Audiobook Clip

The speaker reflects on their early idealism and how time has passed. They mention finding new friends and neighbors but also feeling a sense of disturbance and wider perception of their "white picket fence." They mention a turning point in 2012 when southern hospitality changed and they were surprised to see a priest become the mayor. The speaker now enjoys their life in the South, with a husband and friends, and compares it to a Disney cartoon. We were idealism incarnate, not yet tasting sweet tea. Seven years and new sun quickly passed, and though we had found fond new clans next door adequately distanced from our doorstep, we began to sense great disturbances and wider local perception our white picket fence. In the spring of 2012, southern hospitality suddenly went as sour as a Yankee learning what less your heart really means. While I enjoy the symbolism of my ancestral trajectory in matters of the spirit, consider the young and too-tight-tied me sitting there amid hymnal references and saint-stained windows baffled at how a priest could suddenly be the mayor at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Nowadays I do enjoy sweet southern Sundays. I have a husband stamped downtown, and friends from afar share my porch-like birds in a Disney cartoon.