Echoes of the Past

In my quest to avoid hard work today, I spent some time looking at a few sites showing images of abandoned buildings. Some are creepy, some are freaky, and some are just plain fascinating!

I particularly enjoy the site chronicling the demise of an old Mental Health Sanitorium in the USA. Of course there are your usual tales of apparitions and scary vibes, but it's amazing to see how it was just deserted, leaving intact beds, files, bottles of "samples", the odd wheelchair and some rather incredible architecture.

Other sites chronicle left-behind warehouses and factories, old slaughterhouses and shacks, ruins of castles and mansions. Wow.

I know there are a couple of old buildings around here - perhaps I should haul out my trusty Minolta (with its shoulder-straining bag of lenses) and go take a few shots! There was a huge and crumbling fruit cannery in town a couple of years ago - that would have made for some good pics. It has since been torn down and replaced with "factory shops" and a warehouse-style mega-church.

I've always been fascinated by the old, the creepy, the somewhat-unexplained, tales of the odd. I guess that explains my X-files addiction. I'm not heading toward any paranormal obsession (I hope), but do enjoy wondering at things around us, some of them beyond our understanding, and some with interesting stories to tell.

When you can't leave your desk it makes for a mind-boggling virtual trip.

::additional thoughts::
Here in SA an empty building would soon be occupied by "squatters" and homeless folks, but you have to wonder if some of these places could be put to good use for the local community. Places like an inner-city school that was closed down and deserted because of a killing or so there, and has never been re-opened to educate those in the area. I'm sure many of these places could find new life - heck, I'd happily take a few over, renovate and re-use!!

::update::
Realized that there are a few really cool deserted building right close by, including a few old farm buildings on campus! Me and my Minolta are going hunting asap.... Anything of value might just end up enlarged, printed in black & white and mounted as "art".