Tears and Laughter: Prowling the timeline

Sometimes, to get a better perspective of where you are, it helps to go someplace else for a few days. I guess that is how vacations came to be, and I’m not one to often complain…but you can get cable television at motels that still advertise free DSL Internet on their marquee.

I saw a sign in Fort Payne pushing a King size bed and ESPN for $41.95 a night, but the cabin we rented on the crest of Lookout Mountain offered zero channels for its captives. There was a wide screen television with a DVD player, and there was Lord of the Rings, Borat, and Schindler’s List on the coffee table, but there was no satellite service.

For a few minutes we just stood there huddled together in front of the blank screen. I kept trying the remote. I think McKenzie’s exact words were, “Mom, why would you rent a place without TV?” And blankly I answered, “I wouldn’t. I would never.”

I did read the notation in the property description about how if there was a “special” game you wanted to see you could “possibly” find it playing at a restaurant in nearby Menlo, Georgia. I thought that just meant they didn’t have the SEC Network. I never dreamed there would be no form of cable television.

The notes from the owner also mentioned phone service in the area is a bit sketchy. This, it turns out, was no exaggeration. They were also forthright about the cabin not having Wi-Fi, and how there is a great little artsy-styled Internet café over in Mentone, Alabama. I didn’t pay that part any attention either though because we have 3G service in Canton Bend. I thought it was pretty much everywhere.

So being a typical American family, upon arrival at our destination, we loaded back up in the truck and drove down the mountain until we could get a phone signal strong enough to find the nearest Walmart. I had already started mentally composing my input for the cabin’s comments book. We found a Walmart in a Trion Georgia, and it wasn’t until after we had returned with over 78 hours of movies and TV shows that it occurred to us that we were alone, deep in the Appalachian woods with dusk settling in Cloudland.

Old roads connect the hillsides and valleys that share the timeline between the far northeast corner of Alabama and the northwest part of Georgia. Other than the hour gained or lost depending upon direction, there is little noticeable difference between where one ends and the other begins.

There is a barn dance every third Saturday night at Chattooga County Memorial Home. The Backroads Band was slated for the week we were there. Old ways and old buildings are not yet old. I watched a guy at a drive-thru wait on a woman to notice she had him blocked and move, rather than blowing his horn. People put on no airs. Their authenticity, and the calm, honest living it allows is appealing. The only pride they carry seems attached to their knowing they are living, as best as they can, in accordance to their interpretation of the law and the Lord’s will.

Before leaving I had finished my comment for the guest book. “When we first got to your cabin we thought there was a possibility we were going to die of boredom without satellite television. We were wrong.” It was about like every other comment that had already been written.

Amanda Walker is a columnist with The West Alabama Watchman, Al.com, The Thomasville Times, and The Wilcox Progressive Era. For more information, visit her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AmandaWalker.Columnist.