Tag Archives: Salem

“LOVE” artwork outside Salem Public Library.

Salem, Virginia, May 2018.

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Artwork under sign for O’Brien Meats, Salem, Virginia

February 2018.

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Salem, Virginia, December 2017 (2)

This is one festive town.  It seems like there is a parade every five minutes.  Last night it was the local high school boys; they’d won their fifth state championship for … something or other.  Football, given the season?

They waved and shouted “Merry Christmas,” so I responded in kind to be polite.  Then a particularly friendly Salem woman commented to me that I must be a very proud father, and that got me feeling all weird.

A couple of the kids shouted, “Support Net Neutrality!”  That’s some nice work there, Salem.

I’m including a picture of me here to show off an early Christmas present from an amazingly talented poet friend — a monogrammed, handmade scarf.  I only had errands yesterday in the town, but I threw on my dress overcoat and pretended to be Bruce Wayne.

 

 

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Salem Fire Department Truck 1

Salem, Virginia.

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Salem, Virginia, December 2017

That last shot you see is of people on their way to line up in the Christmas Parade.

 

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An overcast autumn day in Salem

Salem, Virginia, November 2017.

 

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Just a quick shot of the mountains …

… looking south from College Avenue yesterday in Salem, Virginia.

If my sense of geography can be trusted (and it usually can’t) those are technically part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and not the Alleghenies.

 

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Salem, Virginia, August 2017

Roanoke College.

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College Lutheran Church.

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I keep telling people on my native Long Island how hilly it is in Southwest Virginia.  Depending on where you live, you might need to walk up or down just to visit your nextdoor neighbor.  It seems like nothing to people who raised here.  But it can feel utterly strange at first to anyone who grew up in a region that is almost uniformly flat.

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Summer thunderstorm, Salem, Virginia, 2017 (2)

These were taken from a moving car — my friends and I were headed for dinner in Salem.  As I’ve explained before, I have a weird thing about blurry pictures taken from a moving vehicle.  And the foreboding and colorless quality of these shots makes them extra trippy.

The disembodied black blurs that you see are actually trees close to the roadway; I thought the effect was pretty damned cool — especially in that last shot.  The second-to-last shot would be great to accompany a haunted house story.

 

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Summer thunderstorm, Salem, Virginia, 2017

I have no doubt that many of you will find it strange, but sometimes I really like blurry photos of a rainstorm.  They have a dreamlike quality and, every once in a while, you’ll get a shot that resembles an impressionist painting.

 

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