What’s it like at sunrise on a downtown strip in small-town central Florida?
As I travel, I’ve found its easy to get lazy about distinctions. The cities and towns start to run together. People are nice here and people are nice there. A boutique here is a boutique there. A downtown strip here is a downtown strip there. I took an early-morning exploration to downtown Sanford the other day and that feeling started creeping up on me again: that nothing was unique here, that I had been on this street in Indianapolis and Bossier City and Baton Rouge.
Sanford is another small town north of Orlando. The town’s real center is the business-dense areas that have sprung up around major retailers and fast food chains. Like any other small town, the businesses in the downtown strip, while having the most charming fronts and location, struggle for traffic in a world where everyone rushes to Walmart and rushes home to watch Netflix.
It has the things you might expect…
…And some things you may not expect. (Not pictured: a traditional Alpine costume in an antique store window.)
And it could have been any downtown street, that’s true. But it had little Florida touches. Like ocean-themed art in store windows. Clothes in boutique stores could go straight to the beach. As I thought about it, I realized the sky is a different color than in Atlanta or any other place: this morning it was a blue and more than anything felt changeable. And Florida is changeable. It could storm at any moment, and often does.
On a micro level, details set little Sanford apart. The streets were made of brick, dark red brick that looked almost new. Lizard friends scuttled over the sidewalk. Sand seemed to be in the crevices everywhere; even though we’re miles from the beach, soil is still sandy here.
It all comes together to make a place unique, all these structures and material details and the atmosphere. People are similar but have things in common. Places are the same way. The commonalities are fun, but focusing on the things that make them unique is just as important.
~ The Dauntless Princess ~
