Day 319
8 hrs, 18 .8 kms

I played at an Open Mike here back in 2007 to a very pleasant, attentive crowd. Then in 2008 I did a quick stop here on my 2008A Parkbench Tour. Not really impressed by the town, but now I'm going to give it a proper exploring.

Definitely a scruffy, very laid back feel to this town. It's the first day of spring and folks it seems have crawled out of hibernation, wearing whatever they'd been wearing in the house... chilling out on their run down porches.

No great historic discoveries here. There is the house of Belle Boyd, a female spy working for the South. Later, as the story goes, she was capture on here way to Europe with letters from the Confederate president--but then she talked her captor out of imprisoning her--and he eventually married her.

Sounds like the makings of a movie to me...

A couple of notable buildings, the "round house" a circular market building by the old railway station, and some colorful early 1900s buildings along Main Street . On the south side there are some nicer houses--almost Southern mansion style. I guess that's why you need to hike all across a city to really get the full scope of it.

One thing I notice here, as in Hagerstown, is the large number of bi-racial couples here. In fact, I'd almost dare say I see as many bi-racial as mono-racial couples! I wonder, is this a new national phenomenon, or is this just in this area? A couple years ago, a black and white couple would've drawn a few stares--but now it definitely seems like the norm--like what I was used to seeing in Brazil. I've even seen something that was extremely rare a few years ago: a white guy with a black girl.

It seems to be an encouraging sign. This means that blacks and whites are living in each others neighborhoods and mingling in a way they never did before. Perhaps they will raise a generation of children who feel connected to both communities.

But I still have to wonder ... How do these these couples deal with the many painful subjects that divide white and black Americans? There are many seemingly benign topics that can be painful and cause sharp division whether it be history (Were our slave owning founding fathers good men or not? What was the Civil War about?) to contemporary topics like Hurrican Katrina, or the shooting of Trayvon Martin. There's the relations with family, friends and relatives... A bi-racial marriage can be a wonderful thing, but there's a lot of stuff that you're going to need to work through.

I wonder, are these couples forging lifelong commitments or is this just a fun thing to do--to break a taboo (or at least what used to be a taboo)? I'll have to come back here in another 10-20 years and see how things look then.

I continue wandering through the west side neighborhoods, past the Lake Disappointment (because it's all fenced off and you can't even get a good picture of it!) then I look back downtown, and up to where I started where I opt for a 6 dollar all you can eat Chinese buffet. Tired of just eating sandwiches on these day hikes.