Monthly Archives: September 2014
The things left behind
Yes, I do look in windows of abandoned buildings. How else will I know what’s inside? Like this place. Unless I’d looked inside (and made a photo while I was at it), how else could I have possibly known that there had apparently been some sort of an insect infestation there toward the end, when everything important was being packed up?
That’s important to know.
Loup City, Nebraska
photographed 8.30.2014
9 windows
My road trip took me to Hastings, Nebraska, where I got to see my pal Brett Erickson. I’ve known Brett for a few years now, and follow his blog. In all that time, and in all those images, I don’t recall that I’ve ever seen any photos of Hastings.
Maybe he didn’t want me to disclose this information, but I was able to find some old buildings while I was in town. Like this place, with those nine windows that caught my attention.
Oh, and just a word of advice here. If you are in Nebraska and it’s a football weekend and everyone from sales clerks to waiters to just random people on the street want to talk football, just go along with it. It’s a lot easier for everyone involved. Never mind how I figured that out.
Hastings, Nebraska
photographed 8.30.2014
There was some weather, #3
I took a little road trip the other day, and drove for many miles just behind this storm. Eventually I caught it, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked from a distance.
The next day, there was a line of storms on the eastern horizon. They were there all day, and it never seemed like my location changed in relation to them. That made the day seem a lot longer than it actually was.
near Perryton, Texas
photographed 8.28.2014
Stairway to…9th Street
What a graceful stairway! It connects the rarely-used plaza level of the Civic Center with pedestrian-unfriendly 9th Street.
As we say about failed architecture, “I guess it looked good on paper.”
Lubbock Memorial Civic Center
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 8.16.2014
The after-hours club
Usually when I am out shooting, passersby don’t engage me in conversation.
On this particular day, though, an older man driving a pickup pulled over as I was shooting the old drive in from the other day. Our conversation:
Him: Do you remember what used to be here?
Me: No, sir. I’m from out of town, so I don’t know anything about it.
Him: Well, it used to be one of them after hours clubs. You know the kind I mean – the ones that didn’t even open until all of them other ones had closed. There was a lot going on here.
Me: How long ago did it close down?
Him: How long? Oh, it’s been closed forever.
Now, at this point I had seen three of the four sides of the place and was still under the impression that it was a drive in, so I wasn’t too sure he knew what he was talking about. But after he drove off, I looked in a broken window on the side I’d not yet explored…and then I believed him.
He came back around a few minutes later, pulling up close to where I was standing. This time he said, “Are you looking to buy anything?”
I was afraid to delve any further into that. It can’t have been good, right?!
Midland, Texas
photographed 8.23.2014
One Day | One Image 