Saturday Choice

 My Hometown

I am working on finding a composition for a photo contest entitled "My Hometown" that is being run in The Tennessee Magazine (tnmagazine.org) This monthly publication is put out by the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association. Like most of rural America, we here in Fayette County are served by a coop, Chickasaw Electric. 

The magazine runs periodic contests, generally three a year, but this will be the first time I've had a chance to enter. When I first moved out here in the country, I wasn't aware of the magazine - my brother would toss it out because neither he nor my sister-in-law(I live with them) were interested in it. Then, it wasn't possible to get out due to back surgeries/recoveries and for the last theme, "Celebrations", it just wasn't something in my wheelhouse.

Now, "My Hometown" sounds really cute and wonderful until you realize that Rossville, TN, population ~800, is essentially this...here's a panorama of "downtown". From the right, Papi Joe's Tennessee Hot Sauces, a nail parlor and salon, a brand new barber shop and several empty, but promised soon-to-be-filled store fronts. 

There's a cute little city park across the street with a small lake and a paved trail around it, complete with copperhead snakes. The residential section is a National Historic District with lovely older homes built when Rossville was establish in the early part of the 19th century as a farming and rail center.

Adjacent to the park is the town's claim to fame, the Wolf River Cafe. An old fashioned meat-and-three, hope-you-like-fried, hail-fellow-well-met kind of place. Closed Sunday and Tuesday, specials every night with the favorites being fried chicken on Thursday and catfish on Friday. Grease in the fryers changes every pandemic.

And that, friends, is all that I can find to identify and showcase Rossville. Every other composition simply shows very nice stately, older homes seen all across rural Tennessee and newer subdivisions, like mine and just a few local retail outlets. Oh, and these last two photos and the second one had to be taken early Sunday mornings - the only time there is no traffic and no one about.

I'll have plenty of Sundays for some better light since the deadline is mid July. As with the contest I entered last year for the town of Collierville, I have no motive other than accepting the challenge. In that case, I was able to offer compositions in my comfort zone - nature, wildlife and landscape - and was given awards for all three entries. We'll see what this challenge brings.