Freedom In The Rock

Well, for this photo, we (my camera and I) traveled to downtown Bantam, Ohio. It's a discreet community, socially isolated on a loop of old highway that's been replaced by a straight stretch of new highway. It's always been a very small town, and, for that matter, has always been socially isolated. Bantam - get it - like the chickens of the same name? There isn't even a convenience store. The state probably doesn't even keep crime statistics on Bantam. There was a large bulldozer parked in the middle of town - for sale - I think. You'd probably never go to bantam, Ohio except that the popular the entrance to East Fork State Park's public beach and a fine boat ramp is on the outskirts of town.

Until the mid-70's one could drive from Afton, Ohio (another signpost community) down through Elklick valley, and then up and out into Bantam. It was a beautiful drive through the river valley and also passed by some attractive southern-Ohio farmland. Somewhere, along that driving possibility, was a swimming hole at "Twin Bridges" where idiots, in an attempt to impress someone who probably didn't otherwise care, used to break their necks and backs diving off the top of a bridge into 6 feet of water whose bottom was lined with sedimentary rock. My friend John Howe lived at the bottom of Elklick, near a picturesque steel bridge that's now very deep under water in Lake Harsha. Back in the 70's, I took some photos off that bridge but I've never been able to find them or the negatives. ... Strange ... So, now, to drive (walk or bike) from Afton to Bantam (or versee vicee), it's a VERY LONG drive. I liken it, as the song says, to driving "to L.A. via Omaha." Thanks Corps of Engineers.

Whoops, back to the image - welcome to pastor Deems' church in central Bantam, Ohio. Never met the guy. I just took this photo because I remembered my grandma taking me there when I was just a sprout. She said they had a lady preacher that she was going to take me to see. Many years later, at a family reunion, I related that experience. My aunt said "Certainly. That was my mother." So, I recall that woman pastor Dalton was for sure an evangelical, hell-fire, and damnation preacher. I have no bad memories of my visit there - just good quality-time memories being with grandma. I remember people with their hands raised up saying "Amen" a lot. I was hoping, by typing this story, I'd remember more - but I didn't.

I'll leave it to you to figure out the light vertical stripe in the image. For you Earth Files paranormal advocates, trust me, it has absolutely nothing to do with spirituality entering or escaping.