Reflections on Atlanta vs. Beaufort County | Eastern North Carolina Now

    We are back home after a great High School Reunion celebrating 50 years. I actually graduated with the class of '63 by taking summer school English and taking enough units to get out just before Kennedy was killed. My school at Clarkston was almost identical to the old Bath School! The town had one caution light.

    It was a small school so we all knew each other from grades 8-12 being under one complex. DeKalb County was entering it's "fast grow" phase of urban madness.

    We had lunch with friends from the class of '63 on Friday. Every one of the 8 is an active church person of the real type. Many attended Rehoboth Baptist Church as it grew from little country church to mega church and now back to a few white people worshiping in the old facility. A large black congregation was leasing the facility's monster sanctuary and other buildings. That has changed in the last 5 years. The leasors refused to pay and moved.

    Strangely some 5 different language groups from all over the world now lease parts of the facility and worship in their own way alongside the older residents who have not run away to the white affluent suburbs.

    In my view, this is the real Church of Jesus, the Christ. He walked in a land of many religions and many cultures. The Jews of his birth were under Roman occupation. They were straining to maintain their distinctive religion and culture. By making all things Jewish most stringent and under tight control of the Pharisees / Sadducees / and other sub-sects of Judaism. Fear begets an obsession with the "past glory."

    Each one was cock sure "they were right and all others were wrong!"

    The Romans used the sword and cross to enforce peace in a troubled land. They just wanted their taxes and would cut off a few heads to remind those rowdy Jews who was going to pay.

    It seems that human nature has changed little since Creation = fight over the inheritance / Cain killed Abel over his offering not being accepted by God (in his view) / the Jews thought God commanded them to take the Promised Land and kill all the inhabitants there in the process. The most important thing was to bring all the gold to the feet of the Priests at the Synagogue!

    The other thing we experienced was navigating Metro Atlanta via a TomTom GPS gizmo. It operates off satellite technology and is good---MOST OF THE TIME. We had a problem being late by 30 minutes. The GPS took us to the Reunion location in Roswell---then something happened and we ended up in Buford, some 15 miles away. We were trusting the GPS explicitly---until it took us back across the Buford Highway for the 5th time!!!! HOLY GESHITKA!!!!!!

    We were now 2 hours late! I knew we were in the wrong place ONLY BECAUSE I grew up there and long ago went over winding country roads between Buford and Roswell. A simple journey turned into a clogged road / almost ran out of gas / meandering journey into HELL!!!!!

    My wife and I have concluded GPS really means "Getting People Screwed!"

    To make a political analogy, it is like those who only listen to "their kind of news and commentary" without looking at the other side and considering with their own mind whether they are in Buford or Roswell --- grown beyond any recognition --- from the past of being less than a million people! Now they claim some 10 million.

    It is a matter of too many people / roads always 10 years behind actual traffic needs / too many caring only for their trip to their destination --- not caring a guy with a NC tag on his car is trying to get from the wrong lane to the one he needs. The only thing I can say good is --- a middle finger rather than a gun was used on me in my attempts to get to the right lane!

    I am glad that long ago on Atlanta expressways I became an urban driver. Translated that means 3 blinks of the signal and I am going to come over even if there is only 6" of space between my back bumper and your front. A rear end collision is always the fault of the following driver, by law!!! "Hit me if you dare, but I am getting there."

    I am glad to be back in the slower life of Beaufort County where people smile and wave at one another---and let the tourists in on the roads!!!

    Say what you please about "no excitement here," but I like it when people respect one another and actually call me "Mr. Gene" --- if they are your age or any years younger.

    Thank you God for not needing a GPS and knowing all our rural roads are not on the map of the "talking crazy lady" who had us in Buford rather than Roswell or the damned crowed 285 Atlanta Beltline!!!!

    Which do you choose???