I'm going back someday*

There was so much beauty in South Carolina. There was the scenery that was beautiful – Spanish moss dripping from cypress trees. Then there were the things I find charming and wonderful, like the white sign that said: Boiled Peanuts. Fresh Peaches.

What impressed me as much as anything was how nice the people were. I’m from the south, and I’m used to counting on standing in the checkout longer than necessary while people visit. It’s not odd to see somebody stop and hold the door open for someone who’s name they don’t know when they leave the post office.

It was no different there. When we were on the lake, passengers on every boat we passed lifted their hands in greeting. Out and about in the neighborhood, people walking their dogs or jogging waved to one another.

The Monday morning before we began loading the car to return home, I went outside to take pictures of the magnolia tree in their front yard, of the fan light above their front door. I had on sloppy gym shorts and a green Piggy Wiggly t-shirt. It was seven a.m. and a man in a pressed white shirt and tie in a Land Rover passed by. He looked surprised and puzzled but he smiled and waved.

Something about this simple friendliness made me feel so welcome. It made me embrace the town, the neighborhood, the whole area even more. There was something genteel about these little kindnesses.

The good manners weren’t limited to people who drive Land Rovers. In a local restaurant for a quick bite, a scruffy-looking guy with tattoos down both arms was so polite to both Jeffrey and me.

The little acts of being nice I saw over and over made South Carolina that much prettier.


*What's happened to Linda Rondstadt? I haven't heard anything about her in ages.