You might hate this place. You might love it. Maybe you ran screaming for the city the first chance you got. Maybe you couldn't imagine a life where you didn't watch the tiger's at Civitan Field every Friday night. I haven't yet decided where I fall on this spectrum, but I do know that this place holds a certain amount of enchantment for me...that I hope never dies. Every small town across America is uniquely similar. Every dot on the map has its quirks. Here are Rockwood's:
1. The Star
Atop Rockwood mountain sits a very old and rickety fire tower. Throughout the holidays, a star shaped light hangs from the tower and the whole town admires it from below.The rest of the year, it's just a tower with a star on it. From the top of the tower you can admire the utopia that is Rockwood with a breathtaking view. It’s a Rockwood thing to climb that tower when you're bored. It doesn’t matter if its raining or if it’s the middle of the night. As a teenager in this town, it was just what we did and it was stupid and dangerous. However, I still do it now when I come home to visit. Everyone’s done it, probably more than once, and they always will. The people of this town will be climbing that deteriorating tower until it crumbles.
2. Rocky Top
Every town across America probably has a Royal Dutch Shell gas station. However, ours is named Rocky Top and, I can assure you, it is much more luxurious. It’s the single most stinky place in the whole town. Its putrid smell of cigarette smoke and hamburger grease is unmistakable. All grossness aside, no place is more happening in the middle of the night than Rocky Top. You probably stopped here after you climbed the star and got a greasy, nasty, disgustingly delicious Rocky Top burger. To top it all off, not only do we climb dangerous towers at night, eat gross food and loiter around a gas station, but now for the rest of my life I will go around wrongly calling every Royal Dutch Shell gas station I ever encounter Rocky Top. I’m sure I’m not alone in this struggle. We can’t help it.
3. Moonlight Bay
Here is yet another stupid thing we do out of boredom. Moonlight Bay -- its name alone sounds promiscuous and unrestricted. It is just a boat ramp by the lake with a little parking lot. It sounds innocent enough, right? No! Nothing good or wholesome ever happens here. Parents beware of Moonlight Bay.
4. Junior’s Restaurant
That’s right. I said Junior’s because it will never be Annie’s (no matter how hard they try). Junior's is where you go when you want chicken-and-dumplings or mashed potatoes, green beans and gravy. It's comfort food and it's a Rockwood staple. Under recent new ownership, the name of the restaurant has been changed to Annie’s with much resistance.The name might be different, but the food is the same. Junior’s restaurant is the epitome of fine Rockwood cuisine. I think they even have chuck-wagon.
5. The Cage
In a hidden nook down the hallway of Rockwood High School is a door with a large sign attached to it that reads “The Cage.” As a freshman it terrified me, but now it just confuses me. I’ll never understand how a storage closet came to be known as something so ominous.
I reckon it’s just one of those Rockwood things.
