Spring Hope #5. North Carolina. 2013. By Paul Goldfinger. Click for full view © Leica M9.
RHONDA VINCENT; “The Lonesome Wind Blues”
November 29, 2019 by Blogfinger
Spring Hope #5. North Carolina. 2013. By Paul Goldfinger. Click for full view © Leica M9.
RHONDA VINCENT; “The Lonesome Wind Blues”
95? As you drive back up it becomes more pine and less palm. Sometimes you see a few Sabal minors (Dwarf Palmetto)in the understory, but then you are back up into cold territory before you know it.
Editor’s note: Ocean Grover—-Thanks for the botanical references. Spring Hope is indeed right off Rt.95. It is a small town in northeast North Carolina with about 1200 people. It got its name when a Scottish farmer in 1889 decided to stay and he hoped that he would find some water rising out of the ground.
We got off the highway after we saw a sign that said “gas.” We had to ride about 3 miles, seeing decrepit vacated houses and farm buildings along the way. We finally got to the gas station which looked like something out of those old dust bowl FSA photographs. The gas pumps were ancient, and the lady in front of me refused to move her car because she paid for $30.00 worth, but she claimed that she didn’t get $30.00 worth. Finally, after some grumbling to me (she didn’t have the nerve to go inside), she finally moved her car. Then it was my turn. I also had paid $30.00 in advance, but I took my chances. The old guy inside the broken down gas station was the only citizen of Spring Hope that we saw that day.
As we drove back to 95, I stopped to take some photos. There was a 3 foot deep ditch on each side of the road, so my OG parallel parking skills came in handy as I had to find a sweet spot between ditch and road.
I walked behind the lonely old abandoned house shown in the black and white photograph below, but I left quickly (giving new meaning to the term “spring hope”) when I heard some loud scratching on the other side of the wall.
—Paul