Beyond the South End

By Ted Sylvester

 

This column, of March 29-30, 1986, was one of the columns written to Ted’s fictional Aunt Fanny about one of his trips to the South.

 

Good food, good people

 

Fanny Vance

Blotville Mountain

Blotville, Maine

 

Dear Aunt Fanny:

 

Have just returned from a second-in-a-decade sojourn to the south and thought I would bring you up-to-date on how we found things the second time around. Generally, gasoline was much cheaper than in Maine, motels higher than four years ago, and the food was still poorer than what we have in the north. The cheapest gas price we saw was 67.9 cents for regular at Jacksonville, Fla.

It was great to get away. To escape the hum-drum of cold weather, and the seemingly never-ending controversies and conflicts of activities in the city and state.

Also we had the opportunity to meet some really fine people, and learned some interesting facts about the south, especially our favorite place, Nashville, Tenn. If one can believe the tour guides, Nashville is certainly the rising star of the south. It continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Most people think of it as the place where country music stars hang out and make records. That’s true, but music is listed as only the third largest industry in the state. Number one is banking and finance, being only second in the United States to New York City; followed by publishing. The fourth largest industry was tourism. Religion is also big in Nashville. The city is called “the buckle of the Bible belt” with 750 churches located there.

Would you like a reservation? Lowest-priced rooms were $100 a night. They ranged to $750, and, if you desired the presidential suite, that was $1,000 a night. The guide said the hotel was always full, and reservations had to be made well in advance.

While on a guided tour of the nightlife in Nashville, we had an opportunity to meet new friends from New York State, Panama City, Panama, and Ontario, Canada. We dined together and attended two shows. Salmela Vilho, originally from Norway, and now of Ontario, was on holiday from his job at a nuclear power plant. He had experienced two tornados during his trip south. On one of them he had to literally drive sideways down the highway. His car also broke down in New Orleans. But he was taking it all in stride and having a good time. He said the people of the United States had been most kind to him.

At one restaurant in Atlanta, GA., Maine lobsters were carried on the menu. A “steamed lobster” cost $14.25. It was assumed they meant boiled. A stuffed Maine lobster was $15.25. A dish called “Lobster Louis” was listed for $7.50, and a combination lobster and shrimp Louis was $7.95. The waitress said this was a salad dish with tomatoes.

The only other references of Maine or New England seen on the trip was an advertisement for Yankee Magazine on a Nashville radio station, and a small news story with a Portland dateline that reported Robert Wagner was going to make a movie about the life of Samantha Smith.

The vacation was a great way to escape the realities of an everyday work life. But if one reviews the happenings in other parts of the country, the problems everywhere are similar. In Jacksonville, Fla., for instance, there were controversies surrounding both the school board and city council. Sound familiar?

In Jacksonville the school superintendent is elected by popular vote, and directors run as Republicans or Democrats. The Republican superintendent, a school teacher, had just completed her first year in office. The board was controlled by Democrats. The thrust of the story was that the superintendent was hoping that after a year of turmoil, the board could get back to the business of educating the children.

The council story was that a petition movement was under way to recall three city councilors. The allegations were that the councilors involved had been ordering city employees directly on what to do rather than working through the city manager as provided for in the city charter.

At Asheville, N.C., the superintendent of prisons was calling the 62-year-old prison, “The worst of 85 in the state and an embarrassment to North Carolina.” He was promoting an $86 million prison reform package that would build five new prisons in three years to house 3,292 inmates.

While Nashville appeared to be growing, all was not well with farmers. A speaker at the state university reported that 106 farms a week were going under. The major crops are tobacco, soybeans and corn. The fourth largest crop, according to our tour guide, was a plant called “mean green.” We know it as marijuana.

Overall, the trip was very successful, and fun. The only disappointments were a visit to South of the Border in South Carolina, the ultimate in tourist traps; and attempts to get a reservation on Nashville’s newest, and most-advertised attraction, the Gen. Jackson Showboat. Although there were advertised off-season trips, repeated attempts to telephone for reservations were unsuccessful. Nobody answered the phone.

For the most part, people were real friendly and helpful.

But they sure do talk funny.