Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Old Mill


8:18 A.M. The "Supervisors" gathered.

Sue Jones brought her nephew, Cale Engle, to watch.


More waiting, while debris already on the ground and accessible within the structure was sorted into heaps: metal here and wood there - all amazingly accomplished by the "claw."

At one point, I was told, the equipment operator spotted a basketball in the rubble and, ever so carefully, picked it up in the "jaws" and carefully swung around and gently handed it to one of the work crew.



At just around two o'clock the giant "claw" reached up and gave a nudge in just the right spot and, with just a little encouragement, what was left of the roof caved in.





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An hour or so later action moved to Putnam Street, and
two more big sections of wall collapsed.

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I left soon after 3:00. Debris had been scraped and swept from the street and it looked as if work was done for the day. There had been about two-dozen bystanders and just about all of them had cameras. You expect hundreds of photographs to be taken at a social function or the dedication of a building, but this had to be a unique occassion.

What a display all of those photographs would make!