Images from the Weekend

This is the road in front of the house where I grew up in North Carolina. It's not the same road that was there, however. Country highways back in the '60s and '70s tended not to have turning lanes. Actually, this is a major road--US Highway 25-70. In a sense, it's two major roads. Highway 25, "Dixie Highway," runs from Brunswick, Georgia, to Cincinnati, Ohio. Many on the Reeves side of my family used to travel it regularly before I-75 came to be. Highway 70 runs from eastern North Carolina to somewhere in the middle of Arizona. I lived beside it in Walnut; I lived beside it in Nashville. I think about the hollows--the "hollers"--of Madison County, North Carolina, and the kids I knew growing up in them, and I wonder if the differences in my life weren't somehow influenced by seeing something of the larger world passing back and forth along this highway.


This is the same mountain, from a slightly different angle. A more beloved angle. This is from the porch of the house where I grew up, and I can't imagine the number of times that I've sat in the porch swing, in one of the rockers or on the concrete front steps and looked at this view. I've looked at it in all seasons and at all times of day. I've seen it on many a blue October day like the one in the picture. I've seen it backlit by the lightning of a summer storm. I've seen it disappear in the approach of a winter snow, a spring rain. And I've stood on the top of that highest peak and tried to see my house from there. The trees surrounded me, and I don't remember seeing anything. But the view from the porch I'll always love--unless somebody levels off that top and builds a house up there, which is probably bound to happen one of these days.


I saw this sign in Mars Hill when I was on my way home Sunday. I named the photo "Stupid Sign." Is it advertising for a sporting goods store? No. Is it an advertisement for taxidermy? No. Is it the hardware store where the sign stands on the edge of the lot? No. It's a political campaign sign for Mike Gahagan, a longtime area highway patrolman who's currently the challenger in the county sheriff's race! I'm sure that the Larry-the-Cable-Guy slogan and the deer rising Godzilla-like from behind the "Gahagan Mountains" will sell big in Madison County.



Leaves.















Shadow.





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