warehouse, equally distant from lots of places, was built. By this point, it was almost a town. When the train started actually making stops there, there was a reason for it to grow even more. Train employees like having a place to sleep that isn't moving. They like having a place to spend their time, especially with liquid refreshment. They might like some places that'll cook food up for them, and maybe some leisure.

It was a town without ever meaning to be, because of a nameless railroad employee who was friendly. So, when the government officials who dedicate towns and establish post offices came through, there wasn't really a name. And despite the fact that they probably intended to give the town a name later, and it may have been just a joke, the town was registered as Placeholder.

The locals don't really seem to get it, but outsiders think it's hilarious. Truthfully, though, the locals do get it, in the same way that retail workers get the hilarious jokes they hear a hundred times about how the lack of a price tag means that things are free. I'm sure it was funny to them about the time the town was founded, and listed, and showed up on maps, and became a minor tourist destination, then stopped being a tourist destination. But by the time the place was a transport hub, they were a bit done with it.