Small, rural towns across the U.S have experienced dramatic economic downturns as the agrarian industry evolved from one that required much manpower to one that relied more upon mechanization (machine labor).
I see much evidence of this in my road trips, occasionally taking time to photograph the abandoned businesses and homes, either in small rural towns or those scattered across rural farm and ranch lands.
Fading Facade15170
The title for this photo is taken from the street number that is hanging upside down on the post to the left of the door.
Wild Horse School
In spite of the obvious economic hardship indicated by numerous abandoned homes and businesses in one small community, this old school seem to be well cared for.
Out to Pasture
Old farm machinery rusting away in this farm field, may have been some of the initial machines that started the economic downturn in this small community.
Alone on the Plains
This lone tree in a vast, post harvest farm field, beneath the wide open sky caused me to pull over for a photo.
Until the next adventure and/or desperate need to photograph something overcomes me,
On our way to Indiana in the fall of 2021, my wife and I stayed a couple of days in a small Kentucky town, where she was born. Her sister and brother in law from Florida met us there. There are few relatives left here, but their genealogy runs back many years in this area. Chasing that genealogy was part of the incentive for this brief visit.
When not visiting the local library and graveyards, we killed a little time visiting an antique store a few miles outside of town. Since I could not be out shooting local landscapes and/or farm scenes here, I consoled myself with making a few images of old antique items with my iPhone.
Chew on This
In the parking lot of the antiques store an old GMC truck, with the store name painted on the passenger side door, drew my attention. It appears that this truck had been sitting for years in one location and had to be rescued from a tree that had grown between the front bumper and the body. The windshield interior is covered with mildew, which seems appropriate for the cloudy, rainy day.
Look what I bit off
Near the truck were a couple of old, rusty farm implements.
CultivatorSeed Planter
Inside the store, I snapped a few images of some of the old items offered for sale.
Crush It
I drank Orange Crush soft drink from a short, dark brown bottle in my very young days, but I never saw it in these screw top jars. Maybe these predate those more common little, brown bottles?
Perfect Mason
Ball Mason jars seem to be one of the most common items found in these type stores.
Zenith
I can actually remember some older folks having these old radio and/or record players (bottom pull out here) in their homes, when I was a young child.
Ballantine’s
Other frequently found items are old wooden crates for bottled beverages and/or liquor.
Sewing Tractor
Creative, crafty people sometimes come up with unique ideas for transforming antiques into whimsical items, like the sewing machine tractor in the image above. This was a first for me, I had never seen this done anywhere else. There were a couple of these in this store. The other was labeled as a John Deere.
