I Got Georgia on My Mind

One summer I visited my Grandpa Todd in Tennessee. While I was there, we took a drive down to Savannah, GA to visit some of his wife Elizabeth's family. The drive down was eventful in ways I'd rather not remember, and choose not to recount.

Luckily I remember being in Savannah with fondness. I remember seeing the moss hanging from trees everywhere. I remember being shy and a bit embarrassed by these (what seemed to me at the time) overly physically affectionate distant relatives I'd never heard of, let alone met before.

We went to the beach - Tybee Island Beach. That was by far the highlight of the trip. It was a beautiful day. And I remember thinking it was absolutely incredible that I had been from coast to coast in a matter of days (my family went to the beach in California right before I flew to Tennessee). To go from having never seen the ocean, to seeing and playing in both coasts was certainly memorable.

I remember getting my feet wet, and letting the waves bury my feet in the sand as I simply stood in one place. It made me feel safe, like I couldn't be pulled out to sea.

More than anything I wanted to find a beautiful seashell to take home. The search was the fun part. Finding what looked perfect, pulling it out of the sand, and realizing it was missing the other half - that was less fun.

But, a stranger made my day. While looking for perfect seashell he found many perfect sand dollars. And he gave several to me. I had never seen anything so beautiful. I was in awe, and so grateful. I still have them, nearly 20 years later.

As a family we visited my Grandpa Todd another summer a few years later and again made the drive down to Georgia. This time was certainly bittersweet. We were planning on going down anyway, but the timing got changed because Elizabeth's relative was killed at work.

Us children were still pretty young then, so we didn't know much about the situation, intentionally (thanks parents!). What we did know was that mom lived in Georgia as a child. We drove by her old school, which she was very excited to see, and show to us. And we stayed at her childhood friend Chrissy's house. It was so cool. They had a golf cart (that they let us drive!) and a pond that had turtles (and we imagined much more - think alligators!) and acres of land that we could explore. Plus my dad and I played a game of Skip-bo that ended up lasting for HOURS.

It's funny the things that stay with you :)