"Just park it over there for a while". No doubt that's what someone said decades ago. I have no idea exactly how long ago, and probably no one else does either. Maybe it was like a trusted old truck or car of today that's been around so long it's become part of the family. When it finally goes, you just can't bear to part with it. Here in the rural south, that's the reason you still see junk automobiles up on blocks in front yards. Maybe they're just carrying on an old tradition? It's sometimes hard to detach from things that mean so much to us. Imagine never discarding anything away, like leaving grandpa still sitting in his old rocking chair long after his lease on life had expired. It's nice to still have him around, and he requires no maintenance whatsoever! And neither does this wagon, parked next to an original frontier homestead in Cade's Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains. It would surely have some amazing stories to tell if only it could. Where there still Native Americans in Cade's Cove when it made its first trip around hills and valleys of the Smokies? How many wild turkeys has it transported home for Thanksgiving dinner? How many Christmas trees? How many times did it find itself stuck in snow drifts or raging flood waters? I imagine there are many such a stories behind this old wagon. Perhaps someone thought they'd get around to fixing it one day. But for whatever reason there it stayed. And whoever may have had those good intentions, I'm sure they've left this world a long time ago. But the wagon still waits. Like our expired grandpa still sitting comfortably in his rocking chair, its time has come and gone. And now, it's a physical reminder of yesteryear. A simpler yet harsher time when just survival itself was a full time endeavor, but made easier with a wagon. This wagon. And after a lifetime of hard work, these few words sealed its fate. "Just park it over there for a while". And a while it's been. Photo taken October 2008 marshall