Augusta

I always like going to Augusta. It’s still a southern city, unlike Atlanta. When I moved to Atlanta back in 1985, Atlanta was still a southern city. No more. The old Atlanta Journal newspaper had the motto “We cover Dixie like the dew”. Dixie is a no no. That motto is ancient history. The Sunday features section used to be called Dixie Living. Now it’s just Living. Once again, Dixie is a no no. You don’t hear many southern accents in Atlanta anymore. Too many people have moved here from other parts of the country. It’s only a matter of time until the carving on Stone Mountain is sandblasted off by the American Taliban. If Stacey Abrams Tank had her way it would be.

Augusta is till southern. At the Atlanta VA I hear a lot of Southern accents. It’s music to my ears.

This week in Augusta is the Masters golf tournament. When I started making my yearly trip to Augusta I didn’t even know where Augusta National was. I stayed in hotels at the Washington Ave. exit, but I always took the River Parkway to get to the VA. Less traffic lights than taking Washington Avenue.

It’s hard to believe that Augusta National could exist where it does. From I-20 to the edge of the property it’s fast food restaurants and shopping centers. All of a sudden, on the right, there is a fence with shrubbery hiding the country club. The first few times I drove down Washington, I didn’t even notice it. There’s no sign. If I hadn’t read somewhere that Augusta National was off Washington Avenue I wouldn’t have known it was there. That stretch of Washington Avenue is trashy.

Since I stayed downtown this year, I had to take Washington Avenue to get to my hotel. On the left side of the road across from Augusta National you could tell sumpin’ was going on since they were preparing parking for lots of cars. Lots and lots of cars.

My nurse at the VA told me that this is a good time for Augusta because they really clean up the town and make it as pretty as they can for the Masters. I saw some of that last week with flowerpots full of flowers on the downtown streets.

I really like Augusta. I hope it stays southern and doesn’t get ruined like Atlanta.

8 comments on “Augusta

  1. GOC, The good people of the south underwent a political
    realignment after the middle 1960s. The fictional narrative by the
    left is that the racist Democrat politicians abandoned their party
    and joined the GOP. This whole “Southern strategy” line was
    pure history revision. If this strategy only resulted in the defection
    of one Democrat Senator and one Democrat Congressman, it failed.

    The Democrats lost the voters, not the politicians between the mid
    60s and the Reagan tsunami in 1980. It was the citizens of the South
    who were repulsed by the tear gas, billy clubs, attack dogs, and water
    cannons. Back in the 90s, I remember reading an article that said
    a black person was more likely to be harassed on a northern college
    than anywhere in the deep south.

    Here is my question: Is the difference between the real south and
    fake south that you describe a difference between political ideologies?
    The Democrat party and the left are now championing segregation
    along racial lines. I thought we ended that nonsense When Ike sent
    in the National Guard to integrate the schools.

    An easier way to put this is to ask if the “good” south is populated with
    traditional southern people vs the liberal big cities? It would make
    sense. The most racially divided cities in the north are big cities that
    have been Democrat for generations. I do not know the demography
    of Georgia, so if you could provide me with insight, I would appreciate
    your help.

  2. I spent a month or more in Augusta in 1956 when my Pop was attending the CID course at Ft. Gordon. In those days the city had an antebellum flavor, large old homes with colonnade front porches and magnolia trees everywhere. And red dirt, lots of red dirt. An old southern city with good food and good manners. As the son of two southerners it was my first exposure to the true south.

  3. Its the same in Florida. Liberal big city politics. Hospital health care is a joke since they are crowded with free riders. No southern accents except in some pockets of the panhandle. Even the gracious Tampa Cuban accent has been replaced by a harsher sounding Spanish accent, Mexican or Columbian maybe. Someone said Florida has been turned into the place they are trying to leave. I notice most the absence of public manners.

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