Transported in Time

Today I went into the Appalachian foothills to discuss the region's tornado recovery efforts. As I walked along main street, peeking into small storefronts, admiring the barber's striped pole, reviewing the diner's menu posted on the window or spying an old auto parked on the lawn of the courthouse, I felt as if I had time traveled back 50 years. And the feeling was not so much nostalgic as comforting-that not all is destroyed or lost over time-that there are still places, people and things that hold past and the present together.