Georgia Magazine - February 2021 - 23

My GEORGIA

By Herman Thorbecke

Georgia, the state
that's just right

y wife, Lea, and I had set out to settle down: find a
place with a mild climate in an area not prone to
extreme weather events such as tornadoes and
hurricanes. We are also not fond of forest fires, floods, mudslides and earthquakes. So, where to go and where to start?
We lived many years in Florida and experienced
hurricanes and floods. We also vacationed on Lake Erie in
New York, where we owned a second home, and found the
summers pleasant and the winters horrifying.
After selling our house in Florida, we spent a winter on
Lake Erie and suffered 6 feet of snow and bone-chilling freezes.
When the snow melted, we sold that house as well, packed a
U-Haul with our few remaining pieces of furniture and started
traveling south.
On our quest for the perfect spot to retire, we stopped and
looked around in two states, starting
in Kentucky. We took a break in a
pleasant village, the name of which I
have long forgotten. The sun was out,
and the weather was lovely. We found a
nice motel to spend the night and called
a real estate agent to help us find our
perfect place.

The next morning we woke up to a major sleet storm,
canceled our appointment and hurried on-farther south.
Later that same day, in Tennessee, things looked much
better. The weather was perfect, and we fell in love with the
countryside near Signal Mountain. We decided to check out
available homes in our price range. Another willing real estate
agent was soon contacted, and the next day we looked for our
dream home and nearly found it.
The third home the real estate agent showed us had most
of the features we searched for. It was vacant, it sat on 7 acres
and the view from its porch was breathtaking. We made our
offer while dining with the real estate agent at a nearby eatery.
While the three of us enjoyed our salads, my wife
complained that her legs were itchy, and not much later
we were rubbing and scratching. We soon discovered that our
legs were covered in tiny,
bloodthirsty ticks.
That heralded the end of
lunch and our home search
in Tennessee. We said goodbye to the real estate agent
and hurried to our hotel to
de-tick. Ticks like to move up
in the world and have a way
of attaching themselves in the
most inconvenient places. To
remove them, we applied my
wife's alcohol-based, expensive perfume. I never again
smelled that good.
The following day we continued our search in
gorgeous Georgia. To this day, my wife still refers
to Tennessee as the Tick State. Not quite fair, but a
swarm of ticks leaves a lasting impression.
A few days later we found the perfect home
on the Chattahoochee River in the Appalachian
foothills. Now, some 10 years since, we love our
home in Northeast Georgia more than any other
place in the world.
Herman and Lea Thorbecke live in Cornelia and
are members of Habersham EMC. They have written
Above: Herman and Lea Thorbecke chose to retire in Habersham County
several children's books, and Herman Thorbecke
after a series of home-shopping misadventures in other states.
has published four collections of short stories and
Inset and top: The couple share their home with poodles named Chester
regularly contributes to a Dutch-language monthly
and Leeuw (Dutch for " lion " ) and had a pet chicken named Speckles, who
publication in Canada.
is " now in bird heaven, " Herman Thorbecke says.
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Georgia Magazine - February 2021

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