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Category Archives: Signs of The South

Georgia Praline

14-Jul-06
Georgia Praline

Coincidentally, while I’ve been sketching Savannah architecture of late, my wife had to travel there yesterday on business.

She brought me a present. Guess what it was.

She’s a doll! So thoughtful and kind. She brought me a pound…did I say a POUND?…of pecan pralines from River Street Sweets in Savannah.

River Street Sweets is a neat story actually. A great example of how small events can turn into big endeavors.

A family owned business, Pam, and her children, Tim and Jennifer, run the establishment. Pam and her mom, Georgia, opened it in 1973 on River Street in historic Savannah. At first, it was a quality gift shop called “The Cotton Bale”. They were focused on fine, unique, high quality gifts and a high level of service for their customers.

Pam and her children traveled to Atlanta for the Gift Show in 1978 where young Tim became fascinated with a large fudge pot. He convinced Pam to buy the machine. Little did she know what that would lead to.

St. Patrick’s Day was the following week. Savannah has been known in Georgia for decades as the place to be on St. Patty’s Day. Pam and Jennifer made the first batch of fudge, Chocalate Mint.

It was a hit. They were on to something. After weeks of testing and tasting additional recipes, Georgia and Pam created their “World Famous Praline”. River Street Sweets was born.

Now, three generations work together creating a whole world of delicious gourmet southern candies. The business thrives with four locations. Charleston and Myrtle Beach South Carolina, and Savannah and Atlanta Georgia.

Here’s the Good Part
You can order their goodies online. YES! Thank the Good Lord for the Internet!

My wife has always bought me River Street Sweets World Famous Pralines when she travels to Savannah. Now I’ve learned they have a website where I can order my own when I get a hankering for them…hehe.

My guess is my wife knew that all along but, er…um…”somehow”…she forgot to tell me.

Believe me when I say, these things, these World Famous Pralines, are gooooooood!! They don’t call ‘em world famous for nothing.

  • Give ‘em to someone for Christmas and you’ll have a friend for life.
  • Dangle one in front of your teen to get the grass mowed. He’ll set a world record.
  • Give a box to your boss and get that new, faster PC you’ve been needing at work.
  • Give a box to your husband and get your feet massaged.
  • Give a box to your hair stylist and receive special treatment from now on.
  • Give one to your golfing buddies and win for a change!

Give ‘em a try. River Street Sweets is a nice family business and you won’t be disappointed with anything you order from them. I’m just giving them a plug because I’ve always loved their pralines and I admire home grown entrepreneurs.

They don’t know me from Adam’s house cat but just for laughs, tell ‘em Don at Idle Minutes sent you. It’ll be fun to hear ‘em say “huh?”

Also filed in Foods, Stories | | Comments (0) »

Savannah Residence

09-Jul-06
Savannah Residence

Savannah Georgia is full of elegant old homes. We visit every few years. On the last trip I was determined to get numerous snap shots of interesting architectural details.

A similar recent quick sketch on a friend’s blog reminded me that I had taken all those snap shots and done nothing with them. So I dug them up last night and started with this one.

One of the things I liked about Lindsay’s sketch was the spontaneity of it. I missed the boat with this one in that regard. But I’ll think “spontaneous” on the next one.

After looking at the photos, I realized I needed to go back and spend some thoughtful time with the camera and sketchbook in Savannah. It’s a city with a lot of historical character and southern charm.

It also sits beside the Savannah River and is a major port. Sitting in a hotel room facing the river, I remember waking to see a large freighter through the sliding glass doors, slowly making it’s way up river. I was on the 4th floor. So was the deck of the freighter. Freighters are BIG.

A few books, most notably, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, were written with Savannah as the backdrop.

Savannah is a charming place, though off the beaten path. If you ever head down toward the Deep South, make a Savannah to Hilton Head, SC, to Charleston, SC trip out of it. You’ll get two historical cities with a resort hotspot and beaches in between. A nice vacation for sure.

Also filed in Building details, Sketching and Drawing, Travel Sketches | | Comments (0) »

The Big Chicken

01-Apr-06
The Big Chicken - Marietta, GA

America may not have ancient buildings and castles, or cities that have been around a few thousand years in one form or another.  But by cracky we have personality out the WA-zoo!

The most unique, and arguably most loved structures, come from the ideas of  “the little man”…the working middle class American entrepreneur.  These architectural inventions and contraptions win the hearts of many Americans.  They give a sense of place and identity to their locale that sticks with people in a connecting sort of way.  It’s not unusual to meet someone on a vacation or business trip and learn with a smile that they too know about the “Big Chicken”.  These structures also make tourism just plain fun for the young at heart. 

The Big Chicken is one such contribution to the American Roadside Landscape.  In 1963, S.R. “Tubby” Davis had the Big Chicken built to advertise his entrepreneurial endeavour, “Johnny Reb’s Chick, Chuck and Shake”. Rising 56 feet in the air, its movable beak, eyes and comb attracted a lot of attention.  It soon became a major landmark.

Hard times caused Johnny Reb’s to go belly up and Kentucky Fried Chicken leased the space in 1974.  In 1996, after much wear and storm damage, Pepsi chipped in and refurbished the old bird.  Today the KFC does a brisk business and the Big Chicken rolls its eyes and moves its beak as commerce busily bustles below.

Granted, it’s not a Frank Lloyd Wright or an I.M. Pei.  (It’s actually a Hubert Puckett, the 1957 Georgia Tech graduate who designed it).  But try and tear it down and you’ll soon find out it has as least as many loyal devotees as the buildings designed by the afore mentioned icons of American architecture.

Also filed in Building details, Landmarks, Quick Sketches, Restaurants and Such, Stories | | Comments (2) »

Lookout Beagle Club

21-Feb-06
Lookout Beagle Club, Rock Spring GA

My Father-in-law has been a Beagler for a LOT of years.  He’s in his 80’s now and he and many of his lifelong friends still travel the Southeast during field trial season with their beagles in tow.  They are a rare bunch of gentlemen.

Years ago, they organized The Lookout Beagle Club where they go to run their beagles and hold sanctioned field trails.  Once a year, they host the Southern Federation Beagle Trials.  It’s a big deal, with up to a thousand beagles, owners and handlers from all over the country, their RV’s, and seven days or so of non-stop beagling.  I call it “Beagle Mania”.

For beaglers to go beagling with any hope of successfully judging the bunny tracking prowess of their dogs, there must exist bunnies.  Lookout Beagle club is a bunny paradise.

If I were a bunny, I’d hop the first outbound freight to Rock Spring Georgia, find the Lookout Beagle Club, and set up housekeeping. 

I could live with the occasional beagle tailing me around the premises.  After all, his only goal is to track my scent; not to catch and shake my ass until I squeal my last breath.

My food, water, and 100 acres of the best ground cover nature has to offer, would all be provided free of charge.  Did I mention that I and a few of my buds would be enclosed in this 100 acre paradise with a wide variety of little female bunnies as well?

Which brings me to the accommodations for the 700-1000 beagles that show up for the Southern Federation Field Trial each year.

Most of the beagles, male and female, stay in the deluxe, above ground suites comprised of four very long rows of wooden kennels raised about waist high, for easy feeding by the handlers. 

But, there is a very special class of attendees that have their own elite compound of suites.  They are known as the “Hot Bitches”. 

These are the female beagles who happen to be in heat when they arrive for the trials.  They reside in the ten or so ground level suites, totally enclosed by a chain link fence.

The “Hot Bitches” are easy to find due to the rather promiscuous looking sign one of the club members attached to their enclosure.  With this tortuous distraction fully populated, no red blooded American male beagle is going to give a damn about tracking the scent of a bunny.
 
Thus, I theorize that female beagles tend to fair better in the field trial standings.  If you decide to become a Beagler, keep that in mind.

Also filed in Beagles and beagling, Real People, Stories | | Comments (0) »

It’s That Time of Year Again…

15-Feb-06
Tax Time in the Sunny South

Tax time in the Sunny South…

Where else but the rural routes of North Georgia can one find the diversity of professional services and used appliance sales under one roof?

I roared by this place on highway 76 many times on the way home from the mountains.  I took it for granted as just another junky roadside eyesore. 

Then one day I noticed the sign, tightly hung up under the eave of the building, and realized I was missing an awful lot of funny, original, and certainly unintended humor all around me.

I’m glad I paid attention that day and snapped a few photos.  The professional tax service relocated elsewhere (likely due to unprecedented growth in a bustling market) and the place is now an “antique” store.  Now, all that character is gone…at least for the time being.

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