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Wakeup call from the past
It didnt make any sense.
Then, a lot of things with me dont.
It was July 3. 6:45 in the morning. I was running around Lake Junaluska. Somewhere in the mountains of North Carolina. The houses surrounding the lake were adorned with red, white and blue bunting. Signs along the route advertised the fireworks display set for the next day.
I should have been dwelling on Crispus Attucks, Bunker Hill, Betsy Ross, Paul Revere, Valley Forge and the Continental Congress. And maybe John Phillip Sousa.
But my mind chose to dial up Charlotte Melton.
You cannot believe how beautiful Lake Junaluska is early in the morning. By my second loop the sun was rising over the mountains to the east
the distant fog slowly fading into a disappearing mist. The water was so still and serene your heartbeat slowed to accommodate it.
A lone fishing boat at the far end of the lake turned the scene into a once in a lifetime snapshot.
It would give you pause to count the blessings of living in the greatest land on earth. Make you thankful for the early sacrifices of men like Dr. Joseph Warren, Samuel Adams and George Washington, who laid their very lives on the line for an idea, a concept and a country
whose future wasnt as assured as the past we celebrate today.
Charlotte Melton, at this moment in time, drowned out the patriotic noise.
I kissed her over by the monkey bars. We were 12 or 13 at the time. It was my first. And by the quickness of the deed and the redness that rose up her cheeks, Im pretty sure it was the initial one for her too.
We didnt repeat if for nearly two years. But we enjoyed going steady in the interim. The Melton farm was on out the highway from us. I hauled a lot of hay for her father, would help him feed his horses from time to time
and most always visited with his youngest daughter since I was there.
Charlotte was a barrel racer. And a good one! Their home was filled with blue ribbons and trophies shed won at nearly every horse show, rodeo and riding event in West Tennessee back in the day.
Mr. Melton kept a close eye on us. At least, I thought he did. He was a big man and rough as a stucco bathtub. Listen, when he pulled that straw cowboy hat down low and squinted at you, he could make John Wayne look like Don Knotts!
He didnt exactly scare me away or hover around us. But when Charlotte and I rode off over the hills together I made sure my horse was a goodly measured distance from hers.
Charlotte and I were always better friends than serious daters. We had long talks about life, high school, teachers, sports, the world as we understood it and whether Butterfingers taste better than a Baby Ruth.
She cheered for me at football games like both of our lives depended on it.
We fought those high school, growing up, roller coaster teenage years side by side. Sometimes a real friend is better than a girlfriend. We promised each other on graduation night wed stay in touch forever.
Forever, on this earth, didnt last too long.
Charlotte died when she was 25.
Cancer.
I peered across the beautiful North Carolina Mountains, with Lake Junaluska shimmering in the foreground, on this spotless July morning and my heart ached because my friend never had the opportunity to see this.
Pictures of so many places Charlotte missed
and I didnt
rippled through my mind.
A ride down the Columbia River Gorge is a sight like no other. The sun dropping into the water off Cape San Blas will awaken senses you didnt know you had. The Grand Canyon is aptly named.
There is a small cabin, built years ago by a man named Cunningham, still standing just a few miles north of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He picked the perfect spot. From there you can see the snowcapped Teton Mountains filling the whole Western sky. It is another indescribably beautiful scene.
And oh, how Charlotte loved the West.
She talked so often of riding in rodeos in Cheyenne, Oklahoma City, Calgary. Pendleton, Oregon
It wasnt to be.
A childhood friend is a gift from God that death cannot destroy.
We live in a world today that often majors on the minor. And looks for flaws in others rather than the goodness.
Maybe it would behoove us to dwell a bit more on the Charlotte Meltons in our lives.
And realize just exactly all the things they are missing
and comprehend on a little higher plane all the things that we are not!
Respectfully,
Kes
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.