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WHAT ARE THESE NEW STRUCTURES

1-2-93

Athens, GA

(C) Beverly Buchanan

Some of the nicest people live in the strangest self-built houses. Often the materials are traditional and sturdy but are suited to lonesome backroads or isolated town lots (if city inspectors don't condemn them). They may have less rodent problems than the open pit garbage condo crowd.

What attracts me, are the extra touches found above or beneath these houses - most, the FUN ones, reflect some unusual character arrangement of builder-occupant. For example, Flech Robinson had a ladder near the chimney, and a hanging large tin tub and piles of shortwood for starting fires and a bucket of water near the kitchen door. Aside from bottle trees, some people would have their mother's favorite pitcher, now rusted, with fresh cut flowers in it or tools and a pet. Something has the run of the house - pets range from large ducks to pigs, turkey hens and funny looking cats (white with yellow eyes). often it will take on almost human-like qualities: a "special" piece of wood - now part of a pig pen or hen house (chicken coop) that in an earlier life, was part of the "old home," an old axe handle, prized for the hard wood - mostly non-threatening looking places with flowers and vegetable gardens glide by the eye - but sometimes you could run up on a fascinatingly terrifying place that had suspicious occupants and their hour said "I'm usually, an OK person but then if you get too close, what you wee ought to serve as a warning to be careful." In this case, no matter how much you want to jump out and take pictures, DON'T. Most people just keep driving. I do.

(Later I try to reconstruct the "important" feature and make my version of some of what I saw. Especially if I've spotted the trash pile.)