You always hear “grown-ups” talking, often around friends at the end of a long work week, fantasizing about a time in which such an occasion will be a thing of the past, describing “the place I’ll retire to.” Sometimes this place is a house on the beach, sometimes it’s a cabin in the mountains, sometimes it’s simply their hometown, but no matter where it is, it is guaranteed to be their favorite place to be. Traditionally, this place is chosen after years of adulthood and numerous assorted travels. Then there’s me. For me, the choice is simple.

For me, the choice is Savannah.

The first time I went to the beautiful destination of Historic Downtown Savannah Georgia, I couldn’t have been more than nine or ten years old. It was love at first sight. At the time, if I may be honest, all I truly relished in the town was that it was laid back, had historic buildings, some great places to eat, and three (count ‘em: three!) fantastic candy-stores, which my parents would take me and my sister to in exchange of us behaving while they ran in Wet Willies. What can I say; I was an easy kid to please.

Needless to say, my folks enjoyed the town even more than I did and in the 12 years since, we’ve done our best to hit Savannah at least once a year. In those years, along with gaining the ability to joyfully experience Wet Willies (the best damn adult slushy bar this side of the Mississippi) firsthand, I have grown near-romantic appreciations of every aspect of the historic town.

You see, in a lot of ways Savannah is more than just a town, but a small oasis tucked away along the south Georgian coast; it’s almost a world within itself with an attitude and character unlike anything you’ll find elsewhere.

For starters, it’s the oldest city in this state I call home. Founded by James Oglethorpe in the year 1733 in an effort to develop a 13th colony as a buffer to protect Charleston from the Spanish down in Florida, Savannah was also created as the start of a debtor’s colony. In this way, Oglethorpe, who had himself lost a close friend to debtor’s prison, hoped to create a place where those who had done nothing wrong expect fall behind financially could find a

new start and a second chance. It was a place where people who had nowhere else to go could come and make whatever they wanted to out of their life, and this cultural cornerstone is still one that is very much alive today.

This is largely because Savannah is a place that exists in full acknowledgment of its past; one in which the living and the dead live side-by-side. This is probably initially aided by the architecture of the city itself. On December 21st, 1864, as General Sherman was marching through the state, burning everything to the ground, the people of Savannah saw him coming. Realizing that there was no way they could oppose his forces, they chose instead to ride out and meet him. They offered peaceful surrender of the town (so long as he didn’t destroy it) and even allowed him to stay in one of their most beautiful mansions. In doing this, they prevented Sherman from lighting his fires (as he had done in the rest of the south) and saved the city, many of the buildings within it surviving to this day.

Keep in mind, the people of Savannah did not surrender their city so quickly because they were cowards, but because they were, and still are, survivors. Whether it be the loss of Savannah to British forces in the Revolution (with the Siege of Savannah being the second bloodiest day of the war), the numerous yellow fever outbreaks that threatened to wipe out generations at a time, the multiple great fires that would threaten entire blocks; Savannah has always perceived. Shoot, even in the 1950’s when the oldest part of town began to fall victim to crime and gang activity, the town rose up and began a glorious historical preservation of their old buildings, an effort that continues to this day and has allowed Savannah to remain the most beautiful and historically intact city in all the south (even rivaling some of its older, distant cousins like Boston).

To me, the age of everything seems to give the entire town more, I don’t know, significance. I am one to believe that every time something happens, especially something important or dynamic, there is a small piece of it that stays in the location. Savannah is a large reason for this belief; walking through the town you can literally feel the history. Not to mention as one strolls through one of its 21 squares, often having played host to some conflict or being built atop a cemetery, there’s an unavoidable feeling that everything that has ever happened there is still there, like you’re playing a small part in a story too grand to every fully capture.

This is not to say, I must add, that the town has the feeling of an old town. Thanks to a great art movement (fueled no doubt by the Savannah College of Art and Design, to which I desperately want to go) and the local college campuses, the town is full of a youthful enthusiasm. The place has more great bars than I can even begin to list here and, by allowing people to walk the streets of the historic district with open alcohol (you know, like New Orleans), the party never seems far away.

You may have noticed at this point that I have a lot to say about Savannah. Between the endless stories of the people who have lived there to the countless possibilities the city currently offers, I could write a book on the town and still barely scratch the surface. In fact, during my last trip down there I picked up a book by a guy who tried to do just that: John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden on Good and Evil, which I enthusiastically intend of reading as soon as I finish my current book (Cormac McCarthy’s The Road). As soon as I get to it I can assure you I’ll be back on here, telling y’all what I thought of it.

For now, I feel as though I should probably put a pin in this post or else risk writing waaaaaay too much. Personally, I fully intend to spend an increasing amount of time down there (whenever and however I get a chance) and I am sure that every time I do, I’ll be back on here with something to add. Until then, if anyone out there gets a chance to check out historic Savannah, I strongly recommend you do so. I challenge you not to fall in love with it. I certainly did.