Cold Dark Water
Lake Jocassee sits down off in South Carolina, on the head waters of the Savanna River, fed by rivers from North Carolina. Below it sits Lake Keowee on what was the Keowee River. It cools a nuclear power plant near Seneca for Duke Power.
The lake may be called Jocassee, over a dubious legend, but the place was known as "The Auger Hole". My Grand Daddy said that was because it was like someone took an auger to the ground. People lived off in there in a place once known as The Cane Break. That was my Ex's people. Her Great Grand Father payed taxes to Transylvania county NC and both Pickens and Oconee county SC. Well, Duke needed that land off in there to help cool the power plant and to make a long story short, it's in water now. Three hundred feet deep in cold dark water.
My Ex's Father helped build those lakes. He tells a few stories that would make everyone of you grin. I have immense respect for the man, and I'm not going to talk about his business, but I see a hint of regret in him sometimes.
Most of the water sits off in SC. The rivers, gorges and ridges leading off into there are mainly in NC. Allot of it is a State Park now. They call it Jocassee Gorges State Park, but, everyone else calls it The Auger Hole. Looks like someone took an auger to the ground. Biologically unique, steep as a goats face. Water spilling down the Mountain into a pretty lake. Three hundred feet deep in cold dark water.
That water goes to the Atlantic. The creek next to me goes into the West Fork of the French Broad, that joins the other forks as the French Broad that later becomes the Tennessee. That water makes it's way to the Ohio then to the Mississippi and out into the Gulf. I see it as an amazing part of our Creator's world.
Call me sentimental...I don't care if you call me a son of a bitch...But when I see a lake, I can't help but wonder about the history underneath it. Yeah, I like my power, but I wonder what lives were lived there. While there are folks around that hold a grudge against Duke Power for allot of that, it's not nearly as much as the Tennessee Valley Authority did. Well worth a candid look.
That's what this song is about, the TVA and false hopes. A World War I vet in a world of disappointment. Uncle Frank. Fifteen rocky acres in cold dark water.
The infamous Drive By Truckers
The Appalachianist
The lake may be called Jocassee, over a dubious legend, but the place was known as "The Auger Hole". My Grand Daddy said that was because it was like someone took an auger to the ground. People lived off in there in a place once known as The Cane Break. That was my Ex's people. Her Great Grand Father payed taxes to Transylvania county NC and both Pickens and Oconee county SC. Well, Duke needed that land off in there to help cool the power plant and to make a long story short, it's in water now. Three hundred feet deep in cold dark water.
My Ex's Father helped build those lakes. He tells a few stories that would make everyone of you grin. I have immense respect for the man, and I'm not going to talk about his business, but I see a hint of regret in him sometimes.
Most of the water sits off in SC. The rivers, gorges and ridges leading off into there are mainly in NC. Allot of it is a State Park now. They call it Jocassee Gorges State Park, but, everyone else calls it The Auger Hole. Looks like someone took an auger to the ground. Biologically unique, steep as a goats face. Water spilling down the Mountain into a pretty lake. Three hundred feet deep in cold dark water.
That water goes to the Atlantic. The creek next to me goes into the West Fork of the French Broad, that joins the other forks as the French Broad that later becomes the Tennessee. That water makes it's way to the Ohio then to the Mississippi and out into the Gulf. I see it as an amazing part of our Creator's world.
Call me sentimental...I don't care if you call me a son of a bitch...But when I see a lake, I can't help but wonder about the history underneath it. Yeah, I like my power, but I wonder what lives were lived there. While there are folks around that hold a grudge against Duke Power for allot of that, it's not nearly as much as the Tennessee Valley Authority did. Well worth a candid look.
That's what this song is about, the TVA and false hopes. A World War I vet in a world of disappointment. Uncle Frank. Fifteen rocky acres in cold dark water.
The infamous Drive By Truckers
The Appalachianist
posted by Hill Billy Rave | Wednesday, July 15, 2009
12 Comments:
Wow, I didn't realize how TVA had so much autonomy. Reagan nailed it with, "Government isn't going to fix the problem. Government IS the problem." It was then and it still is today.
Leave it to you to be mushy about a body of water AND work in a DBT song. It's times like this that keep me coming back and put up with entries like tributes to the girls of Wicked Weasel. :-)
Murf, we could use a little Weasel around here these days...
Gunner, ironic that you say that. I learned this about Regan and the TVA from Gulahiyi...
http://gulahiyi.blogspot.com/2008/12/ronald-reagan-jean-paul-sartre-and.htm
I'm not a high speed linker, like you.
I couldn't find the link, Dan, but gulahiyi has a very eclectic and interesting blog. I enjoyed the Sammy Davis, Jr. youtube stuff, especially. I had forgotten what a talented singer, entertainer and dancer Sammy was. Thanks for the link!
Evidently Duke Power is trying to do the 'TVA thing' and get exactly what they want when it comes to a licensed 50 year monopoly.
http://21stcenturyjackson.blogspot.com/
Gunner, I don't know much about Sammy Davis Jr. I used to see him on TV when I was a kid and he sang with the Rat Pack, which didn't look too ratty to me. And that apparently he was an item with Marylin Chambers, Ivory Snow model turned porn actress...That later ran for Vice President on the "Free Choice" ticket a couple of elections back...And died a few months ago. I read her biography when I saw she died. That's the reason I know that...and I read it in Reason. No other publication other than when I Googled her picture... That's all I'm saying...
WNCWU, I glanced it over, but didn't read it. I will this afternoon. I just got back into town had to run over to Macon county..Beautiful day on Wayah Bald...And I don't have anything in the house to eat, so to town I go.
Sounds like a trip to the Huddle House to me . . . maybe. Bill
I went for the weekend to Cherokee and saw Unto These Hills with my son. He fished the Oconoluftee River while I wathched . . . no fish anywhere, but I enjoyed it. You can still run into oldtimers who remember when they and their families were put off the land that became the Great Smokies National Park. They have mixed feelings about it. Sometimes they are bitter too . . .both the whites and Cherokee. It is important that their sacrifices be remembered and the Smokies maintained. I enjoyed your story about the Lake Jocassee area. I thought I had posted a note teasing you about rockin' too much on the porch and drinkin' too much tea . . . . Ny comments were lost,but your story was a ruminated . . . well thought story. Thanks! Bill
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