Doctor HP Flowers

The 'Keeper'

     Red-lined and sprinkled with symbols locating items and places of interest (intended to guide return visits), my county maps tell the plenitudinous story of roads traveled over the years and discoveries made along the way.  A wealth of precious chance encounters.  A small waterfall here, and old farm house over there.
     Instead of the sweet renewal of an old acquaintance, however, return visits can often be a source of dismay and downright consternation.  Natural roadsides once rich with wildflowers are widened, straightened, cutback and bare.  Old churches once emblems of community heritage are either replaced or strangled by multiple mismatched additions framed with edge to edge blacktop.  Country stores unable to compete with full service convenience plazas are boarded up and overgrown.
     Early yesterday morning, with trepidation I turned southwest on Johnson Mountain Road and headed toward a map symbol labeled 'old plank bridge'.  Cautiously ready for a taste of bitter tea.  Instead, that chilly morn the tea was mellow and sweet.  A blessed reprieve, still standing, still spanning.  Goose bumps rippled like the shallow waters of Salacoa Creek, and all was right with the world.

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© d081102-016  Old Plank Bridge
 Johnson Mountain Road
 Bartow County, Georgia
 Sunday 2 November 2008

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While they Last

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     A beautiful old truss bridge.  Hard working, dependable, honest and loyal, dedicated to community service, cute as a speckled pup.  And, fast disappearing.  It took us many decades to appreciate old 'covered' bridges; now, only a few remain mostly as registered historic structures, maintained and protected somewhat from fire bugs and vandals.  I hope we don't follow the same path with these precious relics before they too are gone forever.

     Love 'em, while they last. 

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© d071103-060, 061  Old Truss
  Caney Fork River
  White County, Tennessee
  Saturday 3 November 2007

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Arrive Wilson Creek Bridge

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Mile 50.9, 1:40 pm.  "Arrive Cr 1328 near Adako. There's a sign - USFS Pisgah, Mortimer Campground, 8.5 miles.  Turn right on Cr 1328, head north to Mortimer.  Recent storm.  Many trees blown down.  Hope roads are clear.  There's a skunk."

Mile 53.6, 1:50 pm.  "Cr 1328 skirts beside a great gorge.  The gorge carries Wilson Creek for a tremendous run over and around beautiful rock formations.  Recreation abounds.  Even on Wednesday.  Cars, swimmers, bathers, yuppies cruisin', kayakers."

Mile 55.6, 2:00 pm.  "Arrive Wilson Creek Bridge."

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© r0307-01  Truss Bridge
  Caldwell County, North Carolina
  Wednesday 14 June 1989

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Crossings

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     The ancient bridge sits alone long removed from public service.  How many times did the doctor ride his horse across to help deliver a new baby, or the mailman to spread the daily news.  How many times did the kids walk across on their way to school, most barefoot by early Spring.  How many sturdy wagons creaking with logs crossed to the sawmill, or family carriages to market heaped with corn, beans, and potatoes.  When did the first Model T break the quiet and sentence this crossing to isolation and ultimate decay.  "Why," a sentimental old fool might wonder out loud.  Unable to hold it inside.

    

© r0289-22 Old Bridge in Field
  Pocahontas County, West Virginia
  Tuesday 6 June 1989

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Double Crossing

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     Near Carrollton, West Virginia, a splendid barn-red covered bridge spans the Buckhannon River flowing to the right to confluence with the Tygart Valley River about a mile downstream, thence due north to the Cheat, to the Monongahela, to the Ohio and beyond.  That lofty horizon, however, does not lessen the resolve needed here to simply reach the other side.  It deserves post card status.

    

© d070529-057 Covered Bridge
  Barbour County, West Virginia
  Tuesday 29 May 2007

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Ekphrasis

     Learned a new word on my recent Fall trip whilst reading about Italian Renaissance Art; it's ekphrasis.  Narrowly defined, ekphrasis is a poem about a painting or another work of art.  Like Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn, or Shelly on Leonardo's Medusa.  More generally, the term has evolved to mean an intense emotional or poetic response to any powerful 'visual' scene. Response to a 'visual' scene - what an epiphany!  For three days the idea rattled around inside Doctor Flowers' head like dry seeds in an agitated gourd.  To search for the 'visual' in nature and rural life - then see and respond.  A quest for beauty then sentiment.  Outlook charged with feeling.  Here's Pendleton County West Virginia ("ekphrasis").  And Thorn Creek Watershed ("ekphrasis").  With fantastic colors ("ekphrasis").  Near Johnny Dahmer's Farm now a county historical landmark ("ekphrasis").…

© r1421-08  Thorn Creek
Thorn Creek Road
Pendleton County WVa.
Wednesday 18 October 2006

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Follow the Light

I must cross the divide
To reach the other side.

Title:            © Plank Bridge.  r0155-11
Series:           Road Scene
Location:       Chattahoochee National Forest
                     White County, Georgia
Date:             Sunday 28 September 1986

Count Your Metaphors

4:10 pm. Easing cautiously south on McDonald Road a little east of Newton Factory Shoals, my gut's knotted with dread. I'm chasing a hot assignment: Find a Red Clay Democrat! The Rolling Stones blast from the Beagle's overdriven speakers, baiting my hook like a dough ball dangling in front of a hungry channel cat.

 

"Well there's a place you really get your kicks
It's open every night about twelve to six
Now if you want to hear some boogie you can get your fill
Down the road, down the road, down the road apiece."

 

We boogie mindlessly around a blind curve and happen upon an olden steel truss unattended, abandoned, and disrespected. Its planks commandeered by brigands for duty elsewhere. And, in spite of everything, determined to shake off decades of sticky gooey red clay.
The backroads score again. Always delirious; and chock full of chestnuts, parables, precious old expressions, homonyms, antonyms, synonyms, and even a few m-and-m's. Like, I wish I could have seen this truss when it was new…. Or, the end of the road is not end of the world. All roads lead to uncertain outcomes, and opportunities foregone. Once a path is chosen it cannot be undone.
Some say a broken down old truss is worse than a hazardous eyesore, it's a useless pile of junk! Robert Frost might indicate otherwise:

 

  "Then took the other just as fair
  And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear."

 

Note: Log your most revealing metaphors about this photo in the "Comments" section. Each will be awarded a copy of my next book, and will become sole property of Doctor Flowers Enterprises, Inc.

 

Title: © Bear Creek Truss. r0396-08
Series: Road Scene
Location: Newton County, Georgia
Date: Sunday 13 October 1990

Insatiable Wanderlust

New York Times Book Review
A chat with Doctor HP Flowers:

"First, why did you travel tens of thousands of miles thru the backroads of the Blue Ridge Mountains, take pictures by the thousand and rolls of film by the hundred, eat moldy snoballs, suffer days of burning crotch rot, get bug bit and tick infested, endure sleepless nights in your little red Truck, write hundreds of pages trail log, study and mark dozens of maps, spend endless hours in meditation and self introspection, spin flights of fancy about the delights of rural mountain life, walk endless ditch lines in leaky rubber boots, warily peek into old mills and abandoned coal mines, creep around and take pictures of junk race cars and wash on the line, and experience reverie at an old railroad line once used for hauling mountain timber."

Doctor Flowers, "Insatiable wanderlust."

Title: © Ramsey's Draft Bridge. r0530-26
Series: Road Scenes
Location: Cr 716, Augusta County, Virginia
Date:  Sunday 31 May 1992