Can't Get There From Here

I grew up in rural Georgia. Now there are some folks who say Fayette County is rural, but where I grew up was RURAL. I did live in town, with all of the other 396 residents. Yes, we had less than 400 people in town. Now the dogs and horses did put us up around 500, but I'm told you can't count them.

One memory I have is a car stopping for directions. That was actually rare. Cars stopping by accident in town were few and far between. We did have the one main road in town and the state highway was up at the corner. (Down the road was the other direction.) You see, we weren't even on the state map.

The town was full of beautiful old antebellum homes. Our home was the exception. It was brick, but on the site of an old antebellum home. The old house had burned down and the doctor who owned the house wanted his next home not to be able to burn to the ground. So it was brick, thick brick. And there were doors to the outside from every room in the house except the dining room and the bathroom. Guests were always confused on which door to knock on. And, then, we had to run around to see which door had someone standing outside it.

Oh, here I go, rambling on again.

Anyway, one day, a car stopped up at the corner and asked how to get to another town in the county. Hmm. Well, you just couldn't get there from where we were. We told the man, "You can't get there from here. You have to go to another town and start there." You would have thought we had grown extra heads or something.

It was really quite logical. You really couldn't get there from here. You really did have to go to another town and pick up another highway and then find a small unmarked road and follow it to an even smaller one road town. We tried to explain it the best we could. I imagine he did go to the other town and start over on his quest.

Going to Newnan on Friday was just like that for me. I was looking for the newer movie house and had gotten my directions from the computer. Roads have sprung up out of nowhere and houses are everywhere over there now. It's like a real city. Anyway, I faithfully followed the directions taking Lower Fayetteville Rd. I never saw the next five turns mentioned. They weren't there. In other words, I couldn't get there from here.

I did wind up seeing the name of the road that the movie house is on, so I took a guess and turned on it. Lucky for me, I turned the correct way. Needless to say, coming home, I used the main roads. There was no way I was gonna get lost and have to ask for directions. I'm sure I would have heard echoes in my head. " You can't get there from here."

Now the question remains. Where can't you get?

Have a good day, Miss Faye.

Miss Etta