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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Gene GeRue wrote:
Occasionally
> I mentioned the movie, "Deliverance," but only if the radio station
>  was far distant from Missouri.
>
> Paranoia is often a healthy condition, but people in general 
> overestimate the influence of an author.

I know you are speaking of yourself in that last sentence, but James
Dickey was pretty influencal in these parts.
I met him while in college-he came to my American Lit class at Emory.
The movie was filmed on north Georgia's Chattoga river, but the actual
inspiration for the story is the Coosawattee River, which, before it was
dammed to create Carter's Lake, was one of the best and most ferocious
whitewater rivers in the whole country.  Carter's Lake is just on the
other side of the county from me, about 30 miles away, and the
Coosawattee still exists but is calmer below the dam.  The story goes
like this...Dickey was whitewater canoeing on the Coosawattee just
before the new dam was to be complete that would forever erase the
river.  At that time, there were still lots of moonshiners in the area,
it was very remote, and they did not appreciate outsiders snooping
around, nor did they appreciate that the lake was about to cover
everything they had known.  They were a grumpy bunch. many living in
tightly knit clan communities.  (not KKK klan, family clan) Anyway,
Dickey's friend was supposed to meet him at the pickup spot, but got
lost and met a banjo playing moonshiner who agreed to take him to the
pickup spot, but had his son stay with the man-ordered said son to kill
Dickey's friend if Dickey did not show.  Fortunately, Dickey did arrive
at the pickup and all was well, but the idea for the book and the movie
was born.  James Dickey was an outdoorsy environmentalist type, and the
movie's legacy was supposed to be a story of man vs. nature, but alas,
most people just remember banjo pickers and pig squeals. :)
Still, the movie lingers in folks subconsciousness, and more than one
person new to our astronomy group has gotten out of the car mocking the
Deliverance theme music and talking about how far out we live. :)  I
think the images have scared people enough to avoid our mountains, just
as the movie Jaws still keeps folks out of the ocean.  That's fine with
me, cuz like James says, we have a short growing season, lots of bugs
and mosquitos, snakes every footstep, wild dogs, bears, toothless banjo
pickers, bad schools, bad roads, etc. etc.

Bev

--
BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm   NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W    Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky