Okay, so I've been away a long time!

Nineteen days to be exact.

Was on the road ten of those days. Down to Newnan, Georgia teaching/leading All Game workshops. Want to know more about All Games? Here's a link to visit:
The All Game

Then two days on either end to recuperate. It was a six hundred mile drive one way! That leaves only five days of real absence. You be the judge. Have I been delinquent? Really?

Newnan - the old part of town - is a lovely place. The center of the town is an old fashioned court house square with a statue of a Confederate soldier gracing the front entrance. Just about all the buildings facing the court house date back to that era. The architecture can only be described as handsome both in shape, proportion and ornamentation. Mostly painted brick with embellishments. Two main streets run parallel to each other for about five blocks. Shops, banks, law offices, restaurants of various kinds - even a place called Cuisine of Peru, a coffee bar, a bookstore, a Carnegie library, a fitness and wellness center, a hiking store, an old movie house converted to a roaring nightclub, an ice cream parlor, beauty parlors and antique shops - lots of them. These are all old fashioned, individually owned businesses. They are not quite the upscale boutiques and snazzy places one finds in big cities. These businesses have the look and feel of another era, even those that are the derniere crie. The business owners seem to have partially drifted back in time a bit.

The town has a motto, which hints of history. A sign mounted atop the Carnegie building reads: "City of Homes." The signage apparatus looks like something out of the 1940's. I asked around about this motto. Here's the story.

When Sherman was burning as much of the South as he could put matches to, his path took him to Newnan. He was on his way to the big city of Savannah and got side tracked. Approaching Newnan, he ran into a bunch of Confederate soldiers - quite a few actually - who were also on their way to somewhere, traveling by railroad. Sherman chased after the train. And consequently, Newnan was spared. There are dozens and dozens of anti-bellum homes in Newnan, all very well kept up, their owners taking enormous pride in their role as history caretakers.

There is the smell of antiquity oozing out of the old streets. The sidewalks are easily over a hundred years old, the trees more ancient.

Sherman went on to Savannah promising to come back and finish off Newnan. But he never did. The city fathers of Savannah bribed him with a fancy home of his own. Smart, eh? Give Sherman a piece of the real estate. Pride of ownership makes a difference. It is said that he burned only a few blocks of the city. A token raising. And it is also said, the General from the North ultimately settled in his fine Savannah home when the conflict came to an end. Any history buffs out there know this for sure?

Scattered among all this old beauty are to be seen the uglies of early to mid 20th century industry. A huge plant just two blocks off the square. It probably dates back to the 1920's. The factory produces water tanks - the kind used by municipalities. They are made in sections and transported out of town by railroad, welded or riveted together at the site. The factory bulding is made mostly of small glass panes, some smashed [primitive air conditioning] and steel structure. Actually, the sprawling complex looks rather quaint.

Old gas stations, some fast food chicken places that predate the KFC's of the world.

I'll have more to say tomorrow.Time to hit the sack. See? I'm using the old expressions!

Ciao.