MUSHY'S MOOCHINGS: ALL GOOD THINGS MUST END

Friday, December 07, 2007

ALL GOOD THINGS MUST END

A little piece of my past has been torn down. This old 40,000 gallon water tank, erected sometime around the mid-thirties, was the most recognizable landmark in Five Points, Tennessee. The pictures show a very old structure that had the town name, and few girlfriends names painted across it many times.

Besides the tank, there was a cotton gin, and my uncle’s general store, where I worked many a summer as a kid.

Rust has just about taken over this little farming community center, but the memories in my mind are as fresh as the day they were born.

These great shots were sent to me by my cousin Mark, whose mother still operates the new general store there. Mark works in the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Division of Underground Storage Tanks, as an environmental specialist. He assured me he had nothing to do with the destruction of this old landmark!

Mark said except for the rust that fell out of it and a few bullet holes, the structure appeared very sound.

Apparently the property, including the tank and cotton gin, were recently auctioned. He fears the gin will also meet the same demise soon.

Five Points is where my grandparents settled, and began farming, after coming by covered wagon from Boaz, Alabama, sometime in the early twenties, or just a short time after my dad was born in 1919. Five Points is at the intersection of Five Points-Liberty, Mockerson, Evans, and Legg Roads, some twenty miles south of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Lawrenceburg is the hometown of Fred Thompson, and where I started the first grade!

Maybe soon, we will have a family reunion and we can again refresh our rusted memories!

13 comments:

none said...

Old water towers are the landmarks I remember most as a kid.

BRUNO said...

Now here's another one of those "Mushy's Classics" that I look forward to!

Kind of a shame, ain't it? I mean, just because somethin' gets OLD, it needs to be done away with! But, I guess if we saved EVERYTHING like this, it'd be one helluva long drive from here to there, dodgin' all those old memories!

But, at least you still have 'em in your OWN memory-bank! And thanks to todays' technology, now in a permanent digital-access bank, and probably in your own self-designed photo album!

I LOVE OLD STUFF!!! Not so I can live in the past---but just so I can remember! And then when some kid decides to suddenly grow-up, I can "show and tell" him or her exactly what they've missed as "kids"....!

Anonymous said...

I guess all things must end...

PRH said...

Great Photos....I've got the abandoned Mersman Table Factory across the road from my place....they will be tearing down the 130 year old smoke stack and the ajoining water tower within the next year.....I've got the photos of now....and plan on getting the after when they come down.......good stuff!

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

I had photos of the before, but can't locate them...sad.

Right Truth said...

Looks like this one needed to be replaced. I hate to see old landmarks go, though. I have no sense of direction, so when driving I use landmarks as my guideposts. Don't tell me to "go North, or South" I'll never make it.

Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

phlegmfatale said...

That's too bad about the water tower-- it looked like such a distinctive area feature. I love those things.

FHB said...

That's a shame. The old cotton gin in Hidenheimer, where my mom grew upo, was always a landmark in my mind. When we'd drive to the grandmothers house on vacation we'd top a hill and I'd see the gin and know we were almost there. It's still there, but run down and probably destined to go. Everything does I guess. Progress. Sucks, but what can ya do?

Diva said...

Oh wow. Five Points?? My mom spent alot of her early/teen years there. Small world.

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

Diva - Did I date her?

Diva said...

OMG -Daddy, is that you???

Diva said...

In all seriousness, you couldn't have missed them, 4 sisters, all with long red hair. You may have very well dated one of them, or as suave as you are all of them =)

Lee Ann aka Dixie said...

I have one of those old cottin gins in my side yard. That was how my grandfather made his living... back in the good ole' days.. Will try and find my pictures and post again for ya.