Friday, December 9, 2011

McMansions

  What surprised me about Kennesaw, Georgia is that it really doesn’t look Southern.  I do see neighborhoods comprising of one-story brick houses with carports, but those with modern homes surpass them in number.   We call these homes “McMansions”.  They are built very quickly.  Perhaps too quickly that quality suffers.  Down here, they are pretty much cookie-cutter, standing close together.  Too close, I think.  Being the country girl that I am, I prefer to be surrounded by a bit of yard.  Kennesaw, though, is a city with a population of about 40,000.
   Southerners are very polite.  It is bad manners to outwardly insult the newcomers to Kennesaw.  However when I do converse with some of them, I sense a little sarcasm.  I don’t think they’re too happy that their home had changed so dramatically in the 90s.
   In rural New Hampshire, especially in towns where they don’t have public sewage and water systems, ordinances had been passed.  They have to be.  Even a McMansion has to stand on a sizeable piece of property that can support a leach field, septic tank, and well.  The towns also designate areas for businesses.  Stores cannot locate outside certain parameters.  The locals do what they can to prevent explosive growth.
   The government down here is county based.  Locals have less control.  They cannot attend a planning board meeting regarding giving a business permission to build.  If they don’t want a particular retail outlet, they have less power to fight and keep it out. 
   People who live here now are from all areas in this country.  We have folks from upstate New York, far west California, and the southern tip of Florida.  I can safely conclude that while Kennesaw may no longer be Southern in the true sense, it does represent mainstream America.  It has been a learning experience for me to see this American lifestyle.  I love being American, and the freedom that this country offers, but New England has a distinct culture that I miss.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Santa Parade

      There is something we New Englanders take for granted that folks don’t have down here. Today, the city of Kennesaw, Georgia held its annual Santa Parade. We saw in the lineup Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, clubs, bands, cheerleading squads, and beauty queens. Churches and businesses also came out of the woodwork. The parade was quite long. The participants had a festive spirit, but something was missing and that something was snow.
       On our way returning to our car, we laid our eyes upon a fenced in area. It was a pen with hard-packed snow inside. Where they imported the snow from I don’t know, but that really isn’t the point. Kids were playing in it, making snowballs and throwing them at one another. They were having fun. They had the Christmas spirit.
        I’m not saying it never snows here in Kennesaw. After living here for three Christmases it had snowed more than I had expected. Snow is beautiful, the kids love it, but adults have to tend to the serious side of it. Down here, the city doesn’t have the luxury of snow plows. It has a modest sander or two and that’s about it. Kids don’t mind the major inconvenience. They simply don’t have school.
         I’ll have to say that I miss home, and the first fall of the clean white stuff can boost everyone’s Christmas spirit. But soon it gets dirty. It doesn’t take long to grow tired of snow blowing paths and shoveling the porch steps. I especially don’t miss sanding and salting the walkways only for them to be soon covered again by ice. Kids, though, they don’t think of that, and I can say there is nothing that lifts my spirits more than when they are happy.