I have a job prospect in the general Macon area. Can anyone give me the lowdown on the cultural climate? Schools, cool things to do, etc… (BTW, if the consensus is that it’s rural and rednecky, that’s not necessarily bad)
Well, my parents have semi-retired in the Macon area
in the booming metropolis of Hawkinsville, about 45 minutes south. Their little town is kind of unusual in that although it’s a one-horse town in that a McDonalds, bbq place, DQ, Huddle House, Dollar Store, car dealership, closed down grocery store and Dollar Store comprise the “strip”, it’s still got some character.
They have an opera house and a large harness racing training
and event facility. My parents live on a highway next to the water tower, and excitement for them is to hop on the riding lawn mower with my 2 year old niece , head to the end of the driveway,
and let her gesture to the passing trucks to honk their horns.
On the other hand, they have a gorgemous, huge 1940’s home that they bought for an absolute steal and have redone into a showplace. They probably couldn’t have done that in Atlanta.
Their neighbor is a lesbian who creates this fabulous, funky
voodoo-type art. She goes to shows all over the place, and if she’s not at her beach house for the summer, you can hear
old blues blowing from her amazing workshop. There’s an active arts council there and lots of colorful characters. It’s small, it’s a little backwards, but everyone is surprisingly open-minded. It’s never boring and as un-generic a place as you could find.
Nearby I don’t know much about. Once, on the way to
the Air museum in nearby Warner-Robbins, my husband and I stopped into a gas station on the highway, and it was run by an entire family of mullets. Grandma had a mullet, so did Dad, Mom,
little girl, and darned if crawling age baby boy wasnt working on his own mullet and sporting acid-washed jeans. It’s not a fashion mecca ANYWHERE in south Georgia, though…
I drove through Macon once. I get the feeling that you’ll have to come up here to Atlanta a lot…didn’t strike me as a big, fun place.
I live in Hawkinsville, Sidle! 
Macon actually has most of the ammenities of any average to larger sized city; it just looks smaller because it is spread out and interspersed with trees through out. The cultural climate is not too bad; since Warner Robins is just south of Macon, there is a large amount of military influence, and this kind of tempers attitudes towards “outsiders” in a positive manner.
Do you have any specifics that you want to know? What kind of schools, what do you consider cool?
Lemme know!
As far as schools are concerned, I have a son who will be a high school sophmore, so naturally I want to know if there are any good or bad school systems in the area.
For my benefit, what about universities with technical programs close by?
We’re pretty much homebodies. I’m curious of how tolerant the area is of slightly eccentric people. If the lesbian artist with the blues blaring is OK, then I should be able to get away with zipping around the neighborhood streets in an electrically driven Lazy-Boy, or Vunderkind dressing up like a medieval warrior and wailing on someone with foam broadswords…
Vunderwife also wants to know about the usual girl-type concerns, like decent fabric shops.
Electrically driven Lazy Boy? Are you the guy from the racecar Monster House?
I wish. I saw the show, and decided that I need to build one for myself when I get a job and am no longer broke.
Maybe I should have mentioned my idea for an outhouse with power and plumbing instead? 