Planting the flag here
Looks like we’ll be setting up housekeeping here in the Triad — we’re in the paperwork phase of acquiring a condo in the burbs west of Winston-Salem. Yeah, there are burbs here. This’ll be the fourth address change in 12 months; we’re hoping it’ll be the last in several years.
You’ll be pleased to know I’m as sick of kicking the corpse of my newspaper career as you are. This morning I awoke from a dream in which my editor in San Jose was instructing me to redo a page for the paper in Tampa. Enough, geeze.
I’ve always liked the South, though I confess I’ve read none of Faulkner’s novels (did enjoy “All the King’s Men,” a great Southern novel if there ever was one, however). North Carolina has become so prosperous and populous (10th most people in the U.S. now) that it’s unfair to think of it as one of those Old South states like Mississippi or Alabama. The state parks have no entry fees, the recreational opportunities are just about endless, the scenery is breathtaking if you know where to look. The tallest mountain in the East is here (but you knew that if you’ve been reading my hiking blog).
Now that we’ve decided to kick back here for awhile, I’ll have to start visiting some of the locales that don’t entail walking on dirt. The triad has museums, musicians and movie houses like any other place. History’s a big deal, seeing as how the region’s most compelling stories predate the Civil War by over 100 years (when the original settlers came here from Pennsylvania and set up shop in an abandon trapper’s cabin — see my hike at Historic Bethabara if you missed it). A man credited with inspiring the beliefs of Salem’s settlers was among the world’s first Protestants; naturally the pope ordered him burned at the stake. We’re talking early 1400s here, so yeah, the stories go way back.
More to come. Here’s hoping it’s interesting in a good way.
January 13th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Tom, I’m so glad to read you’ve landed on your well-traveled feet.
Everything else was just a dress rehearsal.
sheila
February 1st, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Hi Tom it’s Tom!
ha ha I was feeling a bit inquisitive and after a google search of my own name look what i came up with.
read though some of your articles, nice one so far.
ha ha just thought i would drop you a line, seen as we could be related and all…
although I am English.
Keep up the good work Mangan!