Savannah Fare Thee Well

I spent the better part of yesterday and last evening in Savannah. It really is a beautiful city ... well not the south side. That part of town is just a giant strip mall. Parts of Mid-town are pretty ugly too because Savannah knows how to do slums with the best of them! BUT ... the rest of the city and the surrounding islands are gorgeous. Downtown is a crazy collection of southern moss, European style and ornate architecture. Everybody moves slow because there's just so much to look at. "You people sure know how to do trees," my friend Cathy Dunham once quipped as I drove her through the city. She lives in Boston where trees are naked most of the time. Here, trees wear robes.They are regal. The day began with a trip to the Post Office for corporate mail and then a quick stop at Hunter, McClean,Exley & Dunn ... the city's largest law firm where I've spent WAY too much time having them manage nasty things. "You're still living the life!" the Receptionist exclaimed when I walked in wishing her "Good Morning". Wearing faded jeans, a blue tee shirt and my Bob Marley flip-flops ... complementing my now shoulder length hair, I look like an aging surfer Dude. Her comment makes me laugh ... yet it is my life and it is true ... I'm still living it. Afterwards I leave the convertible parked in their garage because parking is a bitch in Savannah! When General Oglethorpe invented the city and its Squares he failed to factor in cars. Strolling over to the Soho Cafe, I say hello to my Mom who is having lunch there and then head to my own meal around the corner at Sixpence. Making my way down Liberty Street, I pass a man in a suit and he comes to a dead stop. Flipping his head I can see him staring at me though I keep walking. He recognizes me but can't place me. Eventually he turns and crosses the street for the DeSoto Hotel. I laugh because he's wearing a suit on a hot Southern Day. "You know Mike," Mills B. Lane IV said as we sat in his courtyard sipping Champagne for lunch one hot afternoon, "you and I know how to dress. It's hot here. Clothes need air. We get that. It's amazing the number of people who don't." Last night, I was back for the Chamber of Commerce's Taste of Savannah party in Johnson Square. Food and drink flowed freely as we wandered the thick crowd. I was hugged a lot by people surprised that I'm still alive. "I'm not dead yet," I explained stealing the Monty Python line and saying it with a British accent. Of course you just work the crowd at those things, drink and never really get around to eating. I did get to see my friends Jenny Gentry, Jason Crosby, Joe Driggers and ... thank Carlton Hodges for saving my ass with the Internal Revenue Service. That part was good. As darkness fell we made our way to Outback for salad, Tuna and steak ... and processing of the night. It had been an interesting Tip-towing through the past. I've done Savannah ... and Savannah's done me. Like old lovers who meet at party it's ... familiarly awkward. Thinking these things, my bicycle rolls down Tybrissa Street towards the ocean. A blazing sun sprinkles diamonds on the water. Salt hangs in the air.A new day is being born. I roll to a stop atop a cross walk so I can say the morning prayer. "I'm not dead yet. But Thank God, I'm no longer what I was."