RT 23

When I was a little girl my father and I were driving down the road.  I freakish summer storm came upon us and the sky was shattered with wild bolts of lightening.  It was dinner time.  He slowed the car and said "Wow Chris look at that"  Up on a hill to our left where scarce trees stood a haunted house sat.  It looked fake...like a movie set.  There was a woman who had just run in the front door, she had a yellow housecoat on, I saw the back of her as the door slammed to the wind.  To the left hung laundry whipping wildly on a line.  She had been caught in the rain.  My mouth dropped open and the image has never left me.

Years went by as the house fell into disrepair, appeared abandoned for a while and eventually, I believe, there was a fire and the house was destroyed and ripped from the hill as if it never existed.

Today a gas station/mini mart sits in that area.  But Ahhh the power of the net.  I found a picture of it...I posted the pic on my FB page and it garnered a visceral response...I wasn't the only one that missed it's presence.  I'd take that house over a mini mart any day.

The Haunted House

A bit further down the road A huge farm met a similar fate.  When my parents moved up here from the city there was only one grocery store we would go to.  Food Town!  My significant other's father allegedly won a bicycle for offering up the name when it opened.  My friend Cheryl and I reminisce about the place often.  You could  buy milk and only one type of lettuce (iceberg)!  Whole Foods but was a dream.  It serviced this area for many a year.  I recall the kiddie rides and a food court/snack bar - I suppose now food shopping was an all day affair back then.  You could take any size box from their 'recycle' bin of boxes at the front of the store.  And being a deli or produce clerk provided a liveable wage for these parts!  

It all must've been a farm, both sides of the road.  My boyfriend remembers cows crossing (Route 23!)  Across from Food Town a huge barn stood.  Not that long ago a large billboard went up offering it's prime real estate.  I hoped against hope that someone would purchase it and return it to it's former glory...no dice.

Trucks pulled up and began dismantling it.  I shot these pics on an overcast moody day.  I may be wrong but it seems to me that it is being systematically dismantled in an organized fashion with much care.  Hopefully this piece of history will be spread out among other structures being erected and that the purchasers will appreciate the origins of their creation.

My father would have a fit if he knew I had been climbing through it's remains.  I needed to touch the stone foundation and be amazed that dry hay still remained in it's bowels.  The craftsmanship of those that came before is humbling...

Hay still there!  Stone construction has stood the test of time

Hand Hewn

Good Bones

Thank goodness I shot the pics when I did ...It's now gone

Across the street on the edge of a swampiness, there is a small springhouse.  It has that feeling of a french countryside painting.  It is quietly being reclaimed by the earth...slowly I watch it edge into damp darkness.  I miss the old days sometimes.

Good Energy to you and your wisps of days gone by!