Don't Make America Great Again!
By Bill Russo
Notes on a 1600 mile road trip from Lake Worth Beach, 60 miles North of Miami, FLA.
to Harwich, Lower Cape Cod, off the coast of Massachusetts, U.S.A.
In 1867 when the city of Rocky Mount, North Carolina was born, the 'Civil' War was two years in the rear view mirror of a horse drawn buggy, if indeed such a vehicle had such a device. Rocky Mount is about the same distance from Raleigh as Mayberry - but you'd never find Andy Taylor in Rocky Mount. It's a real town where about 65 per cent of the people have dark skin, i.e. they are African Americans.
And yet I did find Sheriff Taylor there, in a warm and heartening sense. I was at the midpoint of my 1600 mile trip from Palm Beach County, SO - F L A to Cape Cod. Due to technical problems I fell off the grid, but stayed on my beat. My desire to speak with the local people took me to the modern day equivalent of the old general mercantile, the Gas Station Convenience Store.
Coffee was brewing in old fashioned in Silex type glass bowls with spooled handles, a dozen of them, lined up in stepped rows of four, offering 6 or more varieties. The aroma from those open top makers, overspread the store like fog rolling onto the Cape from the smaller islands of Nantucket, Elizabeth, and Martha's Vineyard.
I poured a cup of regular, no sugar, 1.5 tsp of Coffee Mate, and started to look around to see who might be willing to chat for a few minutes, when a young black man approached me.
"Excuse me sir, I think you dropped this," he smiled, as he handed me a few bills that had slipped from my wallet when I took out a dollar to pay for my coffee. Almost before I could thank him, he left the store and got in his car.
It was a small moment and yet played very big in my mind. It's the kind of thing you'll never hear on the radio or tv. It won't get spread around in twits on Tweeter (or is it tweets on Twitter. No, I'm pretty sure it is 'twits' on Tweeter.) It is unlikely to be shared on Facebook. And yet it is one of countless thousands of warm and generous actions by the people of the South, both black and white - the untold thousands who go about their daily routines, simply being nice to other people regardless of race or religion. Please remember that there are way more of us good guys than there are bad ones.
A moment after the young man left the store, a very large black man, about 50 years of age, came in. He was wearing a Red Sox hat! Naturally I went right over to him and introduced myself as a fellow sox fan.
"Are you from Boston?" I queried.
.
"Nope. Never been there. I just like the Red Sox."
When I pressed him for more information, he explained his love for all things Fenway, in just two words: Big Papi.
It's likely that David Ortiz has done more to boost Boston than Sam Adams and Dunkin Donuts put together! The big guy and I spent a pleasant few minutes remembering David as the Key Man in breaking the 'curse' in 2004 and carrying the team again on his back in 2013.
Just a few small moments that are not of great moment, and which will be little noted, but are far more common in this great land than the protests, deadly violence, and all the other ills that give us a jaded perspective of the U. S. and collectively lower our self-esteem. Life is a Mirror. The Face YOU PUT IN, IS THE ONE YOU WILL SEE.
Hello to family and friends. I left Lake Worth Beach hoping to find peace and inspiration in the Deep South - and I did. Don't Make America Great Again. It's already great, though flawed. We need to smooth out the flaws and become better, but we have NEVER stopped being great!
And yet I did find Sheriff Taylor there, in a warm and heartening sense. I was at the midpoint of my 1600 mile trip from Palm Beach County, SO - F L A to Cape Cod. Due to technical problems I fell off the grid, but stayed on my beat. My desire to speak with the local people took me to the modern day equivalent of the old general mercantile, the Gas Station Convenience Store.
Coffee was brewing in old fashioned in Silex type glass bowls with spooled handles, a dozen of them, lined up in stepped rows of four, offering 6 or more varieties. The aroma from those open top makers, overspread the store like fog rolling onto the Cape from the smaller islands of Nantucket, Elizabeth, and Martha's Vineyard.
I poured a cup of regular, no sugar, 1.5 tsp of Coffee Mate, and started to look around to see who might be willing to chat for a few minutes, when a young black man approached me.
"Excuse me sir, I think you dropped this," he smiled, as he handed me a few bills that had slipped from my wallet when I took out a dollar to pay for my coffee. Almost before I could thank him, he left the store and got in his car.
It was a small moment and yet played very big in my mind. It's the kind of thing you'll never hear on the radio or tv. It won't get spread around in twits on Tweeter (or is it tweets on Twitter. No, I'm pretty sure it is 'twits' on Tweeter.) It is unlikely to be shared on Facebook. And yet it is one of countless thousands of warm and generous actions by the people of the South, both black and white - the untold thousands who go about their daily routines, simply being nice to other people regardless of race or religion. Please remember that there are way more of us good guys than there are bad ones.
A moment after the young man left the store, a very large black man, about 50 years of age, came in. He was wearing a Red Sox hat! Naturally I went right over to him and introduced myself as a fellow sox fan.
"Are you from Boston?" I queried.
.
"Nope. Never been there. I just like the Red Sox."
When I pressed him for more information, he explained his love for all things Fenway, in just two words: Big Papi.
It's likely that David Ortiz has done more to boost Boston than Sam Adams and Dunkin Donuts put together! The big guy and I spent a pleasant few minutes remembering David as the Key Man in breaking the 'curse' in 2004 and carrying the team again on his back in 2013.
Just a few small moments that are not of great moment, and which will be little noted, but are far more common in this great land than the protests, deadly violence, and all the other ills that give us a jaded perspective of the U. S. and collectively lower our self-esteem. Life is a Mirror. The Face YOU PUT IN, IS THE ONE YOU WILL SEE.
Hello to family and friends. I left Lake Worth Beach hoping to find peace and inspiration in the Deep South - and I did. Don't Make America Great Again. It's already great, though flawed. We need to smooth out the flaws and become better, but we have NEVER stopped being great!
-0-
Bill Russo, best known for his appearance on Monsters and Mysteries in America on Destination America, and in the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary; is the author of more than four dozen books and shorts stories, available on all major bookselling sites such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble and more. Much of his work is FREE on Smashwords. He also is the producer, writer, and director of the FREE podcast, Short Story Theater. Season One, with dramatizations of 39 of his short tales, is now playing on all Audio/Video sites.
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