Charlotte

This is my last night in this city, I may well never return. I have been here a little over a week and I am surprised by the strength of feeling I have at the prospect of leaving. A part on me has come to love this place, the people who live here and the community that makes it the way that it is. I know I will miss this place.

Tonight, I wandered around the town to see again the places that I have begun to know. There is a cross-roads right in the centre of town with four statues that stand, one in each corner. This spot was where two Indian trading routes crossed, where the white man first met the native and began to trade. Nearby stands a building that housed the last Confederate Cabinet meeting that ratified the surrender to Union troops. There is a street that I have not ventured down and I think it is because of the lurid orange "Hooters" sign that advertises itself about half way down. Tonight I walk down and find the first Presbyterian Church, established by the first settlers . There is an old graveyard attached, most of the stones are unreadable, but I glimpse at names from home. Mitchell, Spratt, Polk, McBride and dates from 1770.

They came to this place and made it what it is. A restless, dour, easily offended people, but they were the best of us. We feel their loss even yet. I am glad that I came here to do them honour.