Up to the Smokies

We’re off to North Carolina today. Not to see Jason yet; we are headed
up I-85 to western NC, to do a park that has never had a map. This park
has been calling Southeast Publications for some time, wanting to get a
map done. The fact that no one jumped on it indicates it’s probably not
a resort but we’ll give it our best shot. When the owners called in
they said the park had 70 sites; the RV directories say they have 38.
As long as they don’t have too many permanent “guests,” we can probably
do it. What makes the difference between just getting a map and selling
enough ads to do it in color and get a great map (and make some money)
is the impact the park has on the surrounding community.

We’re off our “route.” It’s new territory and it feels good. We had to
give up a couple of parks but not any real good ones. The test will
come when we’ve established ourselves with 20 money making parks and
get stuck having to go back to the same places every year. When we were
really new in this job we wondered how older reps had such high sales,
really good parks every month. Now we see it is a matter of “refining”
your list of park jobs. And being good at it, building trust and
getting better every year.

I’m pretty excited about heading into textile country. I just don’t
know how these Georgia-Alabama towns survive without fabric shops.
We’re going to Forest City, just 50 miles from Asheville, NC. Fabric
shops and NASCAR … yeee-haw!

We got to do a lot more stuff in the south this year. We spent a day at
Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, while we were in
Montgomery. We were extremely impressed with the beauty of the campus,
the historical integrity, and their museum, dedicated to George
Washington Carver. Carver found a lot of uses for peanuts but I was
happy to learn his real passion was the amaryllis. Tuskegee had a
resident photographer around the turn of the century and the
photographs are wonderful, very sharp, even the ones blown up many
times. The National Park Service maintains it.

We were disappointed in the memorial and museum dedicated to the
Tuskegee Airmen. But construction is underway for a new facility and
that’s encouraging.

Last week we took a day off and rode the short-line train south to
Plains, Georgia. We’ve always admired Jimmy Carter. I’ll never forget
the letter Dave wrote from Tokyo in 1975, saying he met a fellow in a
bar at the hotel, a peanut farmer from Georgia who said he was running
for president. Had I heard of Jimmy Carter? Jimmy who? (Remember what
his mother said when he told her he was running for president … she
said “president of what?”) We hung out at the train depot, Carter
campaign headquarters, where the signs are still up, and we had ice
cream in a converted bank on main street. The owner served us and said
that Miss Roslyn had been in the day before and she saw Mr. Jimmy come
through town on his bike last week. (He still teaches a sunday School
class).

We got a tour of the house the President was raised in, another
National Park Service stop down the road, and toured the telephone
museum in Lesley. Dave has been wanting to see this museum for a year;
I think he’s seen enough telephones now to last him a while.

These towns are very small; a high school serves the county. A high
school in this southwestern area of Georgia had its first integrated
prom last week. It was fairly big news here, although Georgia doesn’t
seem to make any apologies. The school is more than half black; it was
the kids’ decision to have one prom instead of the usual two. Only
about half the kids in the school went to the prom; some white kids
admitted to having their own private parties at the country club.

There are a lot of people in the south who want to protect their
interests from “the ravages of multiculturalism and phony diversity.”
Check out dixienet.com.

So we’re leaving middle Georgia, the Towaliga River (Towaliga is Creek
for pale scalp!), and the gnats, headed for the Smokies and a fringe of
Appalachia. Hopefully the pollen count is lower in the “mountains,”
although we are assured that if we eat local honey we can reduce our
allergies.

Hope you’re getting some spring!

Love,