Bleak places and bossy people

Self portrait taken yesterday, which is not when I was born. Click twice!A couple of weeks ago TG and I were tooling around downtown Columbia, as we are sometimes wont to do.

On this occasion we were running an errand.

Cruising eastward on Gervais, we passed the South Carolina State House.

A few blocks later, TG turned north on a side street.

We ended up beside a large white Queen Anne-style house that for decades served as a funeral home.

It's been abandoned for several years now and reposes silently in a state of advanced dilapidation.

Creepy! Positively Stephen horror-genre King-ish.

I'd long wanted to take its picture.

Only problem was, for some reason I can't remember, on that day I hadn't brought along my camera.

I won't be making that mistake again!

TG wheeled into the weed-choked parking lot anyway, because lo and behold there were two other cars there and I wanted to ask some questions about the old house.

I hoped the two ladies standing near the three-dormered carriage-house wing of the structure were in possession of historically accurate information.

And would be generous with it.

I approached the pair, introduced myself, and expressed admiration for the old house.

The ladies were reasonably cordial. Turns out one of them was a member of the family that for the better part of a century owned the house and used it for their eponymous funeral home.

She told me that her family had many years ago sold the building to a corporation, which entity has since sold it to the University of South Carolina.

I listened politely and asked a few questions. She answered them just as politely.

Then I mentioned that I wished I hadn't forgotten my camera at home that day, because I was itching to take pictures of the house.

Nothing could have prepared me for what the lady said next.

"I'm going to have to ask you not to take pictures of it."

?????

I asked her if I'd heard correctly. Hadn't she said that her family sold the building many years ago, and that it had since been acquired by the university?

Meaning, it is now owned by USC and not by the previous owner, and certainly not by the lady's family and in no way owned or controlled by she herself?

Yes, she said, all of that was true. But she still preferred that I refrain from aiming my camera at the building.

She made some reference to its state of sorry disrepair. Which was patently obvious to anyone with eyesight.

With all due respect, I pointed out, any of the thousands of people who drive up and down Gervais Street on any given day can clearly see the old house with all of its peeling paint, gap-toothed awnings, boarded windows, and overgrown shrubbery.

She acknowledged that the building is visible to anyone who cares to turn their head on their neck and train their eyes on it.

"But I still don't want you to take pictures," she repeated.

You will be proud of me I hope, because for once I did not say what I was thinking: i.e., that I intended to come back at the first opportunity and take pictures, and does she often throw red meat at the feet of hungry dogs?

But before I could think of something appropriately neutral to say, the lady offered yet another directive: for further enlightenment in the matter, I should call her cousin.

?????

As it happens, I know who her cousin is. I accepted his number written on a piece of paper but I had (and have) no intention of using it.

How I wished I'd thought to pack my camera that day!

Believe me when I say, I would not have waited for her to leave before firing it up and snapping until my arm was tired.

And that's because I find it amusing when someone who has no right to tell me what to do or not to do, does.

Am I the only one who has experienced this phenomenon? People bossing you, who are not even remotely the boss of you?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

The only place I would even consider issuing anybody instructions or -- in extenuating circumstances -- orders, would be within the confines of my own house or property.

That is, unless they were taking liberties with my physical person, in which case I could be anywhere and I'm going to vehemently -- and probably loudly -- resist.

In any case, I would be careful what I said to an emancipated adult who was exercising their own free will and doing nothing either illegal, untoward, or unduly intrusive.

So yesterday? After church and following lunch at Harper's, TG took me and my camera back to the abandoned house that was once a funeral home and is now little more than a ruin.

He then watched over me while I took approximately seventy-five pictures.

I kept hoping that the lady who told me she wished I wouldn't go all digital on her family's old place of business, would show up. I would have liked to, between shots, smile and wave in her direction.

But alas, she wasn't haunting the old place that day.

Long live the blessed and marvelously liberating concepts of free speech, free will, and the freedom to take a picture. Or seventy-five. Or a hundred ninety-two.

Upset stomachs and stubbed toes to all those who would be so rude as to lord it over those over whom they have no authority.

That is all.

Happy Monday! Happy Week!

Comments

[Mari]

I for one and glad you went back! You are the master of these types of shots. It's sad that what was once so beautiful is now in such crummy condition. As for the lady - it makes no sense to me. And why did she want you to call her cousin?

@ Mari ... thanks for the compliment. You are always so sweet. She wanted me to call her cousin because he is still an owner of the business her family started and which used the old building for so many years. I think she thought I was going to use their name, which I never had any intention of doing. I only wanted pictures of the old house -- which by the way, are available in several places on the Internet and have been for years. ~Jenny

[irene]

How bizarre, maybe you should have told her that you intended it to use in a commercial for house paint. Imagine the nerve of such a lady.

@Irene ... I know, right? The gall of some people. They make me laugh. And take pictures.

[Crystal]

GIRL! Mom just helped me get back to your blog! On my blog roller notifier thingy (whatever it's called) it showed that you haven't blogged in three months! Thats why I haven't been reading you! I would click the link and it would always say page not found!

[Donna (Texas)]

Now that I've gotten Crystal straightened out...Hahaaaa
WOW!!! That woman IS strange! I'm SO glad you went back to get these shots! What a House!!
Happy Wednesday!
hughugs

[Donna M.]

Good grief! That was a tad nervy of her. I would have been firing away on continuous mode and proceeded to fill up an entire 16 GB card, all the while gleefully laughing and whooping. It is a public building in public view. Fire away!

And your photos are delightful!

[Crystal]

Oh W-O-W!!! I have to say I would have bit my tongue too. Just for the simple fact that my Hubby would have been mouthing off BEFORE I could, lolol!!!! LOVE this spooky house! Have you made sure and go back and look at all 75 pics that you took? The ones that had windows to make sure there wasn't a reflection staring back at you?! LOL!!!