ORO GRANDE, Calif.—Over the course of his 75 years, Joe Manners has seen his hometown of Oro Grande, California, deteriorate nearly beyond recognition. Once upon a time, back when nearby Victorville was little more than a ranch, Oro Grande—“big gold” in Spanish—was known for its gold mines. Now, the town’s primary feature is a cement factory. “The kid with the butch haircut looking out over the edge of the pool—that’s me,” Manners told The Epoch Times, leafing through his sizable collection of black-and-white photos and pointing out the past. “There’s a bunch of [us], back when it was still nice and beautiful. … Now the community center’s just boarded up and barely has any grass.” The pool from the photo is long gone. The baseball field Manners enjoyed as a child has since dried up; the lights that once illuminated the field at night remain dark and broken. The distinct, …