Neighborhood Infadelism

Just a few blocks away from my residence, there is a house with a flag pole in the front yard.  The flag of the United States of America flies on the pole.  Beneath the flag there is a concrete pig standing guard.

I assume this arrangement in the front garden is a tribute to all Islamic passers by.  I am being facetious of course.  I find this concrete pig in the front garden fascinating.  I would stop to ask the residents there if there is a particular significance to the concrete pig, but I'm guessing they would give me some dissappointing reply.  Something like, "Oh we just thought the pig was cute and decided to bring it home with us."  To which I would very likely ask, "It's such a great conversation piece!  Is there a reason that you don't keep it in your parlor?"  My guess is, from that location it probably wouldn't piss off as many Muslims.  My other guess is, they would reply, "Oh we prefer to keep it out front where everybody passing can enjoy it." 

Pigs have a hard enough time flying.  Now they're concrete.  This has to be something that you would only see here, Beneath the Carolina Moon, which lies beneath the American flag, and then just a little bit south.

The Little Brown Church

I pass this little brown church on my way to and fro.  I snapped a picture of it because it has always held intrigue.  I understand that it is used for storage these days.  With a beautiful pond to the right and just beyond it, the setting is beautiful for a wedding, quiet reflection, or perhaps even a christening or a baptism.  It might would be a money making proposition to fix it up and rent it out for weddings, etc.  I don't know who owns it.  I hate to see it succumb to the elements and become lost to posterity.  But such is the way of the world.  For a while at least, it shall be frozen in time here, Beneath the Carolina Moon.

What follows below, as a connected point of interest, and as a natural dove tail of nostalgia, I offer to you the true story of the original Little Brown Church of American folk music fame.

William Pitts was on his way to visit his bride to be in Fredericksburg, Iowa.  The stagecoach in which he rode stopped at Bradford, which was 14 miles west of Fredericksburg.  He strolled around enjoying the trees, lush green growth, and the gentile rolling hills.  Mr. Pitts found a beautiful spot in a wooded area in the valley that was formed by the Cedar river.  He envisioned a church there, and could not seem to ease the vision in his mind.  Days later, when he returned home, he wrote a poem about the imagined church.


In 1857 he set the lyrics to music and seven years later, Mr. Pitts returned to teach music at the Bradford Academy.  To his surprise, he discovered a small church building being erected on the very spot where he had imagined a church years before.  It was painted brown, because at that time, that was the color of affordable paint.  Mr. Pitts located the copy of his almost forgotten song and at the dedication of the new church building, his singing class from the academy publicly performed  The Little Brown Church for the first time.


Traveling musicians discovered the song, and through the years, its popularity spread throughout country churches.  In time, The Little Brown Church gained its place on the list of American folk music.


Isn't that an awesome story, and awesome church, all brought about by an awesome God.  Awesome!


 

Not For The Weak Stomached

It's Bad Mood Food!

For the last twenty plus years I have refused to eat at Arby's and literally retch at the thought when someone suggests it.  Twenty plus years ago, I was down to my last few dollars and left work at noon for my lunch break.  I stopped at a nearby Arby's drive though and ordered a beef sandwich and drove back to the parking lot at work, where I sat in my pickup truck and opened my sandwich.  Hungrily I bit in deep and as I pulled the sandwich away from my mouth there was resistance and I saw something stretching between the sandwich and my teeth.  I ripped the sandwich away from my mouth and pried it open.  It was loaded with kinky black hair; a huge glob of it.  I opened the door and spit out the huge bite that was in my mouth and threw the sandwich to the ground.  Spitting, gagging and retching I made my way back into my employer's building and made my way to the rest room where I rinsed my mouth with water and gagged some more.  I did without lunch that day, because now I was all but broke and sick to my stomach.

Ever since that day, I have warned people about eating Arby's.  It's not "good mood food".  It's bad mood food.  It's puke mood food!  It's freaking gross food!  All fast food has the potential to be nasty at one time or another.  To me, Arby's will forever be black kinky hair gob, gross, filthy, nasty,... forever.

Unusual Places

I pass this unique place in my to and from passing to the next city over.  It just seems really quirky and odd.