Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Abandonment Issues: Hazel & Michelle

IMG_6734

HAZEL

Decades ago, she sat in silence at the kitchen table, drinking cheap wine and reading her tabloids, as was her daily routine. A day like any other, bleeding from one to the next like open wounds. The only sounds to be heard were the flipping of the pages between her yellowed tobacco stained fingers and the branches of the weeping willow gently brushing against the window in the wind's embrace. As the rain fell, so to did she, albeit to sleep. She drifted in and out of consciousness by design, in a seemingly never ending effort to make it stop. She just wanted it all to go away. The memories, even the good ones, they haunted her. The accident played out in her mind daily and nightly, which eventually grew mundane. It was the good memories that drained her though. Her husband and their two daughters, alive, just simply alive in the moments they had shared. It were those memories that completely devoured her.

She just wanted it to stop. She never wanted to exist in another moment without them.

IMG_6841

IMG_6939

IMG_6915

IMG_6938

IMG_6887

IMG_6931

IMG_6846

IMG_6848

IMG_6886

IMG_6916

Time does not heal all wounds, that is crazy talk.

IMG_6859

IMG_6855

IMG_6843

IMG_6879

IMG_6880

IMG_6918

IMG_6919

IMG_6888

IMG_6890

IMG_6901

Meanwhile just around the corner...

MICHELLE

She gazed out the kitchen window on an unseasonably warm Saturday in November of 1989, watching her young boys playing blissfully on the new swing set in the freshly mowed back yard. Her soapy hands were doing the dishes but her mind was somewhere else again. She would lose minutes at a time on a regular basis, leaving herself, pondering time and the hand it will deal her family.

Her husband, sweaty and tired from the yard work, thudded down in his recliner with a Pabst Blue Ribbon in one filthy hand and reached down for the remote with the other. It was Hockey Night In Canada and in this house they bled Blue & White. He wasn't ever much for communication, more of a grunter, and this day was no different. He was a typical hard working beer drinking Canadian dad making the most of his factory worker, rural family life.

It never mattered if he loved her, or if he ever loved her. Once she was pregnant, that was just that. He wasn't the type of man to walk away from anything, or towards it, for that matter. Oh but she, she loved him from the moment they met, and still does.

Years before, she gave up trying to force the bedtime routine on the kids on Saturday nights. This was boys night, the only family activity for which she had no part in. No responsibility. She could just sit and watch, not the game, but rather her family. The boys would excitedly cheer for the Leafs to exhaustion over two periods and then fall asleep during the third in a pile on their father.

All she ever wanted was for one of those Saturday nights to last forever. That's where her mind went. That is what she got lost in.

IMG_6837

IMG_6817

Lights out

IMG_6770

IMG_6717

IMG_6730

IMG_6793

IMG_6762

IMG_6787

IMG_6755

IMG_6807

IMG_6808

IMG_6737

IMG_6735

IMG_6820

IMG_6813

IMG_6814

IMG_6828

Sometimes when one can't uncover the real story, one's imagination runs wild.

click here to check out all of jerm & ninja IX's ABANDONMENT ISSUES

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Abandonment Issues: House of Cars

IMG_9131

To say that the House of Cars has a creepy vibe to it is a major understatement. Something just isn't right here and you can feel it in the air. Fear pulsed through me on that first visit back in the spring, and it grew evermore intense with each and every subsequent visit. Yet it is that same skin crawling discomfort that continues to draw me back in for another look, time after time, with the most recent visit taking place just this morning.

It's not just the RV blocking the entrance to the overgrown driveway, or the 5 other cars abandoned on the property. Nor is it just the drug paraphernalia that moves around between visits, or the fact that this was the home of a former NHL hockey player and his family. It's not just the heart wrenching letter about a young man's suicide or the disturbing sexual collages on the floor beside a decomposed raccoon carcass in a trap on the second floor. It's not just the fact that seemingly all of the contents remain, albeit rifled through by someone, or the eerie thoughts provoked by the bedroom door that locks only from the outside. It's not just the fact that illicit activities are allegedly being performed here by members of the criminal underworld, nor is it the sense that I am being watched, even when no one else is around.

It is a culmination of all of these things that makes the House of Cars one of Ontario's creepiest abandoned houses.

Before we unlatch the hook and body check open the creaking door pressing against the swollen floorboards, lets wander the property.

BUICK Wildcat
BUICK Wildcat

She never purrs anymore
She never purrs anymore

Red leather interior
Red leather interior

E for empty
E for empty

Ridin' dirty
Ridin' dirty

Sonomatic radio
Sonomatic radio

Wildcat Headlights
Wildcat Headlights

Truck off
Truck off

In too deep
In too deep

Back on dry land
Back on dry land

Hitchin' a ride to nowhere
Hitchin' a ride to nowhere

Head on
Head on

Fines double when construction crew present
Fines double when construction crew present

A lion's chance
A lion's chance

With the unnerving feeling that we are being watched, again, we enter.

A shot in the dark
A shot in the dark

Claw foot
Claw foot

TROUBADOUR
TROUBADOUR

Mouthing off
Mouthing off

All sewn up
All sewn up

Scholastic plastic
Scholastic plastic

D68 577
D68 577

She's come undone
She's come undone

Fear and Loathing in an Abandoned House
Fear and Loathing in an Abandoned House

BRITNEY SPEARS IN THE ZONE
BRITNEY SPEARS IN THE ZONE

Handycam
Handycam

WD40 wrench ashtray flashlight
WD40 wrench ashtray flashlight

Meta-urbex
Meta-urbex

Getting blade
Getting blade

CV3338
CV3338

Everything but the kitchen sink
Everything but the kitchen sink

OilersOilers

A lack of self reflection
A lack of self reflection

R.I.P.
R.I.P.

R.I.P.
R.I.P.

Life is full of ups and downs
Life's ups and downs

Bottomless
Bottomless

Axxident
Axxident

BOYS Just For Sex
BOYS Just For Sex

Curves
Curves

Dear Kim
Dear Kim

As ever, love Grandma
As ever, love Grandma

Well hung
Well hung

Partial remains
Partial remains

4 in a row
4 in a row

Follow suit
Follow suit

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Red and yellow
Red and yellow

TOUGHER THAN LEATHER
TOUGHER THAN LEATHER

Can't Buy A Thrill
Can't Buy A Thrill

Memories come flooding in
Memories flooding in

Red Light District
Red Light District

PROWLER
PROWLER

With much intrigue and curiosity, I will continue to monitor the House of Cars.

Shout out to my friend Lindsay for the find.

click here to check out all of jerm & ninja IX's ABANDONMENT ISSUES