Well, it was an interesting visit. Some good friends had died. One in 1988, and my dad was a pallbearer, but some 15 years ago we were told that his wife had died. I found the gravestone, and her birth in 1913 is listed, but not her death. She would be elderly, but her name is still on the mailbox. No answer at the door, however.
I stopped by my old parish. It's closed as a church, and is now a residence.
I stopped by my old home. I barely found it, and could hardly recognize it. Very sad. The property is terribly run down and overgrown. I spoke with the current owners. The barn was torn down. The shop had been converted into a residence, but five years ago burned down. It looks as if the fire was within the last year. No cleanup has been done. The cooler is almost hidden by trees. The fresh, clear, cold well water is now muddy. The ponds are full of oil, the banks are gone with the water, and there is various vegetation where the ponds used to be. The vineyard is gone. The orchards are gone. The pastures are choked with vegetation. The back yard is now totally overgrown. The front yard is a mud pit full of trash. The brick columns at the head of the driveway are broken apart. The flower beds are gone. Half of the driveway is overgrown. There are brambles where the mayflowers used to be. The bee hives are gone. The gardens are mud pits. The fences are mostly rotted away. The house is still there, externally much as my dad built on it, but the interior is in disrepair. Overgrowth is growing up around the house. The smokehouse is a shambles, not because it rotted, but because it was used for target practice and for a ramp. The corrals are rotting away. The storage bins have collapsed. Someone used a trencher and cut through the irrigation lines. The pigpen is smashed. The training yard looks as if it was used for a tractor pull, then let to grow over. The plow, harrow, and bushog appear to have been left out to rust away. The greenhouse is just a foundation. There is a heap of trash where the woodpile used to be kept. The cistern was similarly filled with rubbish. There are hoods and old tires where the volleyball court used to be. The chicken coop and rabbit hutches were crushed. All the stock chutes are smashed. The cattle feeders were taken over by wildlife. The farm light is laying on the ground.
In town, the grocery store's roof fell in. The department store is just a building with graffiti and broken windows. The hardware store is gone. The feed store, however, was still there. I spoke at length with the owner, whom I remember. He has more grey hair now than I remember him having, 30 years ago. Many of the shops where we used to go are gone. Of course, the owners would be old, now.
Lots of people went there to retire, but the recession hit hard, apparently.
