blogsavannah.com

I thought this would be a cool post for Thanksgiving Day. It was written by a loyal blogsavannah reader about her experience here in in SAV-town.

Living in Savannah
I’m a foreigner living in Savannah*. I have US citizenship, and I’ve always considered myself (at least in part) an American, but it is truly a foreign culture to me.

I’ve never lived anywhere else in the US, so I can really only form opinions based on my experiences here, but I still get the feeling Savannah prides itself on its differences, the things that make it different from any other American city. I guess I can’t speak much to that, but I can tell you the things I notice and appreciate about the SAV.

It’s big and small.
I live and work in the 31401, the area encompassing downtown and the surrounding residential area. This area has come to have a very small town feel for me; the business I work for has introduced me to so many people in Savannah (particularly from downtown businesses), that it is extremely common to run into someone I know just walking down the street - it’s a daily occurrence. This would be an extremely rare event in the city I was raised in (a major Australian city of about the same population as Atlanta).

You may sneer, and keep to your manufactured neighborhoods and condo associations, but my sense of belonging here has been very much accelerated by this feeling of community.

The “gated community” mentality is obviously popular here, but it’s not for me. You’re miles form anything entertaining or useful, all the houses (or townhomes or apartments) look the same, and you have to get permission to do anything to your own home, even painting it! My home may be old and riddled with termite scarring, but it belongs 100% to me - and I can walk to the supermarket.

Okay, I don’t, but I could.

Everyday people.
I have traveled across the US, & particularly the South, sampling culture in tiny bites. Savannahians mainly belong to the “helpful, welcoming & friendly” category one finds more often in the South, it seems, than elsewhere.

More than that, Savannah seems to be a town where you will get to know people from every conceivable level of society. In the past year or so, I have met: prominent business people, developers, innumerable real estate agents, community leaders, artists, politicians, musicians, magicians… people richer than God and people poorer than dirt and most levels inbetween, and the vast majority of them have been lovely.

I know the old guys that sit out front of the shop below my office on a first name basis; we greet each other every morning, and one of them is regarded as our unofficial doorman.

I’m on first-name terms with a lady who spends her days hurling abuse at passersby in the square down the street from my office. Unheard of where I grew up, a city where practically the first thing you learn is not to make eye contact with the less stable of your fellow citizens.

I’m not on first name terms with all my neighbors, but we acknowledge & greet each other happily, and some comment with delight on the (admittedly incredible) increasing size of my puppy. Which brings me to the next point…

It’s a dog town.
I love that Savannah is a dog town. Everybody loves dogs. Walking them, showing them off, discussing them. When my puppy was a tiny cute thing, complete strangers would actually stop us in the street and take her photo. Everybody and their cousin walks their dog through Forsyth Park on a Saturday. It’s good for both you and dog (especially in such a car-dependent society), and they have a great time meeting each other. I especially like the dogs’ drinking fountain!

You don’t know how lucky you are.
Savannahians love to complain about the meter maids. I think it’s hilarious, given that (a) your worst fine is about $25.00, which is about a third of the smallest fine where I’m from, and (b) they’re just doing their job. They literally cannot give you a parking ticket if you are following the rules. If you get a ticket because your meter expired, it might be bad luck, but it’s your responsibility to get back in time. If you get a ticket because you were parked in the wrong place, just being there for 5 minutes is no excuse when you’re not allowed to park there for any minutes!

Raindrops keep falling…
Even Savannah’s torrential rain can feel good.
It falls in big, fat, slow drops. There is rarely any wind to drive the rain in the unpleasant, stinging, umbrella-destroying way I am used to. You could have a perfectly dry day, and within two minutes the streets are flooded and it’s bucketing down. Even then, the rain often stops within twenty minutes - abruptly, as if at the flick of a switch. And then the sun comes out, the puddles burn away and all that rain becomes absorbed into the air. Some days you can look down the street and three blocks down the air becomes hazy - it’s not fog or mist really, it’s just the steam that we Savannahians call air.

It’s a college town.
In my experience, college towns seem to have a different feel to other towns - is it as simple as having a lot more people in the younger demographic injecting spirit & liveliness into the general atmosphere?
SCAD particularly adds a certain flavor - creativity and individuality are clearly valued here. Although on some days I may be found grumbling about the phenomenon I’ve named SCADitude, I’m glad it’s here.

It’s a thing of beauty.
As a professional in the graphic design industry I find it pleasing to live in a town where design is so important; from the fine arts of SCAD and the eye-catching fashions of its students to the beautiful old houses of the historic & Victorian districts, down to the squares, an integral part of the very structure of Savannah itself. I consider myself fortunate to eat lunch almost every day under a twisting, gnarled live oak draped with Spanish moss, and congratulate myself on moving to such a town.

*Yes, I work in the design industry, but no, I have never and will never go to SCAD! Do y’all really think there’s no other reason for anyone with a funny accent between the ages of 18 and 30 to be here?