On the Border

Great aerial photo here of my friend Joe's old rental house. He lived at the villa style ranch featured in this photo in the mid 80s. The LA Ramblers practiced there he and his roommates threw parties in the backyard. This photo appeared in the LJ World this morning. An Ohio company that snaps aerial photos of rural dwellings took this in the 1970s. The equestrian equipment was gone by the time Joe moved in. I searched for this house on a recent trip to Lawrence but it has been torn down. It used to be on the edge of town. Now Free State High School is close by and the whole area resembles Overland Park suburbia more than the borderlands of a small town.

Another band, The Backsliders, used to live in an old farm house a mile or so west of this house on the south side of 6th street, up on the hill that was definitely the edge of the edge of town. I used to visit drummer Todd there. Or perhaps he took me there to visit. I can't recall. That place is gone as well. I don't have a photo of that building.

Down south of town, out by the old KLZR studios, another group of guys used to live in a place they called the ranch, where many keg parties took place including one on Halloween 1985 with a roasted pig. Yes, the edge of Lawrence was a good place to live if you liked loud music and big parties. I suppose it still is, but you have to drive further to get there now.

Photo owned by State Aerial Farm Statistics.