I Am a Town

I Am a Town

for now

I'm a town in Carolina
I'm a detour on a ride
For a phone call and a soda
I'm a blur from the driver's side

I'm the last gas for an hour
If you're going 25
I am Texaco and tobacco
I am dust you leave behind

I am peaches in September
And corn from a roadside stall
I'm the language of the natives
I'm a cadence and a drawl

I'm the pines behind the graveyard
And the cool beneath their shade
Where the boys have left their beer cans
I am weeds between the graves

My porches sag and lean
With old back men and children
My sleep is filled with dreams
I never can fulfill them
I am a town

I'm a church beside the highway
Where the ditches never drain
I'm a Baptist, like my daddy
And Jesus knows my name

I am memory and stillness
I am lonely in old age
I am not your destination
I am clinging to my ways
I am a town

I'm a town in Carolina
I am billboards in the fields
I'm an old truck up on cinder blocks
Missing all my wheels

I am Pabst Blue Ribbon, American
And "Southern Serves the South"
I am tucked behind the Jaycees sign
On the rural route

I am a town
I am a town
I am a town
Southbound

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Mary Carpenter

The Founding of Charlotte
The area that would become Charlotte was owned by the U.S. Government until 1832, when George Barnes purchased the land. George Barnes eventually sold the land to New York land speculator Edmund B. Bostwick in 1835. H.I. [or Thomas] Lawrence, Townsend Harris, and Francis Cochran bought a portion of the land from Francis Bostwick. These 4 men can be given credit for creating the village they named after Bostwick's wife, Charlotte. On October 10th, 1863 Charlotte was incorporated as a village. It was incorporated as a city nearly 8 years later on March 29th, 1871. Charlotte was designated the County Seat as early as 1835. Due to a lack of suitable buildings, Bellevue conducted county functions until the end of 1839.

cover photo is taken from South Cochran Avenue looking towards No. Cockran.

You think I want to go to the stars? I don't even like to fly! I take trains! ー Zefram Cochrane to Riker

My father Brad would often say

O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!

ー Walter Scott