This is facing southeast down North Broad street at West in Oxford, NC. The main stretch of “downtown” is a couple of blocks south and to the left (see below). The city auditorium, where I performed or worked several times as a technician and/or technical director for Granville Little Theatre and The Road Less Traveled Theatre is two blocks south and about eight blocks east. The large home on the left was just restored, which seems to be an ongoing pastime in Oxford along with hanging out at Wal-Mart and leaving town.
This particular area of North Carolina actually looks a great deal like southwest Michigan, except a bit more lush. Oxford itself is dominated by what’s left of the tobacco industry (some of which is converting to other crops), along with a couple of large manufacturer’s including the world headquarters of Revlon cosmetics and a large plant operated by Bandag, a company that makes retreaded tires. When I first moved here and was working at my dad’s machine shop, I used to do a lot of work on the molds for the plastic bottles and other containers used at the manufacturing plant. Chances are if you’ve used any kind of shampoo, hair color, conditioner, etc. manufactured by Revlon between 1994 and 1999 or so, the bottle your product was in was created in a mold that I helped build or repair. Aren’t you impressed?
This is one of the local convenience franchises, TradeMart, at the corner of Broad Street and McClanahan. Again, the car’s southeast-bound, and the camera is pointing more-or-less northeast. A couple of blocks down there are two fairly large churches, and a right turn will take you to the main intersections of downtown in a block or so. Further down is the “old” Food Lion, which actually used to be a Byrd’s and then a Lowe’s Foods before becoming a Food Lion. Or maybe it’s a Lowe’s and used to be a Food Lion. I rarely went there. Also, the local ABC store. In many states, especially in the south, these state-operated stores are the only legal place to get liquor or any kind of alcohol over a certain alcohol content (usually around 10-15%). While this is a normal way of life for those who have never been out of the south, for those of us who “ain’t from around here,” it seems strange to not be able to buy liquor in a package or grocery store.
As we proceed southeast on Broad street, we come to US-158, the main drag through downtown running southwest-to-northeast. Driving southeast here and facing northeast, if we take a left through downtown we’ll have the local hardware store, art/coffee/interior design place, a couple of banks, courthouse, lawyers, sheriff’s office, city hall and the auditorium, and a large community ball field and park. Then some residential area, Revlon and what used to be Lennox China at the intersection with the Loop Road, then I-85 and onward to Henderson, NC and if you go long enough, Manteo and the Outer Banks through Norlina, Roanoake Rapids, Jackson, Murfeesboro, Winton, and Elizabeth City before ending up on the outer banks between Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk. Kill Devil Hills, Maneo, and eventually Hatteras Island are to the south. I spent a lot of time in that area back when I was doing the wrestling thing; my friend Toad’s folks live in this general area. A bunch of Big Important People also have homes out here, most of them up past Duck and Corolla where the traffic doesn’t really go.
Next up: The last of Oxford as we hit the highway for Sunny California!