In the 1970s, the National Park Service took over the village of Glen Haven by eminent domain, and proceeded to destroy it as a living village and turn it into a museum. The last resident of the village fought to keep her property, but was kicked out in 2007. The situation reminds me a little of the creation of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, in which entire communities were obliterated. One of the dark sides of the creation of the National Park system. Surely they could have created these parks without steamrollering the families that lived there and had no impact on the viability of the places as parks.
Why the photo name Young Fools? This photo was taken on a Saturday, and years ago I worked in a place on a main street. An older woman worked there, and every time a wedding party blasted by, horns blaring, she would mutter "young fools". In the distance to the left of the boardwalk, a large wedding party is gathering on the beach.
I've been to two beach weddings. One was years ago. The traditional wedding ceremony involved whirling eggs around the bride and/or groom's head(s). That one has lasted so well: there are four kids now. The other one lasted just a few months. They did not have the egg-whirling at this second one. Might have made a difference?
I think my picture came out pretty good, but it has nothing on the photo below, which is a Creative Commons photo by "Dehk Deekster" featured at the Glen Haven Wikipedia entry.
9 comments:
Actually, I believe I prefer your young fools photo. It has a haunting feel to it. The other gives me no emotional response, though it is indeed a lovely photo.
The second one might be more like something from a Corona beer commercial.
Just added something to the main post.
I like the top picture. It is atmospheric.
The cloud cover gives me ideas for a drawing as does your composition of this piece.
That is an amazingly beautiful phone picture! And I love the story about the name.
I agree that it is sad to displace people...for purposes of a park or gentrification or anything. It just seems unfair and mostly unnecessary.
I had never heard of the egg thing at a wedding. Good thing we didn't do that...we still ended up with 5 kids.
Top photo definitely is more compelling -- the bottom one is dramatic but isn't as attractive. Hmm, I'd never thought about displaced families, but of course that might be expected to happen. What happened to that last person? Is she still nearby?
The government is way too powerful. These eminent domain land grabs are a sad example...David Souter would be proud.
Your picture did come out well.
Better to be a young fool than an old one.
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