The Year when Stardust Fell

Mayfield was a typical small town in rural America. Nothing much ever happened there. Then, one day, cars stopped working, the bearings seized and pistons welded to the cylinder walls. Generators stopped working. The railroads ceased to run. Bit by bit the trappings of civilization no longer functioned. Was it a new additive in the gasoline? Or was it something brought on by the strange comet that hung ominously in the sky? Whatever it was, the citizens of Mayfield knew that life would never be the same after The Year When Stardust Fell!