Prattville, AL

“I use the grotesque the way I do because people are deaf and dumb and need help to see and hear.” 
― Flannery O'Connor

If William C. Rice's Cross Garden doesn't show how fanatical some devout Catholics can be, I don't know what else will.  His frightening collection of crosses cling to the hills all the way around his property, bearing hand painted bible scriptures written all over. Whitewashed signs are everywhere explicitly warning that "You will DIE" and "HELL IS HOT HOT HOT". This Cross Garden has been labeled by many as a must see folk vision and testament to one man's faith. On one side of the raid is a chapel engulfed in graffiti, out back there is a hole in the hill that is "The tomb of Jesus", and hundreds of crosses fill the yard with warnings painted all around. This is the type of sight that you are not able to see in a big city, a place where one man made it his personal business to bring strangers to God. It took Rice almost 20 years to construct this Garden that portrays good and evil. A spiral bound "guest book" in his living room is testament to an eclectic array of visitors who arrive at the rural location from across the nation and around the world.  Some to photograph, others to simply gawk, and some perhaps to find salvation. Rice continued to share his message of faith up until his death. My favorite quote that I have read of his shows just how great a role religion played in his life. "I am not an educated man.  I only went through the eighth grade," Rice said, "but, I've got the best diploma in the world, from God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost."

After seeing all of those signs telling me that "HELL IS HOT HOT HOT", I knew that there was only one song that was appropriate for me to play as I made my way back onto County Road 86.