Chapter Two - Shangri-La


It was still early when I finally got to Cary on what is now a beautiful
drive down Highway US 64.  I took US 421 to Siler City before switching
highways.  It was interstate quality highway all the way, until I turned off
onto business US 64 (used to be the main US 64) and what is now called
North Salem Street about five miles west of Cary.  Salem Street turns
into Old Apex Road.  Once I got to the old historic district of Cary, it
turned into Chatham Street.  Yes, this was the same old road that I used
to hitchhike on almost fifty years ago, but it surely had changed.  I guess
everything has to change.  I headed on toward Raleigh, and the road
turned into Hillsboro Street.  I followed it all the way into Raleigh, but I
never saw my old road or the old fork.  All I could see in that area was a
bunch of new housing developments and the new I-40 as I got closer to
Raleigh.

I stopped at a convenience store near the NC State campus to buy a soft
drink.  Then I turned around and headed back toward Cary.  Everything
looked the same as it had when I passed that way just minutes earlier.  I
stopped in Cary in the parking lot that used to serve the old Winn-Dixie
store.  I was getting a little bit sleepy.  Forty winks wouldn’t be bad right
now.  I just couldn’t understand what had happened to that old road.  I
puzzled with this enigma for about fifteen minutes.  There should be
some evidence of it.  They were building the US 64 bypass around Cary
about the time I graduated.  Since then, whenever we would go to the
Raleigh area from Greensboro, we would always take the US 64 bypass.  
It had been 1965 when I last traveled this old road through downtown
Cary.  Nevertheless, there had to be some evidence of that old road
somewhere.  So I turned around and headed back down the road toward
Raleigh.  Same result.  I turned around in Raleigh at the same place I
had stopped before.  I drove as slowly as I could.  I even stopped and
parked several times while looking for my road.  Then finally I saw it.  
Why had I not been able to see it before?  

I repeated to myself: “Why did I not see this road before?”  Anyhow, I
didn’t hesitate.  I took the right fork and headed west down this old side
road.  It was a beautiful old road.  It was fairly narrow, but not too bad.  I
still didn’t see any road signs.  I drove about a mile before I saw a couple
of old abandoned brick store buildings off to the right.  The road had
turned into concrete from what was originally asphalt.  Suddenly, it was
a little hilly with kudzu covering the red clay banks on both sides.  Then I
thought: “Wait a minute.  The ground around Raleigh was supposed to
be mostly sandy, not clay.”

Then I saw my first sign on this road.  It said US 74 East, but the
compass on the dash of my new Town Car said west.  That sure was
funny.  It was overcast; so, I couldn’t see the sun to manually determine
my direction.  I said to myself: “This surely looks a lot like the old
Highway 74 coming into Rockingham from Charlotte just about as soon
as you cross the Pee Dee River.  That sign did say 74 East, didn’t it?”  I
continued for about another mile when I saw a sign that said
Rockingham 3 miles.  I was beginning to get spooked.  Soon I passed the
old prison camp road off to the left where we used to live for about a year
before I started grade school.  After about another mile, I was at Five
Points.  They must have been having an old car show or something
because there surely were a lot of early 1950’s Fords and Chevrolets on
the road.  In fact, all the cars I saw were of this time-period.  There were
even a few A-models.  By the time I got down to near the old ice plant, I
saw a gentleman with his mule pulling a farm wagon.                 

I still figured something was wrong.  I went on up Highway 74 right into
town.  There was no US 74 bypass (Broad Avenue).  I went by Gore’s
Wholesale building and the old Sealtest distributorship across from the
old Great Falls Elementary School.  And I continued on by the old
Watt’s Cleaners where my mother used to work over fifty-five years ago.  
They later moved that business over to the new bypass (which is now the
old bypass or Broad Avenue).  There was the old Morse Wrecker
Company setting up a small embankment just behind the Pepsi
distributor’s warehouse.

I decided to turn down what is now called Caroline Street and head out
to my old home place.  There on the right was the International dealer.  I
remember them selling International trucks, but I hadn’t remembered
all that farm equipment.  As I approached the railroad tracks, I heard a
train coming.  There were no railroad-crossing crossbars at the signals
(like there are today).  I stopped and pulled off the road a little.  I parked
on the right hand side beside the old dispatcher’s office.  I wondered if
old Mr. Gibbs was there.  He was very nice and mentoring to me when I
was a boy.  His granddaughter was in my class in elementary school.

Then I remembered that I had my video camera in the trunk of my car.  I
immediately got out and found it.  About this time, there was a fantastic
old steam engine came whistling down the tracks.  I started my video
camera.  These were not really huge locomotives, but they were big
enough to get the job done.  This one was a 2-6-2, the old workhorse of
the Seaboard Airline Railroad.  You can only find them in a museum
today.

After the train passed, I went on up the hill to our old house.  It was the
second house down on the left just before you come to the intersection
of what is now called Midway Road.  It looked exactly the same way
when I was a child; later someone added brick veneer.  I saw some
children out in the yard playing.  Could those kids be my siblings and
me?  There was no place to park, so I kept on going until I found a good
parking spot off to the left just short of the old US 1.  There was the old
Howard Johnson Restaurant over to the right and the Village Motel just
ahead.  This parking area looked like a small park, but it didn’t say that.  
In fact, it didn’t say anything.  I wanted to go back and talk with these
children, but I didn’t want to scare them.  They would think I was an
idiot if I told them I was one of them who had come back from the
future.  In addition, the authorities take a dim view of old men trying to
make friends with young children.  I thought the best thing for me to do
would be to try to find my father and see if I could convince him of whom
I was.

After a moment, I went on up to the intersection of US 1 and turned left
headed back into town on Hancock Street across the old single lane
railroad overpass.  There was Privette’s Grocery store just to the right as
I cleared the bridge.  The old US 74 bypass (Broad Avenue) was not
there.  It hadn’t been built yet.  There was the Orange Bowl Restaurant
over to the left.  Then I saw Covington’s Amoco station on the right just
after the Buick and Studebaker place.  My father always got his gas from
Mr. Covington when my Dad was selling Sunshine Crackers.  I decided to
stop and top off my tank.  I noticed the price was 29.9 cents for regular
and 31.9 cents for high-test.  They had a sign that said their premium
grade was unleaded (that regular leaded gasoline would have blown my
engine).  I wished my tank hadn’t been so full.  Then a middle-aged man
came out and started to pump my gas.  He asked: “Regular or high-test?  
Can we look under the hood for you?”  Before I could answer, another
man came out and started washing my windshields.  He asked: “Mister,
what kind of car is this?  I’ve never seen a car that looks anything like
this.  Your tires look like they are a little flat.  I’ll check the air pressure
for you.”  I then answered the first man: “High-test.”  He replied that he
couldn’t find the gas cap; so, I popped the gas cover for him.  Then he
said his nozzle was too big for my gas intake.  We solved that problem
with a funnel they had in their lubrication bay.  He looked somewhere
between amazed and bewildered but started pumping the gas.  After
washing all my windshields, the second man checked my tire pressure.  
He said: “These sure are funny looking tires, but the pressure’s okay.  
The insignia says Lincoln, but I ain’t never seen a Lincoln that looked
like this.”

The first man had finished pumping over six gallons of gas.  He turned to
me and said:  “That’ll be two dollars and five cents please.”  I looked in
my billfold and handed him my Visa card.  He said: “What’s this?  You
owe me two dollars and five cents.  We can take a local check if you are
from this area, and we know you, but for everyone else, it’s cash.”  I put
the credit card back in my wallet.  Then I started to hand him the first
bill in my wallet when I noticed the picture of Andrew Jackson was off
center.  I thought I was in trouble until I thumbed through my wallet
and found a bill with Jackson in the center.  He took that and brought
back the change.  It’s a good thing he didn’t look too closely.  It would
have been difficult to explain why it said series 2002 on it.  As I was
leaving, I asked the man what was today’s date.  “He responded
Saturday, April 10, 1954.”  Then I asked him what time it was.  He
responded that it was 10:30.  I thanked both of the men who helped me.  
I assumed that was in the morning since it was daylight outside.


To be continued....