I have enjoyed following a blog by photographer/ historian Brian Brown in recent years, “Vanishing Georgia,” in which he documents interesting architectural and/or historical sites across the state, before they are lost to posterity.

It’s a good thing he did, as many of them were in fact torn down or fell down, later on.

My wife and I took a trip to Americus, GA, some years ago, for the funeral of a college roommate’s huband, who had finally succumbed to cancer after a long battle.

(That trip will be the subject of my next column.)

We took the “southern route” to get there, by which I mean using secondary roads, staying off 1-16. We went through the small community of Rochelle, south of Macon, and saw an old mercantile building, now a closed antiques business, named “Braziel’s Old Store.”

I have dealt with an attorney in Savannah for many years who has the same last name, which is what prompted me to do some research on that store and the town of Rochelle. That is what led me to Brian Brown’s blog. I have followed it ever since.

Two recent posts have centered on the small farming community of Broxton, about 5 miles northwest of Douglas.

One of the buildings he featured served for a long time as home to Lott’s True Value Hardware, a long-time good account of my family’s now-defunct wholesale business.

I well remember working orders for this business, as a summer order clerk while in high school and college; and also its two cousins, Lott Hardware #1 and #2 in nearby Douglas. I believe only the #1 store is still in business today, but it is going strong, at last report.

This would have been a mainstay of Broxton’s small commercial district, back then. It was also back before credit cards were invented, so sales would have been on a cash basis, unless the owner allowed some sort of in-house credit. Times were very different back then.

The other post that caught my eye was of a small liquor store, somewhere nearby, with a humorous sign out front.

I don’t know about other states, but Georgia for many years identified all of its liquor stores as package stores in a dubious attempt at propriety, an extension of its socalled “Blue Laws” which made sure no intoxicants were sold on Sundays.

Georgia politicians, privately suspected to be passionate consumers of spirits, have historically been more than willing to pander to their constituents with such asinine regulations. They were fooling no one, of course.

Hence the importance of the drive-through, which allowed those downlow politicians and church folk to be as discreet as possible.

My middle brother married a girl from Broxton, years ago, so I had to send Peggy a copy of this blog and ask if she recognized the place. I have been through Broxton several times, over the years, visiting Paul & Peggy and Peggy’s family, but had no idea where this liquor store was.

She wrote back to say that at one time it had been owned by a friend of her dad’s; so then I had to ask if that meant she sometimes got “free samples.” She laughed and said no, but the fellow surprised everyone in town when he became an active member of nearby DeBerry Baptist Church, which Peggy’s extended family also belonged to.

But, she said, “he was a genuinely nice man.”

It has been very interesting to see Brian’s posts from all over the state, some of which are places I am familiar with, and others aren’t. I am glad he is documenting these places for posterity.

Rafe Semmes is a proud graduate of (“the original”) Savannah High School and the University of Georgia. He may be reached at rafe_semmes@yahoo.com.