Personal Narrative: Siloam Springs's Coming Home

Having grown up in Chandler Oklahoma I assumed that I knew all about small towns. How they operated, what the people were like, how quickly news spreads and so on; however, Siloam Springs has pleasantly surprised me. Rather than feeling uncomfortably small and suffocating like I was expecting, I have found that over all it is very cozy. When I am immersed in the general environment I am reminded of a warm bath or the feeling I get when I come home after a long trip, an essence of contentment and relaxation. At first glance, the buildings are timeworn and tattered from use but it is apparent that they are still well cared for. They make a fascinating subject or framework for photography, and I had quite a bit of fun exploring the area nestled
The outside was white with bricks showing through suggesting the building had probably been there some time. The lobby was several shades of brown except an out of place brightly multicolored cabinet that was in the corner. I was reminded of old books and newspapers as the lobby seemed to be made out of dust in the best way possible and it smelled like warm cinnamon. A sign on the wall offered apartments and hotel rooms. Despite the wooden vacancy sign hung outside, no one came out to greet us in the fifteen or so minutes we waited. We eventually called it and took off down the road. As we walked farther down Wright street and tried to avoid the small amounts of traffic we came across a few abandoned buildings, a photographer’s dream. Cracks and crevasses ran up and down the walls and vines crept up the sides of the buildings, wound their way through the cracks and and bursting through the windows that had been boarded up with wood that had begun to rot. My curiosity was peaked and it took a lot of self control to not find a way in to further explore the buildings but through the remaining dirty windows I could see a lot of old wood and what looked like trash on the floor. The building on the end was especially peculiar for it had the remnants of some poster that had been hung there once upon a time but now all that’s left are some eyes. They seemed to watch you wherever you went and they reminded me of the eyes of Doctor