A quarter of a century

The old Bomar house - McKinney, Texas c. 1986

Taken for a college photography class, these photos lived in a negative sleeve for nearly 25 years, until I was cleaning house one day. I was showing them to my sister Tracey, who convinced me to scan the negatives and print them out for her. So I did.

I thought this was a such an interesting house. I took out in my car one day down FM 1827, just past our home. This house had been sitting just off the road and I had noticed it for years. The family still lived on the land behind it, but the home had been abandoned many years before. It had become a dumping ground and there were remnants from the past strewn all around the house.

A family member came out to greet me. She talked about the house and who had lived in it before. As she relived her memories of the old home that was now being encased by vegetation, she looked at as though she was seeing it for the first time herself. As we remarked on the beauty of weathered wood, she told me the house had never been painted in its 100 years.

The house has since been torn down, but the photos keep it alive. Who would have thought 25 years later, it would have a new life on a photoblog.

©2009 Laura Smetak All rights reserved. All photos and stories on this blog are copyrighted and use without the artists express permission is prohibited.