Abandonment Issues
By Donna McCrohan Rosenthal, East Sierra Branch
I’ve always considered moving to be the “M” word, an ordeal that drags on too long, requires too many hard decisions, involves tripping over cartons and mandates getting hurt packing them into a van. Then I saw Mojave Desert fine art photographer Cheryl McDonald’s exhibit “Abandonment Issues” at Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, California, and realized that selecting and hauling pales by comparison with having to walk away from a houseful of worldly goods.
McDonald’s exhibit led to a book by the same name. Abandonment Issues, published by the Historical Society of the Upper Mojave Desert (2013, 45 pages, hardcover and paperback) captures deserted properties in Bodie, Darwin, Death Valley Junction, Dunmovin, the Randsburg area, Burro Schmidt’s Tunnel, and Bickel Camp. Each picture sheds light on the ever more distant sagas of people who headed off to face new lives, having taken their essentials but little else, and leaving the rest.
Think about it. The cleanest houses today estseem cluttered in contrast with fifty years ago, primarily because we have so many more things. The Great Depression hung its pall over the Thirties. World War II largely defined the Forties. For those two decades, we faced dwindling resources and we allocated our funds wisely. Then the war ended, and generations that had had to scrimp and save charged jubilantly into the prosperity of the American Dream and an era of acquisitions that by and large never stopped. Yet even now with everything we own, we find it difficult to discard this toy from childhood and that cup we earned by gobbling breakfast cereal until we had enough box tops to send for it.
We crowd so much into our dwellings, and we have megastores down the road and around the corner to provide still more. But the homes in McDonald’s sobering volume never did contain much. Their inhabitants had limited possessions, and living where they did in extremely small communities far from the next small community and certainly the next big town, they came to depend on what they had. For them, a book or magazine represented not just something to read. It offered companionship and may have revealed wonders they would never see in person. Other items may have required a financial investment, or held special meaning as gifts from friends or family. Nonetheless, these couldn’t make the journey.
The one saving grace has to do with preserving the past. What miners and their very few neighbors sacrificed at least stayed behind for chroniclers to discover – from toys, cups, books and magazines to clothing, cradles and coffins. But then souvenir-seekers and vandals pass through, violating privacy and destroying the historical record. One day, perhaps, only pictures on printed pages will remain.
My perspective has changed. I’ll never fret about the “M” word again. If I start to, I’ll consult my copy of Abandonment Issues and count my blessings.