My father got a job in Nashville a couple of months ago. Following the craziness that was the holidays and allowing him some time to get settled in, I decided to visit him this past weekend. It was my first time down south since middle school, so roughly 20 years, and my first time ever in the Volunteer State. While I think it'd be unfair to concretely label an area based on a 3-day visit, it was quite the surreal experience.
Given the fact I hadn't visited SEC country since I was approximately 15 years of age and worried more about what a crush thought of me than global warming, this past weekend's visit was the first trip I'd taken to the area since I fully entered adulthood. Due to that, my observations were more detailed and keen. Here are just some of the impressions I came away with once I returned home late Sunday night.
First off, while walking through the airport to greet my father, I kept having to look around me to check and make sure I was in the Nashville airport and not on the Las Vegas strip. There were more musical performers there than at a Lollapalooza Greatest Of concert. When my father asked what I wanted to do, I half thought about saying, "Wanna party here for a while?"
Secondly, country music is bigger in Nashville than Twitter is to the president. If you like that genre of music, you'll love the night life here. If you're not a fan, like me, however, you'll likely either want to bring ear plugs, drink lots of alcohol, pretend to take smoking breaks, or a combination of the three. Granted, most of the musicians my father and I saw incorporated some elements of rock music, but if a performer just finished Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," there was a 50/50 chance the next tune would come from Billy Ray Cyrus. To their credit, though, most of the musicians I witnessed were at least somewhat tolerable to anti-country folks like me.
On the positive side, it's true what they say about southern barbecue. You know that phrase "the meat's so tender, it falls off the bone," but it doesn't really? That phrase actually rings true here. In addition to the good food, the people seemed to be rather nice, possessing a certain southern charm. What is it about an elderly female waitress calling you "honey" in a southern accent that constitutes as charming? I don't know, but it does. There was also a diverse array of cuisines, alcoholic beverages (some of which I'd never heard before), and the drivers didn't come across as too road ragesque. For the most part, they appeared to be more courteous than in some other big cities I've driven through.
As for the negative, well, let's just say I'm simply amazed at how different things can be in central Ohio from an area approximately two states south. I can't tell you how many guns 'n' ammo shops and shooting ranges I passed by, not to mention churches. Maybe that's why church/religion is so big to many in the South - because they can't step out their front doors and walk more than 50 feet without seeing at least two of them. Churches are apparently the Starbucks of the South. Most of the workers I came into contact with, while appearing to be nice and know what they were doing, came across as being in absolutely no rush to actually get to what they were doing. While I never lost my cool with any of them, there were times I had to wonder if the world around me had suddenly decided to go in slow-motion. Lastly, it seemed like much of the area was still living in the '50s. Men were going to the bars after work to talk about cars and guns. Women were at home fixing dinner, cleaning, and taking care of the kids, while dressed in an outfit which came across as a hybrid of a Sunday church service and Little House on the Prairie. Things seemed kind of backwards on that front, from my vantage point anyway. Many came across as living in the past and seemed perfectly fine with it.
All in all, my trip to Tennessee was an interesting and educational one. While I stand by my earlier sentiment that one shouldn't judge an area based on a 3-day venture, one thing I did learn was I'm definitely not a southerner. I look forward to visiting again, but have trouble seeing myself ever living there.
Given the fact I hadn't visited SEC country since I was approximately 15 years of age and worried more about what a crush thought of me than global warming, this past weekend's visit was the first trip I'd taken to the area since I fully entered adulthood. Due to that, my observations were more detailed and keen. Here are just some of the impressions I came away with once I returned home late Sunday night.
First off, while walking through the airport to greet my father, I kept having to look around me to check and make sure I was in the Nashville airport and not on the Las Vegas strip. There were more musical performers there than at a Lollapalooza Greatest Of concert. When my father asked what I wanted to do, I half thought about saying, "Wanna party here for a while?"
Secondly, country music is bigger in Nashville than Twitter is to the president. If you like that genre of music, you'll love the night life here. If you're not a fan, like me, however, you'll likely either want to bring ear plugs, drink lots of alcohol, pretend to take smoking breaks, or a combination of the three. Granted, most of the musicians my father and I saw incorporated some elements of rock music, but if a performer just finished Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," there was a 50/50 chance the next tune would come from Billy Ray Cyrus. To their credit, though, most of the musicians I witnessed were at least somewhat tolerable to anti-country folks like me.
On the positive side, it's true what they say about southern barbecue. You know that phrase "the meat's so tender, it falls off the bone," but it doesn't really? That phrase actually rings true here. In addition to the good food, the people seemed to be rather nice, possessing a certain southern charm. What is it about an elderly female waitress calling you "honey" in a southern accent that constitutes as charming? I don't know, but it does. There was also a diverse array of cuisines, alcoholic beverages (some of which I'd never heard before), and the drivers didn't come across as too road ragesque. For the most part, they appeared to be more courteous than in some other big cities I've driven through.
As for the negative, well, let's just say I'm simply amazed at how different things can be in central Ohio from an area approximately two states south. I can't tell you how many guns 'n' ammo shops and shooting ranges I passed by, not to mention churches. Maybe that's why church/religion is so big to many in the South - because they can't step out their front doors and walk more than 50 feet without seeing at least two of them. Churches are apparently the Starbucks of the South. Most of the workers I came into contact with, while appearing to be nice and know what they were doing, came across as being in absolutely no rush to actually get to what they were doing. While I never lost my cool with any of them, there were times I had to wonder if the world around me had suddenly decided to go in slow-motion. Lastly, it seemed like much of the area was still living in the '50s. Men were going to the bars after work to talk about cars and guns. Women were at home fixing dinner, cleaning, and taking care of the kids, while dressed in an outfit which came across as a hybrid of a Sunday church service and Little House on the Prairie. Things seemed kind of backwards on that front, from my vantage point anyway. Many came across as living in the past and seemed perfectly fine with it.
All in all, my trip to Tennessee was an interesting and educational one. While I stand by my earlier sentiment that one shouldn't judge an area based on a 3-day venture, one thing I did learn was I'm definitely not a southerner. I look forward to visiting again, but have trouble seeing myself ever living there.
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