Atlanta History Center - March 21

March 21

I have really been suffering from allergies. There is a yellow layer of pollen everywhere. Mom said the news was saying Atlanta is the worst place in the WORLD right now for pollen. They even had pictures on the yellow pollen on TV! I finally got some meds that seem to be helping.

We went to the Atlanta History Center today. It came with our tour of Margaret Mitchell’s house or we probably would have missed it. The Swan House sat in the middle of 22 acres when it was built in the 1930’s. The property now also holds the Atlanta History Museum and the Smith family farm from 1850 that was moved here. We took the tours of the homes with the farm house and the out buildings first. Our guide put us back to 1862 during the Civil War. One of their sons had gone off to fight a fast and easy conflict with the north a year ago but now it was obvious that the war was going to be devastating to both sides in loss of lives. She read a letter written home and talked about the effects of the war on the families at home and the part they played as the war worsened. The Swan house was built in 1929. Our guide put us in the year 1933 but was not as good at time travel as the previous guide. The home is beautiful and one of the finest in Atlanta at the time. The grounds are lovely.

The museum was one of the best I have seen and was broken up into areas on the Civil War, Southern Folk Art, and Golf with Bobby Jones as the main player. They had another area on the Olympics centering on the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta that we didn’t see. The exhibits were so well done. My hat goes off to the staff.

1950's Farm House

One Room Slave Cabin for 6 or 7 Slaves

Swan Home Front Entrance

Taken From the Rear Looking to the Screen Porch

Swan Home

Atlanta March 20

March 20

We had three places to visit on our list today and each one ended up being really interesting. We headed to the north end of Atlanta to tour Margaret Mitchell’s apartment where she was living when she wrote “Gone With the Wind.” Interesting to think of Rawlings writing the “Yearling” and Margaret Mitchell writing “ Gone With the Wind” in the same time period, both getting due acclaim and then the two becoming friends through their writing. Even as a child, she always loved writing. They even have a little book on display that she made when she was eleven. She was not interested in school and left Smith College after one year. Her mother had passed away and her father thought she should move home to run the household. Margaret wasn’t interested in that either. She ended up with a job as a reporter, not common in the 30’s, married, divorced and married again and living in the small apartment we visited that she called “The Dump.” Both she and Rawlings came from families with money. We heard that Margaret’s father came to the Dump for a visit and sent a housekeeper right away. She had an accident affecting her ankles making it hard for her to walk and couldn’t get out to do her reporting. She was becoming very depressed, but with her husbands encouragement and the purchase of a typewriter, she began writing what became “Gone With the Wind.” She wrote the last chapter first and then went forward putting chapters in manila envelopes as she went. She used a stack of these envelopes to hold up a broken table leg. I guess the envelopes were everywhere. She was on the shy side and didn’t want criticism so it was years before she would finally submit it. The publishers were leery about publishing a 1,000 page book at the high price of $3.00 and still in the depression but of course it was an instant success. She sold the movie rights to David Selznick but wasn’t interested in writing the screen play. Her life came to an early end at 49 when she was hit by a car as she was crossing the street. Once again, our guide was fabulous and had so many stories to tell. It was obvious that she was fascinated with Margaret and certainly passed her enthusiasm on to us. She did a great job pointing our how her life experiences influenced her writing. On the same property is a museum showing a film on the making of the movie, “Gone With the Wind.“ Selznick wanted to see how his three hour movie was going to go over without the press. He previewed in Riverside away from Hollywood. People came to see a movie and at the end a speaker cam out and told them they were going to show a three hour movie premier and if they wanted to leave they should so so now as the doors would be locked once the movie started. It showed to a full house with rave reviews. We saw Margaret Mitchell speaking in a news reel.

Margaret Mitchel's apartment where she wrote "Gone With the Wind."

Desk she used when she was a reporter.
They had to cut the desk down because she was only 4'10.''

Doors to the plantation that they used in the movie set.

Driving to the east side of Atlanta, we toured the Wren’s Nest with Nanny, our black 82 year old tour guide. This slight little woman with sparkling eyes kept us enthralled as she shared stories about Mr. Harris, his family and his writing. She shared a bit of her life as well. The Wren’s Nest was the home of Joel Chandler Harris and his children from 1881 until his death in 1908. He wrote the “Uncle Remus Stories” on the front porch. I always loved the stories as a child and I think “Song of the South” was my first movie. Nanny was absolutely enthralled with Harris and his family along with the stories. She started out 15 years ago cleaning the home and is now a guide but won’t give up her cleaning job. She loves being able to touch and care for the household items. Harris was born out of wedlock and his was mother forced to move away from everything she knew when he was born. This little red headed boy spent all of his free time growing up hanging out with the slaves where his mother was working. He loved the stories he heard in the slave dialect and wanted to share them as an adult. Thanks to him the folklore stories were saved using the dialect when he did his writing about Brer Rabbit. They created a bit of controversy. A quote in a publication says, “A century ago, Joel Chandler Harris almost single handedly blew life into public consciousness about black American folklore. Both reviled and revered, Harris’s legacy lives on.

The Harris Home in the 1800's
The azaleas and flowering trees are beautiful right now.

Nanny taking us through the harris home.

Last on the list was the Cyclorama. It is a 360 degree painting that is 358 feet wide, 42 feet tall and weighs 9,334 pounds. The theater seats rotate on a platform while the viewer is taken through the battle of Atlanta during the Civil War. The thirty foot span between the painting and the platform is filled with a 3D scene with roads, railroad crossings, trees and 128 soldiers. The foreground runs right into the painting. The narrator describes July 22, 1864 as Sherman is taking Atlanta. It really is pretty spectacular. It was painted in 1865-66 by German artists. The diorama was added in 1936 with the CCC program. Norm and Christy saw it on their trip in 1993 and Norm remembered it as a hokey attraction not worth seeing again. Chris on the other hand thought he was thinking of something else and it was pretty cool. We decided to go ahead and see it while Norm took a nap in the car. We were all happy. Chris and I enjoyed the Cyclorama and Norm enjoyed a nap. That’s what we want; happy campers.

Atlanta - Martin Luther King

March 19

We spent most of the day at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site today. They have a wonderful museum with interesting photos, videos and time lines on Martin Luther King Jr’s life. The roots of King’s lifelong fight for equality are here with the home where he was born and lived his first twelve years. When the park service bought the home they decided they had better try to buy the surrounding homes so that the neighborhood would stay in tact. It is an ongoing process. The Ebenezer Baptist Church where his grandfather, father and later Martin preached is right down the street. At the time, the black neighborhood had everything necessary for the community with shops, a grocery, cleaners, doctors, lawyers etc. The neighborhood had been all white when it was first built but as the whites moved out the blacks moved in. It was a mix of houses economically including large ones like the King families and small ones across the street. They were not welcomed in the white neighborhoods nearby. We took a tour through the home with the ranger telling many stories of his childhood. He was just an ordinary kid pulling his sister’s hair, having a messy room and sliding down the banister. He excelled in school and entered Morehouse College at 15. We heard about the family sitting down for dinner each night with the three children expected to be ready to discuss their school day plus news events and recite a Bible verse. Another story was when Martin, or M.L. as he was called by his family, was walking down the street with his father and saw some shoes in a store window that he wanted. They went into the “white” store and the clerk told them that they needed to go the rear of the store so they wouldn’t be seen and he would help them. His father marched them out of the store. His father told him they should be treated like everyone else and were not going to “move to the back.“ Martin Luther King, Sr. was head of the Atlanta branch of the NAACP. Conversations like the one with the shoe store, conversations in their front parlor with civil rights meetings going on, preaching’s by his father and grandfather, and college students living in their home with their conversations all helped to form M.L.’s passion for the betterment of their community and civil rights in general. Early on he became a spokes person for peaceful change. In 1959, he traveled to India to study the nonviolent teachings of Gandhi as the guest of Prime Minister Nehru. His Nobel Peace Prize in on display. Outside the museum is a reflecting pool and the crypts of Martin and Coretta King. It was good to be reminded of his passion and what he accomplished in his short life with peace and love as his focus rather than hate. I wrote my high school senior term paper on school desegregation in 1961 and remember being shocked at some of the news articles I had read.. I would love to read it today. Dr. King earned his place in history with his dream of equality for African Americans, but his ultimate dream was of human rights worldwide. I have heard about his faults but he was certainly an amazing man and accomplished much in his short life. The museum is very moving. We didn’t feel like doing any other site seeing and headed home.

I came home with this quote:

Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the “fight with fire” method which you suggest is bitterness and chaos, the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and creation of the beloved community. Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent, only love can do that. Yes, love - which means understanding, creative, redemptive, goodwill, even for one’s enemies - is the solution to the race problem. Martin Luther King Jr., 1957

More:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.


Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s home until he was twelve years old.

Memorial Pond

Church where he preached along with his father and grandfather.

Beautiful time line mural outside the museum.

Atlanta and "The Auction Kings"

March 17 and 18

We finally waved good byes to Florida. We had already visited the southern tip of Florida. There must be some things we missed but I sure don’t know what they are. Florida is a beautiful state! We had about a seven hour drive north to Stone Mountain just east of Atlanta, GA. The flowering trees are in bloom with white and pink blossoms. The dogwoods and azaleas are beautiful. The wisteria is growing wild along the freeway, sometimes twenty feet tall. The bad news is there is yellow pollen covering everything and my allergies are all riled up. We will be here for six nights before going south of Atlanta to Perry, GA for the Trail Manor Rally. We plan on going into Atlanta a couple of days and spending a day in Stone Mountain Park.

We had big plans for today. Chris and Norm love the TV show "Auction Kings" that airs on the Discovery channel and they have their auction house, Gallery 63, in Atlanta. They hold one auction a month and today was they day for March! We got there before they opened and found a line. They were already filming the crowd as we lined up. Paul, the big wig, welcomed us as we filed inside. We had two hours to get our seats and check out the merchandise before the auction started. It’s a good thing we found some seats in the bleachers right away. Lots of people had to stand in the isles by the time the auction started and some were still waiting outside when we left. There was lots of filming and activity going on before the show and it was nonstop once the auction started. It was a little rich for our blood so we left empty handed but had fun watching all the goings on. It is supposed to be over at 6:00 but I guess it can go on into the night. We were just “Lookie Lous” and only stayed about an hour.

Reading about The Varsity near Georgia Tech peeked our interest. It is the world’s largest drive-in starting in 1928 and a “must” experience! They can serve over 600 cars and 800 people inside. We did the whole deal with the tray on the window, hamburgers, fries, onion rings and malts! Amazingly, we didn’t even spill! They serve 5,000 homemade fried peach and apple pies each day. So, being in Georgia and at The Varsity, we thought we had better try a fried peach pie! I guess we won’t need dinner tonight.

Fantasy Disney Ship with Sandy and Glen

March 16

Today we were guests of Sandy and Glen (Norm’s sister and brother-in-law) aboard the brand new Disney ship, “Fantasy!” It was the next best thing to cruising. They gave us “the all inclusive tour” including some behind the scenes. They know the ship inside and out. Glen went over to Germany to work on some aspects of the sound on the ship in February. Sandy met him before the ship sailed across the Atlantic for a 12 day shake down cruise. Glen has been on board for 45 days and still fine tuning the sound! They had a stop in New York for three days and then sailed to Port Canaveral, FL. They have taken one Caribbean cruise and left this afternoon on a second before going home. What an experience!!! The ship is really amazing. We have done some cruising but this ship is beyond incredibly beautiful and huge (14 stories). The attention to detail is really something. There is beauty and luxury for adults and everything imaginably Disney for the kids. You dine in three different dining rooms and your servers go with you each night, great concept. The kids clubs were all fabulous plus they have adult only areas. There is definitely something going on all the time for everyone. If we cruised on the ship, Chris and I would have to ride the AquaDuck. You get in an inner tube and ride through a tube with running water that is high above the pool deck and goes around the ship. What fun that would be. The computer age is in evident throughout with things like interactive art work and a detective game for all ages that looked like fun. There are beautiful mosaic murals even in the bathrooms! Their room was spacious and had two bathrooms including a bathtub! If you are in an inside cabin, they have a porthole look alike that shows a video of what you would see from a balcony, plus there are Disney characters in it. Lunch was delicious with everything you could imagine. We saw where they have set up a sound studio for Glen’s team in one of the staterooms so they can do editing. They have used a lot of the sound from another Disney ship, “Dream,” and tweaked it for this one plus added some new things. They are still on the shake down phase. People connected with Disney plus invited guests boarded today for the cruise this afternoon. It will have its first paying customers March 31. What a fabulous day for us, and we think Glen and Sandy had a great time showing us around. We were ready to sail way!

Our First View of "Fantasy"

Sandy and Glen Greeted Us!

Tiny Mosaic Tiles Covered the Walls in the Bathroom - Beautiful

Chris in The Tube - A London Themed Bar

Glen and Sandy's Lovely Room

A Ride on The AquaDuck

Glen is the Sound Editing Studio

Glen and I Ready for a Drink!

Ready to set sail, but alas, we are not on board!

March 14 and 15

March 14

Daytona is an hours drive and a straight shot east from our RV Resort. When we went through Daytona in the rain in February it was Race Week for the Daytona 500 and very busy. Today it is the middle of Bike Week and really busy. Over a half a million bikers are here! We have seen motorcycles everywhere. We stepped into another world once again, the world of car racing, and took the Daytona International Speedway Tour. We were surprised at how fabulous the tour was. We drove in a tram with a another great guide as he took us onto the actual raceway with its 31 degree high banks. We went behind the scenes to see the Drivers Meeting Room where they get the low down before the race, the garages where they work on the cars, the tech inspection area, the Press Box high above the race track, and had our picture taken at Gatorade Victory Lane! It was 90 minutes full of information. They get about 250 million people at the Daytona 500 race each year! All kinds of vehicle races take place here. This week there are motor cross races for Bike Week. We saw them working on their bikes in the garages. As the bikes have gotten faster and faster, they actually had to slow down the course by making it shorter to keep the bikes from going too fast for safety. Standing up in the Press Box and looking out onto the expanse of the speedway was really breath taking. We even saw the winning car from this years Daytona 500! We drove across the bridge with motorcycles on all sides of us to see the beach where the car races actually started on the sand. They didn‘t move to an actual track until the 1930‘s. From 1903 to 1935, some 15 speed records were set on the sandy beaches. Today cars can drive on the beach when it is low tide. It was high tide when saw it and didn’t look like much room. As we passed Main Street, thousands of motorcycles were in view!

Norm Tapping His Watch Waiting on Us Girls!

Our Tram Tour of the Daytona International Speedway

We Won! Gatorade Victory Lane

Our guide talking to us up in the Press Box. 

Norm's Panaramic Photo From the Press Box
A picture can be worth a 1000 words.

The 2012 Winning Car

March 15

Today is a “take care of business day”.

March 13 - St. Augustine

March 13

We made it over to the east coast to St. Augustine today. When we had gone through this area last month if was cold and rainy with the clouds clear down to the road. The weather was perfect today. You could spend a couple of days here and still not see everything. We stuck to the Colonial Spanish Quarter, the Castillo de San Marcos or fort, and Henry Flagler’s Hotels. Construction of the fortress was begun in 1672 but most of what we see today goes back to 1756. Its walls are made out of a limestone that is called Coquina and are a couple of feet thick. It has survived sieges, bombardments and hurricanes and has flown 6 different flags beginning with the Spanish. St. Augustine was established in 1565 by the Spanish and the settlement is the oldest permanent settlement in the continental US. Thus they claim the to have the oldest of many things including the oldest house and the oldest school. The Colonial Spanish Quarter is now a very touristy pedestrian friendly area with trams telling tourists about the area, homes as museums, and lots of restaurant and shops. It is very charming and inviting. We enjoyed an ice cream cone as we walked along the streets.

Castillo de San Marcos

Guard at Entrance

Really Interesting Cannons

Chris at the Entrance of the Colonial Spanish Quarter

We had read, good old AAA tour books, that the Lightner Museum had a demonstration of 19^th century mechanical musical instruments at 2:00 and made sure to be there. The museum along with the City Hall is in Henry Flagler’s Alcazar Hotel. This was the second hotel he built and is a magnificent building. It was known for its spa. It boasted Russian baths, an indoor pool and an exercise area. The ballroom was on the second floor and overlooked the pool. The demonstration of the mechanical instruments was fascinating! Our guide played a number of machines, none that I had seen before, dating back to the late 1800’s to the 1920 or 30’s. The later ones were similar to our jute boxes taking a nickel or dime to play a song using paper reels. They were putting small bands out of work thus forming the musicians union. It was amazing to hear them played. You can go on YouTube doing a search on “Lightner Music Machine” to see and hear some of the amazing music. One that played both a player piano and violin was called the Violano Virtuoso. Another older machine was a player piano with drums, symbols and organ pipes all in one.

Violano Virtuoso

Our Guide is pointing to the player piano.The drums are on the left,
the cymbols on the right and the organ pipes are in the middle.

Across the street is the first Flagler hotel, the former Ponce de Leon, and now the home of Flagler College. We caught the tail end of a tour given by a student. The 1887 building is magnificent both inside and out. Tiffany designed the interior and we saw the entry hall along with the dining hall that includes 79 tiffany windows. Now this beautiful dining room is the dining hall for the students! How wonderful that these two amazing buildings are is such beautiful condition, are still being used, and open to the public. We heard more interesting stories about Flagler. It’s fun to put together the information we have heard about him on various tours. We want to find a good biography on him when we get home. It would make for fascinating reading.

Detail on the ceiling and dome in the ntry hall of
Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel built in 1888.

Norm and I tried the beer sampler at the Brewery

Our Dinner View

We walked down to the waterfront and had dinner at a local brewery sitting upstairs on a balcony overlooking the bay. On our way out of town we stopped to see the beautiful Memorial Presbyterian Church that Flagler had built in memory of his daughter who died in childbirth at the age of 30. We only touched on the city but I think we did a good job hitting the highlights.