Favorite Things About Greenville

I've been thinking a lot lately about what moving to TN will mean, so I thought this might be a good week for me to tackle Vance's list suggestion of "favorite things about Greenville." Jen did a similar post a few weeks ago (sorry, Jen!).
I knew this one would be a hard one for me - you won't find a bigger fan of Greenville than I am. Seriously, I've grown up referring to different sides of town using the names of mills that are now defunct or demolished (San Souci, Poe Mill, Woodside, Parker, Monaghan, etc.). I used to work in the Visitors Center in City Hall and had an internship at the Chamber. I've been a Greenville native for almost a quarter of a century, so it's hard to boil down a sense of place, of belonging, of home into a few words and highlights.

Glad Oaks - Okay, I guess some of you may have wondered about the name of my blog. I know this is going to sound very Gone with the Wind, but my blog is named after our house. Well, it's more like our homestead, which makes me sound even crazier! I currently live with my mom and dad in the house where my father and his siblings were born and raised. [Okay, I don't think they did home-births. It wasn't that long ago!] We live in a small white house on 29 acres. The house is actually kind of funny because it's been built onto about every 20 years, so it has a few different "styles" -- my room in the back has yellow shag carpet. It's been in our family for more than 65 years, but the adjacent land (some of which now belongs to distant cousins) was in our family even before that -- my grandfather was born on that land. On that piece, they grew cotton and ran a well-stocked fishing lake -- that now has apartments built around it. Change happens. Our whole side of town has changed so much in my lifetime.
My grandfather was a state politictian. So for income, my dad's family raised chickens and produce and later built and sold homes and started a real estate business. So our land has (the skeletal remains of) three chicken houses, an icehouse, a grown-over gravel road back to the other land, a well, a treehouse, a doghouse, and a small roadfront office building. The best part about our land is the trees --- gorgeous, old, strong, historic, oak trees in front, plus vibrant dogwoods, wrinkly magnolias, and straight pines.
I think it's really special that we live in my grandparents' old house. When my grandfather passed away about 11 years ago, my nuclear family moved in to take care of the house so my grandmother could move into a patio home with less upkeep. Before we moved into Glad Oaks and even as small children, my brother Justin and I spent many afternoons at Glad Oaks waiting for Mom to get off of work or out of school, so I have tons of memories associated with that land. If you're a Sandra McCracken fan, her song "Where I'm From" pretty much sums it up.
Family - As you can tell from the above, my family has lived in Greenville for many years. While my dad's family is from out towards Travelers Rest, my mother grew up in the Simpsonville area. I have many local aunts and cousins, as well as both grandmothers, so it will be tough to leave them!
Furman - It should come as no surprise that Furman is significant for me, an alumna. What most people don't realize, however, is that Furman was already significant for me as a child -- well before I ever darkened their hallways as a student.
My mother went back to school when I was in elementary/middle school to finish her college degree in education. She was an adult day student at Furman -- which takes guts because there aren't many of them! I spent many hours reading in the Furman library waiting while my mother studied or attended class. As a family, we had many picnics and birthday parties around the lake -- you used to be able to swim in it every summer (it was clean back then!) and take pontoon boat rides from the Student Center dock. I started playing soccer at Furman when I was five. Also, my grandparents were Furman fans, so I attended many sporting events and musical performances as a child -- even back when Furman played basketball in the now-demolished Greenville Memorial Auditorium downtown.
Falls Park and Main Street - Both are just wonderful. After living at Cleveland Park for a while, I realized that I also love how Falls Park and Cleveland Park are connected, so you can walk/jog through both! Such great planning.
Good city planning with an appreciation 0f beauty - Great planning is my natural thought association when I think of Greenville's downtown. Greenville's downtown has won several awards, and I've enjoyed seeing the progress made in the last 15 years. I think they've done a great job of making downtown seem more cohesive overall - the arched mill windows, green trim, red brick, and so on. Even the marketing is stellar and extremely coordinated (parking signs, logos, CVB guides, local events, Chamber of Commerce initiatives, Greenville Forward, Rails to Trails).
My father is a commercial realtor, so I learned early to appreciate good land use, historic preservation, local history, zoning constraints, etc. One of the things that makes my heart happy is to see an old building or abandoned lot beautifully redeemed for a new purpose. I feel like it's such a tangible reminder of what God would love to do for each of one us. Most of y'all know that I would love to go to grad school for city planning/public health one day. It would be fascinating to study Greenville in class one day!
Nice people - It's true. Greenville people are great. And I'm not biased at all. ;)
Meat 'n' threes and hot dog restaurants - Okay, so I didn't realize that this was a Greenville thing, but apparently we have a huge abundance of both of these types of restaurants. There's pretty much one on every corner. I'm going to have to find a new Sunday meat and three restaurant in Nashville!

As you can tell, I could go on and on and on. Next week I'll either finish up a few more positives about Greenville, or I'll start in on a some negatives to get me ready (mentally) to leave Greenville.
John's my home now.