A ‘dog’s eye view’
of Aroostook’s heritage
To the editor:
This letter is about a disappearing landscape — one in which I am constantly taking inventory of. This inventory of that I speak is an abundance of old farm equipment — trucks, tractors, barns, etc. Items that made our county rich In farming tradition.
Staff photo/Michael Gudreau
REMNANTS OF AROOSTOOK’S agricultural heritage are rapidly disappearing as wooden potato houses sink into their foundations, abandoned tractors and trucks get hauled away for scrap and windmills like this one on U.S. Rt. 1 in Presque Isle make way for their more modern counterparts.
You see, I am a photographer and old farm views are my subjects I watch them in the morning light, afternoon light, snow and rain, tall grass, autumn leaves and summer. Some I have named, some I know inside and out. Some I am working my way up to — stopping by to get permission first. (I just feel better about it.)
But lately, there is a new face involved; one that makes an offer that can’t be refused. No, it’s not aliens that hover above and beam them up; there is a new wolf at the door dressed up as a junkman, or as the popular cable TV show calls them “Pickers.” It seems these old relics may be worth cold, hard cash now. Instead of rusting away in the fields, they can now be resurrected into new cars, coffee cans, metal roofs and more. If there is a market, there is a need for these old eye sores. I guess my camera will have to wait in line behind this disappearing landscape.
I suspect some day I’ll be eating dinner in some restaurant and one of the windmills on Rt. 161 will adorn the outside of the establishment. Time’s making changes, taxes need to be paid, and homes need to be heated. Estates will take on new owners. The voids where this resting metal resides now will become anew with younger investing residents. Time will move me also. Even as you read this, there is new Route 1 art being formed.
Michael Gudreau
Presque Isle
