Charming vs Cheap
Early colonists left formidable footprints in New England’s small towns. The winding roads, the mix of Victorian, Tudor, and Cape houses all on one block. The streets lined with lanterns, the town squares with benches under big trees. And my favorite, the handmade wooden signs on mom-and-pop storefronts. The local cafe, with its owner and baker unlocking the doors every morning at 4, to start baking fresh muffins and bread. The hardware store, where the owner knows exactly how to help you. The bar where, dare I use the cliche, everybody knows your name. Store fronts are all different, but share an authenticity that can only come from repeated cylces of weather-wear and hand repair.
New England is charm, defined.
Moving to Georgia, I discovered a world where groceries don’t break the bank, home furnishings and kitchen wares can be scooped up within the barest of budgets, and filling my gas tank doesn’t mean draining my wallet.
There’s a price to pay for paying low prices.
There’s no personality. I’m missing the local Royal Pastry shop, where the owner knows I’ve been coming in for her giant M&M cookies since I was four years old. The Brewed Awakenings cafe, where the owner pours my cup himself, and he knows to put soymilk in it. The bar where I say nothing but “Hello!” and my preferred beverage is mixed, shaken, and placed on the bar, before I’ve even removed my coat. The bank tellers all know my name, and so I’m never ID’d. The pharmacy cashier frequents the same bar, and so we chat while she rings up my purchases. The dentist heard I lost my job, and he knocked $50 off my x-rays. That’s small town at its best.
Here in Atlanta, sure I can get cheap paper goods in bulk at Target, but the owner of the convenience store I used back in Boston was my neighbor. The big, national bank I use here (the only bank in reasonable distance from my home) must card me every time I come. They serve many people, covering a large area, and they have countless employees. Surely, no one could remember the face the 100th person today to make a deposit. As I drive to visit my new friends here, I pass one Target, Home Depot, or Waffle House after another. I cannot count the chain restaurants here. A stone’s throw in any direction will hit a Burger King, Arby’s, Taco Bell, etc. I’d never been in a Taco Bell before, and I’d never even seen an Arby’s. There’s no Walmart where I come from, and I like it that way. Here in the land of corporate take-overs, there’s a national chain for every product or service you might need. But no local charm. No knowledgeable handy-man working the plumbing aisle of the hardware store that bears his own family name. No one knows the ingredients in the goods sold at the bakery, because no one who works there makes them. Even the restaurants and bars that masquerade as independents, are actually part of a conglomerate that brands its locations as single units.
In tough economic times (rapidly becoming an overused phrase) saving money is great. Losing personality, charm, authenticity, and connections to our brave ancestors is not. Can we have the best of both worlds? Maybe 2010 will tell. In the meantime, I continue to question the word home. This is my new home, but home will always be New England. Next time I’m there, a stroll through the North End, a drive through scenic Lexington and Concord, a trek up to New Hampshire, and a visit to Royal Pastry for an M&M cookie, will reassure me that handmade and personal is always worth the price.
Snow in the Sun Belt
Winter weather has winged its way into Georgia, exposing in its wake a new side of my southern neighbors. Who knew that less than one inch of snow and a few days of sub-freezing temperatures could affect Atlantans in an apocalyptic way? School closings, road closings, 10 water main breaks on Thursdsay, people at the grocery store stocking up on bottled water. It’s nuts. I recall, without fondness, trudging through two or three feet of snow to get to school in Boston. No cancellation, no road closings, no bottled water hysteria. I’m too young to start sentences with “when I was growing up…”. Yet, the temptation to compare what’s a normal reaction to winter weather in my hometown of Beantown to what’s normal here in Transplanta (I’ve yet to meet an Atlanta resident who grew up in Georgia. Just like Florida is a magnet for recent retirees from New England, Atlanta seems to be a magnet for recent grads from the Midwest and Northeast.) is irresistable. In good weather, Georgia drivers tailgate with tenacity. I have, in fact, had my grocery list stolen from my back pocket by the driver behind me. Naturally, when the roads get icy, drivers here still cannot be persuaded to obey the old ‘three car-length’ rule. To get one’s permit in the Peachtree State, I’m guessing a keen sense of other drivers’ blindspots, and an innate desire to drive so closely that the driver in front of you cannot see your license plate in his rear-view mirror, is the golden ticket. As I took to the road yesterday evening, amid ice, sleet, and countless warnings from area media outlets to use caution, I couldn’t help but notice that drivers continued their careless, close-driving with conviction. This is undeniably a recipe for wrecks. What are people thinking? As the AJC reports, DeKalb county alone saw 120 car accidents in the first 11 hours of Friday. Conversely, a handful of accidents made wbztv.com and boston.com during a storm that dumped several inches of snow in Massachusetts. Why do drivers here, many of whom are from northern areas, most of whom have been exposed to snow and freezing at some point, have so little understanding of safe, smart driving? If anything, if one has not been exposed to snow or ice, wouldn’t that person be even more cautious?
Good thing winter is short here. I don’t know how much more ice irresponsibility I can take.
Little Green Lies
In response to news of hackers accessing documents and email from the Climatic Research Unit at theUniversity of East Anglia, England,
Will Al Gore’s Oscar be taken back?
In all seriousness, his points were disputed at the time, but naysayers could get no respect. Mainstream media folk couldn’t wrap their heads around Gore’s being wrong, nor could the champions of the environmental cause fathom their efforts might be in vain. Heaven forbid anyone suggest that Mother Nature or God or Allah or fate or destiny might be just a tad more powerful than we mere mortals. Our climate is changing all the time, as it did prior to the industrial revolution. Forget the global warm-up following the little ice age, forget that the 1940s through 1970s were a tremendous cooling, bound to end at some point, forget that this planet has had measurable high periods and low periods, times of great weather disturbance and times of climatic calm, forget history and details and truth. Those points are all too boring; they don’t sell well; they don’t incite better treatment of our planet.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve gone green with the best of them. In many ways, I already was. I walk everywhere I can, or take public transportation. I turn out lights, unplug appliances, open the fridge door just once to take everything out or put everything back. I light candles, keep the heat low, seal my windows, wear extra layers, and use half-sheet paper towels. Don’t get my family or former roommates started on my ruthless recycling. I’m on an energy star computer, which goes nicely with my energy star printer, tv, dvd player, and lamps. I reduce, reuse, recycle, and even call junk-mail producers to have them remove my name from their lists. (All those AmEx “preapproved” offers kill trees faster than kudzo.)
I’m not suggesting we stop finding alternatives to our habitually wasteful ways. I am suggesting the fear-mongers zip their traps. They’re unconfident that they can inspire care for our planet on the principle it’s a good idea – doing good hardly spreads like a cool, new pop tune. But to take the fear-instilling approach, based wholly on false and inflamed ‘data’ is to tell the population of the planet a huge, compost heap of green lies. Lying to get what you want, in this case Earth-friendly behavior, is usually a great way to make sure no one ever believes you again (if they listen to you again at all). Why not have some faith and conviction in the idea that gong green is great for our wallets and our planet? Why not try selling the lifestyle on its actual merit, and resist the urge to give the public more reason to distrust scientists and the government?
If this green-going-gang would put a recycled newspaper in it, they’d emit less carbon. Isn’t that what we’re all after anyway?
Self Reverence
Howard Fineman is dead-on with his Newsweek piece about President Obama’s painfully frequent television appearances.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/216210
I could not agree more with his parenthetical note of the President’s “self-reverential” tone. Mr Obama does so often have a rather cocky countenance. He appears not only pleased with himself, but downright impressed. His tone of voice is too frequently condescending for my taste. He seems to think that everyone else in the entire international political community is beneath him. He even addresses us, his employers, as though we are not smart enough to understand what he really wants to say. There is a huge difference between making complex information comprehensive for the masses, and sounding like you think the audience is simplistic. Whatever doesn’t go his way, he starts pointing fingers like a siblings who each cry, “but he started it!” The perpetual incomplete state of his health care plan is Congress’ fault; they aren’t doing his job. Everything related to foreign policy is Bush’s fault. Underemployment and inability to put food on the table are the fault of hard-working people who fail to ’share their wealth.’ Mr President, it’s time to be a leader. A leader holds himself accountable, takes on problems one at a time, sees them through to the end, hires people with clean and relevant records, and always knows where every penny is going. A leader talks little, works a lot, and makes an appearance after the accomplishment is complete. A leader would praise his team and thank his supporters. A leader does not praise himself for setting lofty goals. A leader does not take on all challenges at once, then blame everyone around him for his lack of success. No leader asks millions of voters to hire him to be different from the last leader, and then upon receiving the job, complain that job comes with problems from his predecessor. He asked us to give him the problems of our country, and he promised us he could fix them! Now he’s eight months in, and he’s still complaining that his job is hard. Insert Debbie Downer sound effects here.
With three years and change to go, let’s hope that Mr Obama is a learner, a listener and an adapter. He must change his style and his tune to get the job done.
