MEDIUM WRITER’S CHALLENGE SEMI-FINALIST
Who Are You Calling Lazy?
What struck me about the room was precisely the thing that was supposed to — the stark white walls, white pine floors, white ceiling, white molding, white drapery, and mostly white furniture.
My wife and I, who were not yet married at that point, stood a few feet inside the entrance to the ballroom — a space featuring interior Corinthian columns, two fireplaces with hand-carved marble mantles, and, All. That. White.
White was quite literally everywhere, which, given the location, made perfect sense.
The room, a highlight of the tour at the Nottoway Plantation in (wait for it) White Castle, Louisiana, had been crafted to the specifications of its original owner, John Hampden Randolph, according to the docents, “to show off the natural beauty of his seven daughters.”
It was a sentiment I found amusing because white people up against white walls and white everything don’t actually look that great. I know this is true of the ballroom in particular because, as we looked around, there were only white people in there, and I could barely see any of them.
