Turn The Rock Over
As spring gradually envelopes the South a particular time of year is closing in. It is moving like Godzilla trampling a Japanese village with results both erratic and final. Just off the interstate in Columbia, South Carolina, there is an access road. The road passes in front of a menagerie of business selling everything from cars to fireworks and billboards advertising adult novelties. Wedged between a business selling out buildings including a small lighthouse that would look lovely on my front lawn and an apartment complex is a modest building with a can collection drop and a sign advertising the Jamil Shriner Temple. These places have always been somewhat of a mystery to me. It is hard to get beyond the image of grown overweight men wearing a fez and driving a little car in a parade. The place is however, a humble bastion for events as diametrically opposite as the roller derby and a gun show. On this particular day, a giant inflatable snake sat on the front lawn and the p