Two years ago this thread started because Ibow wanted to start a thread and couldn't and he wanted me to try to start one. I had just been called a "Redneck" in another thread by the illustrious MalcolmX169?, so the name seemed appropriate. The Redneck's Club is the first thread I ever started on this board.
Since then through some alchemy of unstated agreement and group suspension of disbelief, this thread has taken on a significance beyond just a place to boost your post count. People have developed friendships in this place which have extended into real life as well.
It's become almost real. There's actually a sense of loss that our old clubhouse is closing.
I've got this mental picture of leaving a place that has been home and where a bunch of living and fun and sometimes the occasional hot argument has taken place. It's empty inside, yet suddenly it looks smaller than it seemed a few days ago. I can see the rectangular outline on the wall where pictures and photograph have been packed up and moved. The marks from the chairs and boots and tables are still there, but the furniture is gone--some of it in a refuse pile at the end of the lane. Ready to be carted off, trash, former treasure, memories and all.
I can see the specks of dust floating in the air, catching the light that streams through curtainless windows. The floorboards creak under my step with no rugs or noise to distract.
I walk out, leaving the place that still feels like home, and head for a house that someday will feel the same. We'll still mow here and keep things up for a while, but eventually the Virginia creeper and poison ivy and moss will claim our clubhouse. By that time the new place will feel like home, and someday we'll tell future rednecks about this place and they'll wonder why it meant so much to us that we closed a silly thread and opened another.
The door closes for the last time.
