bricks

Am I the only one who finds old bricks fascinating? There are entire histories written in the clay of these bricks. Some of these show the rotary 'grain' pattern produced when they were made by rolling clay by hand into tray molds, then wire-cutting into bricks. Others have the dark violet, almost metallic, sheen produced by extra-high-temperature firing. Some are warm, soft red; others almost white, or shades of cream. They have all been used to create buildings that had years of use, and now they are all together forming a sidewalk which is itself an antique, almost a collectible if one could collect sidewalks.

Many of the sidewalks and even some of the roadways in Pensacola are made of old brick, in most cases now covered over with uniform, ugly tarmac or even concrete, but showing through in patches where the newer materials have worn away.

In my former home, Colchester in England, there is an ancient church with a brick tower. The church is a thousand years old; but the bricks are twice that age: they were taken by the Saxon church builders from the Roman town walls. They were a millenium old then, and good as new. Fired clay bricks are the oldest manufactured things that we know anything about, and the longest-lasting, and they are still being used all over the world.