For the last weekend of June, I took a little hiatus of sorts to the place of me birth, Memphis Tn. Since I was there longer, I was able to spend more time with friends and family as well as taking a much needed break from caring for my own house and wifework.I also got to do something I've always wanted to do: Take a little tour through the streets of midtown and luxuriant harbortown. The houses there are my ideal houses. Some of them are very New England in style, with pristine paint jobs and perfect lawns.
Some have a 'cottagey' appearance and some are just the quintessential southern shotgun houses.
In Midtown, the houses are somewhat spotty. You'll have a street full of trashy worn out dwellings exactly one street over from some of the beautiful houses here pictured. It's one of the only cities in which the slums are within spitting distance of the upper class and in my opinion it's probably the reason there is so much crime. There have been nine murders since the beginning of June and there were three more while I was there. The city is a little on edge due to this activity and you feel it. People are defensive and blatantly predjudicial-quite sad.
But Harbortown is like a nonexistent fairy tale community. It pays heavily for its security and its riverfront location as I'm sure its resident do as well. But the result is a stunning group of individually beautiful and unique houses with hankerchief lawns and brick lined streets. There are tiny parks with lovely gazebos, gourmet food stores that charge 3.00 for a bottle of water, apartment buildings that rival anything seen in the French Quarter, and New Orleans style Mansions sitting directly next door to houses that look like they're literally made of gingerbread.It's fun to imagine what the insides look like.
The city of Memphis is also much improved over the memphis I left in 1995. It has been cleaned up and added a few great hotels and attractions to its downtown area. Sunday, we visited Peabody Place to see the Disney movie Cars and were able to enjoy Tower Records right after-which is very nice. (Incidentally, Cars is a big disappointment for Pixar. It was shallow and mostly unfunny...I'd rate it 6/10 mainly due to Paul Newman, Larry the Cable Guy's silly ol' Towtruck, and the lovely desert landscapes.)
Regardless, I'd never want to live there. I enjoy my country home and I actually enjoy visiting Nashville when it comes to choosing a big city. It has a more comfortable laid back feel to it, in my opinion.
Home Sweet Home and all that bunk.
1 comment:
I love this post about Memphis. Part of me misses Memphis and all there is to see and do. After all it was the town I grew up in too and it will always be home. I would never want to live there again either though. I am nervous every time I visit. There is just so much crime. If I want to visit a city I like you, prefer Nashville or my favorite St. Louis. They seem so much cleaner and seem to care a lot more about their cities as far as businesses and tourists. Memphis has so much going for it and it makes me so sad that they don't do something to clean it up. We went to conventions there for several years and the friends from up here hated going there. Which I found highly offensive at the time. But now I understand. It is a dirty city, the hotels were really bad and if you don't know where to go it can be really scary. Your post made me smile though. I would love to be able to visit longer and do some things that I've always wanted to do there. I am happy that you had a good time and got to do those things.
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