How Long?

[RSL]

Here's one from yesterday in Victor, Colorado, shot through a very dirty window. A D800 wouldn't have helped with this one. It's interesting to look at the depth of the dust on the stools and the counter at the right and try to guess how long this place has been shut down. I've been going through Victor since about 1966 and I don't remember the restaurant being open.

[John R Smith]

But someone goes in and cleans it up, from time to time. Otherwise those bits of missing ceiling would be all over the floor . . .

How curious. A time capsule - really nice pic, Russ. Love the cash register 

John

[popnfresh]

If it really has been shuttered and left alone all this time, it's truly a time capsule from another era. Pretty amazing. Ditto re: the cash register.

[ckimmerle]

The OSB is pretty new, no doubt covering a hole in the floor, and it's nice that the paint on it's edges matches the decor.

It's definitely been kept up, that's for sure, but not so much that the room has lost it's charm.

While the cash register is pretty cool, I'm really diggin' those stools.

[Riaan van Wyk]

I've often wondered what the "tavern" that Kris Kristofferson sings about in his song " How to beat the devil" would look like. This could be it Russ.

On a side note, I often feel the heartsore of the previous owners of establishments like this. It seems that I can hear their heartache filled voices describing their despair of experiencing a failed dream.

[RSL]

I'm not sure, but the interior cleanup may have been at least moderately recent. What's happening in the goldfields around Victor is fascinating. Nowadays, instead of doing things the old way, illustrated in the Vindicator mine processing building I've attached, they simply remove the earth, as shown here. The countryside is full of piles of tailings that must tower four or five hundred feet above their surroundings. One of them covers the remains of the little ghost town of Elkton, which I shot in the sixties. With the price of gold where it is, mining has increased exponentially, and Victor is gradually coming back as a bedroom community for people associated with the mining operations. I plan to spend more time shooting in the goldfields this summer.

[RSL]

I've often wondered what the "tavern" that Kris Kristofferson sings about in his song " How to beat the devil" would look like. This could be it Russ.

On a side note, I often feel the heartsore of the previous owners of establishments like this. It seems that I can hear their heartache filled voices describing their despair of experiencing a failed dream.

I agree, Riaan. I've traveled the western prairies and mountains since the late thirties, first in the back seat of my parents' car, and later, again and again on my own. I've watched western towns gradually die and once-inhabited farmhouses empty out. I used to drive route 66, and, when the freeways came in I photographed segments of route 66, abandoned, and gradually returning to prairie. Sometimes the ghosts gather around me when I stop to photograph an abandoned farmhouse. But the changes are necessary, and though I know that the old folks felt heartache, the kids left the land and moved on, which was something they had to do. The farms out there are still, for the most part, family farms, but huge family farms tilled with wonderful, modern equipment, capable of feeding the world.

But it's hard not to feel nostalgia as the world changes. I put together a little book about that back in the sixties. You can see an online version of it at http://www.russ-lewis.com/Voices/intro.html.

[Rob C]

I agree, Riaan. I've traveled the western prairies and mountains since the late thirties, first in the back seat of my parents' car, and later, again and again on my own. I've watched western towns gradually die and once-inhabited farmhouses empty out. I used to drive route 66, and, when the freeways came in I photographed segments of route 66, abandoned, and gradually returning to prairie. Sometimes the ghosts gather around me when I stop to photograph an abandoned farmhouse. But the changes are necessary, and though I know that the old folks felt heartache, the kids left the land and moved on, which was something they had to do. The farms out there are still, for the most part, family farms, but huge family farms tilled with wonderful, modern equipment, capable of feeding the world.

But it's hard not to feel nostalgia as the world changes. I put together a little book about that back in the sixties. You can see an online version of it at http://www.russ-lewis.com/Voices/intro.html.

Beautiful, Russ. I quote your Voices on the Prairie:

"A woman then meant something:

tubs of clean suds in the lean-to

and doilies on the sideboard,

pickles and crockery

and china in the pantry,

and eyes dying slowly

hiding from the wind."


Also one of the saddest things I've ever read. It's too real, too true.

Rob C

 

[Riaan van Wyk]

Beautiful, Russ. I quote your Voices on the Prairie:

"A woman then meant something:

tubs of clean suds in the lean-to

and doilies on the sideboard,

pickles and crockery

and china in the pantry,

and eyes dying slowly

hiding from the wind."


Also one of the saddest things I've ever read. It's too real, too true.

Rob C

Sad and true indeed. Thank you for sharing this with us Russ.