Don't Anger the Locals

And Don't Touch the Wildlife

Not having an internet connection has become detrimental to my writing process with this blog. No longer do I have much time to think of my next post because inspiration and . And no longer do I have the opportunity to write a first draft of a blog to reread and fix later.

My access to the internet is so rare that I have precious little time to come up with an idea for a new post and type it, proofread it, and edit it before I have to go home. And that annoys me; every posting I've made since I lost my internet access has felt rushed to me.

So this evening, while babysitting at my aunt's, wondering what topic to write my newest post on because my blog was long overdue, inspiration fell out of the sky and angrily slapped me in the face.

I got an instant message from a screenname I didn't recognize with the simple yet friendly greeting of "Who is this?"

I check his profile and see the standard "I LOVE YOU ____!" message that couples in love usually put up to show the interweb world they care about each other. Now the name in the blank space is a rare one for a girl, and I know of only one person with that name (who shall remain anonymous to protect the innocent). That one person is getting married next year, and I assumed this guy was her fiance and had found my screenname on her buddy list and was checking out all the names he didn't recognize.

So I responded and asked who he was, feeling pretty sure he was my friend's fiance, a guy I've met on a few occasions.

He responds "a guy from the 'town time left out'".

Oh. He must mean Edenton. He doesn't sound that happy and friendly anymore, does he?

He continues: "you know Edenton the town u trashed on ur web site".

Yeah. Definitely not happy.

Well, I take the bait and talk to the guy to see what he's so upset about, but I'm more impressed with the fact that he was able to find my blog (I don't know what he would have had to google to find it).

He says he doesn't appreciate what I said about his town and that "half of it is bs".

Well for one thing, I think if only half and not most of it is BS, then that's a pretty good record for a blogger. And for another, he never states what it is exactly I wrote that he's so upset about.

I apologize to him:

Cbake1369: "Well I apologize if you didn't like what I said. I wrote that probably 2 months ago. And what I wrote was either what I observed or what was told to me by someone who lived there. It was never meant to be disrespectful. Or for that matter read by anyone from Edenton."

I tell him I receieved an email from someone who was born and raised in Edenton and had stumbled across my blog. She thought it was hilarious and true, everything I had said.

His defense- "well she must not have been from here".

I find the post he responded to on my blog, one which he mistakenly thought was my newest update, and realize its the STD post ("Little Known Facts About Edenton"). Sorry, but when I hear that rumor from more than one person, from people who are from the town, I'll post it. But I'll still stay respectful and mention "...Or so I hear", because that's what it is, a rumor, even if it was spread by people in Edenton (and to the John Holmes High student who responded to that post "don't believe everything you hear", thank you for adding a rebuttal from the other side).

From here on out, I'll just repost the conversation and comment where I feel the need to. Again, his name has been changed to protect him from spam.

Edenton_Guy: "you had no business putting the things that you did out there on the web"

Cbake1369: "I apologized to you"
Cbake1369: "But my experiences are my business"

Edenton_Guy: "well if your business is going to be like that then it needs to be somewhere besides edenton bc we arnt the type town to deal with it"

Cbake1369: "May I ask what in particular you are upset about?"
Cbake1369: "I can't remember everything I wrote"

Edenton_Guy: "im not tryin to be disrespectful with this but the whole thing"

Oh good! Maybe this won't turn into an argument afterall.

Cbake1369: "no I understand. I dont want to be disrespectful or offensive either"

Edenton_Guy: "you lied about us not having a mcdonalds"

Wait. First off- you guys *have* a McDonalds? I completely missed it. Unless it's across from the Burger King, which I HAD established the town does have, though not in the historic part.

Cbake1369: "Wait- you guys do have a McDonalds?"
Cbake1369: "that wasnt a lie"
Cbake1369: "I didnt know you had one"

Edenton_Guy: "see you posted things that you didnt even take the time to check out"

So, just because I never saw one, it was my intention to create a bold-faced lie about the presence of a McDonalds in their town in an attempt to disrespect them? That does sound a tad ridiculous, doesn't it?

Edenton_Guy: "edenton isnt that big while you were finding all the not so great things then you should have looked around to see what we did have"

I explain that the reason I mentioned the lack of McDonalds was to give my readers who have never visited Edenton an impression of how small the town is, of how its the kind of community that doesn't like corporations in the thick of it all.

Cbake1369: "I dont even like McDonalds"
Cbake1369: "everyone recognizes it"
Cbake1369: "they're in Africa even"

Edenton_Guy: "thats right we dont really want a wal-mart"

Again, I explain that I think that's a great reason, that Wal-Mart's business practices in small towns stink, and the only reason I ever mentioned its lack was to show readers what Edenton is like, NOT to "talk smack" about it.

Edenton_Guy: "but did u look at the great stores that we had downtown that keeps our town up and running"

Yes. Of COURSE we did. We shot in many of them. We bought supplies from many others. We walked by them everyday.

Cbake1369: "Yes I did"
Cbake1369: "And I met and worked with many great people who were extremely helpful"

Allright, I think I may be winning him over...

Edenton_Guy: "u took every bit of good that we ever had and ripped it apart"

... Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa. Now he's skipped from point C to V. Jumping to conclusions. Making unfounded accusations. At this point I almost lose my temper. To accuse me of ripping the goodness of their town apart is almost too much, especially after ALL the great things I said about the town.

But he continues, responding to my mentioning that I worked and met with many great people.

Edenton_Guy: "i didnt read that"
Edenton_Guy: "where was that at "

Cbake1369: "Okay, now I don't want to accuse you of jumping to conclusions "
Cbake1369: "But I did no such thing"
Cbake1369: "ripping apart all of your good qualities "

Edenton_Guy: "well you go back and read what you wrote and tell me what good qualitites you put in there bc i didnt read anything but harsh things about how we didnt have a mcdonalds or a starbucks"

Please, dear reader, you go back and read what I said. Did that seem harsh at all to you? (Under "The Town that Time Forgot").

Cbake1369: "Thats not meant to be harsh"
Cbake1369: "Like I said, it's to give readers an impression about how small it is "
Cbake1369: "Again, I apologize if it wasn't clear enough"
Cbake1369: "If I wanted to insult your town, I think it would have been more obvious or hurtful"
Cbake1369: "But I have no reason to do so"

At this point, I find a quote from "Town that Time Forgot".

Cbake1369: blog quote- "It's like a Norman Rockwell painting here in Edenton. There are no corporations. No Wal-Marts, no Starbucks, no Subways or McDonalds. Just lots of big houses, a tiny main street, families, and racism."

Really. Does THAT sound so harsh and disrespectful? Anyone? Bueller? I didn't compare it to Mayberry. Just disregard the racism mention (a topic he never brought up, by the way).

Cbake1369: "Norman Rockwell is considered one of the greatest artists portraying Americana"
Cbake1369: "thats a compliment to your town, not an isult"
Cbake1369: "*insulr"
Cbake1369: "damn, insult "
Cbake1369: blog quote- "So far, the town has welcomed the film crew very warmly, offering to help us in any way they can. "

So I did what he asked. I found the passages he thought were disrespectful, the ones in which I did praise the town, and I start looking for more. But he makes one last response.

Edenton_Guy: "i think you and I hope you have no reason to come back bc what you said was rude and disrespectful to the people who live here"

And then he signs off. He's gone. I guess my evidence wasn't good enough for him, or he didn't have anything to refute, so he left. Angry too, no doubt, for which I am sorry. As I explained to him, I have no reason to be disrespectful to the town of Edenton. If I wanted to, what would be the logic in that?

The truth is, I DO have to go back to Edenton to shoot some pickups. Now I have to worry about this guy spreading rumors that some of the film crew hated the town and have been blasting it on the internet (totally untrue), and I also worry that the town won't welcome us when we return. I'm sure he's going to send this blog to others from Edenton, and it's my hope that they see my posts for what they were: the simple observations of one visitor who tried to paint a picture of the town with words for all those who haven't visited it.

Why would I want to anger the town that has helped us so much? Why, as an online representative of all of them, would I want to paint our film crew in a bad light?

That would be dumb, immature, and unprofessional.

And I'd like to think I'm the complete opposite of all those adjectives above.

So to you, Edenton_Guy, I believe I've apologized enough, and when you return to my blog, I hope you read the evidence with a clear mind and see my true intentions. And for every other Edentonite (is that correct?) out there, I hope you appreciate what I said like the one who emailed me did.

But Edenton_Guy, more thanks to you for giving me something to write about tonight. I needed that.

--Cbake