Parkway Can Amplify Memories
(l-r) my dad, Phil Medford; Edward LaFountaine, retired major general of the U.S. Air Force and one of my closest friends from high school; George Ivey, a very successful former director of development for the Friends of the Smokies; myself; and Ken Wilson, former editor and publisher of the Waynesville Mountaineer and former chairman of the board of trustees, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.
I have always promoted the Parkway as a place where memories can be created and sustained, but it was not until a recent experience that I discovered for myself that they can be significantly amplified.
The occasion was a recent speaking engagement with the Waynesville Rotary Club (March 20, 2009) from an invitation by Ken Wilson, who is actually a former chairman of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation’s board of trustees. I have perhaps spoken to over 50 Rotary Clubs in the last 10 years and none have had an audience as large as this one — 80 ; and another superlative is that presentation was in the town in which I grew up. It seemed appropriate that I take my dad, too, who will be 84 in July.
I always paint my presentations with local stories and embellishements of my personal knowlege of people from the audience who have been connected to the Parkway in their own personal histories. As I began to weave these threads in the 15 minutes that had been allowed, I was emotionally overwhelmed by the close connections that I had to the people that became part of the story. The moment and the people are captured in the photograph above.
The Parkway, indeed, is no ordinary road but a timeline of personal mileposts which can span a lifetime.
