Brief Impression Of The South

by Greta Olsson

To me, flying over Georgia and then driving along one of its freeways seemed like viewing a non-stop forest. Green everywhere. Gorgeous trees but limited vision even during a sunny day.

I went to Jekyll Island because of the book The Creature from Jekyll Island, and enjoyed staying two days in the Club House, which is now a hotel. The bathroom was impossibly small, with no shelves for cosmetics. I had to phone the desk for a card table, which was put up next to the bathroom door, causing me to run in and out for supplies even to brush my teeth.

We were allowed to enter some of the "cottages", really mansions, that once belonged to Rockerfeller and moneyed men of his ilk. The grounds were gorgeous, and the marshes had alligators, one of which I saw. We also toured Sea Island, the site of the latest political big wig conference. We watched much preparation for this important event.

The best was Savannah, which was put on the map by John Berendt's book, Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil. One could view Mercer House, ride in a hearse to visit the cemetery, and walk about the various, numerous squares. One square used to have the bench that Forest Gump sat upon in his movie, but I understand it is now in a Hollywood museum. The statue of the young girl balancing the two plates of good and evil, the picture of which appears on the paperback's cover, has had to be put behind glass in a museum in Savannah.

My senior group deader in Sequim, Washington put six of us into a Mayflower tour, and we were all happy with their work. I highly recommend this experience for readers and non-readers alike. The tightly woven baskets of sweet grass, some costing as much as $1000 in the Charleston market, and evidently the first thing to see in that city, may make you a collector too.



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