The Old Barn on the Way to Camp




On the drive to "camp" as a girl, there was a barn that was a landmark, telling me we were getting closer to the turnoff to the lake. Over the years it looked more and more bedraggled. The old asphalt shingles had come loose, it leaned to the side a bit, but with an air of an accomplishment, like a child standing on one foot. "Look at what I can do!" her stance said.

 Perhaps she had been a store at one time, or a storage building for goods being shipped by railroad. Nestled into the crossroads of two roads and the railroad tracks, she had been built in the days when railroad was the main way to ship goods inland. She has/had stories to tell for sure. She was built in a time when buildings were pegged together, when the main "crop" in Maine was lumber, and it was plentiful.

 Last year, a sign appeared on her back. "For sale by owner" it said. I remember laughing at the time, thinking, "Who would buy it and what would they do with it?"

This year, I saw she had slumped to the ground. I don't know if this barn fell last year's big ice storm, or if she was pulled down. But riding to camp one day I saw a crew of men pulling wood off the fallen structure and loading it into trucks, probably to sell as reclaimed lumber. I'm not laughing now.
Goodbye, Old Girl. I will always remember you. May you go on, albeit in pieces, to witness and tell more stories. Pictures of what is left:




2 comments:

Martha said...

If you see old buildings like this one, you should always get out of the car and take pictures. Over the years we have made pictures of so many old buildings that are gone now, including the JB Gunn Cotton Gin. I kept these old pictures to be able to paint them in the future, for that is all you can do to remember them and they are so charming and make you think of a time when things were totally different for life in America. It is sad to see things go that we love to see, but nothing can stay here forever, including us, so we have to try to enjoy them when we can and provide in some fashion these old places for people who would never see them and not have a clue about what life was like and how people worked and traded. The barn is gone Dixie, but as you say pieces of her will go on for another purpose. You will always have your memories of the building and what it meant and reminded you of.

Dixie Redmond said...

You are very wise, Martha.


"Do not let what you cannot do
keep you from doing what you can do."

John Wooden