Thursday, July 23, 2009

A small town secret

Tuesday morning, we ventured out to see what kinda trouble we could get into. We had no plans, we just got in the car and started driving around our small town.

I mentioned to David that I was in the mood to go to a museum. I am a museum junkie. I love them. Big or small and regardless of what they house, I eat it up. But, a). I didn't want to drive to Atlanta and b). I didn't want to go somewhere that would cost a lot to get in. David mentioned a billboard advertising a museum that we often pass by, we weren't sure exactly what it was, but we decided to turn around and go check it out.


Back in the day, our town was a mill town. There use to be several major mills in which everyone in town worked at or had a family member that did. Sadly, like most mills in our country, the mills were shut down and the work shipped to other countries. That was of course the decline of this small town we live in and now there are a bunch of empty mills that are sitting around.

We pull up to one of these old mills which is surrounded by a tall fence with barb wire on top. We weren't sure if it was open, closed or what, but we notice the gate to the fence is open so we go ahead and drive in. Even from the outside the place looked interesting. There are a several dozen old cars, firetrucks, a trolley, and a fighter plane sitting around. The door to the mill was open but no one was around so, David decided to go in and see if he could find anyone. I of course sit in the car and wait for the go ahead. After a few minutes, he comes out and says it's not open but one of the guys who work there eats at one of his stores everyday and said we were welcomed to come in and look around. He then says "your not going to believe it."


We walked in and to my surprise, there is a ton of stuff sitting inside this warehouse. I was in amazement. There were seriously over a hundred cars sitting inside this place. They had everything you could think of, from old 50's cars, to Lamborghini's, to cars that I have never even seen or heard of before. David of course was in his element. He loves cars. Plus, they had three different classic Porsche's which is his dream car. The place also had a ton of antiques sitting around. They had huge fountains, statues of famous people, and a ton of other random stuff. The place had stuff from floor to ceiling. Like he said, I couldn't believe it.

We walked around the mill for about an hour trying to take in everything. It was cool because no one else was there but us and the two guys who work there. Come to find out, the guy who owns it has other business ventures in our town but, his hobby is a collector of most everything, especially cars. This is where he houses his hobby, a old 20,000 square foot mill. He did tell David that most everything in the place, cars included, were for sale. But unfortunately, we didn't have the money to afford any of them.


This post could have been more interesting, but I took my camera in and didn't take any pictures. I wasn't sure if they might say anything since the place is not open to the public. I'm one of those people who sometimes feels funny about pulling my camera out in certain places. I really wish I would have though. David wants to go back and take John (my step-dad) since he loves classic cars, so I will definitely take pictures the next time.

Fast forward a few hours later and we stopped by my favorite bookstore. While there I picked up a local magazine that has all the what's going on and who's who in our small town. I open it up and guess what I find, an article about this place and the guy who owns it. Come to find out the guy is trying to retire and that is why everything is for sale and the place is no longer open on a daily basis, but anyone can call for an appointment to view the place.

David is later looking at the article, points to a picture in the article and says "that's the guy who eats at my store everyday." The guy who "works there" is actually the guy who owns it all.

The perks of working for Waffle House.

Here is the link if you can afford any of those classic cars.
http://www.brandonclassics.com/

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

How neat! Dad will love that! :)

Kameron said...

I love finding little jewels like that. It seems that we get so busy with our daily lives that we miss the small joys! Glad you guys got to look around!

Oh, and I love the new picture in your header!