‘Georgia pine and ripple wine, memories of Savannah summertime,’ Gordon Lightfoot, ‘Spanish Moss.’
Random thoughts and cobbled together images following three very, very hot (like fever dream hot) days and nights in Savannah.
Hey, novelist Flannery O’Connor once taught a chicken to walk backwards in Savannah. How cool was that?
You really do have to watch your step in this historic town.
They are very big on Spanish moss in Savannah. Although it turns out that it’s not moss at all, but rather some bizarre, spaghetti-like cousin to the pineapple.
And no I am not making this up.
The other cool thing about Savannah is that it is an open container city. So you can walk and drink with impunity.
In Savanna’s historic cemetery are buried countless yellow fever victims. In fact, so many people died of it that they ultimately ended up burying and or burning the bodies all over the city.
Fun fact: Gen. Sherman burned most of the towns and cities he occupied during his march to the sea. But when he got to Savannah he decided to give it to Abe Lincoln as a birthday gift instead.
Or maybe he just ran out of matches.
It’s a colorful, if sometimes nonsensical, town.
Especially at night.
Savanna has a rather ghostly feel to it.
Which is why they have so many ghost-and-pub-crawl tours.
Savannah is a major port city. They are getting ready to bore a tunnel under the river and tear down the Talmadge bridge because ever larger container ships can barely manage to squeeze under it.
Which kind of reminds me of the title of an old Jerry Lewis movie: Don’t Raise The Bridge, Lower The River.
The coolest thing about Savannah is that its core was laid out hundreds of years ago in grid fashion around a series of green squares. As a consequence Savannah is a very walkable, bikable town because its short, narrow streets are effective traffic calmers.
SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) has its fingerprints all over town. And that’s a very good thing indeed.
And the town seems perpetually under reconstruction. Or rather restoration.
Savannah has a beach about 10 miles out of town. It’s very retro ‘50s without a high rise in sight.
They have a hell of a lot of rules though.
But a fatalistic sense of humor.
Listen, if you have to have fever dreams somewhere, I’d definitely recommend Savannah.
It’s filled with things you can’t unsee.
A traditional town that doesn’t always let tradition get in the way.
FreeGNV 