Cottage Living
The Bar examination is complete. The sky is blue. The birds are singing. Flowers are blooming. Humanity continues to thrive while I was tucked away in discipline and execution.
My wife has been very gracious to defer all big decisions, moves and interesting activities until after that wretched task. We have been living in a rental house for about eight months with four to go, and she’s been awfully nice about our temporary quarters. Even so, we’ve been suffering from house-fever for weeks, and we have spent almost every weekend in Montgomery exploring and evaluating neighborhoods. One by one, we eliminated them until we came back to our first idea and first love: old houses in the city’s old, historic neighborhoods.
Yesterday, we made an offer on a ninety-year-old cottage in downtown Montgomery in the heart of its historic and revitalizing areas, just blocks from Dexter Avenue Baptist, the First White House of the Confederacy, the State House, the River, lovely Huntingdon College, Alabama State, a score of cool little restaurants and shops, independent cinema, parks, playgrounds and theaters all within a pretty walk of our front porch. Lord willing, we soon will enjoy live oaks, front porches, working transoms, hardwood floors, creaky plaster walls and the ambiance of all good Southern things, instead of cookie-cutter, white-flight, over-priced, escapist, homogenous, pedestrian-hostile subdivisions (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Several of my colleagues have looked askance at us for eschewing the customary destination of most upper-middle-class evangelicals. As I discussed this with a staff member and an associate dean yesterday, they cocked their eyebrows and gave knowing glances at each other.
Dean: “Well, it’ll be interesting to see how long y’all stay down there.”
Staff: “Yeah, I mean, I really like the charm, old money and quaint, cute houses, but it’s just so close to the projects, too.”
JRB: “You’re right, but we kinda like that economic diversity.”
Dean to Staff: “Well, they’re liberals.”
My wife has been very gracious to defer all big decisions, moves and interesting activities until after that wretched task. We have been living in a rental house for about eight months with four to go, and she’s been awfully nice about our temporary quarters. Even so, we’ve been suffering from house-fever for weeks, and we have spent almost every weekend in Montgomery exploring and evaluating neighborhoods. One by one, we eliminated them until we came back to our first idea and first love: old houses in the city’s old, historic neighborhoods.
Yesterday, we made an offer on a ninety-year-old cottage in downtown Montgomery in the heart of its historic and revitalizing areas, just blocks from Dexter Avenue Baptist, the First White House of the Confederacy, the State House, the River, lovely Huntingdon College, Alabama State, a score of cool little restaurants and shops, independent cinema, parks, playgrounds and theaters all within a pretty walk of our front porch. Lord willing, we soon will enjoy live oaks, front porches, working transoms, hardwood floors, creaky plaster walls and the ambiance of all good Southern things, instead of cookie-cutter, white-flight, over-priced, escapist, homogenous, pedestrian-hostile subdivisions (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Several of my colleagues have looked askance at us for eschewing the customary destination of most upper-middle-class evangelicals. As I discussed this with a staff member and an associate dean yesterday, they cocked their eyebrows and gave knowing glances at each other.
Dean: “Well, it’ll be interesting to see how long y’all stay down there.”
Staff: “Yeah, I mean, I really like the charm, old money and quaint, cute houses, but it’s just so close to the projects, too.”
JRB: “You’re right, but we kinda like that economic diversity.”
Dean to Staff: “Well, they’re liberals.”
posted by JRB at 10:14 AM
4 Comments:
I plan to visit Montgomery next week; it really would make my mom happy. Beacuse I spend more time in Little Rock these days, I was wondering if Montgomery has moved toward making downtown a center of the city - like LR has done. From your post, it sounds like it. That was not the case when I lived there. Things seem to be heading east, past Faulkner, AUM, etc. at one point.
Great to hear you survived the exam, and that you are moving into an older neighborhood toward downtown. We have done that in 3 different locales, and now live in a barn, so I am with you on this move. I guess that makes me a liberal, too. I never knew that. Tell the "little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky" to stay in the suburbs, and you go, girl.
Let us know if the deal goes through.
Hey, it's not just liberals. Libertarians like cozy cottages and revitalized downtowns too.
"...instead of cookie-cutter, white-flight, over-priced, escapist, homogenous, pedestrian-hostile subdivisions (not that there’s anything wrong with that)."
Well, I'm sure glad you qualified that!
askance? don't they teach plain English for lawyers? kidding.
congrats on completing the exam (I have sworn only reciprocity moves here) and finding a house.
Post a Comment
<< Home