Knife Mystery Remains Unsolved

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Another check on the old bucket list.

Last Friday after lunch at Sylva Rena Mart, Joe Black and I made a loop around to the Water Valley Boat Landing to check out the lake. Joe spotted the Google car that collects 360 imagery for Google’s Street View map and we hatched a quick plan to get ahead of the car and wave to it when it passed. The plan worked, we had time to position for a friendly wave as it passed.

I realize some readers may not be familiar with Street View. This feature allows you to see click on a street or road and see a 360 degree view at ground level, just like you would see if you were actually there.

The Google car was headed down to the boat ramp, and we knew it would only be a minute before he came back out from the dead end road. This time I took a picture a picture of Joe with the car in the background.

Mission accomplished.

Admittedly photobombing Google’s Street View imagery wasn’t on our bucket lists when we headed out to Sylva Rena Mart for lunch, but it was worth a little extra effort to get in position to wave at the camera.

Google Street View was launched in 2007 in several cities around the United States and has since expanded to cover much of the world. Street View technology is featured on Google Maps and Google Earth, allowing users to view panoramic views of various locations worldwide. People around the world try to photobomb the imagery with all kinds of crazy ideas leading to hilarious images. I’m not sure how long it will take before the new imagery is uploaded to Google’s website, but Joe and I will keep a check on it.

Now you may be wondering why we were headed to the boat ramp. This tradition started long before I joined the lunch crew. Years earlier, the crew included the late Harold Williams and his brother, the late Snooky Williams, along with Tyler Wortham, Daryl Burney, Joe and a few others. Once in a while when they had an empty seat I would join them. After the meal, they would head over to the lake to see how many people were fishing, if the water level was fluctuating and other “important” stuff.

Any time Snooky and Harold were involved, you could expect plenty of shenanigans. Once when Snooky was driving Harold’s Cadillac, he accidentally hit a garbage can that was protruding a little too far out on the highway. I think the damage was minimal, if any, but Harold wasn’t nearly as amused as others in the car.

A couple weeks later, one of the others was behind the wheel and stopped in the middle of the highway. He directed Daryl Burney to get out and move a garbage can. Clearly the garbage can was off the roadway, but with great theatrics Daryl jumped out and moved the garbage can over a foot or so to ensure it wasn’t a “threat” to traffic. They got Snooky good, he wasn’t driving on that trip but he knew they were having a little fun at his expense.

On another trip in the more recent past, Daryl, Joe and myself were heading down County Road 53, going around the back way to the boat landing when I spotted a knife sticking in a pine tree. The tree was only a few feet off the road, and I told Joe to stop so I could check it out.

The unsolved Boat Landing murders were still big news and that added to the curiosity as it wasn’t far from the murder scene (even though a knife has never been mentioned as a weapon). I went over and pulled the knife out – it was a cheap kitchen knife. I stuck it back in the tree and we have since speculated about the origin of it. At least Daryl and I have, Joe is convinced we planted it to mess with him.

Last time we looked, that knife was still sticking in the big pine tree. It makes me wonder if Snooky stuck it in that tree years earlier, knowing one day he would have a good laugh at our expense!