Memory Intact, Thank You Very Much

Several years ago I was talking with someone about the county I lived in as a youth. I mentioned the possible implications of the orientation of the statue of the Confederate soldier in front of our local courthouse; it faced the courthouse with its back towards the rest of the world.

To illustrate we drove by the courthouse where - much to my chagrin - it was observed with its back towards the courthouse and facing outward as all other such statues I have seen. It remains so to this day.

While on business at the courthouse several times over the past couple of years I tried to find someone who remembered - or had heard tell - of the statue so turned. No one did. I was beginning to question my memory until last week when I chanced upon this county newspaper from 1965. There on the front page was a photo of the statue turned as I remembered it, with its back to the street, facing the courthouse steps. I feel better now.

Want to hear my commentary about how the orientation of a statue erected in 1908 - 43 years after the war it commemorated - might speak volumes about the attitude of a rural Virginia county towards the rest of the world? How about how the turning of the statue 180 degrees might (or might not) signal that times are slowing changing back home?