Some places speak distinctly. Certain dank gardens cry aloud for a murder; certain old houses demand to be haunted; certain coasts are set apart for shipwrecks. ~Robert Louis Stevenson
I’m sure you remember Treasure Island, an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. The book influenced our perceptions of pirates, including treasure maps marked with an “X,” and one-legged seamen with a parrot on their shoulder. It was first published on 14 November 1883 by Cassell & Co. A lovely read audio link to Chapter One. will make your heart smile.
Jim Hawkins is a young boy who lives at his parents’ Inn, Admiral Benbow, near Bristol, England, in the eighteenth century. An old sea captain named Billy Bones dies in the inn after being presented with a black spot, an official pirate verdict of guilt or judgment. When Jim and his mother unlock Billy’s sea chest, they find a logbook and a map for a treasure that the infamous pirate Captain Flint has buried on a distant island.
When I came across the Stevenson quote above, “Some places speak distinctly…” I thought of Rocky Mount’s treasure map which has drawn upon it, Main Street and beyond. It has a distinct sense of place and story that is being preserved. The following Stevenson quote identifies those who are preserving, restoring, and repurposing significant commercial and residential architecture. It refers to the business people downtown who are apart of the new emerging scene and to the investors who have come aboard to help save our treasures.
“We got together in a few days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable–not pretty to look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable spirit.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
In 2020, we are contending with our own plundering pirates. Stevenson writes in Treasure Island about the ‘pirates who sail on laden with crimes and riches.’ Those who continue to plunder the taxpayers shall have the black spot, their own verdict of guilt and judgment, turned back upon them. The decisions that continue to be made by people who pay no price for being wrong, must stop so we can get on with all the exciting possibilities drawn on our map. Seats on the City Council, city management, have their own map. It is the MY WILL BE DONE agenda that continues to steer us into turbulent seas. For all the tough old salts uncovering our buried treasure,
“We must go on because we can’t turn back.” Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
Main Street Rocky Mount 
Well stated Stepheny.
One must wonder why the population of Rocky Mount is so APATHETIC about their elected leaders who are in fact pirates of tax dollars, state funding and federal funding.
However, unlike the mystical pirates, Rocky Mount’s elected officials are SIMPLY CROOKS.
This is not summertime; the fish are not jumping and the cotton is not high.
However, the scoundrel’s pockets ae full!
THAT SAYS IT ALL.
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