The story behind my column heading
BUG GUTS & BEAUTY
By Orpheus Allison
Great events and small events get published thanks to someone saying something that matters. Usually the small events are great to the people involved and those great ones are small to the people involved.
A collision involving a septic truck and a skunk is a great event for the people who live at the intersection. When the publisher asked for the return of some wit to his pages of dimness — dim being the color of events most often listed in the paper — a starting point was needed for the map.
With any quest it helps if you have a title and some indication of what the purpose is to be. Previous notes had covered life of a regular guy living in a foreign place: What could be found to connect to what was known. It seems that no matter where people are, life is full of regular things that make it more wonderful no matter the place or the events. People are curious.
From early summer, thoughts of what to explore and how to headline it were tossed around. The usual pundits consulted and gave their wisdom. Not much help at all.
It took a reunion to provide the spark. Presque Isle High School has turned out a large number of unique individuals and most readers probably know a few. One such survivor returned to whoop and holler with classmates from that special year. That is what one does at a reunion.
The class was the only one and the best one to ever graduate from the school. How did they ever do that? One of the graduates came home with the help of her daughter’s car. From the telling, the car had mythic powers. It had ferried the daughter to school, plays, events, and was fashionable. No Bondo special this one.
The graduate called home with news of a successful trip north. In the telling much was made of small black dots on the windshield. Ack! Yuck! “Before you give me … (The niece has named this vehicle and for her sake the name will not be repeated) give it a bath!”
What were those dots of black? Bug Guts! Driving in the evening or morning creates carnage in the arthropod realm. The crews at Daigle Oil and Bradley’s Carwash are adept at clearing the battlefield.
The graduate assured the worried owner that proper care would be taken. Bug guts on windshields provides a nice way of thinking about news. Every now and then it helps to clear the news and appreciate the quiet. The car was returned after a bath.
Easy would it be to join the crowd of nattering nabobs who can do little but deride this that we call home. Discovered after washing the windshield, glass now clear, that there is much to be appreciated. And it starts again. Add to this mix a picture of the scrivener. Not an easy thing to get in this world of the self. Scriveners do not make interesting photo subjects with any great frequency. Thanks to a veteran’s friendship the photo was snapped in a moment of serendipity. Modest in its attempt it does offer a smile. The scrivener’s portrait matching the sentiments of the column. Much appreciated A.B.!
Thus the string is plucked and soon the sound will begin. Bugs be plenty and beauty be in The County.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in the County. He began his journalism career at WAGM television later working in many different areas of the US. After twenty years of television he changed careers and taught in China and Korea. Graduating from UMPI he earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina.
