Tag: culture

Posted on

Conversation with Maxine Overheard in a Motel Lobby off I-16 in South Georgia

Background: We are traveling on weekends these days to see my father and help with some household tasks, so we are spending some time in hotels and motels on the road. Sometimes I just like to eavesdrop and take notes about how life happens for other people – which is what I did on Saturday morning as we sipped coffee in the lobby. There’s nothing quite like a little slice of cultural conversation, overheard, to get the mind racing about what life is like in other corners of the world.

“they finally found him in Statesboro in CCU

after he went into Metter and they transported

him to Statesboro then to Augusta who sent him

back and he was lost, nobody knew where

he was at but he was at a dadgum good hospital

in Augusta and either he checked hisself out

or somebody came and picked him up and

took him back to Statesboro…..

I cried all

night because I messed up my baby’s hair

and it looked like a lawnmower done ran

over it and all the kids teased him in school

but the vet showed me how to hold the

clippers and I did it just like that…..

I called Betty Joyce, Maxine, and you do not

understand sometimes I have to talk to her

and I told her I can’t deal with her actin like

a two year old like she done this morning….

now Barri in Laundry don’t want that job

so I better not hear her complainin one more

time cause it’s done been offered but she

says she don’t want lobby…

there’s three types of tacos up there and I

got off the phone with Ashley and asked Mama

if she wants to share a plate of three tacos

but Mama said them tacos won’t be very big

and she got hers with beef and I got mine with

pickles in those torTILLa shells, and we shared

them but she ate two and I ate one and she was

upset so Denise called and asked her if she wanted

to go sit over there at her house and I told her

regardless of her knee surgery she weren’t going

because her grandkids are coming and Denise has

Covid and she’s actin funny. All this crap I

got going on and my Mama’s gon’ talk to

me this way. Her husband left last night

and where’s he at now? Nobody knows.

I was still hungry so I told Ashley I wanted

some rice and beans because my tacos

showed up without pickles and onions

so she brought those out to the house

and added some pork and pineapple and

it was so good, Maxine. Mama got a piece

of pineapple in her taco and I thought she

was ‘gon flip her lid and she started

actin up again…..

And so a couple comes up to check in

off Cartwright and wants a room at 7:54 a.m.

and the clerk tells them if they stay around

here they have to live over 50 miles away

to check in and the man said it was

more comfortable though

{my mind

was racing at this point, there was

no sleep about to happen, and the

botch-haircutter went back to

weaving a web of life so intricate

and vernacularly cultural that I

had images of a web with the

word TERRIFIC over a

smiling Wilbur as I thought

of that rude goose and Templeton}…..

And I busted her out in front of

her husband at the ballpark

cause she’s been here but

not with him – she’s been here

and she looked at him and me

and when I hinted I’d seen her

recently she looked stupid and said

she ain’t seen me in probably

never.”

Posted on

June 3 – The Mother Road Planning – Day 3

Steinbeck coined the term “The Mother Road” in his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

Last summer, I’d spent weeks researching and planning a trip to Yellowstone National Park when we shifted gears at the last minute and cancelled the whole trip. I’d booked 3 hotels, purchased refundable airfare, and mapped out a route. I’d talked to friends who had made recommendations and offered all the best tips. We were all but packed.

But the rental car was the issue. The major airport into Yellowstone was closed for runway upgrades, so we’d purchased tickets to Bozeman, Montana and planned to drive down to the western entrance and work our way around the park. The only rental car I could find was one town over and cost $7 less than a week-long Alaskan cruise. The rental car alone, without gas or fees, without the airfare and the hotels and the food and the Uber ride – seven dollars less. So we backed out of the trip and opted for a trip that was within our budget.

Little did we know at that time that Yellowstone National Park would be shut down due to flooding and road washouts at the time we had planned to go. It turned out that despite our hopes and dreams to visit the park, the circumstances and costs didn’t seem feasible. As travelers, we have learned to follow our instincts and be flexible – and it often pays off in ways we’d have never dreamed. Where we missed driving through Yellowstone and seeing the bison, we stood on a hovercraft in Ketchikan watching bald eagles swoop down to catch fish.

This year, as we sat planning a trip to Glacier National Park in the local coffee shop with my husband’s brother and his wife, we discovered that one of the main attractions had no tickets available. We could not get tickets to Going to the Sun Road, and according to one friend, we should book a year in advance and make sure that we are able to do that if we make the trip to Glacier. We could not arrange to see one of the things we most wanted to see, so we returned to the destination drawing board.

That’s how we decided to travel part of Route 66 this summer. Driving The Mother Road, as John Steinbeck coined it, has been on my list of vacation hopes for years. It spans from Chicago, Illinois to the Santa Monica Pier in California and would take us a couple of weeks to enjoy from start to finish in full completion if we drove it all at once. We knew that time would prevent the entire trip this summer, but when we started talking about the possibility of driving half this summer and the other half later, we grew more and more excited about the adventure – knowing that we could make the trip at our own pace. And while rental cars are still expensive, we’d share the cost and the driving.

We’d decided on the basics – destination, budget, and main attractions, so we began mapping out our itinerary on the Roadtrippers app by entering our starting point and adding waypoints. We added an iconic motel – The Blue Swallow Inn in Arizona, and other motels – along with landmarks like The Gemini Giant and the Blue Whale of Catoosa, and also added a few restaurants recommended along the route.

This weekend and over the coming weeks, we’ll watch YouTube videos of the places we plan to visit all along Route 66, we may watch the movie CARS, and we’ll listen to the Route 66 Pandora station. I’ll probably revisit sections of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), in which he named Route 66 “The Mother Road.” We’ll begin to immerse ourselves in learning more about the places we will see on the way – a strategy to engage in deeper learning about our culture and cultivating an appreciation of its rich history.

These are some of the ways we enhance the enjoyment of our trip as we anticipate the adventure!

Here is one of the You Tube videos we’ll watch this weekend on one of the iconic landmarks on the route, explaining some of its historical significance:

Posted on

On Brownies and Goblins by Dr. W. Felix Haynes, Jr.

Today’s guest blogger is my father, Reverend Dr. Wilson Felix Haynes, Jr.

ON BROWNIES AND GOBLINS


I did not know anything about Brownies and Goblins until I ”stumbled” into a 1915 grade school textbook entitled The Brownies and the Goblins by N.M. Bantlay. To add enhancement to my early education, I did a quick read-scan of the well-illustrated volume, beautifully crafted. I came to understand their profile.

Brownies, or Hobgoblins, evolved in Scottish lore. They are fabled household spirits who are domestically inclined. They come out at night while households sleep and do beneficial tasks. These welcome visitors oversee needed chores, deplore slovenly work, prod the lazy, and are experts in hiding. Brownies are mostly male and appear in a characteristic form as little thick people. Scottish homes left cookies and cream to assuage their temperamental nature. Handle them with care!

The Brownies’ reputation for good work and a merry spirit made them good examples in children’s textbooks. They found their way into cartoons and advertising posters as “salesmen.” Brownies created a fortune in products, including Eastman’s Brownie camera. They go fishing, horseback riding, and travel the world. Brownies have had a hey-day in products. On posters they accompany soft drinks, cookies, coffee and soap. Any item that has a Brownie connection is a jewel.


The opening page grabs the reader of the children’s text:


Good morning to you, dear friends!
We think it very fine
To see your faces beaming
Like the merry, bright sunshine.

Your hearts are beds of roses,
That breathe their sweet perfume;
And brownie folk all love you
With a love as sweet as June.

I advocate for their return and am leaving a bowl of milk and cooking beside my fireplace. I need their prod, blessing, and spirit.

https://youtu.be/t-F0R0lNyD8
Check out Pinterest for some great ideas on building elf doors and fairy gardens in your own yard or in a public space that invites others to add to the creative magic!
Posted on

Experience: 2022 Christmas Camping Across 4 State Parks in 5 Days

“Slow travel rejects speed, emphasizes soaking in the local culture, and encourages us to savor the journey, not rush it.” –The Art of Slow Travel, by Bhavana Gesota

Most everyone we told of our Christmas travel plans tried to convince us to rethink our winter camping journey in subzero temperatures.  

"You might want to reconsider," they'd urged, each in their own way.  

"It's going to be dangerously cold.  How will you stay warm in a camper?" 

We'd recently downsized from a 30-foot 4-season Keystone Outback to a 21-foot non-insulated 2022 Little Guy Max Rough Rider.  We were looking forward to seeing what it was made of.....and, perhaps more importantly, what we were made of.  

We weren't wavering on our decision.  The plans were made, and we would set out with two full propane tanks, an indoor-safe propane heater, an indoor electric heater, a supply of firewood, and an electric blanket.  We'd monitored the weather and were keeping close tabs on the conditions of the roads.  

We weren't worried about the extreme temperatures, either. With three radiant-heater dogs (who sleep at our head, hips, and feet) and each other, we were looking forward to all the cozy snuggling and excuses to linger in bed with coffee and read or write or watch Netflix or listen to our favorite seventies bands until the sun came up and warmed the walking trails a half a degree or more. 

With any trip, things happen that we don't anticipate - - like when the bananas freeze and all turn dark brown and ooze goo, and the jar of olive oil freezes solid when we'd planned on searing steaks.  Or when the propane, which converts from a liquid to a gas in the pipelines, freezes and renders that first heating plan completely ineffective, taking us straight to our backup heat.  Those kinds of things.  A few minor setbacks mixed in with some more serious ones.  

So it is in life.  Determination, a plan, a road map, forecasts, obstacles, challenges, a burning desire to experience life ~ even in extreme elements.  It's all part of the journey.  

I'm so glad we stayed the course and savored the moments. It was worth it to experience "slow travel," without a novel-thick itinerary, to "camp our way across states," breaking down the drive into short segments.

Here are the “Slow Travel” savored moments from our week away over the holidays.

First Stop: Burdoc Farms, Crofton, Kentucky. Most memorable moment: goofing off in the snow in our pajamas, taking pictures of the White Christmas winter wonderland as one of our daughters clicked her heels in sunset snow.

Second Stop: Rock Island State Park, Tennessee. Most memorable moment: enjoying the peaceful sounds of the waterfall at the dam.

Third Stop: Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee. Most memorable moment: taking in the beauty and sounds of the frozen waterfalls and cascades.

Waterfall at Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee

Fourth Stop: Harrison Bay State Park, Tennessee. Most Memorable moment: sunrise on the bay.

Fifth Stop: Red Top Mountain State Park, Georgia. Most memorable moment: writing all day on a rainy New Year’s Eve Eve.

Sixth Stop: Lunch with my aunt and uncle at OK Cafe in Atlanta, Georgia. Most memorable moment: sipping coffee at the retro dinette table, celebrating their December birthdays.

Seventh Stop: Home for New Year’s Eve with one of our sons. Most memorable moment: eating collard greens, black eyed peas, and ribs as we watched the Peach Bowl.

Experiencing places + savoring the journey through slow travel = just the right pace!