Night Watertower
Knoxville, TN 2009 | View large image
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This nighttime photograph of the water tower on the street where we grew up was my idea of a nostalgic Christmas present for my brother and sister. It was my motivation for taking the picture anyway, though I ended up giving them something a little less apocalyptic-looking for the actual holiday. I remember the excitement of all us neighborhood kids when it was installed. If memory serves, the installers even let us ride our bikes around in the curved panels before they assembled it. I would imagine, as was the intent, that the water pressure on our street improved, but I can’t say for sure. The water tower’s meaning for me was more personal. My best friend and I would roam our street in the summer pre-dawn hours looking for a good spot from which to watch the sunrise. We discovered that we could scramble up the side of the access door of the water tower and sit high atop the lintel. For a couple of ten-year-olds, this was heady stuff, and the water tower has always held a cherished place in my memory.