Titanic In The Woods

Kids without a doubt will come up with darnedest things to say sometimes. I
would like to relate one of those delightful imaginative moments and tie the
juvenile verbiage of “titanic in the woods” to a recent news event here in the
foothills. My sister, is a veteran school bus driver of 23 years in
forsyth county. Over the years she has spoke to me about some of the goings
on in school bus mania. As we discussed the events of Saturday 6th of June,
2009 the day of the RJR smokestack demolition, she told me about; titanic in
the woods and I thought to myself how profound and foretelling those words
that were dreamed up by some kids years ago and how relevant they applied
to that Saturday morning the ground shook and changed our skyline once
again. I never would have dreamed up titanic in the woods as an adult, by
golly it takes a kids imagination to come up with good stuff like that. As I see
it they were right; driving along Tobaccoville road those stacks were only
visible above the tree line. Coming down Antioch church road you can see into
the RJR complex but still only the tops of the stacks were visible. Those kids
nailed it. When the RJR Tobaccoville facilities opened in 1986 the power plant
was a modern marvel but after 23 years, time, costs and regulations sent it
into obscurity and was “sold to another concern” as stated by a Reynolds
spokesperson. So at 9:00am the twin 268 feet tall stacks hit the ground in less
than 10 seconds. As I watched this happen I was reminded of the old Bob Dylan
tune...The times they are a changing. Kudos kids you named it right, for the
titanic in the woods hit the iceberg of our day, economics and usability; and
has sunk.


Bobby Kiger