Bay Window

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Here's a nice cozy, but sturdy cottage with a big bay window. This is more a beach than bay view, but it caught our eye on a very hot day. Only painted plywood, a bit this side of professional work, give any relief from the dreadful July heat. Behind the brick facade, nobody's home and the store is out of business. Someone cared enough to dress up this blighted site with some friendly artwork.

We ran up on this interesting display in Orangeburg County along Old Hwy. 6, one of our favorite routes. We see a lot of rural roads with the prefix of " Old ". There might be a new Hwy. 6 somewhere, but not on our maps. Hwy. 176 which runs from Charleston, SC, to Hendersonville, NC, is called " Old State Road " on the signs, but nobody has built a New State Road. We even see tiny dead end secondary paths which are called " Old " this or that Road. There never are new editions of such roads and probably none on the way.

We think that " old " in these road signs suggests a way of living and a sense of neighborhood which is holding on and hiding out. There is a wealth visual pleasures and great numbers of pleasant, interesting people to meet on these back roads. If all one does is to stop at the scattered old country stores along the way, there is a lot to be learned.

Out on the intestates people are growing tusks just as kept hogs gone to the wilds. When people get off of wretched superhighways, they revert to human beings in these very cordial backwaters. Don't take our word, but head out there yourselves and learn of that little world just off the beaten path.