Live long enough and buildings become part of your story. For instance, the Franklin Store in Starrsville—which artist Tray Corley so brilliantly painted to serve as the latest cover of this magazine—has been an out-of-the-way landmark for decades. If you have lived in this community for any length of time, chances are you have driven past it at least once. Those less familiar with the area might have seen it in “Friday the 13th Part VI” or “In the Heat of the Night.” Imagine all the untold stories that structure alone holds.
Journeys around Newton County occasionally lead me to other places I know more intimately, past my childhood home on Old Monticello Street, up Cherry Valley Drive and into the neighborhood where I spent so much of my youth. Whether it was playing our version of wiffle ball in the cul-de-sac or honing our basketball skills on a cement court a friend’s dad had built behind his house on Elliott Street, we once roamed that stretch of asphalt like we owned it. Less than three decades later, physical evidence of our ever being there no longer exists. Even though most of us and our families have long since moved away, it still looks much like it once did. Many of the houses with which we had grown so familiar are now occupied by other families who are hopefully building memories of their own. Perhaps Father Time will be as kind to them as he was to us.
I turned 47 in May, and I have come to the realization that I’m almost certainly over halfway done with my life. My oldest son just graduated high school, and my youngest will follow in two short years. Ferris Bueller was right when he said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Whenever I feel the need to feel young again, I get behind the wheel, mosey on over to Cherry Valley Drive and let my old neighborhood speak to me for a few minutes.
Thank you Tray Corley for providing the art work for the 2025 summer cover. Tray’s work is on display at Southern Heartland Art Gallery in Covington as well as Van Gogh Art Gallery Madrid. Visit online at instagram.com/art_theperson and artsper.com.
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