Shades of times past
BUG GUTS & BEAUTY
By Orpheus Allison
It stood as a silent sentinel alone in the fields, the accompanying farmhouse long gone. Only a few lilac bushes remained. Countless calls for help used it as a reference. “Broke down just north of PT Farms.” Thanks to Crown of Maine Photography it’s possible to see the gorgeous interior of posts and beams. Were the barn closer to the city it might have been turned into condos. Now it will get a Viking funeral and join the shades of times past.
Its arrogance as it stood in that wide open field challenged storms of ice, snow, and wind. Thunderclouds and harvesters could not bring it down. Only the pictures and memories crossing our vision remind the mind of glory. Tenacity remains as the land continues to produce.
Witness to 25,000 days and more of weather it humbles us all with grace and dignity as it stands its last watch over those many fields. Lashed by autumn rains, buried under winter snows, wakened to springtime blossoms and summer dreams it watched The County grow and change until it too reached the end of its possibilities. For an old friend, comrade, soldier, and sentinel, home to owls and hawks, “Last Call” sounds, “Taps” echoes from the hillsides. Only the wind to caress its space.
Cameras are another set of eyes. Today, with thousands of cameras here in Aroostook County; live pictures of the mundane cityscapes of American and Canadian communities; bears and eagles, traffic flows and ebbs, why is it the local weather forecast is bereft of any live pictures in the local television forecast? Yes, we are shown postcards of scenes common enough. Yet allusions are made to clouds and peculiarities of stormy skies. These are presented over a background of nice, fluffy, clouds in blue skies. Viewers are told to go out and marvel at the evening or morning sky. Yet, no pictures of the sky at the moment.
Television has its own countenance. We have watched moments unfold in glory and tragedy. Yet, the very reason to watch local news: weather’s temper, is nothing more than some letters on a wall. Where is the storm crossing the river, the glorious sun erupting in the eastern sky or settling in the west? Rain, drizzle, fog, and other fulminations of nature’s temper are hidden away behind placards of numbers and cutesy clouds on blue plates. Unlike the temptations of a blue-plate special viewers are left hungry for visuals. The weather is too important to be ignored by the cameras.
Cameras are cheap and there are enough businesses with cameras to give the public a shot at the world of the moment. Show us the sun rising over the ridge, a speckled trout snatching a morsel on the banks of the Aroostook. Let us see the weather of now from around our viewing area. Our loyal sentinels may yet witness those gorgeous skies known to all.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in the County. He began his journalism career at WAGM television later working in many different areas of the US. After twenty years of television he changed careers and taught in China and Korea. Graduating from UMPI he earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina.
