Model T'ing*

Do any of you like Little Big Town's song, Motorboatin'?  I do.  It's got great lyrics.  If I was on American Bandstand I'd say, "It's got a great beat and you can dance to it."  I've really never boated much but I do have a new way to travel that's even better than Motorboatin'-- it's Model T'ing.

I love country music, great food, fires, knitting.  I love cats and dogs.  I love coffee.  I love listening to a creek.  I love black cars.  I love shrimp.  I love the day the dogwood trees open their blossoms.  I love the color pink.  I love books with twisted, turning plots.  I love Keats' poetry.  I love Christmas cookie baking.  I love a brand new magazine.  I love how a school smells the day before the school year starts. I love to dig in the dirt.  I love Toms.  I love the smell of freshly mown hay.   I love having a pedicure.

HOWEVER,

I found a new love this week.  Bill and I went on part of a Model T tour in Savannah.  It is the ultimate field trip and, as someone who expounds the benefits of experienctial learning and sits at the feet of John Dewey (and no, he didn't invent the Dewey decimal system for the Central Class of 2001), it was fantastic.  I love touring in a Model T car.

Bill and I drove to Savannah Wednesday evening after he got off work.  We checked into the hotel and found a gazillion Girl Scouts and some personable Model T enthusiasts waiting for us.  Mike and Nancy Weaver Roach (Bill's brother in law and  sister) own a green Model T built in 1911.  It is comfortable, fun, and brings the joy back in taking a ride.   Nevie Clark [a Savannah native who met a student exchange girl from Sweden when she came to live with their family (Nevie's dad saw her first and told his son that she was really something), got a degree in forestry from NCState, married his Swedish girl, moved to Sweden for 30 years, changed his career into men's clothing,  came back to Savannah, has one child still in Sweden and one in the US,  enjoys his beautiful grandchildren]  planned the tour.  This is just one example how you can get to know complete strangers as you visit during the tour rest stops/venues/dinners.  (No, lie.  Everyone loves their cars, and then you find out the rest by listening and answering their questions with questions of your own!)

The tour consisted of carefully planned driving trips around the Savannah area.  Model T's scoot along at a good clip-- fast enough to get you places, but slow enough to see what's going on.  Bright and early Thursday, we traveled to see a wildlife refuge, an air force museum where we had a great lunch and toured  JBC (a large machinery manufacturing company.)  That night the four of us went to the Pirate's House for dinner before the next scheduled activity.  Most of the group went to the Savannah Theater (you must go if you visit Savannah-- great songs from the 60's, 70's, and 80's) for a musical review.  The day was jam packed with activities, knowledge, and visiting.

Friday morning started with a jaunt to the Byrd Cookie Company.  YUM!  They handed out mugs of hot coffee and then they encouraged us to sample all of their cookies and candy.  Note:  If you want people to buy cookies give them a cup of coffee....really good coffee.  Yes, I did buy some of their merchandize!  We then motored to Wormsloe,  a former plantation with the longest continuous planting of live oak trees in the world-- 404 trees were planted to honor the owner's first son.  The young man that was guide was wonderful-- he made history come alive for all of us (he was an anthropology major and his favorite part of his job was shooting the musket for tourists.) The word for that day was midden.

Motoring again, the Crabbettes, a dandy all woman band, entertained us on the Isle of Hope.  Tubby's in Thunderbolt was the next destination-- fresh shrimp salad sandwiches and homemade banana pudding....if it sounds like I ate my way through Savannah....that's because I did. We then started driving to Bonaventure Cemetery.  This is the final resting place for who's who in Savannah.  Johnny Mercer's grave was so moving.  We spent the remainder of the day wandering Forsyth Park with our cappuccinos-- we met dogs, introduced ourselves to a couple getting married, learned how to make a Gullah Confederate Rose, watch some beautiful fountains, and see how skateboards can grind on a marble bench.

The Model T allowed me to observe mankind.  I like looking at porches-- I enjoy seeing how people arrange their furniture.  I like looking at yards-- I visualize my garden and see which plant looks great with which plant.  I like looking at trim, at paint, at fountains, at gates....I get ideas when I am a passenger.  A Model T is my perfect speed.  Slow enough to see, but not slow enough to be accused of being a peeping Tom.

I started the blog today with a Little Big Town song.  But, I'm going to end my thoughts on a song from Alabama that applies to me some days:

I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why

It's time for all of me to sit back and take stock of who I am...but even more important WHY I am. So WHY am I?  I'm know I'm going start to answer this question by being more of a Model T and less of a Motorboat.  

Thank you, Nancy and Mike, for introducing me to a whole, new, slower-paced world.