A - Margaret's Grocery
~ B - The Forevertron
A - MARGARET’S GROCERY
Along Highway 61, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, travelers can’t help but notice an old school bus that has been converted into a church. This church on wheels is but one feature of a roadside treasure called Margaret’s Grocery Store. Margaret Dennis, has lived all of her 90 years here in Mississippi. At the age of 7 she was working in the fields and for the last 60 years she has run her own grocery store. Margaret and her third husband, the Reverend H.D. Dennis, have transformed the grocery store and created a non-denominational oasis that preaches tolerance and love. “You know, it’s not our business about the colours and the different denominations… that’s God’s business. So I learned to love everybody. I love one just as exactly the other. I pray for ‘em and I thank God for everybody in this world. We all need each other.” says Margaret. People come from all around the world to experience Margaret’s Grocery and they seldom leave empty-handed.
B - THE FOREVERTRON
Dr. Evermor is not your average sculptor. Before he became Dr. Evermor, he was Tom Every – one of the most successful scrap dealers in the mid-west. His ‘studio’ is a massive plot of land where he creates experimental and unusual devices that are made from industrial scrap – tons of it. Says Tom, “I think if we look at civilizations, they usually do some kind of art. They can do their best and they leave that as a representative of their culture ….” There is nothing new about recycling junk to make art. But Dr. Evermor maintains the integrity of the original materials, with a method he calls ‘Timebinding’, an organic process that produces creatures that come to life with the twist of a bolt or the flash of a blowtorch. Clusters of metal phoenix birds are perched next to massive beetles and a variety of other bug-like sculptures. The bugs and birds are not just randomly placed – they surround a central construct called the ‘Forevertron’. It’s a fantastic Jules Verne-like device that will “launch Dr. Evermor into the heavens on a magnetic force beam” – once it is complete.
