Old house and auto graveyard - Ruckersville, Virginia 

"Queequeg was a native of Kokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down on any map; true places never are."  Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Here is a small album of photographs to tell the story of this old house. It is an imaginary album conjured up by an empty house sitting abandoned and neglected in the snow.

The first picture is very old and faded; one corner has crumbled away and the surface is brittle. A man and a woman stand in front of this house many years ago. She is holding a baby in her arms, and a boy, perhaps 6 years old stands in the folds of her long dress. Next to her the husband stares straight into the camera, his hands clasped behind his back. They are wearing their everyday clothes, and look anxious to get back to their chores. Behind them the house, well cared for and neatly painted white, shelters and protects.

Here is a picture of a young man. He is standing in the doorway of what appears to be the kitchen, holding a hunting rifle. Here three young girls sit on the running board of an old Ford sedan. In another snapshot the old man leads a cow toward the barn. They both look surprised.

A young woman, fashionably dressed and wearing a hat, stands in front of a car parked in the front yard. The license tag reads 19 Virginia 36. The photo is creased down the middle; maybe it was folded in half and carried in someone's wallet. The shadow of the porch falls across the windshield, and the girl is smiling.

The last picture in the album is a small color snapshot. The family has gathered in front of the house. Two straight back chairs have been carried out into the yard for the old couple and children and grand-children and great-grandchildren kneel and stand around them. Everyone is dressed up for the occasion. In front a little boy is crying, and the grandfather stares straight into the camera.

There are no more imaginary pictures, but the rest of the story is easy to make up. After the old couple are gone, nobody knows what to do with the house, which needs a lot of work and lacks modern conveniences. It is closed up. The eldest son takes over the farm, builds a nice modern house up on the new road for his family and plants all around the empty old house. On a summer evening, he can look out his back door and see the second story window of his old bedroom above the corn. But he is not able to sustain his family with the farm, and finds a job in town. The man down the road buys the old pasture field to expand his junk yard business.  Rows of rusting automobiles begin to fill the field beside the old house where the cows once grazed.

The roof is leaking, vandals have broken in, mice gnaw the woodwork and the front porch is gone. The story told by an old house is complete, and soon to be lost.