LOVE IS WHERE YOU FIND IT

Kershaw, SC

GLANCES OF FAME

For some places, fame only glances for a short time and then moves on. Such a place is Wadesboro, nestled along Route 74 in the Piedmont region of the Carolinas. Walking down the half deserted streets and empty buildings, you can almost hear the Blues played here by Blind Boy Floyd and others. Pass the place where Sylvester "Junkyard Dog" Ritter, slammed other wrestlers to the ground, becoming a national wrestling sensation. Just over the horizon, beyond downtown, you can still sense cameras rolling where once Hollywood came to town and filmed The Color Purple. And imagine the footsteps of thousands when it was determined that this place was the best spot to view the famous eclipse of 1900. Now all is muffled, like wisps in the wind, and an empty stage for the next glance of fame....

AROUND THE CORNER OF DREAMS

                                Glendale Ave, Phoenix                                          young '14

DEAD RINGERS

“Opportunity tends to knock once, then it’s gone. Temptation, however likes to stand there and lean on the damm doorbell!”  Sarah Moores

Apartments doorbells have their own drama and often form interesting parts of movie lore. They are no less interesting when you happen upon unique ones on city walks.

Milo Kellogg, the inventor of the telephone switchboard, is credited with creating the first doorbell systems for apartments and buildings in 1894. Older apartments often have doorbell panels that have existed for decades. Some buttons still working, some taking on the tenants personality, and some gone all together. Often there are signs of rough shod desperate attempts to keep them working, sometimes even including special instructions on how to use a certain button. 

They are fun parts of the city to find and explore. Found in narrow walkways and dimly lit places, they are always a challenge to photograph. I admit being tempted to push the unique button or the ones with no name, called dead ringers. Lives, tenants, landlords all tangled in small city stories. Ones I yearn to know. Yes, I am always tempted to ring….

CATAWABA DANCING

We danced along the Catawaba, asking those of the River to remember us...

THE TELLING OF TRUE WEALTH

Highway 21 runs north and south through the heart of the Carolina Piedmont to the Low Country. It is a highway of commerce where people live and make a living. As you move south, though, that commerce gives way to gentle rural land and beauty. You find gems from the past like the old house I took a photo of. After taking the picture, I saw a woman with a cane walking out to her mailbox from a farm home. Wanting to learn more about the house, I drove up the road to introduce myself. Her name was Edna. I ask if she knew any history on the home. 

She said yes, “It was the Thomas Farm.” She paused for a moment looking at it. “My husband always wanted to buy it and the acreage that came with it. When he died, I used part of the life insurance money to make his dream of our mile come true. The Thomas acreage and ours totaled 640 acres. Our mile was made.” 

Edna and I chatted for a while then she politely said good bye and started walking back to her home. I looked beyond the home to behold property that stretched to a far line of trees, some fields tilled, some not and two horses roaming free. My business mind kicked in and did the math. 640 acres times the going price for farm land was $1.8 million. It would be worth four times more once new commerce reached here. I wondered, as I watched her walk toward her home, if she understood that wealth. Then I looked again at “her mile.” Perhaps she did not understand my math but could provide a telling of true wealth.

GARNETT DISTRICT - ATLANTA WANDERINGS

Atlanta impresses, its skyline fills the landscape and glistens in the afternoon sun. There were lots of places to explore with my camera. One place though beckoned me, the Garnett District. Official guides politely described it as “just south of Five Points is the somewhat rundown and isolated area of downtown near the Greyhound Bus station and government buildings.” On the map, it looked like a place where the glitzy Peachtree and Forsyth Streets crashed into dead ends right at the Bus station. I knew this was where I would find artist and parts of the city both untouched and touched by real people. My camera was not disappointed by my adventures there.