Living On The Edge

The state line between South Carolina (SC) and Georgia (GA) follows the twists and turns of the Savannah River. You know you’re heading into one state or the other whenever you cross the water. Driving from our part of South Carolina into nearby Augusta, GA is interesting. The interstate loops Augusta by starting in SC, touches a bit of GA, goes back to SC for a few miles, then continues into GA again as it follows the river. It’s an example of my life on the edge.

In California, W means “water”

Growing up on the coast of California, it never occurred to me the geography of my younger days was limited to only three of the four cardinal directions.  If I headed north I’d leave the urban stretches of Los Angeles for the more rural towns of the the central coast.  Head south and I’d parallel the beaches all the way to San Diego.  The only thing east of the city seemed to be the endless Mojave Desert.  As for the last of the four directions?  Not an option, at least not without a boat, plane, or a whole lot of swimming.  Horace Greeley would’ve never told me to “Go West, young man”.

South Bend sits where the yellow and red come together at the very top of Indiana.

In my college years in South Bend, IN, I was a fifteen-minute drive from the line where the Central and Eastern time zones meet.  Back then you didn’t touch your clock for Daylight Savings, so half the year you were the same time as Detroit while the other half you were Chicago.  It was confusing, but not as confusing as someone who lived on one side of the line and worked on the other.  Imagine leaving the house at 8:00am, driving an hour, and arriving at the office at… 8:00am?  It’s a neat trick, pulled off by a lot of those who live on the edge of a time zone.

Raising our kids in Colorado Springs, we always knew which direction we were heading because the line of the Rocky Mountains lay immediately to the west.  Those peaks rose up like the Great Wall of China, just daring you to push through.  Sure, we drove the interstates into the Rockies for skiing, hiking, and such, but day-to-day we were down at the base, literally living on the edge.  Like California, we had one less cardinal direction at our disposal.

Grays Peak, on Colorado’s Continental Divide

The Rockies conceal another important edge, known as the Continental Divide.  The Divide is elevated terrain separating neighboring drainage basins.  Plain English?  The north-south line from which water flows either west to the Pacific Ocean or east to the Atlantic.  I always wanted to stop somewhere flat on the Divide and pour out a bottle of water.  Let’s see if it really flows both ways from the line, right?  It’s an experiment that to this day remains unconducted.

Football is a game of lines and edges

Football, one of my favorite spectator sports, is all about lines and edges.  One team faces the other, on an imaginary line defined by where the referee places the ball.  Cross that line before the ball is snapped and you’ll be flagged with a penalty.  Advance the ball ten yards past that line – to another imaginary line – and your team is awarded more play.  The sidelines of the field might as well drop off to a bottomless void.  Catching a pass outside of that edge is not allowed.  Running the ball outside of that edge brings the game to a halt.  But catching or running across the lines at end of the field?  That rewards you with a score.

$50 gets you a spot on “The Edge” sky deck

For all this living and playing on thresholds, maybe I should visit one of New York City’s newest high-rise attractions.  One hundred floors above the sidewalk, The Edge is billed as “the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere”.  Jutting out from its host building, The Edge allows unparalleled views of the city below, because the surrounding walls are solid glass, as is a portion of the deck floor itself (yikes!) If Spider-Man is your thing, you can go even higher by scaling the outside of the remaining floors of the skyscraper.  I have to say, this sort of thing draws a “fine line” between entertainment and, well, insanity.

I won’t be going to The Edge… ever.  I’m not good with heights, so anything above a pedestrian Ferris Wheel just isn’t my cup of tea.  Nope, leave me behind, comfortably grounded, where crossing the Savannah River from one state to another is plenty adventurous.  That’s my definition of life on the edge.

Some content sourced from Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

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Author: Dave

Five hundred posts would suggest I have something to say… This blog was born from a desire to elevate the English language, highlighting eloquent words from days gone by. The stories I share are snippets of life itself, and each comes with a bonus: a dusted-off word I hope you’ll go on to use more often. Read “Deutschland-ish Improvements” to learn about my backyard European wish list. Try “Slush Fun” for the throwback years of the 7-Eleven convenience store. Or drink in "Iced Coffee" to discover the plight of the rural French cafe. On the lighter side, read "Late Night Racquet Sports" for my adventures with our latest moth invasion. As Walt Whitman said, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Here then, my verse. Welcome to Life In A Word.

25 thoughts on “Living On The Edge”

  1. I’m with you about NOT doing The Edge. Just looking at the photo of it gives me the heebie jeebies.

    I’ve never stopped to think about why I like football and you’ve explained it perfectly: “Football… is all about lines and edges.” YES, that’s why it appeals to me. I know in an instant where the game is and where it’s going, unlike basketball where they’re doing who knows what.

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    1. I never thought of football that way either, Ally. Besides the lines and edges it’s a game of calculations, where you’re always figuring out how far they’ve come and how far they have to go, with a ticking play clock to add to the suspense. For me at least, the math makes me more engaged in every play and therefore more satisfied as a (couch) spectator.

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  2. The Continental Divide forms part of the border that separates my Province (Alberta) from the Province of BC. It is a significant trip to go west and cross the Divide from our place because the mountains ranges are so extensive and majestic.
    We cross the Divide several times at least when we travel from Alberta to AZ, but it is a far more ho hum experience when you have grown up with the Canadian Rockies just an hour away!

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    1. News to me, Margy! The Divide as the border of a province trumps a river as the border of a state any day in my book. As does the Canadian Rockies versus the Colorado Rockies 🙂

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    1. Believe it or not, I’ve been to the top of the Strat and even onto the outdoor deck (though NEVER on the roller coaster, no thank you). My four brothers talked me into going up just so we could get a selfie… which we never got. I could feel the structure move a little when we were out on the deck, which it’s designed to do. It’s a memory I’d just as soon forget forever 😉

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  5. Great post! I’ve never been to SC or GA, so found the winding drive interesting in and out of the two states interesting. FOR SURE, I will not visit The Edge. Oh, I chuckled at the time zone reference. Leaving at 8, arriving at 8.

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    1. To further confuse the situation, Augusta is in Georgia and North Augusta (yes, a northern suburb of Augusta) is in South Carolina. I guess it’s like Kansas City, straddling Kansas and Missouri. Who comes up with these things? 🙂

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  6. Living on the edge wouldn’t be for me these days Dave – I often feel like the crazy world is spinning around too fast as it is. I’ve never been one to step to the edge of an area with no rails – call me chicken, but I could not be persuaded to try “The Edge” even though it is safe, with glass walls around, but the glass floor would definitely be a hard pass. I’m glad you showed us the photo so I can enjoy the view vicariously.

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    1. The Grand Canyon has a similar glass deck as The Edge, jutting out over nothing but the void of the canyon. As much as I trust its structural design I never intend to “enjoy” the experience.

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    1. Maybe you and Jon will be brave enough to do the City Climb as well, Lyssy ( https://www.edgenyc.com/en/cityclimb ), and then you can tell me all about it. As for Augusta, with all due respect, you’re going to want to see the Masters, yes, but not much else. As I’ve written before, it’s the crown jewel of golf resting quietly within a largely forgettable city.

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    1. I would’ve thought the same, but the Skywalk claims to be “a vertical drop directly below of 500-800 feet” whereas the Edge is somewhere above 1,000 feet. Either one, way too high for my comfort!

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  9. You’re a master at drawing out of a word or phrase the most interesting details, Dave. We currently live on the edge of the Eastern Time Zone, which allows the advantage of sunshine late into the evening in summer. Of course, in winter we lose that sunshine time on winter mornings. Must be hard on parents trying to get young kids out the door for school–in the dark!

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    1. I don’t miss those in-the-dark school mornings with our kids, Nancy. You really couldn’t tell whether it was morning or night as we’d leave the house. But come summer, the evenings always seemed bright and endless, as if we’d gained more hours in the day than a mere twenty-four. I’m told “daylight savings” may not be long for this world. As long as it’s here, I’m happy to spring forward and fall back.

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      1. I’m one of those who has difficulty adjusting to the time-change in spring and fall. I’d much rather stick with EST and be done with it! 😁 Here’s an idea: Let’s split the difference, giving a 1/2 hour to EST and taking away 1/2 hour of DST–and leaving it that way permanently. Of course, international business people and travelers might have difficult with a country that’s 1/2 an hour off!!

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  10. I hate living at the edge of a time zone. Not only are you never in synch with people on the other side, but neither standard or DST is all that satisfying.

    You need a Ford Edge now. 🙂

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