Connecticut gal in the south

by imagewerks16wplogin / Saturday, 05 June 2010 / Published in bullfrog, city, Connecticut, contemplation, evening, frogs, North Carolina, quiet stillness, suburbs, thoughts

What a difference… I’m a Connecticut native & last evening I experienced the south (again). Our kids live in North Carolina, but are from Alabama. What is the difference? Is it the deep southern accent… the chicken ‘n dumplings, or their friend Bubba!

I’m used to the hussle & bustle & am a true “northerner”. The contrasts of the south vs north… or I should say city/suburbs vs suburb/rural is dramatic. I get teased that I move too fast & need to slow down, last night I got a taste of slowing down. I’ve experienced this before and each time I do, I smile.

Last evening was the most dramatic…. after celebrating our granddaughter’s high school graduation we went to dinner. There were people all around, cars, hustle & bustle… it was the center of town. When we left the restaurant & started walking to our car… there was nothing… silence… a stillness that I could only relate to that I had seen in a science fiction movie. I walked… no ran… into the middle of the street & started imagining being in a science fiction movie. You know that movie – the one where a comet had come screaming through the sky & contaminated the air & anyone that had been outside evaporated into dust… the only people that survived had fallen asleep in the movie theatre! All I exclaimed was… whoa… this is wild!

Silence vs noise… nature vs city, what do I prefer… I’m not sure. I grew up in the suburbs in close proxcimity to a large city. That bustle & noise still hums in my ears, but the silence I experienced last evening had a “safe energy” to it that I rarely experience. I miss that “safeness”… the quiet times where I could walk alone & not hear a car driving down the street. Coming back to our kids home, I walked our dogs & experienced that quiet again. The stillness hung in the air & all I heard were the echoing voices of the bullfrogs sitting on the edges of the pond. Sweet – huh?

… I think I’ll continue my thoughts on the south & what I experience today ….. let me know what you remember or experience? For now – I think I’ll congratulate my granddaughter on her graduation from high school…. she just needs to remember the top 10 list that her teacher spoke of this evening at commencement… (hmmm – so do I)…

country seating in Milton, NC