I Am Sad...

   The Death of a friend that I never knew…

   I got the news from a friend last evening on Facebook. Her words were "Don, I hope you got to photograph this one", and showed a picture of the old 1883 courthouse in Sparta, GA, the county seat of Hancock County.

   As I quickly looked up my records to see if I had a photo in my files, I knew I could not remember being in that town, and, sure enough, that was one of the old courthouses that I had not gotten around to. I had 116 of the 159 courthouses in our state of Georgia, but Hancock was still missing from the list.

   Over the past couple of years, Mayre and I have had the opportunity to move around this state and see, as well as take pictures of, these courthouses, many of whom are over 100 years old and still in use.

   We have seen them from outside small towns, their clock towers hovering over a cluster of buildings, some of which may have seen much better days. We have sat on front porches and inside on wooden benches. We have seen people coming and going, transacting business with the county in the same way as their parents and grandparents had done over the years. 

   We have looked into old courtrooms and sat on those old chairs and pews, wondering about the many things that had gone on in that room over the years that court had been held there. We wondered about what those pieces of furniture could tell us if they could. We thought of, and speculated about, the stories of men, women, boys and girls whose very lives were bound up in the events that took place inside those old buildings.

   I'm sure that there are folks in Sparta and Hancock County that will drive by those ruins and remember life that was lived in that place, and I am sad that we will not have the chance to take some time to just sit and think in that building.

   Is it silly to be sad over the death of a building? 

   It is always hard to lose a friend, even one that you never knew.