SUMMER
France may have too many tourists, but so does Black Mountain five miles from my house. I went out for supper with Tom, my son. We drove by Swannanoa, which has fought zoning and looks like a dump and came to Black Mountain which was jammed with outsiders. Some are tourists here for the weekend and a good number have come over from Ridgecrest Conference center, a Southern Baptist conference center.
We had hamburgers and French fries and iced tea and beer, the all American meal in an all American tourist town.
A three member band was playing on one side a large area of picnic tables, in the center of everything children were filling plastic yellow with gravel and pushing them around and off to one side was a muddy play place with pools of water where barefoot children were slipping and sliding. Everyone was having a good time.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 