Blog Archives
in-person retail fades away (goodbye, sears)
The Sears store in my local mall has been torn down. It’s been vacant for four years.
In the last few weeks the store was open I went up there almost every day to photograph the way a former retail giant looked as it died. At first I was worried that employees might challenge me and/or ask me to leave. But as it turns out, employees who only have that job for another paycheck or two don’t really care all that much.
And so, here are a couple of versions about what the death of Sears looked like.
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 12.26.2018 and 1.3.2019
covering all the (merchandising) bases
What a place! It’s like the WalMart of Chimayó, practically, with the availability of santos, woodcarvings, popsicles, t-shirts, art, books. I mean, what else could you possibly need?
Also, don’t those commas on the stucco wall look like they were added by some kind of ad hoc sign-corrector person?*
Chimayó, New Mexico
photographed 3.16.2019
*It wasn’t me. It was that way when I got there. I promise.
patriot games
A giant flag dominated the sky (but not this photo, particularly) while a regular-size one fluttered over the intersection of 2nd and Ash.
It sort of seemed like a battle of the flags. I’ll let you decide the winner.
Wellston, Oklahoma
photographed 4.29.2023
bill
Here lies Bill, according to that sign painted on the brick wall. I don’t have any reason to doubt it.
And I guess that our departed friend Bill found it necessary to leave behind a styrofoam carry-out container, thereby confirming the suspicion that you can’t take it with you.
Galena, Kansas
photographed 1.28.2023
century bridge
My dad was a civil engineer; his specialty was water- and sewage-treatment. It was not uncommon when we were on vacation that he’d drive us to a treatment plant that was of particular interest to him. (And: they held little to no interest to me.)
He also like bridges; once when I lost out on a summer job because of a late-spring bout of mono, he took me with him on a business trip as some sort of a consolation. Along the way, we stopped to look at a bridge that had recently been washed out in a flood. He told me about the design flaws that had put the bridge in peril. (And: that held little to no interest to me.)
Yet somehow I ended up here, getting myself quite interested in this bridge. It’s called the Rainbow Bridge (named before that term’s current connotation) and it’s 100 years old this year. It is only one lane wide and is a single-span design called a Marsh arch, after its designer James Barney Marsh. And, it’s the only surviving bridge of this design on the entire 2,448 miles of Route 66.
near Baxter Springs, Kansas
photographed 4.5.2023
