What do the following things have in common?
high school football, country music, dirt roads, bon fires, comfy jeans, 4-wheel drive trucks
If you guessed that they’re all part of most country music videos, you’re not totally wrong... but I was looking for something like, “well, that’s where Stephanie Gobler comes from!”
A lot of my friends these days have only heard stories, but after a week and a half back home I’m coming out of the country closet. In recent years, I stopped using the word “y’all” and have worked hard to lose my accent. I didn’t want to be country, so every time I went back home to visit, I’d try very hard to not slip into my old southern ways. I ordered vegetarian meals and expensive beer instead of fried fish and bud light. I listened to my indie music instead of down home country music. I made sure to always say “you guys” every time I spoke of a group of people. This go round, something changed. I don’t think it really hit me until halfway through my trip. I drove to Fernandina Beach, FL (2 hrs from home) and listened to country music the whole way. I spent the day at the beach, listened to some more country music, drank a beer and ate some yummy fried fish while I watched the summer rain over the beach.
Somewhere along the drive out of Fernandina, I remembered who I used to be (in the good ways). I rolled the windows down (in the rain), turned up the country tunes, and belted out the lyrics to every song I knew. I ended up on a 10-mile stretch of a FL state highway that is somehow a dirt road with no intersecting roads at all. Normally, this would irritate me, but even with the rain still sprinkling down (and the sun still shining through), my windows were down, music up, and at 20mph, I drove that dirt road with SO much joy! It’s sad when someone begins to miss driving down badly maintained, lonely dirt roads for 10 miles. When I finally got to the paved road, it was so flat I could see for miles... so I did what I always did years ago, I put the pedal down and dared myself to hit 100mph (I chickened out at 99mp, as always and hit the brakes quickly).
The rest of the week, I spent time w/ friends in Valdosta before welcoming my Atlanta friends to town. Let’s just say, that’s all it took for me to revive my country self. By Sunday night, there had been nothing but sunshine, crazy times in the pool with friends (new and old), beer, country music, Jack Daniels, a cowboy hat (mine), hanging in the hot tub, mosquito bites, a trip over an hour into FL by two guys who were set on gettin’ us more beer and some fireworks, fireworks shooting off in all the wrong places, a passed out trooper (off duty, of course)... It only made sense that Monday would start with a little bit of fishing off the dock.
It may have been a foreign experience for some of my Atlanta friends, but for me, there’s not a whole lot better in this world than livin’ it up country-style sometimes! As has happened before, after being down home for over a week, I have had a hard time not missing it. I live in an urban neighborhood... I can’t see the stars, there’s no lake out back, no bonfires or fields or dirt roads... It’s hard to live a country song life in the city, but it’s not impossible. I love my ‘hood and my community here, but I definitely didn’t expect to have to re-adjust to my current life after only 10 days of living my old life.
Songs that have inspired me this past week or so (you should look 'em up):
"Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown Band
"My Kinda Party" by Jason Aldean
"Take a Back Road" by Rodney Atkins
"Heart Like Mine" by Miranda Lambert (many of her other songs too)
"Barefoot Blue Jean Night" by Jake Owen
"Boondocks" by Little Big Town
... there are many more, but I'll stop there :)
Later y'all!
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