Episode 3 of the Netflix TV series, House of Cards, revolves around something that you may have seen if you’ve ever driven from Charlotte to Atlanta on I-85. It’s a 150 feet tall water tower shaped like, and painted to look like, a peach. It holds one million gallons of water for the South Carolina town of Gaffney and is sometimes called “The Moon Over Gaffney” (Wikipedia). Located on Peachoid Road between exits 90 and 92 near the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway, the tower is more commonly called the “Peachoid.”
The Peachoid was built in 1981 by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company of steel and concrete. Artist Peter Freudenberg, who likes to work in supersize, was hired to give it its peachy shape.
In the TV series, actor Ken Spacey plays the scheming U.S. Representative Frank Underwood. Underwood, who, according to the script, lives in Gaffney, keeps a photo of the Peachoid in his office.
In Episode 3 of the series, the characters joke about the shape of the giant fruit, comparing its shape to a human derriere.
Fortunately, North Carolina peaches are more appetizing than a South Carolina water tower.
