The Friday Night Revival Is Growing
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
About a month or so ago, my trusty laptop computer decided to become untrusty and quit on me. Clocked out. Retired. Called it a lifetime. You don’t really realize how much typing you do until you’re writing newspaper columns, transcribing old letters, editing photos, and typing out the minutes of three-hour-long Main Street Association meetings – all on the touch screen of your tiny cell phone.
Is this really why humans developed thumbs? To type on a tiny cell phone? I thought we were given thumbs to develop and carry out tasks of human ingenuity and triumph such as weaving tapestries, shaping clay pots, building airplane engines, plucking the strings in electric guitar solos and hitchhiking. But these days it seems like we were given thumbs just to type a thumbs-up emoji. I’m not sure if this evolution is ironic or incidental. I suppose it’s both.
Because I didn’t have my regular word document program from my laptop, I was forced to use an online word counter when writing my column to make sure I stayed within my word limit. The online word counter had an automatic “AI Detection” feature and, without my asking, it scanned my document for artificial intelligence. It detected that my column was 71 percent AI! I wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or flattered. And I wonder what the other 29 percent of my column had going for it. I’d like to think it had the distinctive pizzazz of a real human mind, but I imagine it was my bad grammar and usual misspellings that were the tell-tale signs of life.
Well, all this to say, I got a new laptop! I am back to typing normally, which in my case, is just the addition of a couple of pointer fingers along with the usual thumbs. So, it’s actually not much faster than using a phone now that I think about it.
Speaking of not much faster, I’ve been really invested in the progression of the brick-laying project on the facade of FNB Bank on Main Street. This building is located at the end of my street, so I walk and drive past it many multiple times a day. I think the bricks look great! A brick aesthetic was a good choice for that building, in my opinion, and Main Street already looks better because of it. And I now know that bricklaying (or facade treatments that are brick-laying adjacent) is a slow sport. Even though the hardworking men doing the facade work are clearly very fast in terms of bricklaying, time is relative and it’s still slow in terms of me watching it all day from my porch up the street.
What is not taking its relative sweet time is the success of Water Valley’s new Friday night happenings! It has been really fun to watch the business owners in town get together and help get this town cranking in the evening time. Courthouse Cafe, BTC Grocery, Turnage Drugstore, Cattywampus Vintage and others have joined the already-evening-oriented Crawdad Hole, Dunn’s, Magnolia Coffee, El Charrito and more in operating evening hours. And there are several new businesses coming very soon that will add to the festivities. Friday nights lights in the Valley aren’t only about Blue Devils football anymore!
