Urbex and Rurex enthusiasts call abandoned buildings "bandos." It's a word that's--well--bandied about on all those many Instagram sites where people go to gaze upon the forsaken wreckage of other people's mysterious lives. This place in Washington County, Pennsylvania, is an ideal example.
It sits in a little copse of trees alongside a busy road that was recently widened. Though we live in Allegheny County, my kids and I have driven past this place many times. I've always pointed it out to them from afar, though many probably don't notice the moldering old house. This time we decided to stop and take a look.
It's always been a humble little place, probably two bedrooms. Much of the furniture is still inside, but it's far too risky to enter. When rooves go, floors go. The fabric from this old couch suggests the 1980s. The once-popular fake paneling on the walls suggests the 1970s. I'd say this place hasn't been lived in for about 30 years, maybe a little more.
The area was much more rural back then. That's how these things happen. An older relative dies; no one wants the place. The family puts off "going through the house." In time, the roof starts to go, and pretty soon it's too late. This is the cellar, looking inside from a ground-level entrance.
And yet, this too was someone's home. There were surely holidays, and regular days, and acts of love and anger. Maybe someone spoke his or her first words here. We don't know. This is the kitchen.
Anyhow, it's a bando.
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