Discarded

History creeps up on you when your nearly-new washing machine suddenly breaks down. When the world was younger, washing machines lasted at least two decades. Grumbling, you climb your IKEA step stool to retrieve the shoe box on the top shelf of the utility room cupboard and start digging for the warranty certificate. It’s near the bottom. It says you bought the washing machine over fifteen years ago.

Is there a connection with this picture of an unattended train-crossing? There is.

I made the picture with my iPhone some time ago while walking the dogs. It reminded me of Fryslan: endless, slow, beautiful light. The railroad track connects Sneek and Stavoren (Snits and Starum, in Frisian), and the narrow concrete path that crossed it led to one lone house. Past tense is appropriate here, because some time ago, the powers that be put up an unpassable fence and laid a new concrete path from the lone house, along the railroad line, to a regular road a few miles away. The operation was an expensive alternative to a simple traffic sign.

At the time, I saw no reason to share this image. But since our washing machine is now history and I forgot to take a photo of it, I’d like to show you this picture in loving memory of Old Discarded Things.