Grandpa’s Barn
January 6, 2008 by Shirley Allard
Grandpa’s barn once filled with life
now stands a vacant lot
rough and tumble timbered charm
a time that land forgot.
Around this sacred childhood place
grow fields of apple trees
the milking cows long since replaced
with busy honey bees.
Tending to and cleaning stalls
consumed my Grandpa’s day
lofty beams enticed our falls
to smells of new-mown hay.
He lived and breathed the rapture
of a fading country way
in my mind I walk those pastures
through fields of yesterday.
Very nice tribute, Shirley… I especially liked “a time that land forgot”.
Brings a tear to the eye. One of my gripes with modern life is the way farms are going the way of the dinosaur, only to be replaced by useless housing developments.
I’m not allowed to publicly discuss what I found in Grandpa’s barn
Shirley..fine words to ponder. I like the irony of the highway running so close to the barn. I doubt that was the case when the barn was a working functional piece of life on the farm.
Thanks Guys! One of the things I’ve always intended to do was photograph the old barns in NH, as they are slowly disappearing. Some just fall in from lack of maintenance and others are being taken down piece by piece and moved to other locations where they are rebuilt. They have become a commodity!
Dan, this is a barn that is still standing but is almost identical to the one I remember. It’s located about a mile away so was probably built by the same people. Back then, they didn’t just watch their neighbors build a barn…they all helped. Sadly, I can’t seem to locate a photograph of my Grandfather’s barn before it was taken down but I’m still trying.
Oz, I’m not going near that one!