ITAP...of a house recently burnt down...

I Took A Picture of a burnt down house in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In June of 2011 I was driving home from seeing a cousin in Vermont.  I had decided to take the scenic route home rather than the monotonous highways. In Massachusetts, on route 7, I drove past this house and quickly turned around when I realized how cool it would be to take some pictures and explore the house a little bit. I parked the car on the side of the road and in I went to walk around this charred home that was once filled with love and laughter but now only an eerie silence lingers. 

It was pretty surreal walking around the perimeter of the house.  I could see right through the entire house which was a total loss.  The only thing still standing was the chimney.  I walked from the driveway into the garage which was still  filled with half burnt landscaping equipment and some children's toys.  

I proceeded into the back of the house which looked like it was once a great pace to gather with friends and family for a barbeque. There was a deck, a hot tub, a grill, and a table set. On the ground set off from the house was an amethyst stone black with soot. I rubbed some of the soot off to reveal the beautiful deep purple color of the stone. The was a big piece of it as well as a smaller piece off to the side. I decided to take the smaller piece to later clean it off when I got it home. 

Going through this house really made me think about materialism.  All of us can sometimes get caught up in thinking about what we don't have or what we could have when there is really such a lack of importance in most material objects. Just stop and think for a minute. What if every thing you own just disappeared into ashes one day? We should always be grateful for what we have, but know that the important things are relationships with friends and family, and living our lives to the best of our ability one day at a time. 

Now, when I got home from the 3.5 hour drive I got on the computer and searched to find information about the house. According to iBerkshires.com, a drunk driver had crashed into the front of the house less than a month before I was there. By some sort of miracle, no one was killed, but the driver was taken to the hospital and treated for minor burns on his legs.

Here  are some pictures from the iBerkshires website...