Moving south: the youngest of the snowbirds

Yesterday I had the remarkable favor to meet two fellow travelers who have transitioned from the Minnesotan northern snow-packed life to this melted canyon. Let's call them Suzanne and Steven though those are not their real names. As I was headed to the mailbox, a woman in the parking lot exclaimed- are you the girl with the Minnesota school sticker?! Yes. Tis I. Shortly find out that they are both from Minnesota, and have moved here only recently. In a quaint sort of way, you would never match the two intuitively as a pair, but in their interactions I catch glimpses of the adorable gnarled couple that will reminisce at family gatherings and flirt with each other long past the days of senior discounts. They owned an art gallery in Texas for a while and are quickly filling me in on all of the music and arty things that happen in the area. From symphony concerts to gallery openings, these must be the people to know. We spoke for maybe 10-15 minutes about how we were going to laud over the heads of our still residential snowbound friends our good weather fortune in December. They live a floor above me but on the other side of the building. 

Some part of me finds solace in knowing that there is a common vernacular between a group of people that isn't academically rooted. As in I can talk to Suzanne and Steven about the Twin Cities as "the cities" and not have to explain myself. Or use geographic locators about that town that everyone gets pulled over in on 169, or even the charming lilt of a "oh you betcha" that seems to evaporate in this desert heat. It could be the climate here. In Minnesota you stay together for warmth, talking or remarking about the icicles on your eyelashes. Here, no one sits next to you on the rail if they don't have to, not because your bulky coats physically forbid it, but because the body heat of strangers exacerbates the already too sweaty atmosphere. Maybe it's simply comforting to know that in a place so new, that similarities extend beyond the pedagogy and research. That neighbors can be more that academic resources. They might lend you a cup of sugar, make fun of the palm trees, or comfortably speak to your roots without having to explain a hot dish.