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