Making my way back home, trolley tour and perfect day

For months, my cousin Susan and I had been talking about a day visit to Milledgeville, Georgia, where I grew up and she went to college.  This past Saturday, we finally went:

- The first stop was the convention and visitors bureau that is housed in a lovely old building that was the built to be the post office, then became the county library and now houses the CVB.  I posted about it here in 2009, if you would like to see a photograph of the building (then the library) where I worked after school and during summers when I was in high school and early college, until I moved away.  Parked outside was this trolley, named Milly.  :)  Short for Milledgeville, I guess.  A very nice woman inside the CVB told us the trolley tour was leaving in eight minutes if we would like to go - lead by a professor emeritus from nearby Georgia College and State University.  So off we went.

- The view to the left of the CVB.  The banner on the light pole there proclaims Milledgeville as "The Great American Main Street City."  And indeed it is - having won that award in 2014.  I always knew it was.  The first stop on the trolley tour was the original state capital building for the state of Georgia from 1804 to 1868.  The building is on the campus of Georgia Military College and was in use that day for a meeting of "Georgia Republican Leadership" - they were on a break, so our group got to see the room the old legislature once met in. 

- Next - St. Stephens Episcopal Church, built in 1843 on the historic statehouse square.  Amazing that in all the years I have loved this town, I had never been inside this church.  During the Union occupation of Milledgeville during the Civil War, they reportedly burned the pews for firewood and housed their horses inside the sanctuary.  It is said that you can see the imprint of horses hooves on the wooden floors (now covered with carpet.)  When the nearby arsenal was blown up, the roof was blown off the building.  If these walls could talk!

- The stained glass windows date from the early 1900s and were each dedicated to communicants by their families.

- This is the Brown-Stetson-Sanford house and was the last stop on the tour.  It was designed by the master builder John Marlor and built in 1825.  It was originally a hotel for visiting legislators, then a private home.  In the 1950s, until 1966 it operated as The Sanford House Tea Room.  My late father used to have lunch there sometimes.  He told me that was how he became acquainted with author Flannery O'Connor, who lunched there frequently with her mother.  The house was moved to its current location in the late 1960s, when the grocery store it butted up against was planning to tear it down to make room for additional parking.  Thank goodness local preservationists saved the building by moving it and then restoring it.

I used to walk by this house after school, on my way to work at the library.  I stood under this tree while the tour guide talked and thought about what a perfect day this was - a blue sky Saturday, with a beloved cousin, in a town I love so much.

Bluejacket, blowing in the wind and returning

- This is a page from The Bluejacket's Manual issued by the US Navy in 1944 to my dad, who was newly off to war.  When we were going through his things, we found the manual and I brought it home.  The page above is for instructions in marching, which I guess he learned in boot camp.  I noticed a couple of pieces of paper stuck in it.  One is some sort of ticket and the other is a pass to a cafe and restaurant at 377 Si-Tzang Road, in Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa.)  A little end of the war fun, looks like, with "genuine drinks, excellent foods, good music and lovely hostesses."

- My older sister wondered out loud once where we got our curly hair from (dad had close cropped hair when we were kids and then he lost it.)  I think we can see that wave in the photo above.  Dad said the photographer taped the collar of his midi top to the back of his cap, so it would look as if it was blowing in the ocean wind.  I have that top and his cap in my cedar chest.

- One of two ships (minesweepers) he was on board during World War II.  I have a project that I'm working on with Mina's father (who works in diplomatic relations in Washington, DC) to return a Japanese soldier's photo album that Dad brought home from the war.  Something he found, he said - the details of that are sketchy.  But we want the soldier's family to have it, if they can be found.  There is a name and address inside.  Dad wanted that, too, so I vow to fulfill that wish.

Happy weekend, y'all!

Belated milestone, stormy weather and workout

- You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love... From the I Have a Dream speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This photo was from a couple of weeks ago and was meant to post yesterday. The sign borders the King Center in Atlanta just next to Freedom Parkway.

- Posting late today due to a power outage that lasted all night. Big storms! The battery operated alarm clock kicked in and there were new batteries in the flashlight. I always feel so fortunate that I have a natural gas hot water heater when this kind of thing happens so that the shower is hot. And happy that no one fainted when I came in to work with no makeup. :) Oh it's on now though.

- Pleasantly sore from my Kristi Yamaguchi Power Workout session from a recently purchased dvd. My second most favorite part was when the trainer yelled out "Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi!" for Kristi to do her signature move. My most favorite part was when it was all over. :)

Sweet Auburn, gentle spirit and freedom

- This peaceful street is within the area in Atlanta called the "Sweet Auburn" district. It was lovely to drive through it on a blue-sky day and to see how the buildings are being preserved, rather than torn down in lieu of glass buildings.

- In the center of it all is Ebenezer Baptist Church, standing for more than 121 years. It was here, from the pulpit of the Heritage Sanctuary, that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached his ministry of nonviolence. The sign asking that cars yield to bicycles is a tribute to the gentle spirit of the neighborhood.

- Due to church growth, this much larger church building now resides just across the street. The King Center for Nonviolent Change is just behind it.

And so, feeling refreshed after my lunch hour drive, I turn onto Freedom Parkway and head back to work.

Cannonballs, provisions and northwest

- Stumbling upon a website with accounts of Civil War battles fought around the area I work in northwest Atlanta, there is the story of General Joseph Johnston, then commander of the Confederate Army, and his firing for being ineffective in July 1864. It tells of a group erecting a sentimental monument in the form of 55 stacked Confederate cannonballs at 950 West Marietta Street, the former site of the Dexter Niles house, in which the relief of command took place. After work, I decide to find it and program the address into my GPS. Sure enough - there it is, inside a gate that houses the Mead Paper Company's fleet of shipping containers.

- A couple of miles away is the White Provision Company, on Howell Mill Road, a former meat packing plant, ca. 1910. It morphed into a graffiti painted old building full of artistic urban loft dwellers, to a space that now encompasses apartments, offices and retail businesses. (I read with relief that some of the loft dwelling artists remain.) Thankfully no one thought to tear this building down in lieu of a new glass building so commonly seen around now.

- When I was looking for a job the last time, I resisted working this far from home (20 miles.) But it has been a pleasure to seek out the rich history of northwest Atlanta and I expect to search out more monuments and history soon. Watch for more photos. :)

Face impression, Georgia Day and some snow

Wisau Sasongko, Indonesia, Java, Face Impression No. 19, 2009, Acrylic on canvas.

- More seminary artwork. This one makes me think of the shroud of Turin. I like it for its mysteriousness.

- Today is Abraham Lincoln's birthday, but it is also Georgia Day, the holiday which the state of Georgia recognizes in honor of its colonial founding as the Province of Georgia. On February 12, 1733, James Oglethorpe landed the first settlers in what was to become Georgia's first city, Savannah.

- It is also a day in 2010 that Georgia is expecting 1 to 3 inches of snow. There is much excitement and laying in of supplies. :) Bring it on, Mother Nature!

Have a great weekend, my friends, full of warmth, love and laughter!

Movie palace, Paris Trout and angels

- Driving through the heart of my hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia, I am thrilled to see workers sprucing up the long closed up Campus Theatre. It opened in 1935 and showed its last film in 1983. A local accountant kept his offices upstairs and would not consider selling the building until the nearby university purchased it last year. It will be used for occasional performances and as the college bookstore. Hopefully they will light up the marquee again. I have missed it.

- The upstairs offices were the scene of an infamous crime in 1953. A fictionalized account of the story was written by Peter Dexter, who won the National Book Award for "Paris Trout."

- In a less famous area of town, a woman and her son are mowing, trimming and edging my parents' lawn and shrubbery. It is a lovely surprise because no one expected them to do this and they will not let me pay them, saying they do it because they love my parents. I call them angels.

At the junction, soul of a house and memorabilia

- My family's home in Milledgeville, Georgia is at the junction of where the 20th and 14th corps converged 145 years ago. It is easy to imagine 30,000 men camping on property around the bubbling creek that runs through it.

- Sitting in the kitchen and reflecting how odd it is to be alone in a house so recently filled with voices and laughter. Sharing this with a wise friend, she remarks, "The soul of a house...a house truly does carry the emotions of those who've dwelled under its eaves..."

- Finding a plastic bag marked "Lynn," it contains a book of prose, a buckeye and an envelope that contains a batch of newsletters I used to edit. So touched that my mother saved every one of those newsletters...

Stately home, home town and cavalry

- The Gordon-Porter-Ward-Beall-Cline-O'Connor house in Milledgeville, Georgia, c.1820, was built by a General Gordon, "not of Civil War fame." It was leased as a residence for the governor while the Governor's Mansion was under construction. This was the home in town in which Flannery O'Connor lived with her parents when they moved to Milledgeville in 1938 when she was a teenager. It is still owned by the O'Connor estate.

- Chronicling some of the architecture and history of my home town of Milledgeville, Georgia, the capital of Georgia when Civil War was declared. Milledgeville has the distinction of being the only city other than Washington, DC to be designed as a capital city. (The capital was moved to Atlanta during reconstruction.)

- A rare dinner out with just sisters, all arriving from three different directions to help out during a health crisis;* mom saying it was like the cavalry was coming.

* My dad is ill and in the hospital, but expected to make a full recovery.