Southern Gothic: a manifestation from my first memories
I've been noticing something i never noticed when growing up here: how the death of fall is subtle but real. Manifested in spaces of vast soybean and cotton fields, overnight naked trees, oaks holding on to their leaves, flying brown all winter. Those old paint peeling houses shining bright under dusty hot summers reflect a melancholy as the time the harvest finished. Daily soybean fields disappear. Tobacco was first, Cotton slowing going now too.
These are snapshots from my grandpa's farm. The place of my very first black and white memory of my grandmother standing on a house porch very much like the one below (this one was actually a house for farm help) as my mom drove up to drop me off in her care for the day. I was lifted and brought in a very dark house, because it was summer and they didn't have central air conditioning. To this day, my grandpa still keeps the blinds closed in the summer to keep the harsh sunlight on white house down while the inside stays dark and cool. Inviting. Quiet and resting.
An animal victim of the farm. A living thing of once was: mule, cow, deer, skulls are often found about the farm.. |
I love these. They remind me of my Gran Lila's farm in Turbeville, Va. and of the days we played in the barns - getting itchy from climbing on the stacked hay bales, riding our cousin's mare, Ginger, playing on the truly old-timey tractors... the days would be so hot by noon, that we would go upstairs and take naps on the beds whose box-springs were open springs, thin white curtains wafting the breeze that the HUGE attic-fan evoked. There was no need for AC in this house, that fan did the job.
ReplyDeleteIn the winter, Gran Lila used tightly rolled up newspapers to start the wood-stove fire that heated the house, and kept tea and hot cocoa water heating (also putting moisture into the air). Sometimes we ate whole meals cooked on that wood-stove. I miss her house and it's night-time scariness. Daytime was always one adventure after another...but night - whoa...stuff was happening in the dark in that old place... Thanks GB *hugs* great wash of memories...