Geographical Oddity

I remember watching the movie O Brother Where Art Thou? and always finding myself perplexed by a line delivered by George Clooney’s character. In a desperate attempt to find a can of hair product and spare auto parts to fix a car, he ends up in a general store. Having neither, the man behind the counter offers to order the items and have them in the store within two weeks time. George Clooney snidely responds, “Ain’t this place a geographical oddity, two weeks from everywhere!”

Welcome to Loganville, Georgia. Forty minutes from everywhere. Loganville, a city only by the Georgia numerical definition of the term, sits at the halfway point between Athens and Atlanta. Forty minutes to both civilizations. Growing up, I was too familiar with this measure of time. Chamblee, Duluth, Athens, Atlanta, Buford. Every mall, Asian market, Filipino Catholic church, parents’ friends. It was all forty minutes away. I wasn’t from the backwoods country side by any means. The city had two grocery stores and a plethora of chain restaurants. However, it only had these things because it sat on the intersection of US Highways 20 and 78. I was from the space in between. A city that seemed to exist because cars passed through, not because people stayed.

It felt like a geographical oddity, forty minutes from everywhere.

(Below: Loganville, in red, on a map with Atlanta and Athens for reference. Click for clearer view.)