The address is 617 Hwy 72 West, Tuscumbia, AL 35674, 256-381-4417.
We left the house at 9:30 A.M., stopping at the AT&T Store.
Every year in September, the Smithsonian offers free admission to a participating museum of your choice.
Today we are going to Muscle Shoals to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
 |
| Alabama Music Hall of Fame |
 |
| Alabama Music Hall of Fame |
In the first room we entered, a photograph hung on the wall of famous entertainers from the great state of Alabama, or those who made it big in Alabama.
Listed that I saw were: Jerry, Walker, William Levi Dawson, born Anniston, AL; Delmore Brothers, from Elkmont, AL; J. L. Frank, born Limestone Co., AL; Erskine Hawkins, born Birmingham, AL.
Others were W. C. Handy, born in Florence, AL.; Nat King Cole, born in Montgomery, AL.; Rick Hall, Buddy Killen, born in Florence, AL.; Sonny James, Sam Phillips, born in Florence, AL., and Hank Williams, born in Georgia.
 |
| Photos hanging on the wall at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame |
Pictures of other entertainers included the Commodores, Fern Gasdin, Bobby Killen, Lionel Richey, the Speer Family, Don Davis, the Delmore Brothers, Tammy Wynette, Emmylou Harris, Clarence Carter, Jim Nabors, Percy Sled, Alabama, Donnie Fritts, Cleveland Eaton, and Freddie Hart.
The Hall of Fame Gallery featured portraits of the Inductees painted by Tuskegee artist Ronald McDowell.
Induction is reserved for a select few who have made exceptional contributions throughout their careers.
As we walked into the next room we saw a 12-foot jukebox playing pop, & classical music.
 |
| 12 Foot Jukebox |
Over in a corner next to the jukebox, we see a wax figure of Nat "King" Cole seated at a piano.
 |
| Nat King Cole |
We saw on display the recording equipment used by Sam Phillips' Memphis Music Service, as well as the contract between Sam Phillips and RCA when he sold his rights to Elvis Presley.
 |
| Sun Records and Sam Phillips |
The tour continues through a 16-foot guitar arch into the Country Music section, where personal memorabilia belonging to Sonny James, Tammy Wynette, Vern Gosdin, Jeanne Pruett, Freddie Hart, & Rose Maddox was showcased.
We saw a life-size wax figure of Hank Williams, Sr., wearing one of his original stage suits.
 |
| Hank Williams |
We saw Webb Pierce's 1960 Pontiac convertible, the "Golden Country Car," with 500 silver dollars, silver guns mounted, and Texas Longhorns' Steer horns mounted on the front.
 |
| Webb Pierce's 1960 Pontiac |
There were numerous instruments belonging to country stars.
We walked through the tour bus owned by the group Alabama. I was told that the Music Hall of Fame was built around the bus.
 |
| The Group Alabama Touring Bus |
After exiting the bus, we stepped into a brick-sided nightclub where the Rhythm and Blues section was belting out music.
There was Erskine Hawkins's trumpet, Martha Reeves' and Eddie Kendricks' stage outfits, gold records by Wilson Pickett and Percy Sledge, the 1935 official portrait of W.C. Handy, and other historical artifacts.
When we left the nightclub, we entered the Muscle Shoals section, which highlighted the studios that made Northwest Alabama world famous.
A video recaps the history of the Shoals music industry. The artifacts include the console Rick Hall used to record Arthur Alexander's hit "You Better Move On" and the instruments of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.
Next, we saw a Recording Studio where a person may select a music track and record a personal cassette or make a video recording right in the Museum.
| Recording Studios from the Studiothe Gospel Showcase; among the artifacts were outfits, pictures, and awards from such notables as Jake Hess, Gold City, The Speer Family, and The Sullivan Family. |
The newest addition to the museum exhibits featured the songwriters of Alabama.
The Wurlitzer jukebox provides hundreds of chart-topping songs by Alabama songwriters. Billy Sherrill, composer of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man," anchors one end of the exhibit, while Curly Putman, who gave us "Green, Green Grass of Home" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today," anchors the other side.
Alabama Music Hall of Fame Celebrating Life & Work of Oak Ridge Boys Member William Lee Golden
The Alabama Music Hall of Fame is honoring the iconic singer William Lee Golden with a rare exhibition of his dynamic and powerful paintings.
The collection will be on display from September 3 to November 14, 2008.
A 19-piece body of work will be showcased, providing a glimpse of the legendary artist's vision of the world through the beauty of nature and the vivid language of color.
 |
| Pictures by William Golden |
 |
| Pictures by William Golden |
The exhibition will chronicle scenes and snapshots from his extraordinary travels and career, reflecting GoGolden's deep appreciation for our country's history and natural environment.
This exhibit will allow visitors and fans to explore, experience, and enjoy the expressive artwork of the Brewton native.
Among Golden's featured paintings for the exhibit is Bush Garden.
The piece was done in honor of former President George & first lady Barbara Bush, depicting the breathtaking garden at their Kennebunkport, Maine, estate. Mrs. Bush describes the artwork as a source of family joy and a treasure.
William Lee Golden is a 1997 Inductee into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
Our next stop was the Athens Veterans Museum.
Athens Veteran Museum is located at 100 West Pryor St. PO Box 15,00, Athens, AL 35612 (256) 771 7578
The 100-year-old L&N freight depot is a 4,000-square-foot museum that houses an impressive display of artifacts from the Revolutionary War through today's conflicts.
The Museum includes uniforms, medals, weapons, and artifacts from the home front, and highlights the incredible sacrifices made.
We were greeted at the door by a World II Veteran, he told us about the different area of the museumMuseuming with The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies on the North American continent and ended in a global war between several European great powers.
He asks us if we knew what he had in his hand, and it was a block of tea. Now I understand what happened at the Boston Tea Party.
The Boston Tea Party was an act of direct action protest by the American colonists against the British Government in which they destroyed many crates of tea belonging to the British East India Company on ships in Boston Harbor. The incident, which took place on Thursday, December 16, 1773, is seen as helping to spark the American Revolution and remains one of the most iconic events of the era to this day.
The American Civil War (1861–1865), aWar known as theWarr Between the States, World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars) was a global war which took place primarily in Europe from 1914 to 1918, World War II, or the Second World War,1941-1945 (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all the great powers, making it theWarst widespreadWarr in history, the US beginning with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes, with major hostilities lasting from June 25, 1950, until the armistice signed on July 27, 1953. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to April 30, 1975. The War was fought between communist North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and South Vietnam, supported by the United States and others
Exhibits
Local Veterans of WWII, Korea, & Vietnam will host visitors through the Museum and in some personal displays. The Victory Garden will be staffed to show home front Alabama 1942.
Today is a special one-day exhibit of rare collector military weapons.
We met Margaret, a German who lived in Kassel, Germany, during the bombing of the city.
Margaret (about age 8) is pictured with her mom, Gertru, before the bombing.
 |
| Margaret and her mother, Gertrude |
She said that her family stayed in a bomb shelter during the bombing, and when they came out of the shelter, the city was destroyed.
We thanked her for the information, and she and I discussed my journaling. I told her that I always wrote in a book about the places that I had been, and she said that was a wonderful thing to do.
She said her children were not too impressed with her life until they were older, when other children found out she lived in Germany, then they wanted to hear her story.
There were pictures of the city's destruction and of the town rebuilt years later. The city of Kassel in Germany was severely bombed during World War II, and more than 10,000 civilians died during these raids. Kassel is in the northern part of the federal state of Hessen, between Frankfurt (190 km south) and Hannover (160 km north).
In the early 1940s, it was the capital of the Prussian Province of Kurhessen, the seat of a Regional Supreme Court (Oberlandesgericht), and headquarters of the authorities responsible for highway and railway construction for Central Germany.
At the end of the tour was a gun display featuring many different types of guns used in wartime.
 |
| Guns on display |
The guide had to show me the three paintings: two were in the men's restroom, and the other was in the women's restroom.
In 2002, Karen Middleton painted a picture of Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth, and a couple kissing.
The story was that a soldier got off the boat and kissed the first girl he saw.
 |
| Ginger Rogers |
 |
| Rita Hayworth |
 |
| a couple kissing |
I will end my tour with a wartime prayer by Eleanor Roosevelt.
A Wartime Prayer
Dear Lord, lest I continue in my complacent way, help me remember that somewhere, somehow out there, A man died for me today. As long as there is a war, I must then ask & answer Am I worth dying for?
By Eleanor Roosevelt
Next, we rode to Huntsville.
US Space and Rocket Center, located at One Tranquility Base, Huntsville, AL 35805, 256-837-3400.
 |
| US Space & Rocket Center |
 |
| US Space & Rocket Center |
 |
| US Space & Rocket Center |
 |
| US Space & Rocket Center |
I was amazed to find a new addition to the Space and Rocket Center: the Davidson Center, which houses the ticket counters.
We spent about an hour walking around the center, which was in the Davidson Center, where we saw a Saturn V hanging from the ceiling.
We went to the old building; nothing much had changed. We browsed for a few minutes, and I took some pictures.
 |
| US Space & Rocket Center |
 |
| US Space & Rocket Center |
At Bridge Street Center, my husband bought a carrying case for his iPhone, and we ate an ice cream treat at Maggie Moo's Ice Cream & Treatery.
 |
| Bridge Street Center |
Took a few pictures, then we rode home.
Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Athens Veterans Museum, Space & Rocket Center
ReplyDelete