I knew the Welcome to Smallville mural was around somewhere, but for as many times that I drive through town, I’ve never bothered looking for it.
Didn’t bother looking for it this time, but I stopped at an intersection and there it was.
Forecast had been calling for partly cloudy skies all day, but I was sitting under a low, overcast sky with no clearing in sight. I had a feeling my sunset cruise was going to be cancelled due to lack of sun, so I decided to go wandering around in Smallville in areas where I normally don’t go.
This town has been around since the early 1800’s. There’s an old section down by the creek. Old sections of towns have old dumping grounds filled with old stuff. Figured I may as well start there. I like finding old, abandoned stuff.
And that I did.
Buried in and tumbling down a hill, old stuff all over the place.
I imagine 100 or 150 years ago… just throw that there stuff down the hill by the creek.
And that they did along with the occasional newer item, as you’ll see in the pictures below.
Nature is slowly winning this garbage battle, but I imagine it could be another century or so till it overtakes it completely and that depends on whether humans keep adding to the pile.
As a testament to our warm fall weather, I came across a fungus that I can’t recall ever seeing sprout this late in the season. We did have recent wet weather and for this area, relatively balmy temperatures.
These were huge, also much bigger than I normally see, one on each side of a big old tree standing at the base of this garbage dump.
I know it’s edible when it first sprouts like this and I toyed with the idea of taking a big chunk of it home for dinner. But the tree is a good 75 years old, growing at the base of this garbage dump for it’s whole life and I didn’t have the heart to hack off a chunk of this beautiful fungus that struggled to come out this time of year.
At that moment, it didn’t seem like the right thing to do.
Richard Velders
29 Nov 2015Since you finally made it to the town, make sure you visit the Plano Moulding factory outlet across from the Secretary of state office on 34. Thursday-Saturday. Dick
Ken G
29 Nov 2015I cut through the town all the time Dick, but the outlet store is another spot I’ve never stopped.
I’m afraid of how much I’ll spend there.
Walt
30 Nov 2015A cool picture of the real McCoy, Americana. We have a few places like that around here. People hardly ever stop; they just travel through. From the redneck bar to the Dollar General to the old streamside dump, it’s all there, and that’s why we should look.
Ken G
30 Nov 2015Came through town from a different direction this time Walt and was surprised when I saw it.
I wander around here like you do out your way. Old farms, old farm fields, miles of creeks. Over 150 years people have just left things out there to find. I enjoy the search.