Truly, dear readers, the dog days are upon us. We see a good deal of manufactured outrage in the world, with lots of people trying to force their opinions upon us, but very few issues that tempt us to add our two cents’ worth.

Please excuse us if we decline to enter the echo chambers. Today, honoring ghosts of our hazy past, we choose instead to run a number of photographs of places once prominent in our communities that have since disappeared.

Here are five places of the past. They were in their day as familiar as the sunrise, but now their images have faded from memory. There are many more but we shall stop, enjoy a glass of lemonade, and like fellow Virginians in every county and city, reminisce a bit about the disappearing landscape and days gone by.

Remember, what was important will “fly forgotten, as a dream” with the passage of time.  ...