Elinor Nauen

I learn something every time I come to Spartanburg. Love the Dixie Nightingales & to think that Ira Tucker sang with them from the time he was 13 for 70 years. The only job he ever had. I forgot to take pictures of the yummy grilled carrots at the Kennedy, or my meal at Wade's, or Steve & his lifelong friend (met in 1959) who lives in England & who I was meeting for the first time, or the calm lake in front of Steve's house, or the new dogs, or the garden. Probably because it's so normal to be here that I don't think to whip out my camera. I'm simply here. 

The height of this sculpture is approximately the highest point of the great 1903 flood on the Pacolet River in Spartanburg. Steve's grandparents were mill workers who lived within a few feet of the river. His family stories were about one grandpa convincing a woman who was being swept past on a log to let go of it so he could pull her to safety, and people banging on the other's door to warn him of how fast the water was rising, when he'd said naw can't happen. I don't know anyone who is as much from where he lives as Steve. Read More