During my senior year of high school, I had the opportunity
to study under Sir Robert Brill in his Advanced Grammar and Composition
class. Sir Robert was Northside’s version of Prof. Charles Kingsfield Jr.
(John Houseman), that hard-nosed law professor from TV’s “The Paper Chase.”
Brill’s class
was split between learning the nuances of transformational grammar the first
semester and seeking the perfect paragraph in the second. For Brill, the perfect paragraph was exactly forty-nine
words in length. Should a student use
any fewer words, he would be subjected to the wrath of the red pen and the
letter “F”. Should he over-shoot the
magical mark, he would be bludgeoned with “Wordy, Wordy, WORDY!!!” (65 words…WORDY WORDY WORDY!)
One of Sir
Robert’s assignments that second
semester was for us to map a room in our house using only words. After reading our forty-nine word
composition, he had to be able to understand exactly where each piece of
furniture or room feature was in relation to the other pieces. Failure on any point meant a failure on the
overall task. Needless to say, many “A”
students sweated each carefully chosen word in their compositions. Brill’s pen was demanding and nondiscriminatory.
I mention Sir
Robert as I reflect on my journey to Brosville, Virginia and the “Gravity Road”. Supposedly, a stopped car at the intersection
of Berry Hill and Oak Hill Roads will seemingly roll uphill when parked
unbraked in neutral at the junction.
Beth Wellford
of the website onlyinyourstate.com shared the supposed phenomenon on February 21. Wellford’s description, however, would not have satisfied
Sir Robert Brill. After reading it, I
had no clear idea of exactly where I was supposed to stop prior to observing
the anti-gravity effect. Should I stop
on Rt 311 (Berry Hill Rd) prior to turning right onto Oak Hill or should I stop
at the Oak Hill stop sign before turning left onto Berry Hill Rd? Unsure, I decided to approach the intersection
from the one-lane Oak Hill road. I
figured that it wouldn’t be especially safe to stop in the middle of a major
two-lane artery.
I approached
the stop sign carefully, fully stopped, and popped my truck into neutral. Within a second, my truck began rolling
slowly backwards away from Berry Hill Rd.
I approached the sign again and observed EXACTLY THE SAME RESULTS.
I asked myself
if my results were unexpected or unusual. To which I answered, “No.” My truck approached the stop sign along a straightaway,
progressing along a gradual incline. Predictably,
the truck began rolling backwards after the stop. Unfortunately, I have no scientific
instrument to prove the gentle backward declination, but the movement of the
truck in reverse met my optical prediction.
Watch It Here
So I sped away
from the intersection debating four possible conclusions. There is no “Gravity Hill Effect”. The “Gravity Hill Effect” should have been
measured while turning onto Oak Hill Road from Berry Hill Road, in opposition
to what I did. Wellford needs to take an
advanced composition course. The good people of Berry Hill and Brosville enjoy
snickering at people with cameras in trucks rolling backwards at the Oak Hill
Rd. stop sign.
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