So my hometown of Reidsville, North Carolina has decided to ultimately remove a nationally-recognized statue with more than a hundred years of history, and let it instead be replaced with a horror straight out of H.P. Lovecraft...
Brief recap: almost four years ago the Confederate monument in downtown Reidsville was toppled and smashed by an errant driver. The statue of the Confederate soldier atop the monument fell and broke into pieces. The damage wasn't irreversible however, and it was determined that the statue and the monument could be repaired and restored to normal.
That's how things should have worked in a sane world.
But formerdictator mayor James Festerman would have none of that. On his own, Festerman decreed that the monument would never go back up. That, despite a huge outpouring of support from the community for the Confederate statue to be repaired and returned to its rightful place. Hizzoner Festerman declared that the monument was "controversial", nevermind that it had occupied the location sine 1910 and there had been no opposition to it in all of that time. Festerman was just pulling that out of his [REDACTED].
So the "leadership" of the City of Reidsville had its way, and though the Confederate monument was eventually repaired it was relocated to a nearby cemetery. In its place at the roundabout on Scales Street the city installed a wretchedly ugly planter and then for the past two years or so it's been a Christmas tree.
And now in place of the Confederate monument, the City of Reidsville has decided it will erect the eldritch abomination that you see above. Allegedly a water fountain, the creator of which has titled it "The Bud".
More often than not it's being called "The Thing". Local writers are describing it as something out of the Alien movie franchise (it definitely has that open-egg look going for it). Or like a prop from a Clive Barker "Hellraiser" film. I can't print what one person told me it looked like (it's that obscene). I should recite incantations around it when it goes up and try to summon Cthulhu with it.
Incidentally, this "work of art" which looks like third-rate H.R. Giger is going to cost at least $30,000.
Generations to come should remember it as "Festerman's Fountain": a monument to the most indolent, apathetic, indifferent and tyrannical city government in Reidsville history (and that's saying something).
Seriously: twenty years from now people will be looking at that eyesore and wondering "what the #&@$ were they thinking?!"
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| "We'll tear your soul apart!" |
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| Reidsville's Confederate Monument at it's original location |
That's how things should have worked in a sane world.
But former
So the "leadership" of the City of Reidsville had its way, and though the Confederate monument was eventually repaired it was relocated to a nearby cemetery. In its place at the roundabout on Scales Street the city installed a wretchedly ugly planter and then for the past two years or so it's been a Christmas tree.
And now in place of the Confederate monument, the City of Reidsville has decided it will erect the eldritch abomination that you see above. Allegedly a water fountain, the creator of which has titled it "The Bud".
More often than not it's being called "The Thing". Local writers are describing it as something out of the Alien movie franchise (it definitely has that open-egg look going for it). Or like a prop from a Clive Barker "Hellraiser" film. I can't print what one person told me it looked like (it's that obscene). I should recite incantations around it when it goes up and try to summon Cthulhu with it.
Incidentally, this "work of art" which looks like third-rate H.R. Giger is going to cost at least $30,000.
Generations to come should remember it as "Festerman's Fountain": a monument to the most indolent, apathetic, indifferent and tyrannical city government in Reidsville history (and that's saying something).
Seriously: twenty years from now people will be looking at that eyesore and wondering "what the #&@$ were they thinking?!"
