Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

by John Berendt

We have a saying: If you go to Atlanta, the first question people ask you is, ‘What’s your business?’ In Macon they ask, ‘Where do you go to church?’ In Augusta they ask your grandmother’s maiden name. But in Savannah the first question people ask you is ‘What would you like to drink?’”

“Rule number one: Always stick around for one more drink.

“Rule number two: Never go south of Gaston Street.

“Rule number three: Observe the high holidays—Saint Patrick’s Day and the day of the Georgia-Florida football game.

Savannah spurned all suitors—urban developers with grandiose plans and individuals (the “Gucci carpetbaggers,” as Mary Harty called them) who moved to Savannah and immediately began suggesting ways of improving the place. Savannah resisted every one of them as if they had been General William Tecumseh Sherman all over again. Sometimes that meant throwing up bureaucratic roadblocks; at other times it meant telling tourists only what was good for them to know. Savannah was invariably

immune to their charms. It wanted nothing so much as to be left alone.