Never in my life did I imagine that the Google Street View crew would roll through Saltillo. But they did. And it looks a little like they half-assed it just like they did with Memphis. I guess they’re just hitting major rural highways for now. Too bad, because that means you can’t take a virtual stroll down to the river, or see the rockin’ mural on what used to be JB’s Grocery (which was, before that, Turner’s Grocery, and before that, Smith’s Grocery), or gawk at the crumbling Chic Jeans factory. Or creep past St. Paul Loop, the place where one of the creepiest stories I know took place. You can, however, have a little looksee around scenic downtown Saltillo.
Just to the left in this frame is the Head Shop, which isn’t at all what you debauched heathens think it is. It’s a barber shop; its original location across the street, where my brother had his first haircut, burned, I think. Just past that is what used to be Saltillo Video (not sure what’s there now; it’s been a doctor’s office off an on as long as I can remember), where I spent many, many hours working during high school. Then there’s the Main Street Grill, which I heard was closing (if it hasn’t already) and Angie’s General Store, a newish establishment that stocks an unholy array of random stuff.
Directly across the street and beyond the purview of Street View is the new billiard/gameroom run by a guy I went to high school with. Beyond that is Parker’s Dig, where I used to buy T-shirts for a quarter (and where I got plenty of stuff for free when I was dating Phil, since he’s part of the Parker clan). Further beyond that is the aforementioned former JB/Turner/Smith’s Grocery, then the bank my mom worked at when I was a kid, and Saltillo United Methodist Church, where my family still worships. Keep going and you’ll eventually run into the river, where, up until just a few years ago, there was still a two-car ferry in operation (for just a dollar or two, you could take a trip to Cerro Gordo), one of the last of its kind.
Landmarks you can actually see include Shady Grove Cemetery (which was mentioned in Lamar Alexander’s book The Tennesseans, and is where many of Saltillo’s original settlers, uh, settled), Saltillo School (where I went to kindergarten and first grade, and where several of my family members graduated high school; Saltillo Video was housed here before moving downtown, and I used to have to sit alone in this giant creaky building at night*), The Parker House (built by a prominent Saltillo physician and great-great grandfather of my ex-boyfriend, who claims he saw a fetus in a jar in the basement of the house when he was a kid), and the Meady White House (a beautiful 1847 estate built using slave labor, owned originally by one of Saltillo’s prominent civic leaders; one of my biggest hometown regrets is that I have never been inside this place).
And, of course, you can spot the Turner compound.
It’s amazing to me to see Web 2.0-and-beyond technology sweep right through my sleepy little hometown. Sure, Saltillo teenagers have MySpace pages just like the rest of creation, but this? This is altogether different. And despite my own misgivings about the hegemony of Google-dom, I can’t help but feel that this development is pretty cool as, at the very least, a learning tool. It makes me want to see more of the America usually too small to pay attention to. It makes me want to crawl through the streets of my friends’ hometowns and have them point out their own lives’ landmarks to me.
*If you look at the map view, you’ll see a nice new green roof on the school. When I worked at the video store, which was housed in the leftmost side (the fourth and fifth-grade classrooms, I think), that roof did not exist yet. In fact, underneath that roof lies the original roof, which features a big window in the attic. I used to leave there at night, terrified to look up at the window for fear of seeing a gaunt face looking back at me. Let’s just say that place did not give off the best vibes.