Georgia in the Rear View Mirror

Dear Friends,

It is April 3rd and we are happy to be on the road again, after two and
a half months in Georgia. Leaving the state we drove through mile after
mile of yellow pine forests, at all stages of growth. It’s a 20-year
product. They plant them in rows, close together, and cut them when the
tree is about 20” in diameter. A straight tree goes to boards and a
crooked one to chips for paper or particleboard. It looks like a lot of
folks plant a couple of acres of pine trees these days, instead of
cotton. It is low maintenance and the way they talk, it will put a kid
through college.

Some final Georgia observations:

Posts and poles are big here. They call them pillars, but we know what
they are. They say the purple martins are coming. We see many 12-gourd
structures, all painted white. The shrimp is wonderful, fresh, white
shrimp from the Atlantic. Also have to say, these folks can really cook
chicken. Dipped in buttermilk and breaded with lots of paprika and
pepper. Broasted, we think. Not greasy.

Some of the stuff we see in the meat case at the market are truly
frightening. Stuff like, chicken feet, yellow skin and nails, arghhh!
And virtually every part of a pig. Liver pudding is a nasty gray roll
of something. Even some of the locals didn’t know what dressed croaker
was – some kind of fish. And, of course, catfish everywhere.

There are no bums in these small Georgia towns. No book stores, either.
One hundred churches in Douglas, pop 10,000, most of them Baptist. The
two Mormon missionaries might just as well be in China. The little town
of Lax boasts the Lax Holiness Baptist Church.

We’re working on a Georgia vocabulary, like “jevver” (jevver see such a
thang?) and “own” (git own if yer fixin t’ rad.).

We are a little sorry to leave Georgia before Easter. We’ll miss the
live crucifixion scene in Homersville. Today we spotted two churches,
right next to each other. Turned out the one with the bigger reader
board was a truck sales lot (JESUS IS LORDÂ No down, Easy terms). We
had no idea what the term Bible Belt really meant. The reference to
religion permeates everything. Many businesses have open bibles on the
counter (right next to the parts catalogue at Carquest). I was blown
off most often with “Have a blessed day!” The local radio station
reported the sheriff’s indictment for malfeasance in between about 14
revival dates and times and the parent-teacher conference schedule.
Yet, no one asked me if I have been saved. I can’t really chalk that up
to tolerance though, because I’m pretty sure they just don’t care if
yankees are saved or not. Even when we tell people where we’re from,
most of them don’t get it. They just bless us real good and go on with
their fairly certain lives.

We’re in Tallahassee, ready to take a few weeks off. It’s in the
mid-eighties, down to 60 at night. In the space of four hours we have
moved from bib overalls and baseball caps to half-glasses and gold
chains.

(Before I forget, if anyone is interested in peanuts and/or cotton, let
us know. We did finally learn about these crops, even though it’s the
wrong season to see them. It’s an interesting history.)

We plan to wander down this gulf coast of Florida and stay in Sarasota
for a week. This country holds a fascination for me since I read Peter
Mathiesen’s “Killing Mr. Watson” books.

Love to all. We wish you warm.

Sam