As we (Please note that "we" currently includes all of me and myself) move rapidly towards Monday (Boo!!!, hisss!!!), I wanted to share some tidbits of a great trip to the Southern states of the United States, specifically Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas, that I recently completed.
The food in the South is awesome!!! One of my favorite meals was apple butter and biscuits. Apple butter is like candy. I already run quite a bit, and, if this delicacy was available to me 24/7, I would be burning holes in my running shoes. Additionally, in Memphis, there is a great fried chicken. Its tasty and it requires no additional flavor. Finally, you can't eat in the South without giving a shout out to grits. Think of oat meal in texture and a wonderful salty flavor and you've got grits nailed. Grits with some butter on top are a wonderful combination, even if the heart and cholesterol sensitive body might not appreciate it. But, throw caution to the wind!! Life is too short not to try it.
As for the South's history and culture, there's plenty to go around and then some. The history of the American South is plentiful. My tour guide, aka one of my best friends, and I visited several civil rights locales. One of the most famous was the Birmingham, Alabama Baptist church that was bombed during Martin Luther King Jr.'s time. Six children lost their lives in a Baptist church in downtown Birmingham. It pained me to see how terrible and closed-minded people can be and being at the sites of some atrocities left an impression on me. I considered that, while the hatred of the ignorant was famously directed towards African-Americans, Egyptien-French-Canadien Americans would not have gotten kind treatment either. Despite that famously unjust behavior, the caretakers of the church were so kind and accommodating. My buddy and I were the only visitors on a Thursday morning, and yet we were treated royally. The spirit of the church was peaceful and soothing.
My tour guide and I also visited the final resting place of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia. What an amazing human being and a beautiful tribute to his efforts. Its chilling to see Reverend King's final speech before his assassination. Its prophetic in that he says he may not get to the promised land with us, but that we will get to that glorious place. Powerful speech and one that I've since re-watched on the web. His messages have some important takeaways for all of us, not the least of them that he was a human being who did amazing things despite extreme difficulties. What an inspirational place to visit, let me tell you.
On a lighter note, my tour guide and I also visited some famous musical sites. In downtown Memphis, TN, we visited Sun Records. This is the famous studio where a southern gent with the surname Presley got his start. A comical revelation was the the studio owner, Sam Phillips, was not the person who discovered Elvis. It was actually his very sweet female assistant who let Elvis record a song under false pretenses (Elvis said it was for his mom's birthday, which had well since passed on the day he visited the studio). Fellow gents: No doubt that the saying behind every successful man there's a good woman applies here as well.
My tour guide, aka best bud, and I also visited the famous Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee. What a place!! We were entertained by some future stars of country music and a performance by a song writer behind some of the most famous country songs of the last 15 years. Unfortunately, due to my unfamiliarity with country music song titles, I can't recall the names of the songs and who sang them that were performed that night, but they were crowd-pleasing (I know, what type of blogster am I. I'm slapping my hands right now). Hopefully, as some consolation, I can mention that the Blue Bird Cafe is where a gent named Garth Brooks was discovered and rocketed to stardom. He has several "friends in low places".
All in all, the South is a great place to visit. The local accent is trip and it alters so slightly as you pass through different states. I don't want to forget to mention that Memphis's Beale Street and Nashville's Broadway are filled with live music and entertainment that are very appealing.
Au Revoir for now!!
