As the billboard we just passed said, “Morning, Nashville!” ( I am using my teacher’s “red pen” and adding the comma needed for correct punctuation…ha!)On this Wednesday morning we are saying, “Good-bye, Nashville.” I’m typing as Ladd is driving, so I’ll probably need to do some editing on my own work as well tonight. We are now headed to the Jack Daniels Distillery Tour in Lynchburg, Tennessee. From there we head on to Birmingham, Alabama.
After adding to the blog late yesterday afternoon we rested a short while. Then Ladd said he was taking me to a mansion for dinner. In my typical worry/panic mode, I told him all my better clothes were in the large suitcase in the car. Ladd, in his typical laissez faire mode said, "it'll be fine", so I TRIED to relax. We drove into a gorgeous, old renovated mansion which is now “Monell’s At The Manor”: a restaurant and events venue. I started to again stress about my attire, but upon entering relaxed. This restaurant serves Southern food family style. “Pull up a chair and pass the peas, please.” Ladd and I were seated at a table with ten “strangers” who didn’t remain strangers long. Let the food passing and conversations begin! We started with a five-bean salad, squash salad, coleslaw, cornbread muffins, and buttermilk biscuits. On the biscuits I tried a peach preserve they sell there, and it was absolutely delicious! Then came skillet fried chicken, spinach lasagna, pot roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, and collard greens. Any time a dish became empty, it was quickly replaced with a full one. There was banana pudding for dessert. But with so much food, even this dessert addict did not have room for dessert. (Although technically the peach preserves on the corn muffins and biscuits really should qualify as a “dessert” because it was so sweet and smooth!) We enjoyed our conversations with a young couple from Detroit. We discussed the “where you’re from/what do you do” and the touristy places we had each visited. We also got a big kick out of the two cute-as-a-button little girls at our table. They were about 5 and 7 years old. The littlest one was an outgoing “actress” and the older one had a quiet-study-the-people/situation personality. BOTH of them were so very polite and well behaved! We joked with the little girls about “inviting us to their party” since we joined their table. They didn’t quite know what to make of us, but their moms were happy that we were keeping them entertained. They got up to leave before we did, and the two little girls came over to give us good-bye hugs! (You may not be saying, “Ahhhh”, but I was!) When we went to the lobby to pay, I was staring at the gorgeous staircase and chandelier. The hostess said, “You can go upstairs to look, if you wish.” Say no more! The rooms were decorated in historical fashion, and I said to Ladd that I think I would have loved being a “Southern Belle”….but only if my family had had the money to own a manor such as that. (My family could be described as smart, hard-working, honest, funny, and very kind, but NEVER as “well off”, so “fat chance” on owning a manor…LOL!) We left the manor full and happy!
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| "Scarlet V" (showing a little leg...think of her in a long flowing gown - I do! |
Yesterday was a very busy day for us. Our first stop before leaving Tennessee was a visit to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery in Lynchburg, TN. Guided tours are offered with or without sampling their products. (We chose without as there was much driving to come. We thought perhaps one could get a “high” anyway from the aromas wafting from the stills.) Our tour was very complete and interesting. Our tour guide was personable and a font of knowledge. She told us that California is the state that orders the most Jack Daniel's. Come on, New York,...we have to try harder! Ha! Aside from all the great facts about the Jack Daniel’s distilling process, one spot of interest for us was a room with brass plaques with the names of people/companies who order a barrel/barrels of Jack Daniel’s. To join this impressive “club” you pay $9,000 to $12,000 per barrel. This may seem too rich for most people’s blood, but you DO get to keep the barrel! (For our 50th anniversary, I plan to order a barrel of Jack Daniel’s for Ladd. Please don’t tell him because I want it to be a surprise….LOL!)
Then on to the "Magic City" - Birmingham
First stop - the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. When we pulled up students were boarding three school buses departing from their field trip there. If you are from a school district near ours in upstate New York you may not even remember what field trips are unless you’ve “been around for a while.” These were trips the students went on to support and enrich the curriculum and to help bring it to life. When we told the guide at Sloss Furnaces we were glad to see students coming for a field trip there since we no longer had them, she asked where we were from. We said we were from New York, and she said, “What? Isn’t New York a ‘rich’ state?” With all our budget cuts we do not have field trips anymore, but “poor” Birmingham still does. The students, and we, got to learn the history behind the Sloss Furnace ironmaking industry. Ironmaking was the quintessential Birmingham industry and “made” Birmingham. The raw materials for making iron – iron ore, limestone, and coal – were available in abundance in the Birmingham area, and for ninety some years men turned these materials into pig iron at Sloss. On our tour we got to see the furnaces, blowers, stoves, boilers, and the amazing network of pipes that carried steam, water, and gas. Hard to imagine the genius, drive, and determination needed to envision and develop this process and industry!
History of amazing industrial accomplishments, and History of years of shame.
Next stop, the 16th Baptist Church and the Civil Rights Institute (pictures limited as they are not allowed inside)
One need only count the number of visitors that exit the CRI with tears in their eyes to grasp the "history".
What an impressive presentation of displays of a sad, shameful period in our country’s history. One of the exhibits was a K.K.K. robe and cross that had been burned. The sign said the K.K.K. robe was “donated anonymously”….no surprise there, right??! Being officially old, Ladd and I remembered some of the historical events depicted in the museum’s exhibits. Despite being “aware” of these events, the exhibits were so powerful that we viewed them anew with disbelief, anger, sadness, and hope for a better future. As we neared the end of the self-guided tour, one of the Institute employees was chatting with us. He directed us to an autographed photograph on the wall and said, “See if you recognize the people in that picture.” In the photograph was President Clinton, facing Reverend Shuttleworth, with then Senator Obama pushing the Reverend’s wheelchair! It was autographed by both President Clinton and then Senator Obama! The black woman at the desk saw how interested we were in the photograph and said to us, “I told the Institute that if that picture ever ‘disappears’ that they should look at my house first because I want that picture!” LOL She had been a teacher prior to working at the Institute so we had an easy time talking to each other! We told her how powerful we thought the exhibits were, and she told us she could not get her mother to come to the Institute because her mother says, “I LIVED it.” Across the street from the Institute is the park where the police used fire hoses and dogs on the demonstrators fifty some years ago. This woman told us about the struggles of the Latino population now marching in that same park for their rights. She said she felt sorry for them, understood their struggles, and wondered about “history repeating itself.” Hmmm…attempts to impose new, harder voter registration requirements on college students, the elderly, the poor…does made one wonder if we’ve learned anything from history or if we will be forced to repeat it.
Long ago we learned that if one wishes to find a good place to eat, all the internet searching in the world can't compare to a recommendation from a "real" local - one that doesn't have a vested interest but actually does have an interest in providing a "new friend" with good info.
We were lucky to find such a "new friend" at the CRI and her recommendation was spot on.
Late lunch/early dinner at "Sweet Tea" - if you are ever in Birmingham, it's a MUST!
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