Tracks vibrate
Humming rhythm
Pumping Alabama City
Fleetwood Mac's Little Lies plays tuned.
They say there's Satan worshipers up
on the hill
Ole Tabor Road
Where witches once shrilled
Philip almost threw up
exhausted, child like exertion
The city swim meet up at Scenic will do that
El Debarge's Who's Holding Donna Now
Hums like the train track in Alabama City below
On demon's mountain mist
On witches mountain mist
I was listening to some old songs from the 1980's that reminded me of the other side of town. Late summer always purveyed the 'City Swim Meet' before we all headed back to school. My brother and I lived and swam competitively in the more affluent part of town at the local country club. Our neighborhood was called 'Country Club Mountain and Clubview. We'd swim for the country club against a club called Wild Haven, The Gadsden YMCA (ironically my brother and I swam for the Y during the winter months) and The Scenic Highland Swim Club at that City Swim Meet. Scenic represented the rough and tumble Lookout Mountain community of Noccalula Falls. That community always mesmerized me. Gadsden sits in a valley between our neighborhood situated on the Green Mountain chain and it's surrounding hills and my friend Philip's neighborhood -Lookout Mt (foothills or Appalachian Mt. chain). Philip and I would compare which mountain was taller. The Lookout Mountain neighborhood kids were our rivals in childhood swim races and then in high school as my neighborhood was zoned for old Gadsden High as they were old Emma Sansom. My best friend in grammer school, Philip lived up on 'The Mountain.' There were always tales about Satan worshipers and witches and honestly, some of it was true. My community was dubbed by experts to have the top three highest incidences of Satanic activity in America. Regardless, hearing old music brought me back to that simpler time when I swim against Philip and then would go spend the night with him in the fall and watch the 'The Goonies' The 80's were a magical time artistically. A time when people still congregated and the world was a more hopeful place. Even the 'dark side of town' was lovingly seen as ominous yet accommodating. In that decade even darkness was lighter than it is today. The yellow and purple graphics is an ode to old Emma Sansom High School. The school zoned for all our Noccalula Mountain rivals. I can't forget El Debarge playing on the radio after an exhausting swim meet leaving Scenic behind.
J.C.B.
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