Saturday, March 26, 2011

Times are a Changin'

I don't like what I see...

More and more when I travel in the rural areas of my state I see development encroaching on the rural lifestyle.  I see cookie cutter homes with a 2 car garage stuffed to the brim with the overflow of materialism and everyone blends to a gray colorless lifestyle...it gives me reason to enjoy it whilst it's here...the America of old before Wall St took over every one's hearts and minds...
 I love the old structures of many kinds here in the South, soon these too will be gone so I try to savor them while I can...
Although some consider old and dilapidated buildings to be an eye sore (and some are) I find many to hold so much history that it tells me a story relates an image that speaks loudly of times past,  lives lived, better days, change, old ideas and new ones....I need to know more-see more--take a closer look--BACK!

These old farm buildings sit on a hilltop overlooking the  highway serviced by this little winding gravel one lane road--the rustic tones of the tin roof blend in perfect harmony with the golden hues of the broom sedge growing around it...
(Highway 76 in upstate SC, this area is rich in Appalachia culture) 








One of the best things people could do for their descendants would be to sharply limit the number of them. Olan Miller

...a barn--that is still in use sits right in the corner of a large field for stock animals.  IT also sits right inside the town limits of the town of Townville, SC--not many towns still have structures such as these INSIDE the city limits--


Expansion means complexity and complexity decay. Northcote Parkinson



I hope it stays that way, but other buildings in the same town were boarded up and soon the bull dozers will come a'callin.

Small towns are the backbone the USA grew up on. The population of Townville is 4,352..with very few of these people living in Town..most live in the area around town.




This rustic barn looks to be no longer in use.  I loved the way it stands protected by the large Cedar trees at the base of this hill facing what once was a hay field now gone to seed with wild flowers.  




One of the best things people could do for their descendants would be to sharply limit the number of them. Olan Miller





The small landholders are the most precious part of a state. Thomas Jefferson

This was side of the road in Oconee County and its a larger family farming operation...more and more HUGE TYSON turkey, chicken, and pork growers are fowling the land with the stench of progress--(inhumane horrid conditions for animals to live in)








Rural life has many outbuildings!
You got silo's of various sizes one is probably for fertilizer, one for crops, one for feed, and one for fuel...but its still land held by a family still making ends meet.





Mountain homes such as this one are still around but slowly being replaced as the well-to-do people consume the moutains as they have the beaches--I'll take a place like this over a gated and landscaped community any day!  A drive through the most beautiful landscapes more and more are becoming scared by the McMansions that are cropping up in the high country of our state--

For greed, all nature is too little...[Marcus Seneca]

 Before the Trees are leveled and the hillside sold I wanted to stop and pay homage to this beautiful old homestead---Im sure with a view like one across the way from the spot it wont be long before its sold for millions--

It requires a strong constitution to withstand repeated attacks of prosperity~ J. Brasford


Back when Cotton was King in the Pee Dee regions of SC the cotton fields stretched all the way to the coast where tea and rice plantations flourished... after the Civil War the nation was having growing pains and WWI was about to suck the rest of the life outta the people so the cotton fields were plowed over and planted with Tobacco to aide a society dealing with war an addiction helped to cover up the pain....then along came the tractor and that changed everything....
Share cropping was a way of life for dirt poor families who had passed the knowledge of farming from one generation to the next...if you've read the Grapes of Wrath then you know the tractors plowed right up to the "dooryard" as Steinbeck called it and the croppers had to move--Some of the old buildings they lived in remain here in the Deep South-- Life is not taken so seriously as it is in the cities, towns, and burbs....


... better get out there and see it before its all gone...




PEACE

10 comments:

  1. This is so true. Our precious rural areas along with the lifestyle is vanishing. Outstanding photos, Sondra! Oh...I also enjoyed the very fitting quotes.

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  2. So how on earth did I miss your last post :( :( I really wish I hadn't, the photos were stunning!! The first one of the lake was really beautiful and the Osprey of course.

    It is such a shame that so much of the old rural way of life is disappearing Sondra, it is just the same here and of course being such a small country, it is so glaringly obvious here as more and more of our beautiful countryside is encroached upon. I used to see farmland from my back windows, now it has been built on...

    Lovely photos again to illustrate your informative narrative and some very apt quotes ;)

    Incidentally, Steinbeck is one of my husbands favourite authors. He particularly likes 'Tales With Charley' probably because Charley is the same sort of dog as our Louis :) Have you read it at all?

    Thank you so much for signing the petition on my blog Sondra, I do appreciate it and knew you would be as outraged as we were...

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  3. Hi Sondra...I also like seeing the old building,but I also get a sadness when thinking upon the who, how, and, what side of them!!

    When I think about how much things have changed in the 60 some years since I was born, is staggering!!

    Loved the photos and the chose of captions!!

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  4. I'm still catching up on my blog reading since coming home!

    Times are a changing and it is hard to see. One of my favourite little towns down at the coast has become so modern it has lost its charm. Sigh. So much of what is built nowadays is so ugly too. And dull, ticky, tacky colours ... that all look the same.

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  5. Modern means ugly. Put it up fast and cheap. No pride of workmanship, just tacky little boxes.
    Quiet rural - the city folks are buying it up and pricing out the current population, to have their "get away" places. But then they must have internet, tv, stores, etc, so that quiet place is polluted. Sondra, you have hit square on my hot button. I wonder what world we leave our grandchildren.

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  6. Thanks Jean N. GA has some beautiful old places I need to get back out that way!-

    Shy Birdie-Ive gotten behind and so Ive been blogging like there is no tomorrow--I dont want to leave anything out since this blog is My Dear Diary" and outlines whats going on in my small world.
    AND yes I loved Travels With Charley...another wonderful reminder of times gone by-

    Grammie-Im getting more bewildered myself as change happens at the blink of an eye--

    Cerico-I watched the same thing happen to our SeaSide Towns...now its all about the tourist dollar-

    RG-ITs So TRUE..when I walk down the aisle at Lowes I shake my head-
    Cheap stuff for extravagent prices!

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  7. We were talking recently about SC and how we need to see more of the State. B/c our great-grands (and their parents) live in Charleston we've spent our time there pretty much in that area (we love that time of course)...but so much more to see and learn. Now your post makes me realize we really need to do it very soon. For which I am sorry. But afraid it's happening to too many places.

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  8. I'm having those same feelings upon my return to TX. I think they call it progress. It's more like molten lava in the form of cement. Love your photos.

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  9. So sad and so true. And it's happening all over the Globe :(
    I much rather live in one of those old cabins in the woods than in one of those new fancy houses, with all those fancy gadgets nobody really needs.

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  10. Wonderful pictures. It's the same here. Such a shame.

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