I did not
get to attend Mayor Larry Chesser’s dedication ceremony of Whittler’s Corner in
the Fort Payne City Park last Saturday, but I love the idea of having it. I
think the mayor had a great idea in re-establishing Whittler’s corner, tree
stump horseshoes and togetherness. Retro technologies and lifestyles are very
popular again and are increasingly so among young people. The next thing
becoming more popular is retro cultural experiences. These are places you can
visit or create yourself that are not just retro in appearance but retro in the
experience. There are examples of this all throughout culture. Collecting and
listening to LP’s instead of CD’s is very popular. Retro photography using film
and darkroom has a growing niche. Pottery, quilt making, woodworking and the
list goes on and on. No technology either scientific, art or craft ever
completely disappears. You can now take a vacation to a paid destination that
by design takes you off the grid. No smart phones, notebooks, TV, email or
text. Oh my, it might mean you will sit around a campfire and talk or sit on
the front porch of a lodge with no TV or connectivity. You might eat together,
walk together, and catch lighting bugs together. Maybe you’ll hike at night or
just sit out and look at the stars. It is amazing how we can entertain
ourselves if the options we have been using are no longer available, even if it
is only for a day or a week.
When I was
in high school I was in Columbia, Missouri. Columbia was and is a sort of
upscale college town but all around it was good old solid Americana, rural
towns. As a family we would go to those towns in the evening or a weekend just
to mill around. We’d eat there (no chain restaurants), we walk around to
various shops and usually ended up somewhere local for ice cream. In 1972, I
moved to Nashville, TN and began working for Colorcraft/Kodak film processing.
I had been in photography for a long time already by that time. I was the middle
Tennessee sales representative. Included in my territory was Nashville but also
towns like Gallatin, Dickson, Lewisburg, Pulaski, Lawrenceburg, Columbia,
Clarksville, Ashland, Franklin, Shelbyville and many more. Many of these towns
were county seats with a courthouse square. In those days many of our accounts
were on the square. Back then all drugstores sold cameras, film and
photofinishing and most towns had a mom and pop camera store too. Yes, by then
the outskirts had K-Mart and some other chain retailers that used our products
and services too. In the 70’s all of those small towns were filled with men
sitting around the courthouse yard wearing bib overalls and whittling and in
many cases there were horseshoe and checker games going on. Since I was into
photography I liked to take pictures in those downtown areas. I often checked
out the courthouse lawn and see who was sitting out there solving the world’s
problems. These guys were products of the great depression and World War II;
they were hard working farmers, laborers or local business people. They were in
the 70’s or 80’s by then they were retired…taking it easy whittling, talking to
lifelong friends and probably talking politics and about the younger generation
that seemed rather worthless to them. You know they won’t work and have that
long hair and won’t do what they are told, was in the conversation. In 1982, my
family and I moved to Philadelphia, PA as a company promotion and I got
separated from those quaint middle TN rural towns. In the 1990’s we were again
living near enough to Nashville to make trips there. We’d go through some of
the towns that were part of my old stomping grounds but by then the elderly men
on the courthouse lawn were gone. They died out and my generation that followed
did not have whittling in their culture. By then, air conditioning, TV and
various other entertainment venues were occupying the senior’s time. You could
find them in the morning at any coffee shop, however, not whittling, not
playing horseshoes or checkers but they were drinking coffee and talking about
politics and that younger generation.
Myself and
other Baby Boomers were here for the non electronic culture and we are here for
the new technologies and most of us use new technology in one way or another
all the time and the new technologies are great but sometimes I like to think
back to a time less congested with technology that takes you away from a
simpler form of communicating with others and simpler more easy going forms of
entertainment, like sitting on the porch in the evening, playing in the yard
with the kids watching daylight fade to darkness then staying out to enjoy the
stars and the cooling air. I think we all need a little retro in our lives a
little calm a little time to revive the spirit. I am glad we have revived
Whittler’s Corner as a renewed addition to Fort Payne City Park. Horseshoes
anyone?
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