Day 25: Revolution and Reconciliation

Today was our first full day in Birmingham. We arrived last night and was greeted by Lois Whitten, Justine's father's oldest friend. Justine and Lois had never met before, but had heard all about each other through stories from Neil. Lois has lived in Birmingham her entire life and is a self professed Southern Belle (I knew she was half kidding when she told us that she was forced to learn how to pump her own gas a few years before) Lois has lived in the same house for the last 40 years and may be moving into a flat should the housing market turn favorable. Her husband Bob passed away some time ago and she keeps his ashes in an urn next to an extremely life like bust he commissioned of himself in his late thirties. She likes to pat his head when speaking of him as if he's still here, just frozen and bronze. It's very endearing. Lois had a spread all laid out for us when we arrived in typical southern hospitality fashion. She's a very generous and kind hearted person who has a lot of great stories to tell and a real passion for justice and equality. She saw to it that we had a great time in Birmingham and whatever we wanted to do was just fine by her. She took us out for dinner last night and then drove us around town today.

The symbol of Birmingham is a statue of the Roman God Vulcan who was the god of blacksmithing and sits atop Red Mountain on the north side of the city. A few facts about Vulcan: It is the largest cast iron statue in the world; Was build for the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904; Can be seen for miles; And has been the source of controversy as he is wearing a loincloth that does not cover his ass. The gift shop sells a deluxe bobble head version of him with an additional spring in his butt to make his badonk-a-donk jiggle. Lois thought her grandson would get a kick out of it as he is always asking her to "shake her booty" so she bought one.

Today's southern prepared meat was lunch at Alabama's famous Dreamland BBQ.

The sauce was tangy and thick, but I found the ribs to be dry without a lot of meat on them. By far my favorite dish there was their Brunswick Stew, a southern dish consisting of a pork stew with diced tomatoes and corn. We had some in Atlanta the other day and I look forward to trying other versions across the south. As a result I am planning on altering one of my favorite recipes to include some secrets I gleaned from Brunswick Stew.

Our stomachs full, we drove around Downtown and Lois related stories to us of when that particular part of town had seen better days. You could still see the outlines of Woolworth's and other now defunct department stories on the marquees of closed up shops. Other areas of Birmingham have prospered, but the downtown could use an infusion of civic pride and money.

We then went to the Civil Rights Museum and its adjoining park with the slogan

There were a few homeless people serving as unofficial tour guides of the park and relating the powerful history of the civil rights movement in Birmingham which was then expounded upon ten fold inside the museum. Wow, what a difference it makes to view someone else's cultural suffering than my own. I was numbed by the Holocaust museum in DC, but vibrated by the Museum here. Perhaps its because this form of racism still continues to this day and many African Americans are still left without prosperity and the American Dream where as we Jews through various reasons have found our way to equality and thrived. What was really fascinating to me was the methodical approach Dr. King and the black congress took to desegregating the south. They worked methodically breaking down individual Jim Crow laws until they amassed enough victories to inspire change in those who thought it fruitless. I could feel the infectious swelling of hope in the face of staggering violence and wanted to join the freedom riders myself.

We retired to Lois' house and entertained her neighbors who had just returned from a trip to Kansas City. They are world travelers themselves and as I have done with adventures through out this trip we sat and traded road stories. They had a few great ones and before we knew it hours had passed by.

We leave tomorrow morning headed to Tennessee, first to Nashville for a few days and then to Memphis. We have couch surfers lined up in both cities including a guy with a house boat in Nashville. I can't wait.

By the by, Justine is also keeping a blog of her trip, though she warns that she isn't keeping it as up to date as mine. The link to that is http://www.blogabond.com/toadfu

written by

JRadhirsch on September 25, 2008 from Birmingham, United States

from the travel blog: The Great American Road Trip

Send a Compliment

My trip through your eyes, and your trip through my eyes... it's an eye-opener. A fantastic one. Mush, mush.

written by

Justine Smith on September 26, 2008

Heh heh heh heh! Bobble Butt!

written by the Zote on September 29, 2008

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