Charming vs Cheap

• Posted on January 8, 2010 at 11:50 pm

   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.

• Comment on Charming vs Cheap
• Filed under
  • Entertainment,
  • Mentality