Brits'n'grits

First of all I need to acknowledge that the title today - the first that is nothing to do with songs - was suggested by Christian and I think probably sums up the fortnight quite well.

The story of me and grits has continued - last Sunday I went with Christian, Beth and Beth’s family for breakfast at a restaurant called Famous Amos in Jacksonville, Florida. They showed me there the proper way to eat grits, with plenty of melted butter stirred in plus liberal doses of salt and pepper. I really don’t like salt, don’t use it at all so passed that by but certainly smothered my grits with butter and pepper. So now I am able tell you how much better grits is when eaten properly.

But I can’t lie to you.

On Tuesday evening we went to dinner at Beth’s aunt’s house. There I managed to continue my run of meeting relatives I saw at Christian and Beth’s wedding last July but actually getting a chance to speak to them properly this time. I met a few last weekend in Jacksonville and on Tuesday night I had chance to catch up with Beth’s cousin, Kathy, her son, Austin who really loves railways, plus Bob and Sindy. Bob is Christian’s boss these days but the reality is when you see them together they are a comedy double act who just giggle and laugh their way through life.

Sindy was kind enough to give me two books as a present, the first a lovely photographic book about Atlanta which will always remind me of my trip. The second book was a cook book. How she knew I liked cooking I’ll never know. But it really was a thoughtful present. Especially as every recipe includes grits!

As this is being written on my last afternoon in the USA - for this trip at least - I am mindful to think back over the things I have seen and done during this trip. One incident not mentioned in this blog previously happened when we were at the gardens with all the sculptures near Murrells Inlet.

We walked into one of the sculpture buildings and were greeted with a “Hello!” by an elegant and elderly woman sat behind a desk. Christian and I walked around a bit and then our path led us back past this desk. The lady asked how we were, heard the accents in our answer so queried where we were from. Christian told her London in England but he now lived in Atlanta.

This dear old soul told us she used to live there but left when it became too fast and hectic for her and she and her family moved to South Carolina for a quieter, more tranquil life. I asked how long ago she left and she told, “Oh - let me think - it was - er - oh, heck - when was it? - er - I guess my son was in the fifth grade then.”

“Would it be tactless of me to ask how old your son is now?” I ventured.

“Oh - er - how old is he now? - er - he’s - er - let me think - yes - he’s seventy two.”

She looked barely seventy herself but it turned out she was ninety-two and, apart from having a fading memory - we’d allow her that, wouldn’t we? - she was as bright as a button. We walked around the room a few minutes longer then Christian said, “There’s something I have to say to that lady.” Off he went and simply said to her, “I have to tell you that you are a very attractive woman.” She was most certainly that. Reckons he made her day.

Wednesday was spent at the Barber Motorsport Park near Birmingham, Alabama. There they have a motorcycle museum. One of the things I’ve learned from this trip is that America certainly knows how to do museums. This particular one was stunning, really huge covering five floors and crammed with excellent examples of nearly every bike ever made. And that with another six hundred examples which they just don’t have room for so we can’t see. All very impressively laid out in a magnificent building.

For the second time during a museum visit Christian and I were shuffled quickly through one part because they had a tour party coming round and clearly the tour groups are worth more effort than two men strolling around on their own. Shame that but it wasn’t a problem. The only reason I tell you this fact is because of the group we had to move aside for at the motorcycle museum - a group of eighteen ladies, all immaculately dressed and beautifully coiffured hair, and sixty-five if they were a day. Not, dare I suggest, your typical bike fans.

The strongest impression I take back home with me from this visit, though, is undoubtedly the friendliness of everyone. Not just friends and family but also the countless times a total stranger has asked, “How ya doin?” as I’ve walked past, or just smiled and said, “Hi!” And one whiff of our accents has opened up all sorts of chats and big, friendly smiles. Christian’s big smile and his accent make everybody melt - you can see it happen. Yup. This sure is a friendly part of the world.

And, although America can be so very different to Europe I realised the reality is that with most things life here is much the same as ours really, it just needs to think in bigger distances, etc. Here it is really normal to drive forty miles just to visit a friend, a distance British people would think hard before going. The buildings are taller, the cities larger and grander, the distances between vast compared to ours but it seems people still live the same sort of lives. In England the big topic seems to be X-factor, in the USA American Idol. Every time Beth’s family were together that subject came up.

Tell you what, though. American toilet bowls baffled me! Why are most of them half-filled with water? It freaks me every time I see that - seems a waste of water and utterly pointless. And - as a man who is heading - no - racing headlong into old age and knowing that the time comes when body parts start sagging those bowls full of water hold promise of a cold, wet future!

I’ve also grown very fond of always being dressed in tee-shirts, short and flip-flops. That’s a great way to live. Hard to see what it could be that takes women so long to get ready to go out anywhere, though! I will definitely miss the shorts and flip-flops back in the UK apart from the three days a year we can comfortably wear them.

And your women too. I will miss them. I could not help but notice that there are some really gorgeous looking women here. With all the self control I could muster I managed to survive by using up every ounce of discipline I could and only fell deeply in love five times a day.

This blog went out to more people than I had ever envisaged. Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to look and I just hope that somehow they were maybe interesting and entertaining. This will be the end of this particular blog as the holiday ends in a few short hours.

I have been writing another blog which has been read by precisely nobody! It started as practice for this and was used occasionally to write thoughts and feelings about things going on in my life. I can’t say I put too much thought into what was being written believing it would never be read. But I have had some very encouraging and kind feedback about this blog relating tales of my visit to Christian and Beth so maybe - just maybe - I could be tempted to write the odd piece for that - and heaven knows some of the pieces I write can be odd!

If you are interested in that the blog is at www.kevinisawally.blogspot.com

Bye-bye America - it’s been so much fun discovering one small part of you.

Love and ((((HUG))))

Kevin