Comments on: The Rural Fast Lane: Take 2

By: Loose Leaf Notes » Blog Archive » Floyd’s One Traffic Light is Green

Loose Leaf Notes » Blog Archive » Floyd’s One Traffic Light is Green — Tue, 04 May 2010 04:18:25 +0000

[...] in the Rural Fast Lane is an essay I wrote and read on WVTF radio a few years ago, which can be read HERE. To read a Flourishing of the Arts in Floyd, a 3 part story I wrote for a Floyd Press insert, Know [...]

By: twyla

twyla — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 12:35:07 +0000

God, that sounds so good. Both the fest and Floyd. I want to be there. Now. Or atleast soon.

By: Tabor

Tabor — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 17:52:14 +0000

1. I am packing and will be there this week.
2. Hope I can sell the retirement house I am building in time.
3. Yes, you can come to dinner with Erma, Bill, Mahatma, Leo, and my grandma–bring dessert.

By: Clarence

Clarence — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 15:59:09 +0000

Did you neglect to mention that the walking paths and driveway are paved with gold. It sure sounds like Heaven to me.

By: Lu

Lu — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 00:47:10 +0000

colleen…i have decided that you and i need to switch lives for a while…whaddya think?

By: Elissa Malcohn

Elissa Malcohn — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 23:29:07 +0000

Was grinning at the mention of Dance Free, since I loved going to Dance Freedom in Cambridge. (If I had to pick one thing I left behind that I truly miss, that’s it. I’m tempted to start one once (if?) my full plate of activities empties a bit.)
When we first came here one of my cousins asked, “Why in the world are you moving to Florida?” We’ve got a rural fast lane down here, too, though the county is developing fast (with its accompanying pros and cons). Except for travel to a poetry conference across the state we haven’t visited any of the larger cities. Haven’t felt the need.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 23:08:01 +0000

Wow. I think I said before that I am jealous of your cabin. It sounds like such a wonderful place to live. You inspire me to work harder to get to a place like that someday.

By: colleen

colleen — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 22:04:21 +0000

Hi Doug,
And while you’re working on that, I’ll be working on how I am torn (or blessed) between two places: where I come from (Massachusetts and the ocean) and where I live (the mountains here in Floyd). I have a feeling I’ll be writing about that for a long time.

By: Doug Thompson

Doug Thompson — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 21:34:05 +0000

It’s interesting to contrast the Floyd I live in today with the one I left 40 years ago. When I packed everything I owned into a 1957 Ford and left the county in search of a journalistic career in 1965, I left behind a rural county with few of the things Colleen describes — no Jamboree, no FloydFest, no Community Action Center. My grandmother worked in the Shirt Factory where the monthly Contra Dance is held.
More than a few changes for Floyd in the last four decades — some good, some bad. What I still haven’t answered is a basic question: Did I come home to rediscover the Floyd that I left 40 years ago or the one that exists now? When I find the answer I’ll have to write about it.
Doug

By: MommaK

MommaK — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 19:05:04 +0000

It does sound like paradise! I’m so happy you love living there. I am sure Floyd is glad to have you too:-)
BTW- I’m over from Michele’s today

By: Kathy AKA Ben

Kathy AKA Ben — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 11:50:56 +0000

Colleen and Joe’s spot on top of the world IS to die for!!! And by the way…I died when you told about us waiting in the elevator. Thanks for the laugh. I have a funny one (I should go back and enter it under yesterdays, “The Stupidest Thing” but I am here). My stupidest thing happened at a summer restaurant in Hull where I worked for 7 years; Jakes. Employees weren’t allowed to park in the restaurant parking lot because space was limited and the owner wanted to free up parking spaces for his customers. Well…one day I had a rent-a-car while my own was being fixed. I figured I could get away with parking in the parking lot on this HOT day and save myself the 4 bucks it cost to park at the town pier where we were *supposed to* park. Who would know the rent-a-car was mine? That night, by chance, I was the last waitress on duty. I rushed through my cleaning so as to get out before the owner locked up. I finished in the-nick-of-time but as it turned out, it was not soon enough, “Kathy wait, I’ll drive you to the pier,” the owner said. No matter what I replied, I couldn’t convince him that I didn’t need a lift to my car so we walked out together and got in his car (he parked in the parking lot) where only 10 feet from his, was my rent-a-car. We drove to the empty pier. He looked puzzled and asked, “where’s your car?” Not knowing how to get out of it, I answered, “back in the parking lot.” The stupid part was not owning up to it from the beginning. Oops…I got off topic…mine is an example of paradise NOT.