Consider the possibilities: It was 1967, Sergeant
Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band was already resounding on the air waves. Leaksville,
Spray, and Draper were three small towns in Piedmont North Carolina, in the
foothills of the Appalachians and near the Virginia state line. That's right. Leaksville,
Spray, and Draper-- LSD!
Consolidation of the three towns had been discussed by Fieldcrest Mills executives, members of
the Textile Workers Union of America. and individual citizens for a good many years. An attempt to consolidate
Leaksville
and Spray in March of 1959 failed and citizens displayed a wreath-shrouded
tombstone at a local church with an
inscription that read:
“Consolidation is Dead.”
Many
factors influenced the second vote in September of 1967.
However, it wasn’t necessarily the consolidation as much as the name
change that affected many of the people of the three communities. “They (Leaksville
residents) knew if it was consolidated, the name would change," said former mayor
Jones Norman to a Reidsville Review reporter (Reidsville, Leaksville,
Spray and Draper are in Rockingham County).
According to some,
the area was ready for a change. Nevertheless. when the vote came on September
12, 1967, consolidation won in Leaksville by only three votes. Certainly one of
the most interesting aspects of the vote on the consolidation merger was the
number of write-in suggestions for the name of the newly-consolidated city. Among those submitted
were Deadwood, Logtown, Bull, New City. Peyton Place, Readsville, Centerville,
Chaos, and Paradise. Citizens finally decided on Eden. a name that William Byrd
II of Virginia had called the area when he was surveying in the early eighteenth
century.
Yet, with all the color of names like Peyton Place, Eden, Chaos, and Paradise, the name
LSD suggested by an anonymous citizen, given the times, has to rank right up
there with Madison Avenue’s best efforts.
Leaksville.
Spray. Draper. Remember the Beatles' Lucy in
the Sky With Diamonds on Sergeant Pepper? Surely the promoters
of the Monterey
Pop Festival would have considered LSD, North Carolina for its next event had
the town gone with the appellation L.S.D. The Counter Culture would have had to
investigate a little town in North Carolina with the sophistication and daring
to call itself LSD. Scott Mackenzie
might have sung:
"If you're going
to LSD/ Be sure to wear flowers in your hair."
Unfortunately.
or fortunately, depending upon how you look at it, Leaksville, Spray and Draper
did not become LSD. They became Eden. But, some citizens considered the
possibilities. When I left home for college in the late summer of 1967, the
consolidation had not yet materialized.
However, when I made my first
visit back to what I thought was Leaksville, Spray and Draper (after September
12), I learned that my hometown was now called Eden. Over the next few years, my
interest in poetry and songwriting seemed to be dominated by the writing of
LSD (Leaksville. Spray, and Draper)-oriented material. In 1977 I published a
book of poetry entitled
Wampus
Cats and Dan River Rimes which lamented the passing of Leaksville, Spray.
and Draper. Having played in several rock bands in the wake of Beatlemania with
my colleague Ron Martin, I was inspired to write songs about the area.
Recently,
along with our group, the Wampus Cats (the
wampus cat is a legendary
creature that allegedly swims in the Dan River which runs through
LSD, er...Eden). I brought out a record entitled The Ballad of LSD
(Leaksville, Spray and Draper), which tells of the story
of the consolidation of the three towns. In the past two years. Martin and I have
written several songs that conjure up the past of people, places, and events
related to LSD (Leaksville, Spray, and Draper).
Ron
Martin's 'Olden Days” is a lyrical recreation of life in LSD
before consolidation. His Avalon is the the story of the little mill town
of Avalon (west of LSD) which burned in 1911 and sent many of its
citizens to the mills in LSD. Ron
and I have collaborated on The Wampus Cat
Song, which tells the tale of
the fabled Wampus Cat.
I have also been inspired by
the people and folklore of LSD.
My Life's
A Beach Girl describes a
well-.known beach vacation. Lady of the Dan (Dan River) takes a trip
back to the lazy, hazy days of an LSD summer, much like the summer of 1967.
Yes Virginia, There is a Tacky
Branch highlights one of Spray's
favorite geographical spots. I Love LSD is a
song
that immortalizes Leaksville, Spray and Draper. It is a song that would been very much in vogue if the anonymous citizen’s
suggestion, LSD, had become the city that might have been.
