Sunday, March 13, 2011

Charlotte Diary (More Self Indulgence)

I plowed through all of the boxes the archivists could make available to me before shutting down for the weekend, and with free time until Monday morning I decided to come down to Charlotte. I am staying with a good friend, one of my former professors at UNC-Charlotte, where I did my MA in Southern history.

Charlotte has changed remarkably since I was living here (I left in *gulp* 1996). Then Charlotte was something of an Ersatz city, all gleaming skyscrapers and striking skyline but without much to it. Uptown (Charlotte's somewhat pretentious name for the city center, or what most of us would call "downtown") served the city's business elite and banking establishment, but even on a weekend uptown rolled up its sidewalks and shut down until the next business day. Things have changed not only uptown, but across the city, where there is much more to do, where chains have been replaced by vibrant local institutions and where the funky, artsy district extends to more than Dillworth, a wonderful but too-small (and thus restricted and restrictive) enclave just off the edge of downtown.

Yesterday afternoon after I arrived Dan and I played frisbee golf at a great course in a park that also had beach volleyball and lots of space for dog walking and playgrounds and the like. I had only played frisbee golf once before, and much like my real golf game I sent it left or right when I wanted to go straight, straight when I wanted to go left or right.

It's sunny and bright and Charlotte is in its glory. The ACC championship is today and so I need to find a place to watch that. I'm back to the Triangle Area tomorrow morning.

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