I happened to ride through Commerce, Georgia today. It's a simple town, with a main street full of law firms and banks or credit agencies, antique shops and little shops for women, a couple of small restaurants -- including a pretty good pizza joint with pool tables and draft PBR -- and an active railroad track running right through the center of town. At one end of town is the Confederate memorial, kept up by the Daughters of the Confederacy and featuring an old-style Georgia flag.
At the other end of town is Veterans' Park, which is where the pool happens to be. The pool is open to the public for a small fee during the height of summer, Wednesday through Saturday from one to five.
If you go to the pool, though, leave your bad language behind. Signs proclaim in very tall letters that there will be absolutely no foul language at the pool, with violators ordered to leave at once.
The rule seems to have sparked little rebellion. Lifeguards refer to their elders as "Sir" or "Ma'am," as young Southerners are supposed to do. Teenagers at the pool are mannerly and obedient to it, though their tattoos suggest that they are otherwise embroiled in the culture that they see on television.
It's a nice little town. Too far from the mountains for me, but a pleasant enough place to pass through on a Saturday in the summertime.
3 comments:
You may have drifted into a temporal discontinuity, back to, say, 1956.
Sometimes a turn down an unknown road can do that.
Nah... While I can second Grim's observations of Commerce, I can also attest that Grim has described many of the small communities down he'ah in Jawja by proxy.
...drifted into a temporal discontinuity, back to, say, 1956.
and
...I can also attest that Grim has described many of the small communities down he'ah in Jawja....
Actually, he's described Dinkytown USA. It seems to be that the more sedate pace of life in small towns compared to city life extends to the pace of time flow, also. This isn't all bad.
Eric Hines
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