There’s a rusty old tractor wheel on New Jersey Route 31 in Flemington, New Jersey:

It’s in a little grassy patch between the Elks Lodge and the Flemington Department Store (a really neat store I wrote about here once!)

It never did occur to me to wonder why exactly there’s a busted, rusted tractor wheel sitting there, even though it’s been there since I was a little kid and I’ve driven past it, very likely, thousands of times. Well, a few people on Facebook did ask, and I learned the answer from the comments!

First, here’s a current aerial view from Google Maps. Just above the department store, and running through the middle of the image here, can you make out a faint line heading to the cul-de-sac at the middle left?

That’s an old farm driveway, and the tractor wheel—several commenters recall there were once two of them—was by the mailbox and marked the driveway!

Same view, 1972, from Historic Aerials. You can clearly see the driveway running through the middle:

The farmhouse and barn are still standing, but now have an address on, and access from, that cul-de-sac rather than off 31. Here’s the house. It sort of fits into the pattern of the newer houses, but not quite. You can also see the remains of the driveway in more detail, to the left of the house:

This is pretty neat. There’s a house in a neighborhood near me that’s several decades older than the subdivision that it’s now nestled into. You wouldn’t really know it predated everything else, but if you look closely you can see it’s a much older style than the newer 1980s houses that surround it.

Things change. Some people think these little remnants are sad—emblems of what we lost. I see it differently. I see them as little threads that connect us to the past while making room for what’s new. Hanging on by a thread is enough sometimes.

Or by a rusty tractor wheel.

Related Reading:

Land Your Plane for Pizza

What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #20

What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #27

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