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 cowtownclimber
    
Location: Fort Worth
Gender: Male
e^(i*Pi)+1=0
 |  | Why I love UE
< on 9/8/2010 12:58 AM >
|  | | | Sorry I'm new here and I wasn't sure where to put this. I know it's long and rambling but sometimes once I start I can't stop. Sorry about that.
When I was a boy, my stepfather was in the Air Force. Thanks to this I was never in one place for very long and did not have the opportunity to make lifelong friends. You never knew if the kids in the next town would be into the same things that you were. There was always one constant though. Without fail every kid in every town that I went to was into exploring. whether it was going out to the woods just to see what we could see or checking out abandoned buildings on the outskirts of town, I always knew that if I wanted to make friends quickly all I had to do was ask where the cool places to investigate were.
As I grew older some of my friends grew out of this phase and became interested in other things. I did not. I am now 37 and to this day when I am in a new place one of the first things that I do is find someone who has lived there for a long time and ask them where the creepy old buildings are. Without fail, I will have a brand new fun spot to check out and quite often a new person to go with. It seems no matter how old we get, the lure of exploring still lives in our DNA. When talking about locations to people I know who have never gone with me, I nearly always get a response of, "Oh man that sounds like a lot of fun".
So what is the allure? What is it about the old abandoned factory, strip mall, drainage system, or tunnel that continues to attract us no matter how old we get? There are so many reasons that I love exploring that it will be difficult to lay them all out. I'll stick to the big ones.
1. Hey you kids aren't supposed to be in here!!!
There is something very exciting about being in a place that you know you aren't supposed to be. The risk and the danger are an incredible rush for many of us. In some small way it is a chance for me to stick it to the man as they say. I work in a cube farm and feel handcuffed everyday by the things that I'm not allowed to do. When I have a chance to laugh in the face of such rules as No Trespassing or Do Not Enter I embrace it. Just for the (always too) brief time that I am in a spot, I get the chance to say, "No thank you rules. I believe I'll do as I please thank you very much". So invigorating.
2. Those who do not know their past are doomed to repeat it.
I'm a bit of a history buff. My mother has a degree in history and her love for the subject was passed on to me. I do not simply explore the physical location, I research the place and find every detail that I can about it. I spend way more time exploring buildings online and in the library than I do at the actual location. I have spent hours and days pouring over old newspaper files and online resources to find out whatever I could about some obscure spot on a map which, based on the physical condition of the place, nobody cares about anymore. Which sort of ties into...
3. The dead tell tales
I know you can't tell by this post but I do like to write. So far exclusively short stories but one of these days I will put together the great American novel. So I keep telling myself. When I enter an abandonment I begin to populate the place. What was this before we turned our back on it? I fill it up with people who lived or worked there. I used to live near downtown Fort Worth and often I would walk home from the train station when I got off work. As I passed the empty offices closed up for the evening, I would do the same thing. Before long there was an entire population of residents of the city that existed only in my head. I knew all of their stories and was fascinated by every one of them. I do the exact same thing on my exploration outings. To me it just isn't an old empty building, it is a building that was once full of life. Since I do not know the people who used to be there, I create new ones.
4. The Eye of the Artist
I am fascinated by the photos that the board members here have taken. I find such elegant beauty in the decay of our world. There is a photo in a Six Flags thread in the South forum from tiffanyarei. It is one of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen. It isn't an especially striking shot of the architecture or some of the old rides. It is a very simple shot of a railing that gives excellent shadow play, and a face down teddy bear. A bear long forgotten just waiting for a child to come by and take it home. Heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time. I do not own a camera of my own but on my last trip out we went with some friends who had a nice camera. I took a couple of shots of my own but I have a long way to go before I am as good as the rest of you. The pictures fascinate me because they capture a moment time at a place where all of its other moments in time have been long since forgotten. It is a critical preservation of what once was. I thank all of you who give us these gifts and I hope you realize the critical you play in helping us all see places we can't all be.
5. In the End, Nature Wins
One final thing. I greatly enjoy seeing how nature reclaims what it wants. It is so interesting to see pics of the same place from different times. How a place looks 1 year after it is abandoned and then to see that same place 5 years later. It is incredibly humbling to know that, one of these days, there will be no trace of us. Whatever we have built and whatever great achievements we think we have, it will all be swallowed up by nature sooner or later. The more we are reminded of this, perhaps the more humble we will be.
Sorry for dragging on so terribly long. I know I'm the new guy around here and I don't mean to defeat anyone with an overly long post but I feel a kinship with all of you even though I have to actually talk to any of you. Please keep doing what you do because it is so very important for us to keep that childlike wonder inside us all. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm just going to see what's around this one last corner.
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Therrin
  
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: North of Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
*Therrin puts on the penguin-suit
| |  | Re: Why I love UE
<Reply # 1 on 9/11/2010 8:07 PM >
| | | | | Before long there was an entire population of residents of the city that existed only in my head. I knew all of their stories and was fascinated by every one of them. |
That's kinda creepy, man. Welcome to UER. You'll fit right in.
Give a person a match and they'll be warm for a minute, but light them on fire and they'll be warm for the rest of their life. =) |
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insanebuslady
Location: ?
Gender: Male
"You talkin' to me?"
| | | Re: Why I love UE
<Reply # 2 on 9/11/2010 8:34 PM >
| | | | Posted by Therrin
| Before long there was an entire population of residents of the city that existed only in my head. I knew all of their stories and was fascinated by every one of them. |
That's kinda creepy, man. Welcome to UER. You'll fit right in.
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Did they all speak a language that only you could understand?
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cowtownclimber
Location: Fort Worth
Gender: Male
e^(i*Pi)+1=0
| | Re: Why I love UE
<Reply # 3 on 9/12/2010 6:06 AM >
| | | | Posted by insanebuslady
Did they all speak a language that only you could understand?
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Not all of them but some did speak foreign languages that I could not make out. I always wondered what they were saying to each other.
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