Do I know where the Piggly Wiggly is on Hooker Rd?
NO! I just moved here from NYC and have no clue or map where anything is in Greenville NC.
The photograph above was simply taken one day after a Biology class I was taking at Pitt Community College because simply it was a brand new building and so many people would ask me where it was when there were standing right in front of it, I decided to place it on Google Maps.
Many local people take it for granted that everyone knows the landmarks of their town, because they were born there or lived there for a very long time.
This is how I found being a local guide to be so exciting and thrilling. As a youth growing up in NYC I always found it thrilling to look at the photos of “Then and Now” which depicted local NYC places 50 years ago and then the current picture. I wanted to do that and contribute, but I didn’t work for a newspaper or let alone at 12 years old own a camera.
Fast forward from 1964 to 2006 and now I could actually fulfill my dream by contributing to Google maps. As an artist I composed my shots to be pleasing and informative to the eye capturing as much feeling and detail of the places as I could. Tons and tons of pictures in my estimation were placed on maps to places I had been to conduct business, drop my children off to school. Everyday mundane things that locals take for granted because they see it everyday but visitors may find truly interesting or quaint.
One day I got lost inside of a huge hospital while recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. The one building was built on more than an acre of land because there’s plenty of land in Greenville, NC so instead of building up, they build out. I thought to myself this is where Google Maps would have been a big help but mapping an interior of a hospital was out of my skill set.
So that was the main inspiration to set out as an artist an catalog all the places I go with my cellphone and the people I meet and just make the places and people I meet along the way on my journeys part of Google maps giving my honest opinion. For in reality, these people of these places have no idea who I am. One of Google’s top local guides and this affords me the anonymity to see and experience these places in the true light of what you may find when you come across or look for where to locate them.
Really helpful also is an artist tends to go often off of the beaten path so I love adding obscure places like Piggly Wiggly on Hooker Rd in Greenville, NC. The President of the United States may never visit there, but you might want to find a good place to find low cost fresh spare ribs for your barbecue.