Thursday, December 28, 2006

The Demise of a Wagon

While I was out walking on Christmas afternoon, I came across this old wagon. Now, as you can probably tell, it was probably “put out to pasture” many years ago as the wheels had taken root right into the ground. In its best of days, it probably serviced the farmer’s field by carrying the thousands of apples that this farm produces annually. Now, in its retirement, it is nothing but a relic of the way things used to be.

But why keep it around? Maybe it is a reminder of days gone by. Now, I am not a wagon historian by any means but by looking at other wagon photos on the Net, this wagon must be at least one hundred years old!

Just off to the right of this photo, there stood a Massy Ferguson farm tractor with an environmentally controlled “cockpit” of dials, controls and other high tech equipment in stark contrast of the soon-to-be sunken wagon. How times have changed! Sometimes we need to see the contrast between the old and the new in order to appreciate how easier life is for us in the now 21st century.

Maybe the farmer left this derelict in his field as a stark reminder to us of what our lifestyle may become down the road when our new fangled equipment gives up the ghost and sinks down into the quagmire of time!

“Appreciate what you have now!” he may be saying “before what we hold of value gets put out of its misery!”

Then again, maybe the farmer was just too lazy to take the time to clean up this piece of junk and all I am doing is trying to eulogise its demise … Either way, I just liked this picture!

8 comments:

Sarah said...

I agree with you that we need to see how things once were in order to appreciate the things we have now.
Thank you, I really enjoyed your post.

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

Great picture. I like coming across "relics" like that. It was a very important part of someone's life once and is a way for us to connect and understand more about that life.

Billy said...

I think that wagon is beautiful.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Beautiful picture! I love old machinery. My guess is it just got left there when the old farmer died, and his kids had no interest in running the farm. Somehow, it slipped through a crack in time.

I think it's ironic that we've advanced technologically so it's no longer necessary for most people in America to perfom hard physical labor. Instead, we go to gyms and engage in artificial muscle working, sometimes also on machines that do the work for us. It's a bit bizarre.

Dave said...

Hi Sarah,

It kind of makes us appreciate the things we have.

Dave

Dave said...

Hi Lone Grey Squirrel!

Sort of like a glance into the past.

Dave said...

Hi abbagirl!

Thanks ... When I first saw the wagon, I immediately knew that it would make a great conversational piece.

Dave said...

Hi Hearts in San Fransisco,

I think you are probably correct... It probably could have just slipped into the cracks.