Above:  An Empty Lot in Vidette, Georgia, December 26, 2019

From June 1980 to June 1982 I lived in the house that was on this lot.

Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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I stood on a vacant lot

in a very small “city”

I left many years ago.

I stood on a spot and thought,

“My bedroom was here.”  Sunny

was the day I chose to go

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and revisit the same spot

I used to reside.  Gladly

I toured Vidette.  I strolled

through my past as I sought

to sate curiosity.

I did.  Then I returned home.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 27, 2019 COMMON ERA

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Below:  A photograph of the house,from 1980-1982 (from a photo album)

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Above:  A View from Railroad Street, Vidette, Georgia, December 26, 2019

Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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Two decaying commercial buildings

stand opposite where railroad tracks were.

There had been five such structures on that

corner.  Now the two remaining

former stores testify to former

economic life long ceased.  Exact

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details may be lost.  Understanding

the past of this small town may never

be possible fully. Where once sat

the tangible past, now collapsing

buildings tease.  Decay destroys records.

This is a most unfortunate fact.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 27, 2019 COMMON ERA

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Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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My father was pastor of the Vidette United Methodist Church, Vidette, Georgia, from June 1980 to June 1982.  This Bethel Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church met in this building at this time, as it has since the early 1900s.  The ARPC congregation disbanded in 2015, and a new congregation began to worship in the space.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 27, 2019 COMMON ERA

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Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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My father was the pastor of Vidette United Methodist Church, Vidette, Georgia, from June 1980 to June 1982.  I was in the second and third grades at Waynesboro Elementary School, Waynesboro (the county seat), at the time.  Ola Mae Bailey, who died a few years after my family and I moved away, lived in this house.  We were friends; I visited her often.

Her grandson, Mack Bailey, lives in the house in 2019.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 27, 2019 COMMON ERA

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This post is related to Memories of Vidette, Georgia; Vidette United Methodist Church Parsonage, Vidette, Georgia; and Site of the Former Parsonage, Vidette United Methodist Church, Vidette, Georgia.

This afternoon, while sorting through the family archives again, I found this photograph, from Christmas 1981.

We see a portion of the den, a narrow and long room in the middle of one side of the small house, with a view into the dining room, a space of which I have little recollection.  The closed-up fireplace with the mantle, for example, surprises me.  I am, however, thinking about a space I left in June 1982, at the age of nine years, so I have a valid excuse.

I remember much in this photograph, however.  I recall the old-style cabinet television set, with the infamous needle-nose pliers, for changing the channel, vividly.  How could I forget the infernal needle-nose pliers?  I also remember the shelves above the television well.  I also recall that, in Vidette, we had few channels–three networks and PBS.  I remember that that there was often little worth watching on those.  There remains little worth watching today.  The main difference is the greater number of channels.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 31, 2017 COMMON ERA

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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The True Citizen, Waynesboro, Georgia, October 28, 1981, Page 6B

The True Citizen, Waynesboro, Georgia, January 27, 1982

All Scans by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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I made this (obviously close in time to Thanksgiving) at Waynesboro Elementary School, Waynesboro, Georgia, during my Second Grade year.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

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This is post #800 of this weblog.

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Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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We lived in Vidette, Georgia, from June 1980 to June 1982.  Here I am in the parsonage yard with Buddy the dog.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

Above:  My Father (John Dodson Taylor, III), and I; Then My Mother (Sally Taylor) and My Sister (Barbara)

Images Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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My father served as pastor of the Vidette, Friendship, and Greens Cut United Methodist Churches from June 1980 to June 1982.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

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