Waycross, Georgia, USA
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Approximately 50 miles from the Florida border lies this small, rural city, which is an utterly forgettable and often boring piece of Americana. Waycross, a natural hub for everything from pioneer trails to railways, gets its name from its position as a crossroad to just about everywhere in the south. Ironically, it is itself quite in the middle of nowhere. However, it is not without some notable aspects.
For one, it is home to the "Rice Yard," the largest railroad switching and classification system in the United States. Here, trains can be serviced and maintained, and cars are connected in preparation to go out into one of the many directions they can go from this point. This facility is capable of processing over 1,800 Railroad cars per day.
Secondly, it is also the hometown of Burt Reynolds. Reynolds, known for his roles in such Box-Office flops as Rent-A-Cop, Cop-and-1/2, and Universal Soldier III, was born on February 11, 1936. Other shameful appearances include (but are not in any way limited to) the 1972 Ned Beatty bestiality film, "Deliverance" and posing nude in Cosmopolitan. Perhaps his most noted role was in the 1977 film, "Smokey and the Bandit," which involved a great deal of fast driving in a black Pontiac Trans-Am and went head-to-head with another revolutionary 1977 film, "Star Wars" (a movie that contained far fewer black Trans-Ams).
Every year, the Waycross city government holds a festival in honor of Walt Kelley's syndicated comic strip about the Okefenokee Swamp, Pogo. Pogofest is held annually to recognize the work of Walt Kelley, the creator of the political satire comic strip, Pogo. Pogo is, quite simply, a possum. His friends include (but are not in any way limited to) a turtle, an alligator, a skunk, and a dog; all representatives of Okefenokee Swamp natives. The Okefenokee Swamp, or "Land of the Trembling Earth," is a remarkably big swamp in the traditional swamp motif, including (but not limited to) hungry alligators, deadly snakes, bird-sized mosquitoes, swamp gas, and an abundance of various shades of the color green. People who accidentally wander into it will most likely not come out alive, meaning they won't come out at all.
While considerably boring and consistently uninteresting, Waycross is not without its strong points. Unfortunately, they have yet to be fully discovered. Once they are, perhaps this entry can be updated to reflect this.