Some people look at me like I’m nuts when I tell them I’m retiring, selling the house, and moving to north Georgia. “Why north Georgia, what’s there?” they ask. There are a lot of reasons, some thoughtful and considered, and some whimsical and subjective. Here are a few of them.
First of all, it is rural as opposed to urban. If the fundamental object of this move and lifestyle change is to get away from the bustle of urban life, then I need to move away from an urban area to the country. Duh! Fannin County certainly qualifies. Pinellas County packs 608,000 people into 917 square miles. Fannin County has 23,700 people in 391 square miles. So I’m going from 670 persons per square mile to 61 per square mile. Approximately 70 percent of Fannin County is national forest. Approximately 70 percent of Pinellas County is concrete, pavement, and mostly motionless old folks.
Fannin County is far enough north to have a change of seasons, cool evenings for most of the summer (by Florida standards), and an occasional snowfall in the winter. By the same token, it has a long growing season from mid-March to at least mid-October, gets warm enough during the summer to grow heat loving vegetables, and averages over 60 inches of rain annually. Hopefully that means I can grow just about anything I want except tropical fruits and vegetables.
There are several large lakes nearby, so I can continue fishing. I’ve have not done much freshwater fishing, and I’m sure it will not be as great as fishing on the Gulf Coast, but it will be fishing nonetheless. I’m just going to have to get used to catching fish that are the size of the ones we use for bait here in Florida.
Those are the main pragmatic reasons for selecting north Georgia as my retirement destination. Here are some whimsical and subjective ones.
People who live on your road still wave when they drive by.
In the summer, fireflies rise out of the fields as dusk descends.
Pickup trucks outnumber Prii by 100 to 1. (Believe it or not, Prii is the plural of Prius. Look it up.)
In McCaysville, just up the road from Mineral Bluff, there is a store called “McCaysville Drug and Gun”. You can get your prescription for Lithium filled and pick up a couple of boxes of 9mm ammunition at the same time. Is America great or what?
You never see kids walking around with their pants halfway down their ass.
On a moonless night, the Milky Way stands out like a luminescent paint spatter spread across the sky.
You can walk into the supermarket wearing overalls, and no one notices.
In the spring the flowering dogwoods stand out like explosions of white petals along the fence line.
Blue Ridge still has an outdoor movie theater call the “Swan Drive-In.” It is cash only, no credit or debit cards accepted. In the event of rain, the movies will still show. It has a full concession stand, complete with funnel cakes and deep fried Oreos. If that’s not country, nothing is.
You have to listen carefully to hear the noise of a vehicle, day or night. You can tell someone is coming to see you because you can hear the noise of their tires on the gravel road five minutes before they arrive.
In Mineral Bluff, the Shriners and the Masons hold their meetings over the Post Office.
You won’t find people looking like the living dead standing at intersections with crudely lettered signs.
The water from the tap comes out cold and tastes clean.
On the Fourth of July, you can see the fireworks from three or four small cities from our porch.
There is a stream named Hot House Creek just down the road from my place. Next to it is the Hot House Baptist Church. Odd name for a Baptist church.
On an early summer morning the air is so clean and sweet that it almost makes you heady.
A traffic jam is when you get behind a slow moving tractor pulling a trailer piled high with hay bales.
People who live on your road still wave when they drive by.
In the summer, fireflies rise out of the fields as dusk descends.
Pickup trucks outnumber Prii by 100 to 1. (Believe it or not, Prii is the plural of Prius. Look it up.)
In McCaysville, just up the road from Mineral Bluff, there is a store called “McCaysville Drug and Gun”. You can get your prescription for Lithium filled and pick up a couple of boxes of 9mm ammunition at the same time. Is America great or what?
You never see kids walking around with their pants halfway down their ass.
On a moonless night, the Milky Way stands out like a luminescent paint spatter spread across the sky.
You can walk into the supermarket wearing overalls, and no one notices.
In the spring the flowering dogwoods stand out like explosions of white petals along the fence line.
Blue Ridge still has an outdoor movie theater call the “Swan Drive-In.” It is cash only, no credit or debit cards accepted. In the event of rain, the movies will still show. It has a full concession stand, complete with funnel cakes and deep fried Oreos. If that’s not country, nothing is.
You have to listen carefully to hear the noise of a vehicle, day or night. You can tell someone is coming to see you because you can hear the noise of their tires on the gravel road five minutes before they arrive.
In Mineral Bluff, the Shriners and the Masons hold their meetings over the Post Office.
You won’t find people looking like the living dead standing at intersections with crudely lettered signs.
The water from the tap comes out cold and tastes clean.
On the Fourth of July, you can see the fireworks from three or four small cities from our porch.
There is a stream named Hot House Creek just down the road from my place. Next to it is the Hot House Baptist Church. Odd name for a Baptist church.
On an early summer morning the air is so clean and sweet that it almost makes you heady.
A traffic jam is when you get behind a slow moving tractor pulling a trailer piled high with hay bales.
In the coming months I’m sure I’ll come up with other reasons why I like the country over crowded suburbia, and I’ll try to be honest when I discover reasons not to like the country.
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