Thursday, June 10, 2010

signs all around us


It's true, our American political landscape is littered with on-the-down-low corporatists who seem to despise the common man.

Our oceans are filling with oil, and natural resources and possibly unknown species of deep sea fish are being destroyed daily.

I worry for my children's future and their right to live on a planet where they can breathe clean air and drink non-toxic water.

Combine that with the usual annoyances like bikini razor burn, oily skin and pimples at age 38, and an informidable flea takeover of my house since we brought home two cats.

It can be upsetting...sometimes infuriating. (I keep finding little curly black pieces of flea shit on my kitchen table after I've shooed a sleeping cat off, and it's grossing me out. This seems to be one of the joys of living in sub-tropical Tennessee.)

But life doesn't stop. It can't stop, or we've lost the battle. I won't stop being silly here, or anywhere, although sometimes I may get into a little ranting funk. But lucky for everyone who reads this blog, I usually reserve my diatribes for facebook, where I think I secretly enjoy aggravating online "friends."

We can't allow ourselves to quit looking at the world with a sense of wonder. Anger and disappointment aside, there is something new and beautiful to be discovered each day.


Now I know I'm seriously late with posting some Nashville flood photos. But does anyone care anymore? They're interesting photos, if for nothing more than historical significance.

But today, I have something more timely to share with you--signage highlights from my recent trip through Virginia on our way to D.C.

If you want to see stuff like this, you have to get off the highway...there's just no other way.

Every state likes to act all normal from the safe and impersonal confines of the high-speed roads, but once you get to really know that state...well, you know what I mean.


Okay, this one isn't weird. It was late afternoon and we had just arrived at the Virginia state line. I found the cloud behind the sign to be breathtaking. I love cumulonimbus. No, the rest stop didn't smell bad, so I still had breath to behold the cloud. Although Tennessee has much nicer waysides--ours smell like potpourri and ham, and they have rocking chairs too, just like at Cracker Barrel!




I did not note any sort of crumpacking factory in the area. Apparently, in the early colonial days of Virginia, there was a Dutch Crumpacker dynasty going on, with family members soldiering and farming and all that good colonial stuff, later emigrating to Indiana where they became all political. Are you questioning whether or not I need to get a life? Because I am.



I begged my husband to stop so I could get a photo of this sign. What sort-of name was that for a state park anyways? I thought it was pretty funny. I guess anyone would think that if they didn't know the story behind the name. It's actually very sad. This story would make a good bluegrass or folk song.



The Legend of Hungry Mother


Legend has it that when the Native Americans destroyed several settlements on the New River south of the park, Molly Marley and her small child were among the survivors taken to the raiders’ base north of the park. They eventually escaped, wandering through the wilderness eating berries. Molly finally collapsed, and her child wandered down a creek until the child found help. The only words the child could utter were "Hungry Mother." The search party arrived at the foot of the mountain where Molly collapsed to find the child's mother dead. Today that mountain is Molly’s Knob, and the stream is Hungry Mother Creek.

(copied from http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/hun.shtml)



Southern food and gasoline in one place! Sure beats the usual gas station taquitos.



Have a great week! I'm off to stir my enchilada sauce :-)



10 comments:

walk2write said...

First of all, you will thank your ancestors and whoever else is responsible for that oily skin when you get to be 50 or so--not as many wrinkles as people with perfect complexions get at that age. Secondly, have you tried Revolution on the cats? It's a relatively new all-in-one flea/tick/wormer medicine applied once a month to the neck area. It's not as greasy as that other stuff I was used to using, and our cat finally has some relief from the fleas. Of course, it will probably only be effective until the fleas develop resistance to it.

I love sign pics too! I used to find interesting ones all the time in Illinois, not so many here, except for homemade ones like the No Trust Passing sign someone down the road from us posted at the end of a long driveway.

Clementine Moonflower said...

I think I would've rather had the 35 young years of a perfect complexion! :)

Haven't heard of Revolution. I'm finding that what's most effective is just combing them out 10 times a day (I exaggerate). I really don't want to bomb the house again. It makes the fleas twitch and have seizures, and I can imagine what it secretly does to our nerves. Then again, the live fleas are doing quite a bit to my nerves too! Thanks for the advice--I'll have to check it out!

I love traveling because of the signs. They're an essential part of the scenery for me.

troutbirder said...

You are most seriously whimsically oxymoronishly hilarious. I love it!!!
btw Thanks for comment on Haiti trip. We are very proud of those two young people...

Clementine Moonflower said...

Well, thank you for your compliment! I speak out of honesty and from the heart--and the world ticks me off, but I can always make fun of it in the meantime. You should be proud of your kids--they are very courageous to go into such a situation like Haiti! It makes me feel so much better about the world to know that there are people like that in it.

Rebecca D said...

Thank you for the laugh... I see signs that crack me up all the time... I guess I'm glad it's not just me...

Kathi said...

I know I'm incredibly late on this....or perhaps right on time, considering I only started following you last week, lol. I have to agree w/you....politics are ticking me off. Government is ticking me off. And what our country and our world is turning into is ticking me off. We have the future of our children and their lives to be concerned about here, and it's all making me feel like there won't be much of a future at all for our them. Period. That's a frightening thought, therefore, I jump back into my own little happy world, where nothing can bring me down. The wonderful clouds in the sky still look like cartoon characters, the wildflowers growing on the sides of the highways still put a big smile on my face, the lightening bugs sparkling up the fields like glitter, shooting stars glistening across the night sky, the kids all laughing hysterically over something incredibly silly, someone blasting a good song from their car - that makes me start moving to the beat in my own car, the smell of fresh bread baking in the bakery, a stranger smiling and waving at me as I walk by them on the bike trail at the lake.....I won't bore you w/anymore of this...maybe I'll just continue describing my happy place in my own blog, lol.

On a happier note, I too LOVE taking pics of road signs and the like. I did plenty of that on our trip to/from The Ozarks. I just haven't posted any yet. That's the trouble w/being busy all the time. Never find the recreational time to do small things like uploading pics to a computer, lol.

But, thank you for sharing these pictures! And the "Hungry Mother" story. It made me sad to think about that poor little child off to get help for his mama, and to return only to find her already passed. :(

And if it helps, at nearly 39, I too, still get pimples, and a greasy nose. :-)

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