Places We Love to Haiti

Humorist Will Rogers famously said, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” What a declaration and a testament to a man who is much more tolerant than I am!

While I personally can’t say that, I will come close: I never visited a town I didn’t like. It’s not the travelling that so fun anymore, not since 9/11. The travelling is actually the hardest and least enjoyable part. But once I arrive at a place, I take it in and often will try to envision living there.

The place itself needn’t be a tourist destination, or a particularly large or small place. It just seems like every place I visit has something going for it that would make it an attractive place to live. Of course, each has its downsides too which are determined on a personal level based on your own likes and dislikes. Perhaps its location is less than optimal (e.g., in a desert), or it has an unfortunate name (e.g., Boody, Illinois). But I always focus on the positives of a town.

If I lived there, what would I see waking up each day, and what is the local music scene like? I usually check out a realtor’s office if time allows and see the listings posted in the windows to get a sense of house styles and real estate prices.

With the internet, the world has gotten so much smaller. Nowadays, if I hear of a place that is new to me, I check it out on my phone. Zillow is a great place to peruse the local listings. I look at the tax rates, population, local demographics, largest employers, and so on. A recent example would be Jacksonville, Texas. Something I read put Jacksonville onto my radar. Just a little research and, voilà, now I want to visit Jacksonville.

Having this Will Rogersesque approach to cities, it makes it hard for me to hear people be openly critical of towns. Especially when you find that the places they are most critical of are places they’ve never even visited. I had a Great Aunt who, when she heard I’d moved to Los Angeles, told me “The only good thing to come out of California was my son.” She was referring to the fact that my uncle’s job had taken the family from Texas to California briefly and during that time my cousin was born.

My Aunt had no qualms about openly criticizing the place where I lived. At the time, I thought it was (i) rude, and (ii) sad that she couldn’t see the beauty of the place. Like going for a walk or a jog near the house and being overwhelmed by the scent of flowers along the way. Or skating along the beach. Or the restaurants, or the culture, and on and on. It was most certainly politics that prompted my aunt to say what she said. And this was back in the 1990s when politics seemed so innocent!

There is another famous quote that reads, “It is good people who make good places.” True that, and I plan to keep looking, meeting people and admiring.

Speaking of internet searches, I heard recently that Google was making people dumber. But I looked it up on Google and found it was wrong.

Johnny McNally is Grimes County’s Best Dressed Businessman advocating for Grimes County and writes a bi-weekly column for the Navasota Examiner.