Seeing something old for the first time.

While I was in Florida last month, my beloved camera broke.  For the first time in a while, I was surrounded by things I wanted to take pictures of that, if I had had a camera, I wouldn't have looked twice at.  

At the end of June, my dad got me a new (red!) camera for my birthday and equipped with a 2GB memory card, I started taking pictures of just about anything decent looking.  Now, I generally don't approve of those people who take vacations with cameras around their neck, but on this revisit to my mom's town (where I am no stranger) I started to take pictures of the area and finally saw this town not as a ghetto past its heyday, but a beautiful vibrant community full of culture.  I give you, New London:

A New London initiative: filling empty storefronts with artwork.  This one is my favorite/the most disgusting thing I've ever seen:

Right across the street from my mom's house is a graveyard that has gravestones as old as from 1700 or so. Not too shabby. Also, there is a mound where Benedict Arnold stood and watch Groton burning (imagine me as Benedict Arnold):
Thanks to my new camera, for helping me notice these things for the first time!