A ‘Raggedy Ass’ Friday In Rocky Mount, NC

Rocky Mount NC City Government, Rocky Mount NC: Preservation of Historic Commercial and Residential Architecture, Stepheny's Rocky Mount, NC Reflections 1 Minute


Friday afternoon, August 8 in Rocky Mount. I was downtown to photograph the building at 112 NW Main Street. In the stretch of street where I stood, I counted six cars. Six.

The building I came to photograph, and the ones reflected in the glass across the tracks, looked like a patchwork quilt stitched by a crew of drunks. A splash of new paint here, a few new windows there, but in the years since I first came in 2015, it is the same tired scene.

Sam Battle used a phrase I had never heard but took to immediately. He called someone a “raggedy ass.” Well, that is exactly what I would call the condition of a number of empty buildings lining Main Street.

Yes, there has been work. But if I take off my Pollyanna glasses, the emptiness is still ridiculous. The silence still hangs heavy.

“I think perhaps we want a more conscientious life. We’re tired of drudging and sleeping and dying. We’re tired of always deferring hope to the next generation… We want our Utopia now—and we’re going to try our hands at it.”
— Sinclair Lewis, Main Street

We do want our Utopia now, and in Rocky Mount, it starts with demanding more than a fresh coat of paint and a ribbon cutting. It starts with refusing to accept silence where there should be life.

It starts with looking at what is and saying it out loud. Because if we cannot name the truth, we will never awaken the spirit that could make downtown hard to find a parking space. I want to believe the following Lewis quote. It’s like the prayer, help me in my unbelief.

“But I don’t care so much about the ugliness. That will change. It’s the spirit that gives me hope. It’s sound. Wholesome. But afraid. It needs live creatures like you to awaken it.”
— Sinclair Lewis, Main Street

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Published by Stepheny Forgue Houghtlin

Stepheny Forgue Houghtlin grew up in Evanston, IL. and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. She is an author of two novels: The Greening of a Heart and Facing East. She lives, writes and gardens in NC. Visit her: Stephenyhoughtlin.com

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One thought on “A ‘Raggedy Ass’ Friday In Rocky Mount, NC”

  1. just maybe downtown will get lucky and get consumed by the fabulous non profit OIC and the greedy two coumcil men will achieve yet again obtaining a multiple of grants to refurbish them and out downtown will be beautiful again. The buildings will still sit empty and the parking spaces will still be plentiful but hey the slum Lords would have accomplished adding to their real estate portfolio by stealing money that an impovorished neigborhood could have benefited from.

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