Greetings once again from the cool crisp days in North Carolina! I have a few stories to catch you up on so please whatever you do…don’t get lost.
My first story comes from a little town in Salem, if you are like me and think of the Witch Hunt affiliated Salem…you’re wrong, this is Salem North Carolina. Which was founded in 1766 by the Moravians, a Protestant church that began in Czech Republic. The Moravians were missionaries who established an earlier settlement in Bethlehem, PA before beginning “Wachovia” in the North Carolina back country in 1753. In the Wachovia Tract of nearly 100,000 acres, Salem was the central administrative, spiritual, craft, and professional town surrounded by five outlying congregations.
When I first got to explore Salem I wasn’t able to spend much time walking around, we had to do some work and then leave, but thankfully we stayed in the area overnight and didn’t have any work first thing in the morning. So I woke up early the next morning and drove back to Salem so I could walk and really take in the history and the town.
My absolutely favorite thing about Salem was the covered bridge, I think along with lighthouses covered bridges are my new architectural favorite design. There is just something so poetic about a covered bridge and you don’t see them nearly as often now in 21st century design. So when you find one it is enough to get excited about…at least it is for me. I also have this strange memory tied to covered bridges, anytime I think of one I automatically think about the covered bridge in Anne of Green Gables. You see the same bridge several times throughout the trio if “Green Gables” movies, I am not sure why I think of that specific moment in cinema history.
Next was the most simple thing that anyone can do, just walk. I wondered around this beautiful historical town in utter silence.Wearing my headphones, I enjoyed the soothing sound of violin strings vibrating and black and white keys of a piano delicately being pressed in a soothing blend. The empty streets all around and the cold morning fog still lingering in my path I felt like I was all along walking in the steps of history. It was a simple beauty but the peace I felt walking around to take in all the little details is indescribable. How the cobblestone sidewalks show where the original streets laid. Or how the brick sidewalks rolled like the incoming tide. Little details that, had I not been alone on those streets, I never would have been able to take the time to appreciate the simple details.
Now I would never say that this is like a prime location to come visit, America’s top 10 locations, but I will say that if you can appreciate small town America this is an area you should check out! Now I went on a Sunday afternoon and I have to say it was the coolest thing to be somewhere that businesses are closed on Sunday, recognized as the day of rest. Only three or four stores were open and most of them served food and had TVs playing football. But you could see old men playing chess on the street corner, greeting neighbors who passed by, it was a perfect Sunday afternoon.
My next little adventure was on the tiny streets of Historic Goldsboro. This area wasn’t the easiest to find if you are trying to use GPS but if you are diligent in your internet research the payoff is well worth the struggle.
This town is another location that you have to change your glasses to really see…you can’t look at this town as “a grand scheme” you have to look at her details.
What I am getting most excited about is the holiday season. Now as many people who know me are aware…I am a holiday NERD! I LOVE Christmas the lights, music, the way that (sadly only once a year) people can believe in something again. Take away the presents, take away the commercialized aspect, take away everything but just the spirit of the season.
People believe in something again…they have hope again. I think that is why I get so excited about the holidays. Before I joined the military I loved the family time, I have countless memories around the holidays of all our traditions. But after I was deployed for my first Christmas in the military I knew that, though my appreciation for family time didn’t lessen I knew then that it wasn’t the most important thing of the season.
The only thing that I had left on a lonely Christmas night out at sea was hope. “‘Tis the Season” but the season for what? My season this year is change, everyday I am in a new town going from hotels, houses and campsite living on the road, but within my changing season I always have hope. Without hope the weight of the world takes a toll on us all…
Traveling Photographer Out!
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