Shorts

A little over a month ago, I was able to spend a couple of days out of town as a reset between jobs. I thought it would be nice to be outside a lot, but also didn't want to be too far away, so I landed in Fort Payne, AL. The original plan was to spend most of my time hiking in Desoto State Park, which I still did, but I ended up discovering several other delightful things around town.

A Little History

Fort Payne actually has some neat history. Their primary boom years were 1889 to 1891, when they were being connected as part of the railroad from Chattanooga to Birmingham. In addition to being situated directly on the railroad, the area also contained significant coal and iron deposits, which attracted significant industry. Later, they discovered the deposits were smaller than expected, and much of the industry went to Birmingham. The boom was short-lived, but it did lead to some awesome historical buildings, like their Opera House (the state's oldest standing theater).

Socks

Fort Payne had a tough economic period after this. Their population declined by 62% (!) from the 1890 census to 1900, but the next industry to take over the city began to stir in 1907 with the founding of the W. B. Davis Hosiery Mill, which made socks and hosiery from local cotton. By the year 2000, the hosiery industry in Fort Payne employed approximately 7,000 people and produced over half of the socks in the US. They claimed to be the "sock capital of the world".

What sent me down this historical rabbit hole in the first place was seeing their Hosiery Museum in the city center. There seemingly had to be a good story behind it. Sadly, the ending is not a happy one. As the US lowered tariffs on textiles starting in the 1990s, Chinese manufacturers were able to import socks at much lower prices, making the Fort Payne mills uncompetitive. Now, the industry is far smaller, and what remains seemingly focuses on higher-end organic socks. The population in Fort Payne has remained steady, and it continues to serve as a critical distribution hub, situated between Chattanooga and Birmingham.

Main Street

On the same strip as the Opera House, they had a neat main street that was surprisingly lively. There were lots of different types of businesses, and all seemed to be doing reasonably well (a bit to my surprise). One I stopped in was The Spot Coffee Shop^[1]. The building was constructed in the early 1900s, and over time, it had served as a hardware store, an R/C car shop, and a dance studio before becoming a coffee shop. The inside had a lot of character, including an intricate ceiling and beautiful chandeliers salvaged from a local church.

Yard Sales

While driving around, something else caught my attention. Everyone seemed to have things out in their yard that they were trying to sell. Particularly on the road toward the cabin I was staying in. In the afternoon on the second day, I decided to stop by one of the setups that seemed the biggest. I struck up a conversation with one of the vendors, who was an antique vendor from Section, AL, who told me what I had stumbled upon was the world's longest yard sale. The sale runs from Gadsden, AL, to Addison, MI, covering over 690 miles! I ended up attending many yard sales after this, including some giant tent setups and large fields with numerous vendors. Along the same road, there were also some cool antique stores, such as Barnyard Antiques, which I stopped in on my way.

Conclusion

Coming back from Fort Payne, I can't quite put my finger on what made me feel so compelled to write about my experience. Part of it was the surprise and delight in stumbling upon so many neat things in my short 48 hours in the town. Another piece was seemingly just the niche history of my own state, which I had never heard of or known before. I had no idea the state had the "sock capital of the world" in my lifetime! The direct relation of their decline to tariffs also made all the tariff mayhem we experienced this year more tangible. The last part was being happy to see a main street in a smaller town doing well, despite so many being hollowed out^[3]. Let me know if you ever end up in Fort Payne for a visit. I would love to hear your thoughts.

1. This interview with the owner shows some of the design.
2. He opened his antique store in Section and discovered it was too small to support his business, so to support it, he attends many of these events. Out of curiosity, I looked up Section's population. According to the 2010 census, the population was only 700 people, up from 769 in 2000.
3. I kept thinking about the song Our Town from the movie Cars. If you're not familiar with this song, give it a listen.

Consider Graham’s example below:

Suppose you're taking a class on medieval history and the final exam is coming up. The final exam is supposed to be a test of your knowledge of medieval history, right? So if you have a couple days between now and the exam, surely the best way to spend the time, if you want to do well on the exam, is to read the best books you can find about medieval history. Then you'll know a lot about it, and do well on the exam.

No, no, no, experienced students are saying to themselves. If you merely read good books on medieval history, most of the stuff you learned wouldn't be on the test. It's not good books you want to read, but the lecture notes and assigned reading in this class. And even most of that you can ignore, because you only have to worry about the sort of thing that could turn up as a test question. You're looking for sharply-defined chunks of information. If one of the assigned readings has an interesting digression on some subtle point, you can safely ignore that, because it's not the sort of thing that could be turned into a test question. But if the professor tells you that there were three underlying causes of the Schism of 1378, or three main consequences of the Black Death, you'd better know them. And whether they were in fact the causes or consequences is beside the point. For the purposes of this class they are.

It makes a strong point that what gets you the A on the test isn’t always (or usually) what means you understand a subject well. Instead, the test simplifies the material through the professor's eyes. When you step out of a classroom, though, reality has infinite complexity, and you can’t take the same shortcut (his word) of having someone else filter it all for you. You focus on what’s required instead of the big picture.

After leaving college, I struggled with this topic. There isn’t always a correct answer or a “way” it should be done. The work needs to get done, and you must figure it out. Think critically and be able to defend why you made your decisions, and you will do just fine. If anything, you will significantly outperform those looking to do what’s required because, like in history class, what’s required is often a considerable oversimplification of reality.

I first heard this on an Infinite Loops podcast with Derek Sivers (I can't remember if it was Part 1 or Part 2). I tend strongly to absolutes and forget that everything exists in an ebb and flow. The parable below was first documented in China over two thousand years ago:

Good luck and bad luck create each other

and it is difficult to foresee their change.

A righteous man lived near the border.

For no reason, his horse ran off into barbarian territory.

Everyone [people] felt sorry for him.

[But] His father spoke [to him]:

"Who knows if that won't bring you good luck?"

Several months later

his horse came back with a group of [good, noble] barbarian horses.

Everyone [people] congratulated him.

[But] His father spoke [to him]:

"Who knows if that won't bring you bad luck?"

Now his house is rich in horses

and the son mounted with joy/loved riding.

He fell and broke his leg.

Everyone [people] felt sorry for him.

[But] His father spoke [to him]:

"Who knows if that won't bring you good luck?"

One year later

the barbarians invaded across the border.

Adult men strung up their bows and went into battle.

Nine out of ten border residents were killed,

except for the son because of his broken leg.

Father and son were protected/both survived.



Hence: Bad luck brings good luck

and good luck brings bad luck.

This happens without end

and nobody can estimate it.

As an additional note, the story has been popularized in several different ways. Alan Watts seems to be the biggest spreader of the story through his public lectures, but recently, Bluey did an episode based on the story.