Editor’s Note: This morning, Marlow touches on some of the things that make this great, chaotic, wonderful nation unique. Enjoy your 4th! The Parade in Culpeper starts at 4:00 PM! Fireworks to follow at the park!
– Vic
I am no scientist, just an interested observer. I am exploring our new neighborhood in Savannah much like an infant, who has just learned to hold his hed up. My gazing about is frank and forthright but hopefully not bewildered.
Much like a newborn, I do not possess much of a clue or depth as to who these folks are, where this is, what is going on and so forth. But I aim to learn bit by bit.
In a couple of years, I hope not to have relearned how to fake it. You now what I mean . . . possessed of the arrogant air of a squatter who has come to feel he owns the place.
Many of us are beset for the most part by an uncommanded, perhaps taught, pride which diverts us from our native intent, which is to explore our surroundings and landscape, to discover at least where it is that we have been set down as well as why.
I guess this is somehow connected to our human desire to “own” things, especially creative works. Like many of my vintage, I talk about personal connections to favorite bands, authors, performers and athletes. There are some whom I encountered very early in their careers that I came to feel that I “discovered” them. I think it’s an impulse we’ve all felt.
Why? Why do we cease exploring things and come to owning things? How does our dynamic sense of wonder and curiosity turn into a more static and final sense of judgment and possession?
In the hope of remaining curious, I offer you a trio of oddities that W and I have found during our journey in and around the Hostess City.
Great Dane
The 10 foot by 15 foot mascot for Great Dane semi trailers stands guard just west of the downtown historic district of Savannah. The company dresses up its dog for various holidays. Woof. Woof.
Giant Cow Mailbox
Located in the rural outskirts of Savannah this mailbox was made for a giant — 30 feet tall, 16 feet long and 8 feet wide and painted like a cow. The mailbox owner also owns and operates Keller’s Flea Market whose mascot, Kelly, is a much beloved 15 foot high 22 foot long 1500 pound fiberglass cow.
Please note Kelly’s accessories – a gold leg watch, tail diamond ring, an “I (heart) Fleas” cowbell, a lady’s straw hat, dangling earrings, and bulging eyes. She also is dressed up for various holidays.
Runway 10 Graves at the Hilton Head-Savannah Airport
Whether arriving or departing Savannah Airport’s Runway 10, an eagle eye on the tarmac will treat you with the sight of a pair of concrete rectangles that mark the final burial place of Richard and Catherine Dotson whose bodies refused to move as the airport extended Runway 10 in the early 1980s.
Like many airports across the country, the Savannah airfield was built on former farmland, taking advantage of all the wide open space for lengthy runways and sprawling terminal hubs. A necessary component of using this type of land has always been dealing with the small family cemetery plots that most of them have. Generally this is not a problem with the airport usually footing the bill to move the graves into a modern cemetery with the family’s consent. In the case of the graves in the way of the Runway 10 extension, the deceased couple’s children did not consent.
Since it is illegal in America to transfer buried remains without the consent of the next of kin, the airport did the only thing they could and simply paved over them. However, far from a heartless steamrolling, two headstones were placed over the graves, laid flat with the runway.
One’s gotta love a place where folks play seasonal holiday dress up with mammoth dolls and land 70 ton jet aircraft atop grandma and grandpa.
Happy Fourth of July!
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