Nashville 2012

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On the plane from Newark these guys have guitars. I get talkng to them. They are young and I am in my fifties. We are friendly, exchanging small talk and travel experiences. Then they settle down to read. One of them hands me a magazine. It is pornography! My friend meets me and we go to her house. I have come via my small English house to upmarket New Jersey and am amazed to discover what I think might be hillbiilly. I love it. She has animals.The house is super untidy. It is huge and another world to me. One day her pastor comes not to dinner, but to dessert. I have never in my life heard of anyone visiting for pudding. There are churches on every street. They are tiny and I can buy Christian books in the supermarket. You cannot do that in the UK. Nobody will let me walk anywhere. I am bitten by insects and it is so very hot. I have to cover my self in anti insect cream and there seems to be fear of some tick or other. This place is not safe like England. I think they have snakes in the grass. In Nashville every guy seems to wear exactly the same checked shirt and cowboy hat as the man I am just divorced from. It is a freaky reminder seeing as like him, they all carry guitars in cases everywhere they go. They all seem to have the same long hair. I was married for 21 years to a Nashville clone! I love the 50's style coffee shops. Nashville has this feel of 1950's Britain but I am shocked to learn people mostly, still paddle their children. Even the values are 50's and I am "mammed" wherever I go. Children here respect adults or else, it seems. Of course we visit the landmarks and the University, but I can now remember nothing of them. My whole US trip is overshadowed by my New York/New Jersay experiences. Yet, I can remember a meal in a food court and visits to Mcdonalds. I have a memory of seing a woman dressed just like the cartoon stereotype and of seeing people as fat as my grandfather. We visit a bar and my friend and I buy a beer. "DO NOT TELL THE PASTOR," she says. I am shocked. Why would she worry about a single beer? Her church is like a theatre set all done out in purple and gold. I have never seen the like before. Then we go to the Gibson factory and I buy a guitar. Coming home to England is a wonderful experience as everyone thinks I am a musician and asks what I play. I should always travel with a guitar I cannot play and make friends this way. Would I return? Oh yeah!