Peepers

Some observations on being a Yankee in the South,

We drove through Kentucky, our first stop, Tennessee and North Carolina.  At every stop we were greeted with friendship and with more conversation than, city dwellers, we're used to.  One groundskeeper in Kentucky saw me taking photos of the Magnolia tree, put down his work and came over to talk about the tree, where we were from and anything else that came into his head.

In Tennessee we were visiting relatives, so I suppose my observation doesn't count, but I've visited there a lot, McMinnville Tennessee.  It has a reputation of being a backwater but it is also beautiful and very rural, cows in the pasture across the road.

North Carolina was a surprise.  Sylva and Dillsboro (sp?) were sophisticated and definitely upscale.  Listening to the news it becomes apparent that in order of importance, locally, the pecking order is Charleston SC, the tri-cities, South Carolina, the lowlands, then the highlands.  Sylva to Boone are the highlands.

On local TV the news is dominated by the high school football game recorded from the announcer booth at the 50 yard line and colorized with play-by-play from the local announcer with the kids' names.  This past evening the 2 hours of local news was high school football games in their entirety.

Our habit is to walk for exercise.  Strolling down the road, a farmer came over and we talked for quite a while about life and Boone.  He was a A&P store manager for 40 years and a goat farmer.  His children moved closer to him because he has been having heart trouble and his sons have picked up the slack on the farm.

This may be the peeper effect.  Peepers are travelers who come to the highlands for the Fall colors.  The other possibility is that gray hair is a club itself, a lot of peepers are gray haired, but I don't think so.

I believe that we're all beginning to realize that there is little difference between us.  If we're polite and cordial we'll have more in common.  I did not see the uncomfortableness of the races in the small, think maybe 2,000 people to Boone, a college town with 20,000 people.  Certainly there were more white people, 95%, but the interactions I saw with the African American adults were relaxed and respectful.  I observed mixed race couples both peepers and locals, being treated with the respect they deserve.

Seems to me that I have mistakenly generalized an attitude about Southerners.  It'll be fun to see what a month in Savannah is like.