Before, I start, an apology to those of you who may be offended by my ignorance - you live here, or you were here at the time I recall below, or you just don't perceive things as I do...
Today as I crossed from Georgia into Alabama, down through Montgomery to Mobile and then into Mississippi and Louisiana, I felt chills. I knew they were irrational - this isn't the Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi of Lester Maddox, Bull Connor and George Wallace, or Ross Barnett. Still, I looked at the names on the exit signs, especially of course Montgomery and Selma, and could think only of the horrors that took place at the Pettus Bridge (warning: you may find parts of this video disturbing). I hadn't been there; I had just seen the clubs, whips, dogs, and bleeding victims on the news, but the impressions are still raw.
And then I turned on the radio and the first thing I found was a really good classical music program on the Montgomery and Selma station of Alabama Public Radio; it kept me company all the way to Mobile. The place didn't seem so alien anymore. I didn't meet that many people or stray that far from the Interstate. I didn't even turn off to see the Tuskegee Airmen memorial. So this was a shallow and emotional reaction, and I intend to come back to correct my ignorance.
Beside three new states, today brought other firsts: Penny Prius's first trip outside the Eastern time zone in her almost five years. My first visit to New Orleans, to have dinner on Bourbon Street (the staff and the food at the Red Fish Grill were delightful, especially the BBQ Oysters; Bourbon Street was as garish and sleazy as I had hoped).
Lunch at Bates House of Turkey in Greenville, AL, was a bit of a disappointment, partly because it had to compete with some fond childhood memories.* The turkey and dressing were good and I found the cracked corn pleasingly exotic, but the butter beans were watery and the staff and customers were 100% white. This was before Montgomery and that last observation added to my nervousness about being in Alabama.
No pictures today. I'm taking my camera to Bourbon Street and the Garden District tomorrow; maybe I can get some good images for you then.
* Link updated 7/24/2018: Strongbow's closed three years ago and their website is gone.
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I had to do a presentation in my German class, and chose to talk about Billie Holiday. And there's no talking about her and the music of that time without talking about segregation and the horrible dynamics of the 1930s South.
ReplyDeleteI wish these days were fully behind us, but as the election and the extreme right wing (Tea Party) surge has shown, race hate -- and certainly in the South -- is still alive and well.
Glad the music provided some relief, in any case. We still have to live.
I'm a huge Billie fan. I've read accounts of her frustration with being so widely identified with "Strange Fruit" - it made her much more famous than she had been before she recorded it, but she came to resent being asked to sing it in every program and being identified as a social activist that she didn't want to be.
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