SHOOTING THE LOOP

by Skip Lowery

At a parking lot in Deland recently, a man pointed to my SaveTheLoop bumper sticker. “What’s ‘The Loop?’” he asked.

I didn’t have a simple answer. “It’s a scenic drive,” I said…“In Ormond.”

Now I wish I had had a pamphlet to give him. The pamphlet would explain what The Loop literally is, the geography it covers. Then it would outline the issues in the battle between developers and those who want to preserve The Loop’s quiet beauty.

I could also have given him Ormond magazine’s Fall (2003) issue, which featured two articles on The Loop. One, about local artists and their paintings of the scenery near High Bridge, inspired the photographs on these pages. My own interest in The Loop began in the early 50’s, when I was barely a teenager. This was before jogging and bicycle helmets, when the high ground across from Cobb’s Corner was covered with orange groves, when kids would search for Timucuan pottery shards in what later became Tomoka Park.