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October 03, 2005
Back Woods Virginia
This weekend my cousin got married in North Carolina. It would probably have been about a 8 1/2 to 9 hour drive if I would have driven straight there, but I went with Emma and we stopped at her mom's house somewhere in the middle of swampland Virginia.
We stopped there on Friday night and left early Saturday morning for the wedding in Wilmington. We passed field after field of cotton, but after a short time we came across a village just big enough to have a name on the map - Capron.
Capron looked to me to be little more than a couple churches, an apartment building freshly burned to the ground and a feed store.
Though the apartment building was in rubble and still smoldering a bit it was the feed store that really caught my eye and commanded my attention.
Some time in the past the store expanded into their current location usingthe old store across the street only for storage.
Storage and a visible display of bigotry.
We were zooming through the town when out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of the word "colored" above one of the doors. Holy shit! I thought. Is that for real?
I looked back and sure enough, over one door was "colored" and over the other door "white."
"Stop! I've got to get a picture of this."
"What?"
"Just stop!"
"Why?"
"The door says 'colored' above it. Go back."
I got my camera ready, but as we turned back to the parking lot in front of the old feed store I noticed a few farmers and feed store employees sitting on the loading dock of the new store across the street.
"Get in closer."
"Why?"
"I've got to get a clear picture."
"Just get out of the car."
I didn't want to get out of the car. I'd seen "Deliverance."
I'm not saying I was afraid of being forced to squeel like a piggy, but I was a little un easy. Here I was someone from out-of-state (granted only Maryland) with a camera at the ready to document the town's backwards ways. I thought there could be a chance they'd be a little defensive.
Fortunately I got this photo off without a hitch:
Posted by calculatoronfire at October 3, 2005 06:56 AM
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Comments
don't you talk to me like I'm your mom ;p
Posted by: emma at October 3, 2005 02:05 PM
just as long as you recognize that she DESERVES the way she is talked to.
It took Cheryl nearly two years to see that.
Posted by: nick at October 3, 2005 04:10 PM
Why exactly does she deserve the way she is spoken to? I was just wondering because there does not appear to be any rational explanation as to why.
Posted by: at October 4, 2005 03:34 PM
wait around, you'll see.
Once she told me she felt sorry for my wife because you treat your wife the same as you treat you treat your mother.
The day before my wedding she announced that her son was finally leaving the nest...I was under the impression that I had left twelve years earlier (I will admit that that is negotiable) but surely the six year I spent in the navy and the year I had been living with my wife and the time I was in college before the navy certainly count for time out of the nest!
I am sure I can think of a plethora of other examples. Stick around long enough and you will have your own.
Posted by: nick at October 4, 2005 05:06 PM
I think it is important to speak to mom in English. I don't think she really understands any other language that well. Not any language I can speak, anyway.
She told me she can read graffiti really well, though.
Posted by: brian at October 5, 2005 09:05 AM