"Hey, I'm back!" he yelled to no one in
particular.
You know how it is when you go out of town.
Three days feels like 10 days, but the people back home have been living their
normal lives. Three days feels like one day for them. "What, you were gone?"
Hell yes I was gone. Gone to Georgia. GORDON Georgia. This probably is
indicative of an unhealthy attachment to my blog, but I missed you guys. I
miss my blog friends when I'm gone. And if I blog from the road, which I did, it
feels like I called you on the phone. Not the same as blogging from home.
Seriously, I know how twisted that is, and I'm
probably going to need some serious therapy and psychoanalysis someday, but can't
I just enjoy the feeling for now and get help later? Don't you kind of feel that
way about blogs? Like they're real? You know they're not real relationships, but they can feel so
real. You know?
As I've said, I think of you as roughly 50
people. A room full of friends who know your name.
So, the retreat. Um, I can't talk about it yet.
I went supposedly to help lead this retreat thing, only the ministers there were
so bright and cool and engaged and open and thoughtful. It was kind of
embarrassing to think of leading anything with these people. So, I just let the conversations happen
and tried to stay out of the way, while leading just enough so that no one would
say, "Why the hell did we fly this guy all the out here from Texas?"
It was a powerful and sad (the good kind of
sad) few days for me. I'm going to post a group picture if the person who took
it emails it to me. When the picture arrives, I'll look at these people whom I
came to love but may never see again. I'll look at them, and then
I'll be ready to talk about what happened to me there.
But for now, let's talk about Gordon, Georgia. I
took lots of pictures. Rural Georgia has the same feel as rural East Texas. We
in Texas consider East Texas to be its own place, almost its own state. It has a
more southern feel to it. So I felt rather at home in Gordon, but it was strange
to drive around town and see my name everywhere.
Gordon United Methodist was a classic small town
church.
I wanted you to see it.
Okay, let's talk food. There were
a couple of places in Gordon where I ate. The Huddle House, which I mentioned
before, and a little place called, The Chicken House. The "house" theme
seems popular for restaurants in Georgia. The food at The Chicken House was
country, very bad for you, and wonderful. What can I say? I like butter and
fried stuff. Whaddya gonna do?
I had a classic Chicken House
breakfast. Butter with some grits floating in it, and a biscuit with sausage
inside. I drank sweet tea for breakfast. Hey, when in Rome...
Yes, that much butter.
The grits didn't do much for me, but the
biscuit and tea were amazing.
I was charmed by the local Piggly
Wiggly. I haven't seen one of those in years. In my part of Texas, they've been
driven out of business by larger grocery chains. Inside the store were a variety
of foods I had not seen before. I must have looked like the ultimate city
slicker, walking around taking pictures of everything.
I thought the Bunny Bread was cute.
I don't think I want to know
what sulphured molasses is.
It doesn't look like chewing tobacco has changed
much in the last, I don't know, 50 years.
I found Georgia to be charming all
around. I mean, I was hanging out with very cool people and looking at
everything with eyes that only see the goodness. To be honest, I think almost
every new place is charming.
I had one last good southern meal
in the Atlanta airport. I've been in this airport quite a few times, so I knew
that Paschal's is not your average airport food. If you are ever flying out of
Atlanta, I highly recommend it. It's not The Chicken House, mind you, but it's
pretty good.
For the uninitiated, that's black eyed peas, green
beans, chopped steak, rice, PLENTY of gravy,
cornbread, and - of course - peach cobbler.
(see the bottom of the Styrofoam cup? Sweet tea!)
rlp
