Small towns lost in time (Part 1, Reevesville)

 Last fall on a road trip to Columbia, I turned off somewhat busy U.S. Highway 178 and entered Reevesville, one of those tiny towns on the main rail line into Charleston which never grew in size much and probably always was just a sleepy little burg that just stayed the same and then faded away in the latter part of the 20th century.   I found myself in a quiet community that was like stepping back in time.  A small post office was located on what must have been the main street, perpendicular to the railroad tracks.   Across from that newer building was what I took to be the original post office, dating back to the late 19th century.   The surrounding area is all farmland.    I drove around some and made a mental note to return and take more pictures.

Last week I had that opportunity.  Nothing much had changed in six months except for the passing of the seasons.  I was there last October. The other day it was warm and springlike with the trees all fully green.   While the season of new life had taken hold, the sense of emptiness and lack of life was just as apparent.   The stillness was pervasive.   I like that very much, actually.   A few cars passed as I took pictures, this time of an abandoned general store on the rail line and an adjacent abandoned house.  On the other side of the former store was a nice old house, still occupied from what I could tell, and not 20 or 30 yards from the railroad tracks which entered and left the town in a straight as an arrow line that you could follow  toward a vanishing point miles off.   There was park just as you turn off the main highway onto main street.

I have always been fascinated by small towns, as a child when we drove through so many in the pre-Interstate days on vacation drives from New Orleans to South Carolina, and later as a newspaperman and writer who loved to photograph them and interview townsfolk about the histories of those places.   These interviews turned into feature stories for the paper, including my accompanying photo essays.   Those were the days!  The last time I did anything like that as part of a job was 20 years ago, and the heyday of my newspaper  career was the mid to late 70s.

Here is a set of photos taken in Reeveville the other day:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/camas/sets/72157629909377687/

Here is a picture of the old abandoned general store taken last October.  It is one of my favorite small town photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/camas/6381198775/in/set-72157628229914919