Elegy

Is that a handkerchief or a flower bud in his hand?

Paul Bunyan

I file this one under Abandoned because it was discarded to parts unknown once the small home improvement store upon which he stood went out of business. Who knows, maybe he’s in the living room of the folks who owned that shop, his earnest face a protest against the big box stores (half of which have since went defunct around here, too). By the time I took this picture, he had already lost his axe, and his jeans had worn to an acid-washed finish.

For those of you who have just begun making photography a habit, I recommend that you do take the time to capture the oddball sights you encounter. They may be gone by the time you return. I’ve been taking pictures for 16 years, and about a quarter of the places I’ve snapped no longer look as they did in my pictures, lost to demolition or updates.

As an aside, I’ve been puzzled for years as to why the updates of brand logos seem to erase or obscure their previous versions. Try as I might (and this is just one example), I can’t envision a K-Mart logo from the early 80’s, despite that my family shopped there at least twice a month back then.

Grumpy

The Allen County Children’s Garden in Lima, Ohio, features statues of Snow White and all seven of her dwarves. These statues are repainted by volunteers every few years.