Fellow blogger Nancye Tuttle just returned from Atlanta and posted the following report on her own blog, Nancye’s World, and has allowed us to repost it here:

I recently returned from Atlanta – or Hotlanta as my brother-in-law calls it. Indeed, it was hot and steamy there last week. But our recent spate of muggy, humid weather had prepared me for it, sort of. So I managed to get out and about, enjoying the culture there, if only for a few short days. Here’s a couple of quirky things I discovered that made the Atlanta suburbs distinctly different than our world up North.

First, they think I talk funny. “I can tell y’all are from somewhere that’s not here,” remarked one good ole boy, as I wandered around an antique emporium. Gee, I thought I sounded pretty normal, aside from my nasal Jersey “a” that I can’t get rid of no matter how long I live in New England.

Second, you can get iced tea anywhere, but forget iced coffee. “We don’t sell iced coffee,” said a pert waitress in a coffee shop on a hot Saturday morning. The signs said iced tea, though, in two versions, plain or sweet tea, another Southern tradition. But we told her it was pretty easy to make it – just put some ice cubes in a cup and pour the coffee and milk over them. Voila, iced coffee.

Third, biscuits are standard fare in the bread basket at restaurants, even national chains. And these biscuits are melt in your mouth good. Up here, we get rolls or ciabatta or baguette. Down South, it’s biscuits. And they’re to die for.

Fourth, here we have consignment shops, there they have antique malls, expansive emporiums, where dealers rent space and display their wares creatively with flair. And what stuff they had in these spaces. More proof that one person’s trash is another’s treasure. And, since I’m trying to downsize, I resisted temptation and said no to a few tempting items. Besides they wouldn’t have fit in my bag.

Fifth, The Atlantic Journal Constitution is a good read.

Sixth, groceries are much cheaper there than up here. Is it the fact that produce doesn’t have to be shipped so far? Not sure, but the prices were decidedly lower than our supermarket deals. And you can’t beat a Georgia peach. Delicious.

It was a nice trip, the people were friendly. But I was glad to be back North when my plane touched down at Logan. It’s here I feel comfortable and where I want to call home.