Walkabout Wednesday # 1

I've  lived in Alabama my entire life and I've traveled to neighboring states and even to Ireland.  At times I have caught myself saying that i need to see more of the country and more of the world, then it hit me, that there are many things in Alabama I haven't seen. Growing up near B'ham, I've done the usual things, such as Vulcan and the Botanical Gardens and The B'ham Zoo.  I've been to the nearby State Parks and I've been to things on the Gulf Coast, along with a few other places, but there are many things in Alabama I haven't seen or explored. When I combined that thought with the fact that I have worked every summer since I started teaching, I decided that, even though I am working this summer, I was going to take a day each week just for me! THAT is how the idea of Wandering Wednesdays came about. It started out as Walk-about Wednesday, but since I am driving, that didn't seem appropriate, so I changed to Road Trip Wednesdays.  Just today a friend called it Wandering Wednesday, and the name stuck.  That is what I am doing, wandering around our wonderful state.

The beauty of Wandering Wednesday is that I have no set schedule.  I got up this morning and drank a cup of coffee and had breakfast.  I spent some time with my dogs, and then got in the car and started my day. It was a beautiful day, so the drive to Tuscumbia was quite nice.

        

I even found a classic country radio station to listen to while I drove, so the beautiful day and the music of Donna Fargo, Freddy Fender and others made for a great driving experience.

My first stop was Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, Al.  If you don't know, Ivy Green is the birthplace of Helen Keller. The house, the cottage and the grounds have been turned into a museum and is registered in the National Register of Historic Sites.  Throughout the house are items and photographs that chronicle the life of Helen Keller.  I was met by a lovely older lady who immediately asked if I was a AAA member and informed me that I could save a dollar if I was.  I am, so my entry fee was only $5.00. The lady doing the mini-tour was busy, so I looked around the room that was set up as a museum till she was able to give me the tour.  The tour was basically her showing me the other three rooms downstairs and telling me some history of Helen and her family and Annie Sullivan, otherwise known as "Teacher". She then told me I could also go upstairs and told me which of the two rooms was Helen and Teacher's room.  I was then left to go upstairs and to explore the grounds and the cottage, ice house, The kitchen and cook's bedroom and, of course, The PUMP!!  When I say explore, you couldn't go into the rooms in the main house other than the museum room and you couldn't go into the other buildings, but you could see inside, which was sufficient for me.  As a special educator, I have always been fascinated with Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. The actually do a production of The Miracle Worker on weekends during June and July, which would be great to go to sometime.  The following pictures were taken at Ivy Green.

A casting of Helen at the pump

The Pump

 

A photo of Helen

The Key Helen used to lock "Teacher" in the room

The kitchen

The Cookhouse-Kitchen on left and cook's bedroom on right

The cottage--where Helen was born. Later the family moved to the Main House. The cottage was later used as the school house for Helen

The Icehouse

in the gardens

The gardens

Add caption

This was a video of Helen making a speech to the Lions Club

      

 After Leaving Ivy Green I was hungry.  When I had driven down main street in Tuscumbia, I had noticed that is was a quaint little southern town, so I went back to Main Street and parked.  I walked about a bit, videoing the stores.  Unfortunately, I cannot get the videos to load in this blog.  I found a place to eat while walking down Main. This place was the Palace Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop.  It was a quint little place, which I believe was once part of a Rexall Drug. (I gathered that from an old sign inside the place).  Friendly service and a good chicken salad sandwich and a glass of sweet tea, and I left a happy camper.  My meal cost $5.00 bucks and I tipped the sweet lady $2.00.

 

Next, I thought I would go by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, as I am always telling people that Alabama has produced many great musicians.  I found out later that they are typically closed on Wednesdays, so I wouldn't have been able to go anyway, however what I found out that was really disturbing to me is that as of May 23rd, they are closed due to be left out of the state budget. When you look at the website and see who some of the Hall of Fame inductees, you see such a variety of music genres represented. People such as Hank Williams, Wilson Picket, W.C. Handy, Emmylou Harris, Donnie Fritts, Tommy Shaw, Vern Gosdin, Jim Nabors, William Lee Golden, The Temptations, Cleve Eaton, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Nat King Cole and Lionel Rickie, just to name a few. I find it very sad that this place is currently closed due to funding.  As a state we should be proud that such wonderful talent has come from our state.

But, back to my adventures.  My next stop was Pope'sTavern Museum, which was once a stagecoach stop, tavern and inn. Legend has it that Andrew Jackson stopped here on his march to the Battle of New Orleans. Pope's Tavern is located on the military road that connected Nashville to the Natchez Trace. It was also used as a hospital for Confederate and Union soldiers wounded in the Civil War. Admission to this facility as a whopping $2.00.

Photo of Forks of Cypress

Photo Of Forks of Cypress burning

Photo of Forks of Cypress after burning

As I left Pope's Tavern, I heard live music coming from about a block or two away, so I had to go investigate.  Unfortunately, I got there just in time to hear the end of the last song and the announcer saying they would be having Music in the Park in June also.  I've since explored this and discovered this is a Wednesday activity, 11:30-1:30.  How cool is that!

                   

So, from there I was off to my next stop, which was The Rosenbaum House, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is the only Frank Lloyd Wright structure in the  state of Alabama. An $8.00 admission made this my most expensive stop of the day. I was given a tour of the house, along with an oral history of it, then I was allowed to walk around and take pictures.

Built in towel rack around the tub

I love the built in Bookshelves, but I would hate to have to dust them!!

I had one last stop planned, so I was off for just a short drive to the W.C. Handy Museum. W.C. Handy, known as the Father of the Blues, was born in Florence in 1873 in a small cabin.  This cabin has been turned into a museum with various artifacts from his life as well as other items that are from that era.

Cameras were not allowed, but I sneakily took a few pictures inside with my phone! (Don't tell on me)  The admission price to this museum was $2.00.

All four places I visited today were staffed by friendly, informative people. These visits were fun, relaxing and educational.

I drove through a Taco Bell drive through for a limeade, at $1.09, so my total expenses (gas excluded) for the day was $25.09, which was $5.09 over what I had budgeted. The 2 dollar tip and the limeade was responsible for $3.09 of that.  Had the Alabama Music Hall of Fame been open, I would have gone over by another 10 dollars, but I would have gladly paid it!

That is a long summation of Wandering Wednesday # 1.  Now, where to go next week???

A week in review

I usually go out to hear live music on the weekends. I have two venues I go to regularly for music. One is Dream Mecca Studios/Daniel Day Gallery at 3025 6th Ave. S. This is one of my favorite places in town. Good owners, a pleasant place to spend time, nice art on the walls and always full of good people I enjoy being around!! Plus, the music is almost always enjoyable.

Last Friday I went to the Gallery to see a band called 2 Blu and the Lucky Stiffs. A blues band. They began playing and it was good music. They are a very good blues band. At some point, early in the evening an older gentleman by the name of Curtis Files walked in. The band knew him, as did many people in the audience and the band asked him to sit in with them. He joked around with the band, telling them that if he sat in it wouldn't be "Country Boy Eddie style". Everyone laughed and the band played on. A little while later Curtis got up to join them. After several minutes of him telling them what key to play in and what tempo, he began singing. He never told them to play any particular song, but just told them to play. They began playing. He began singing the song "Going Down Slow". Google the lyrics, as what happened next was sort of eerie and surreal. Remember, noone knew what Curtis was going to sing and he choose to sing this song, that is about a mans health going down. He sang the first verse, with an appreciative crowd watching and listening with the respect an older blues singer deserves. He got the line that goes, "Tell my mama to pray for me, mama forgive me for my sins" After he sang those words, he gently collapsed to the floor. A young lady in the crowd and a friend of mine began CPR. 911 was called and he was taken to the hospital. We heard alter that he had passed away. We all believe he left this world after that line. I don't think he was alive when the paramedics took him out.

The following week, was full of post and tributes to him on Facebook. Those people that were there posted picutres of him from that night, as well as our accounts of the event. Those who were not there posted questions and thier personal tributes to Curtis. You tube videos from performances of past years were posted.

I took it as a sign that I needed to go to Mr. Gips in Bessemer, which is a Juke Joint in the backyard of Mr. Henry Gipson, another local celebrity on the blues circuit. I ahd been wanting to go for several years and felt this was the time I needed to go. Mr. Gip and Curtis were friends. I now have been to Mr. Gips, and it is indeed a magical place and I will be going back!!

Last night Curtis' band played at Dream Mecca Studios/Daniel Day Gallery. Many local blues musicians sat in and there was a large crowd of people there to remember Curtis in the best way we could; listening to Blues music and celebrating his life.

A friend of mine put it in these simple terms, " he left his earth, not languishing, but doing what he loved, surrounded by people who loved what he did". Can you think of a better way?

Raising money for my class

A week ago I found a Functional Skills program that comes in the form of 20 iPod touch that I want for my classroom. However, the cost seems out of reach, $3500. It is hard to do fundraisers with my students--they are not big salesmen and often the parents don't have the desire to try to see things. I already had two small fundraiser planned to raise money for transportation to our Special Olympic events. The idea of trying to raise that much money seemed a bit overwhelming.

I made a post about this program on Facebook and a friend of mine encouraged me to send out private messages asking each of my friends to donate $10.00. After giving it some thought, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. I spent Friday evening and part of Saturday morning sending out private messages to 20 people at a time.

Saturday evening I went to my favorite venue for live music and by the time I went home I had $150 toward the project. The following week I received a $50 dollar check in the mail from a friend who is not on Facebook ( I assume some friends who are shared the info with him), $15 dollars from another and then a $100 dollar check from a lady I shared mutual friends with. So within a week time, I have raised $315 dollars. It will be interesting to see if any comes in this week! I may post a link to my blog on Facebook, so those who have donated can see where we are in the process.

Also, some musician friends, Gary and Jane Morris (also known as New Rain) contacted me with an interesting proposition. The will be playing in Birmingham the weekend of December 10th. The 10th they will be playing at a place in Hoover called Up Top. They were planning on charging a $5.00 cover that night. They have offered to donate $2.00 of each cover charge to my class. So, I encourage EVERYONE to come out and hear some good music and contribute to this cause!!! They will also play the next night at my favorite venue, Daniel Day Gallery. Personally, I encourage people to come to both shows!!

This past Saturday there was an all day event at Daniel Day Gallery and I had my class make buttons to sell at this event. We made $69.00 at this event and the gallery wants more buttons.

Today we started selling Alabama and Auburn buttons at school and are also doing a coin drop for the Iron Bowl. (people drop coins into the jars for each team and my class will graph the amounts each day, showing which team is getting the most support from our school). Today, being the first day, we only raised 24 dollars. We will be doing this every day for the next two weeks.

I have some other ideas for fund raising and I plan to apply for some grants. It may take a while, but we will get this program!!!

A Day at Railroad Park with the Pups

 

Chloe

Skeeter

Sitting by the water

Watching Trains

I Believe Skeeter found it all amusing!!

Chloe got hot and decided to cool off a bit!!

These are pictures from a day at Railroad Park with my pups.  I am trying to socialize them with other people and let them have new experiences.  I also like doing things that will tire them out, so they will sleep at night!!