The first time I watched Fried Green Tomatoes, yes I've seen it more than once, it was the scenery that struck me the most. The outside shots, at least, were filmed in my old stomping grounds. There is one location in the film, a river that is flattened out and spills over a dam, causeway? Not sure what its purpose is, but it is an odd sight, then and now. I remember the place vividly from my childhood. When you walk across, one side to the other, the entire river spilling evenly over the top, you get the sense that you are alternately walking on water or falling sideways along with the water onto the rocks below. Heaven and hell. Death and salvation.

Recently, I started watching another show filmed in Georgia. Lo and behold, another body of water from my past, perhaps an even more obscure one at that. The stream has, or at least had, a unique ecosystem. It flows primarily through gorges cut into stone so it was not as friendly to the mud loving varieties of fish swimming around the Peach State. Usually, when you have a body of water in Georgia, it fills with all sorts of fish, cannot keep them out. This stream with its smooth pockets of clear water was home to only one kind of fish - a lanky, strong perch I've never seen anywhere else.

In the movies, both places looked exactly as I remember them, every detail. Heaven and hell. Death and salvation.