One of my favorite blogs, Vanishing Eastern Kentucky, consists of photos of structures once commonplace but now in danger of disappearing altogether. The blog appeals to me because I've been taking pictures like that for much of my life.
Barns, in particular, appeal to me because they represent so many aspects of our history and culture. Their architecture tells us much about the ethnic heritage of the people who built them; German barns are different from English barns.
They can tell us if they were part of a large, prosperous farm or a small subsistence farm.
They tell about the crops that were important to people that built them. Tobacco barns and livestock sheds are different from each other, and both differ from dairy barns.
But most of all, they remind us that ways of making a living have changed and we have to preserve them if we want to hold on to the memories of that time.
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