Sights and Sites from Savannah

Originally Posted:

Wednesday, August 9, 2006

8:20:00 PM CDT

Hearing Yee gads, someone please flip the channel from Project Runway for me!

Updated 8/15/06

Most of the photos I have posted thus far have been scenes of the day from my short-term living situation in Savannah. This set of images is meant to give you a taste of the Savannah that I experience everyday. You just don't see historic Savannah; you experience it. It takes you in. Somewhere in the mix of heat, humidity, smell of horse doody (phew!), clip clop sounds of the horses, beauty of all the architectural details, kitsch of the people that live in the area, and intrigue of the stories, it's easy to get caught up in the charm of Historic Savannah. Like any other city, Savannah is divided up into distinctly different areas of town. The southside primarily offers Anytown USA shopping (Malls, Barnes and Noble, restaurants, grocery stores, Target...) while the northside (Historic District) has more unique shops and locally owned stores. The eastside is known as the "area toward the islands" and no one has ever mentioned the westside to me. I've probably been there and just did not realize it.

Overall, there is nothing about Savannah that makes want to call it home. Oh, sure, I have school friends, I'm getting to know my way around much better, and the city is big enough and has enough surrounding it that there's always something to do if you just look for it, but unlike some places I've been such as Seattle, San Francisco, Seaside/Sea Grove, I haven't got that "I could live here" feeling. I'm still unsure of which areas are "bad" and which ones are okay because, if you ask me, they all look a little bad. The downtown squares are nice during the day, but everyone knows to not walk through them at night because of the homeless people that hang out/sleep/mug you. Forsyth Park, the largest and most active of the parks/squares is known for it's crime. You're risking your own personal safety if you go walking around Forsyth after sun down. I'm not being paranoid, this is just a matter of fact that locals and Scaddies live by. I've heard it from both groups of people and therefore I'm pretty sure that the warnings are there for a reason and not just a scare tactic. My rule of thumb on determining the level of crime in a neighborhood is checking where the bars are on a house. No bars is good. Bars covering the door is low/medium risk and bars covering doors and windows means turn around and hit the gas. Car theft or breakins are always a possibility, no matter where you are. Student parking lots are targets for thieves. All that being said, so far I haven't had to run for my life or worried too much about being assaulted.

Here's the little bit I know about Savannah. Consider it your history lesson for the day.

Savannah, the oldest city in Georgia, was founded in the early 1700s by James Oglethorpe who planned the structure of roads on a grid system featuring twenty-four neighborhood squares for residents to hold meetings and provide green space. I like the squares because they do make each neighborhood have a sense of togetherness; however, back in the day of horse and buggy when there were not so many people trying to get places driving slowly around a square wasn't such a big deal. I don't mind driving around the squares except for all the tourist trolleys and horse drawn carriage tours that slow to 5 mph and totally stop traffic. Now that's a total pain in the butt.

Savannah is Girl Scout Mecca. Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts here in 1912 and there is always a large group of tweens in matching t-shirts, sometimes with their badge sashes and sometimes without, walking around the area.

Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin at Mulberry Grove in Savannah. Savannah used to be the largest producer of cotton and it quickly became the city's main commodity trade.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Locals refer to Midnight as "The Book") is required reading if you visit Savannah. The movie (1997- Clint Eastwood directed it and Kevin Spacey, John Cusak and an early Jude Law starred in it) does not stick to the book at all and is actually rather boring. In a nutshell, Midnight follows a writers experiences with the Savannah locals, their quirks, and the murder trial of someone the writer befriended (Jim Williams). Williams lived in Mercer House and one night shot his employee/lover Danny Hansford in what he claims was self-defense. William's was tried for the murder four times and finally was acquitted. Thetitle, Midnight, refers to the voodoo element of the story which revolves around events taking place in Bonaventure Cemetery. As written, the half hour before midnight is used to cast good charms and the half hour past midnight is used to cast evil charms.