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 the month of September Smithsonian offers admission to a participating museum of your choice free.
Today we are going to Muscle Shoals to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
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| Alabama Music Hall of Fame |
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| Alabama Music Hall of Fame |
The first room we entered there was hanging on the photograph of the wall of famous entertainers from the great state of Alabama or 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 Florence, Al.; Nat King Cole, born Montgomery, Al.; Rick Hall, Buddy Killen, born Florence, AL.; Sonny James, Sam Phillips, born Florence, AL., Hank Williams, born Georgia.
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| Photos hanging on the wall at Alabama Music Hall of Fame |
Pictures of other entertainers were the Commodores, Fern Gasdin, Bobby Killen, Lionel Richey, Speer Family, Don Davis, Delmore Brothers, Tammy Wynette, Emmylou Harris, Clarence Carter, Jim Nabors, Percy Sledge, Alabama, Donnie Fritts, Cleveland Eaton, 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.
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| 12 Foot Jukebox |
Over in a corner next to the jukebox we see a wax figure of Nat "King" Cole seated at a piano.
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| Nat King Cole |
We saw on display the recording equipment used by Sam Phillip's Memphis Music Service and the contract between Sam Phillips and RCA when he sold his rights to Elvis Presley.
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| Sun Records and Sam Phillips |
Tommy Shaw of Styx fame has his shirt and guitar on display, along with Ransom Wilson's flute, Jim Nabors' Gomer Pyle outfit, and stage outfits, Emmylou Harris, Donna Godchaux, Bobby Goldsboro, Lionel Richie, and The Commodores
The tour continues through a 16-foot guitar arch into the Country Music section where was showcased personal memorabilia that belonged to Sonny James, Tammy Wynette, Vern Gosdin, Jeanne Pruett, Freddie Hart, & Rose Maddox.
We saw a life-size wax figure of Hank Williams, Sr., bears, he was wearing one of his original stage suits.
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| Hank Williams |
We saw Webb Pierce's 1960 Pontiac convertible "Golden Country Car" that has 500 silver dollars, silver guns mounted and Texas Longhorns Steer horns mounted on the front.
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| Webb Pierce's 1960 Pontiac |
There were numerous instruments belonging to country stars.
We walked through the touring bus that was owned by the group Alabama. I was told that the Music Hall of Fame was built around the bus.
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| 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 there a person may select a music track and record a personal cassette or make a video recording right in the Museum!
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| Recording Studio |
Across from the studio was the 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
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-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 vivid language of color.
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| Pictures by William Golden |
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| Pictures by William Golden |
The exhibition will chronicle scenes and snapshots from his extraordinary travels and career, reflecting Golden’s strong value and 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 family joy and treasure.
William Lee Golden is a 1997 Inductee into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
Our next stop was Athens Veterans Museum.
Athens Veteran Museum is located at100 West Pryor St. PO Box 1500 Athens, AL 35612 (256) 771 7578
The 100-year-old L&N freight depot is a 4000 square foot Museum, housing an impressive display of artifacts of Revolutionary War through today’s wars.
The museum Exhibits uniforms, medals, weapons, and including artifacts from the home front and the museum shows the incredible sacrifices made.
We were greeted at the door by a World II Veteran, he told us about the different area of the museum starting 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, has been seen as helping to spark the American Revolution and remains to this day one of the most iconic events of the era.
The American Civil War (1861–1865), also known as the War 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 the most widespread war 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 making some displays personal. 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 Gertrude before the bombing.
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| 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, she and I talked about me journaling information. I told her that I always wrote in a book about the places that I had been, she said that was a wonderful thing to do.
She said her children were not too impressed about 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 destruction of the city and the city 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 with many different types of guns used in war times.
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| Guns on display |
The guide had to show me the three paintings, two were in the men’s restroom and the other painting was in the women’s restroom.
In 2002, Karen Middleton painted a picture of Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth, and a couple kissing.
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| Ginger Rogers |
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| Rita Hayworth |
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| a couple kissing |
The story told was that a soldier got off the boat, kissed the first girl that he saw.
I will end my tour with a wartime prayer by Eleanor Roosevelt.
A Wartime Prayer
Dear Lord, Lest I continue 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 then must 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.
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| US Space & Rocket Center |
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| US Space & Rocket Center |
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| US Space & Rocket Center |
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| US Space & Rocket Center |
I was amazed to find a new addition to Space and Rocket Center, it was the Davidson Center which houses the ticket counters.
We spent about an hour walking around the centermost of it was in the Davidson Center where we saw hanging from the ceiling Saturn V.
We went to the old building, nothing much had changed, we browsed for a few minutes, I took some pictures.
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| US Space & Rocket Center |
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| US Space & Rocket Center |
At Bridge Street Centre my husband bought a caring case for his I-Phone and we ate ice cream treat at Maggie Moo’s Ice Cream & Treatery at Bridge Street Centre.
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| Bridge Street Centre |
Took a few pictures then we rode home.
