Peripheral Vision And Hearing: On The Road And Back Again This Week

A few images and thoughts from this week's travels in Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas:

A real giggle occurred at the Georgia border, on I-75 just south of Chattanooga, TN. Someone has purchased a billboard openly petitioning Our Lord to hasten his return to Earth sooner rather than later. As devout Christians, Mr. and Mrs. OS do understand that this day will arrive, because it has been promised by Christ himself, at a date known only to the Almighty. The billboard was a bit of a shock, implying that we would be able to pull this date forward, if we were to try devoutly enough.

Of course, given the traffic that followed in Georgia for the next several hours, one might understand the sentiment behind the sign. The afternoon was exhausting and harrowing, and it was Saturday! The road was rough, littered with shreds of blown and failed truck tires, along with much other debris. Never again. Never another drive through central Georgia.

A few days later, we met a refugee from Atlanta, waitressing at a restaurant. Three years ago, she was married, a homeowner, working in accountancy at a large construction firm. Everything fell apart at once, and now divorced, she sleeps on a friend's couch near Jacksonville, with the house on short sale (with no interest shown), happy to be working as a waitress, with a place to sleep. Away from Atlanta, and the traffic, and the life built on 'keeping up with the Joneses'-her quote. She said she used to feel ashamed at all that happened, losing the house, losing the marriage, losing the life. She says that many of her friends and acquaintances are bailing out of Atlanta, that the jobs have simply disappeared, and laughed grimly at the suggestion that news reports tout a recovery underway. She reports that rents are dropping rapidly on beachfront property, and is looking for a more permanent place to settle.

In Jacksonville, much vacant retail space, and a real shabbiness to many parts of the city, in contrast to the manicured privacy of the upscale developments. OS hit two golf courses, one in an older section of town. The course and clubhouse had certainly seen better days. The drive home in the afternoon was sobering, with scores of young men just hanging out on the stoops and street-corners, no place to go evidently. The newer course was in a planned development near the beach, and was impeccable. OS walked his holes, and had the course to himself.

The drive back to Tennessee took us through the Carolinas, via I-95 to I-16. A stop at an outlet mall south of Savannah was revealing. Three-quarters of the retail space empty, with other stores obviously on clearance. Our visit with friends in the Tryon, NC area was a true contrast. The little towns were thriving, well-groomed, with a wide variety of goods and services. Very little empty storefront evident. We hope to visit again soon. Something is being done right here. A town of 1500 with four prospering bookstores has something good going on.

A visit in one of the larger towns was poignant, as OS overheard a retail store clerk recount that 'this was the job he could find', as the middle-management corporate job went away months ago. In a high-end antique store, a middle-aged gent walked in, attempting to flog a print given to him twenty-seven years earlier by his mom as a wedding gift. Marriage had recently ended, and evidently he was liquidating what remained of that life. The owner was kind, but unwilling to purchase without a clear provenance on the item. It was painful to overhear, and we quietly headed out the door to allow them to finish the conversation without spectators.

The drive home was extended by a closure of I-40 on the North Carolina side. A detour and overnight in Kingsport up I-26 took us through breathtakingly beautiful country. We wandered about in search of a place to eat after checking in to our hotel, and drove a few miles into Virginia up Highway 23. As depressing a sight as we have seen in years. The despair hung thick in the air.

Home again the next day, and grateful to be back. The contractors begin arriving this week to restore the damage wreaked by The Great Middle Tennessee Flood. We'll be living with the contents of a large living room stowed in the rest of the house. Never knew we owned that much china...

Still, so very grateful for our lives, one another, our kids, our friends, our work, our cats and dogs.

The economy is obviously not in free-fall as in 2008, but there are a lot of people still in a world of hurt, and many more yet to go through the wringer as we go through the inevitable de-leveraging after the governmet's attempts to pump everything back up. The road back will be long and hard.

More to tell, with one particularly poignant foreclosure tale to tell, but that's for another day.

So happy to be home.