Let's Take a Ride.

(Thunder begins to roll overhead...) Hmm. Sounds like rain. I wanted to take a ride anyway. Lets saunter over to my car and go for a spin. I have things to show you that are still part of my world, only they are in the larger arena.

We hop in the car and roll down the street. You see a typical city-edge neighborhood. Complete with Food Lion, car lots, eateries, specialty shops, Auto Zone, convenience stores, etc. Nothing new. While it is Sunday, I pull into a parking lot that belongs to a title loan place. I see your puzzled look as you note that it is closed. I merely point to the building next door. It is vacant, remnants of a closed business. That building has its own story to tell.

This building has a story its own. Likely, it will be torn down at some point but I am sure that it will need "cleaning" before its demise. It used to house an adult book store. One of the lovely businesses along the main vein into the city. Boy am I proud to call this place MY home. (You hear the flat tone in my voice.) Because of the nature of its business, you can imagine some of the things that went on there. Rumor has it that prostitutes used to do their trade there. In the private viewing rooms as well as in the parking lot behind the building. Wow. What a more perfect place, there is a privacy fence back there! At any rate, the city finally got tired of it and attempted to charge the owners of the building as well as the business. It was eventually closed down for just those reasons. The sign was taken off the front and doors locked. Deemed a health hazard. NICE. Very nice.

There are other things that are going on around here and they make you want to say: "Not in MY neighborhood." That is what YOU think...

I pity the rich folk and their sanitized ways....

As we walk back toward the next complex, I note that you reflect on our conversation about the artist and his "DEAD" sign. Good. That is what I am trying to accomplish. To try and make you think. To make you more aware of what is really going on. But my work here is far from done. You see, I am in a transition stage and I am trying to prevent someone from filling the spot misery has here for someone. If I can eliminate the life in that chair misery has caned, then I have accomplished something greater that any education can provide. I will be moving on soon, me and my soul mate and our children. We are going on to the next phase in our lives. That phase has so much more to offer than what we have here and we can only hope for that faint glimmer of hope for the others. For misery loves company and it will suck you in like a black hole and keep you here if you are not careful. Just ask some of the true locals. Those who do not have a home so to speak. (You can see those images by following this link. Thanks The Sun News, you do more than just provide a few jobs and some news, you make a statement every now and again! Photo Project: Through the Eyes of the Homeless. http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/static/weeklysurge/flash/coverSlides011509/index.html)

Upon getting to the bridge, I ask you to take note of something that I like to call the yin/yang of the 'hood. Yes, you are looking at two dumpsters on either side of the same street. The ironic thing about it is that the people with the empty dumpster choose to continue to fill the other one. For what purpose? If they stick to their side of the street, they keep the trash from overflowing and keep their neighborhood and neighbors complex clean. Our owners only own one building on the right side of the street but they own all on the left and still, they say nothing. They never do. Apparently, they don't care.














Doesn't make any sense does it? No, not really. Just something else to be angry about. Nearby, there are nearly 80 children that get on and off the bus five days a week and have to walk by this filth and learn that this is just the way things are. They become numb to the nasty way things are around here and come to believe that things are not much better anywhere else. I am sorry but, mine are going to know better. They are going to have better. This is not what their future is and every one of them know it. I only wish the feeling would spread. Here is hoping right? Na, this city is not going to let that happen. They are too busy worrying about the next large hotel or the next upscale community to remember that it is the people who are left in neighborhoods like these are the ones who made this city what it is. These so called "poor" people are also going to be the glue that holds this place together when the snotty rich people are too good to work menial jobs for a living. Maybe it is because they forgot where they come from or had that silver spoon all along. I pity them. Their antiseptic way of life has poisoned their view of the way the world really is and it is making them step on the ones who have real lives, who show every day they have been alive in their faces and feels it in their hearts. It is we who pity the rich who never give a passing glance to the rest of us. How sad that is.

But I digress...lets continue with a stroll through some parts of town. Other things I want you to see are soon to come.

They don't care, they are paid regardless.

After taking a moment to decipher the statement being made by our friendly sign artist, we decide to take a walk up the street. I want to take you into the next complex but I want you to see something that resides on the other side of the apartment building that is in front of our building. Our building does not face the parking lot it is actually at a ninety degree angle from the first row of parking spaces so our front door looks at another property and our back door looks at the next building in the complex. At any rate, we stroll down to the corner and take a right and I hear you gasp at what you see. I, however, continue to walk without missing a beat. You see, it is like this in my world every day. It is numbing and due to lack of options, you have to get used to it. That I have. This is only a weeks worth of trash for approximately a dozen small apartments. I would not want to be the one who lives next door to this. These people think I am a loud shrew now....

Of course it is ridiculous. What you don't see is that a couple days after this picture was taken, it was trash day and the city came to empty the dumpsters. The city obviously does not obligate them to clean up what is on the ground and what ever overflow fell to the ground remained. That is what makes man so vitriolic to our lovely planet. The failure to care for our environment has poisoned it to the point of destruction. Yes, it is only a matter of time before we choke to death on our own filth.

On the bright side, a caring tenant came out and cleaned up the trash. Thanks to them because it is an eyesore. Trash belongs where trash belongs. It does not belong, however on the ground where there are children play.

Because this is not the way I wish to take you, we do an about face and retrace our steps. But, you have become self aware and you begin to take your surroundings more seriously and you begin to see. You begin to understand...
















The pictures here are just like you see them on the street. The one with the red sign is exactly about face from the dumpster and the one with the couch is directly across from it. You would think that the city workers would have something to say about that or at least charge the tenants or property owners to mandate a cleanup for this. But nobody cares. This is the 'hood. What makes me angry is there are real people who live in these areas and some of them are pretty decent. Progress and modernity has just passed most of them over and keeps their spirits beat down so they have no inspiration to be a productive part of society. So, they just live.

Desperation is what makes most of the criminals. Not meanness. Like any breathing being, people are not born mean, they are made. Most are products of their own environment which in turn is a product of society. Governmental entities try to make things hard on the common man but what they fail to realize is that they are simply keeping the common man in the very places they are trying to run them away from. You see, when you have nothing, you cannot go anywhere. In modern times, it takes money or clout to do ANYTHING. If you want them out, provide them a way and they will gladly leave. It is likely they don't want to be there any more than you don't want them there.

Now, lets walk over toward the next complex...It is a safer walk than taking the main street. Too much traffic....

Dead... Is It Really?

Let's venture out my front door and take a walk out my front door and saunter down the street. There used to be a large planter that tried to have flowers that blocked the end of the street near the creek bridge. It has since been removed. That happened when the owners of the larger subdivision up the block purchased several buildings in the lower half of my street as well as the subdivision that I live in. Here progress forgets. The Dead End sign that signaled to motorists that there was no outlet remains. Recently, someone changed the face of it. Maybe to make a statement? I believe so. Over the past couple of years, Myrtle Beach has allowed massive amounts of "improvement" building. Apparently they opened a window of time for building to occur and it has changed the composition of the city. Myrtle Square Mall is gone as well as the Pavilion, several waterfront bungalows, and many businesses that have been pillars in the community. Yes, progress has rid the city of some of the eyesores but it also has created eyesores that have never been seen. Never before has the plight of the homeless been as prevalent as it is now. Homeless camps in the woods are becoming more visible as they are getting larger and more and more you see prostitution and other illegal activities going on. You read the paper everyday and look at stores getting robbed, people getting murdered and other sad, sad news.

Is it Dead yet? Maybe not, but it is dying. Myrtle Beach was once a destination for the middle class with a little extra money to burn. The bike rallies are gone, the Pavilion, Myrtle Square, and of late, Hard Rock Park. Yesterday, Hard Rock Park's bankruptcy has been converted to a chapter 7 which indicates it will remain closed indefinitely. Unemployment is rampant and is in danger of being sucked dry. Job seekers turn to the paper only to find 4 classifieds in the employment section. I have never seen the job pool this dry. I am thankful daily to be able to have a job to go to. However that company is hurting just like the rest of upper lower America.

Maybe this absent artist is making a loud statement that should be heard. It is a statement of power in itself and should not be ignored. It is not speaking of a person or an entity, it is speaking of what is left in the wake of rampant Progress. Progress that is poorly planned and does not take into account all of the economic, environmental and social devastation it leaves behind. Dead...Is It Really? Maybe So.

My Inspiration

During the many treks my family makes through the Carolina's, my husband and I often chat about the passing countryside. Both of us grew up watching many miles of interstate out the window of our parents cars during the countless number of moves we both made to new states as children. As a result, we choose to take the state roads and the "quiet" routes to our destinations. Obviously many members of our families do not understand the thinking behind the routes we take. This allows our children to see many things that have faded to nothing more than words in a history book. We pass farms that were once vast plantations and on a couple of spots along the way up SC 501, we even see old slave quarters that are giving way to the elements. I hope to share some of these images with you as well as other things that I happen to see along my many misadventures in this mortal life.

I begin with the world closest to me and expand from there. I hope to share many insights into the life of the upper lower class life presently in the South. It is in these rough economic times that many of us reflect on the reality that is part of our everyday lives. I would like to think that we are entering into the Great Depression Revisited. Times are tough. The rocky road that our pockets are travelling is far from over and it is hot out there. People need to reflect on our history. Long gone are the memories of one time rich people jumping out of windows and committing other forms of suicide because the stock market crash hit their interests too hard. We are in the eve of that time and our society is crumbling at our feet. The rich are hurting and the poor are barely surviving. Those of us who are surviving with our heads barely above water see the cornerstones of our society giving way to the despair and hell the greed of man has driven us. Not only is it an economic depression, it is countless other factors as well. Everywhere, illegal immigration is a problem. While it is in everyones interest for our educated population to learn other languages, corporate and political America needs to be reminded that our primary language is and always has been English and nothing should change that. Progress is another thing. Progress pursued by those who have the means has left behind ruin in its wake and it is aesthetically bringing this country to shambles. The countryside is shrinking and will be endangered if we do not repair what we already have first. Everywhere I have been in my travels, I have seen too much progress. In my own community, for instance, the money makers and paper pushers have blotted out the light from the beloved Ocean Boulevard and have left the rest of the city to rot. All for the love of money. This rot is what I experienced recently when I decided to ride a bike to work. While I focus on the area between the beach and the Intracoastal waterway, it is Myrtle Beach that is rotting while the city council focuses on tearing down what made Myrtle Beach what it is and tries to make it something it is not.

I welcome all comments and critiques to my blog and take all suggestions into consideration. While these blogs may seem one-sided, they are merely opinions and insights by one person. If you disagree with what is in the following blogs, please be nice and do not bash. That is not the objective here. I just want to turn my thoughts into a form of art...electronically.