Three Dollars from Rock City

     Rock City barn, U.S. Hwy 411 at GA 136, Gordon County

Just out of the picture on the left is an old farmhouse. Nobody was home in November, 1995 when I made this photograph, but the barn roof had been repainted recently.

Rock City Barns: A Passing Era was published in 1996. Part of my agreement with Rock City was that each of the barn owners would receive a copy. Rock City was to notify the owners and send the books to them.

A year later when I happened to pass by, a car was in the drive. My knock at the farmhouse door produced a small, elderly lady who, it turned out, had not received her book. I gave her one from the box in my van and showed her the photograph of her barn. She hugged the book to herself with both arms, sighing, “Oh, if only my husband could have lived to see this!” 

In the glory days of the Rock City barn advertising program, the company leased rights from the barn owners. The owners received paint jobs for their barn roofs every few years, tickets to Rock City, Rock City thermometers and other trinkets, and a small yearly payment. The annual check from Rock City had just arrived in her mailbox that very day and she showed it to me. It was for three dollars.

Adapted from my award-winning book Rock City Barns: A Passing Era.

Photograph and text copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone