Spin

I raise the issue of “spin” for two reasons: First, I’m writing this on the first of four nights we’ll be spending at “The Woods RV Park and Campground” in Montgomery, Alabama; second, over the past two days we’ve spent a little time at “The World of Coke” and the “Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.”

1. The Woods: As I sit here in “The Woods,” just a hundred or so feet from “the lake” (a VERY small man-made fishing pond), the sounds of nature abound. For instance, there are the natural sounds of Interstate 65, pulsing with traffic literally one block away, similar to the natural sounds of highway 80 which is just a couple hundred yards away in another direction. Obviously there’s a busy hospital not far up the road, as ambulances with sirens wailing have been going by every 30 or so minutes all evening. To find “The Woods” you exit I-65, go one block east on highway 80, then turn right onto a road/driveway inserted between an Arby’s and a gas station adjacent to a Popeye’s chicken restaurant. As you enter “The Woods,” you see an office building in front of a large, completely cleared field that's surrounded by a thin stand of trees on all sides. The field contains maybe 100 water/electric/sewer hook-ups, each next to a nice, level, gravel RV site. Because the kids were there when we checked in, we were given a site near the playground—a sun-bleached kiddie-play area with a couple of small slides and a tiny playhouse/fort. With the rides and excitement of Disney still ringing in their ears, the play area wasn’t enough to even draw the kids over for a look. So instead we made a fire in the tire-rim-fire-pit and we poked sticks into it—cooking our “hobo packs” for dinner on the coals as we poked—listening to the traffic whiz by, the sirens wail, and, oh…have I mentioned the train? It’s a few blocks away in yet another direction, and the whistle blows with enthusiasm at some nearby crossing. Whenever a siren or loud truck sound would draw our eyes up from the fire we’d see the beautiful view from “The Woods”—a view I’ve captured and tried to convey, in all its wonder, in the picture below. True moment: About halfway through watching our dinner cook on the fire Kerby looked at me and said with sincerity, “I LOVE this campground!” “You do?” I said, thinking he may be kidding. He wasn’t: “I like that if we want we can just walk right over to Popeye’s or Pizza Hut or McDonald’s or Wendy’s or Arby’s!” he said, pointing at each. “And the Popeye’s chicken smells really good. Can we get some tomorrow?”

How did we wind up here? you might ask (though if you’ve been reading earlier entries you know we’re mostly using the force as we make our travel reservations). Aside from it being very well located for our planned tourist attacks, here’s what we knew about the place from The Woods’ website:

"Is it time for you and your family to take that vacation you've been planning for so long? Are you ready to get away from the hustle and bustle of your stressful work schedule? If so, visit us at The Woods RV Park & Campground LLC, where you can relax and leave all of your worries behind! We understand the value of a well-earned vacation. That's why we do our best to help you get the most out of your vacation. We do this by maintaining our campground to perfection and offering a wide array of campground utilities. We believe that our customers should be able to relax in the cleanest environment possible. In addition, our RV park provides an excellent area to make your stay enjoyable. Whether you want to relax and enjoy the benefits of modern technology or want to feel completely in nature, The Woods RV Park & Campground LLC has what you're looking for!"

Now THAT’S spin. My favorite line is “…or want to feel completely in nature.” The only way I can think of that you could feel completely in nature here would be to lay at the bottom of the pond with your eyes closed, though I’m pretty sure you’d still be able to hear the train and probably the traffic under the water. In truth, this is a fine place for a stopover if you've got a big RV and you're going somewhere else, but it's a real stretch of the imagination to see this as a naturalist's vacation destination.

2. The World of Coke and Tuskegee: With Atlanta’s Stone Mountain mostly closed yesterday, we opted to head into downtown Atlanta for a tour of “The World of Coke.” We paid our $50 for tickets and proceeded to immerse ourselves in a truly impressive multi-hour live commercial for Coca Cola, including spending considerable time tasting beverages from around the world. (Turns out I’m partial to the Asian beverages, though the British version of Sprite was quite tasty.) The kids had a good time seeing all the old Coke memorabilia and hearing the story of Coke and watching the 4-D movie about Coke’s secret formula and just generally developing a personal commitment to a bazillion-dollar beverage that makes you belch like a cow and can dissolve 16-penny nails. As we left, buzzing with sugar and caffeine from all the taste-testing, I did indeed feel like we’d been spun. And we paid for it, too. We paid to hear how Coke has changed the world and how it’s a part of our lives and how it makes our memories special and how its invention was on par (at least) with the discovery of electricity and the polio vaccine and sliced bread and the moon landing. Then today we went by a far less impressive exhibit—the Tuskegee Airmen Historical Site—and saw a much shorter film that didn’t require 3-D glasses and didn’t make our chairs shake, and we read some interesting information about a group of what my kids persist in calling brown people who in many cases gave their lives in service to their country. People who were the first ever African-Americans to serve as pilots and communications officers and bombardiers, and who became a crucial part of our nation’s effort to defeat Nazi Germany during WWII. People who broke barriers and created opportunities, and who came home decorated war heroes only to face continued racism and discrimination and even lynching. Coke knows how to put on a show. The Tuskegee historical site was fine but it was no World of Coke. But, of course, spin isn’t everything. “The real thing?” Personally, I appreciate a good glass of Spite, but after seeing both of these sights I’ve got to go with the Tuskegee Airmen as being the real thing. No spin required.

And so with a few minutes on my hands, I found myself sitting here thinking about spin tonight after everyone had gone off to bed. Thinking about how with some spinning-creativity we can make sweetened bubble water an icon and perhaps the most recognized product in the world. About how spin can make a few acres of gravel a block off the interstate in a rough part of town sound like a blissful, wooded, tree-filled state park. About how little time, attention, and spin we find being devoted to people who gave Lincoln’s “last full measure” in service to their country. And about how it turns out their service wasn’t entirely in shooting down enemy planes, but also in setting precedents that fostered the ongoing change in our country that now, decades later, has allowed Nan and me to have two beautiful brown children who are here a few feet away, sleeping peacefully despite the fact that I can literally, as I type this, clearly hear the highway traffic, a siren, and a train whistle all simultaneously…in The Woods.