But whatever spy gadgetry might have existed in 1974 South Carolina, it would not make it to the town of Forty-Five until decades later. When I got my driver’s license legally, at the age of fifteen, there were still party lines for all of our residents, and I’m pretty sure that some neighbors wired up tin butter-bean cans with string between their houses. Gone with the fucking Wind didn’t make it to our sad drive-in movie theater until the late sixties, and it wasn’t until then, when word of that movie and the South’s loss spread, that a large portion of our black population felt free to move on. Men still trapped animals by digging deep holes and covering them with thin reeds and pine straw, and most mornings, thirty minutes before school began, the cries of woods-living children yelling “Help” could be heard. The CB radio, a fad that had trickled down from truck drivers to regular citizens in other towns, seemed too extravagant for the residents of Forty-Five.
What do You think about Why Dogs Chase Cars (2004)?
