2024 July 9, 22, 24 Day trips to Pulaski, Lynnville, TN., Corinth, MS., & Danville, Hartsell, AL., with Ava

2024 July 9, 2024 Tuesdays Day Trip to Pulaski and Lynnville, TN

 Today, we rode to Pulaski to the Giles County Memorial Interpretive Center Trail of Tears Museum.

Ava and Trail of Tears Statue

Many of the park marks and benches were in much need of repairs. 

We saw a golden raintree, a Statue, and several Markers. 

We were getting ready to leave when we saw pictures of the Trail of Tears in the tunnel under the highway.

Ava and I decided to walk through the tunnel. 

The Bench Project, Wilma Pearl Mankiller, The Children the Oxen, and the Trail of Tears, and several paintings were done by students. 

It was a treasure of local artists about the Trail of Tears. 

Ava and the  1927 Baldwin Steam Locomotive

We next rode to the Town of Lynnville, TN. 

We visited the Train Depot Museum, where we saw a miniature train engine, signal lights, several signs about the train, a train conductor, and a ticket counter.  

Outside, we walked inside the 1927 Baldwin Steam Locomotive, the 1920s Passenger Coach 2587. The red caboose was locked, so we did not go inside. 

Along the hallway were signs about the Milky Way Farm and a picture of Frank C. Mars, the owner and maker of Mars candy. 

We took several pictures outside, one alongside the LRR Lynnville Railroad Museum sign and the Giles County Turkey. 

Ava at Soda Pop Junction

We walked across the road to Soda Pop Junction.

Outside was an orange and white truck with a sign that read “ Soda Pop Junction Good Ol ‘ Soda Pop.”

We were greeted when we walked inside. 

I ordered a Chili’s dog, and Ava ordered a hamburger and fries. She ate her fries but not her hamburger. Hubby ate her hamburger and most of my chili dog.  

Ava ordered an orange crushed soda in a bottle. 

I told our waitress that Ave loves to visit museums, and she told AVA I have something to show you. 

She took a quarter out of the register, and we walked to the back of the restaurant. 

She placed a quarter in the slot, and a piano began to play; also, a hand-held organ began to play.  

We thanked her and began our journey to Lawrenceburg. 

We had to return to Krogers to pick up my salmon and cantaloupe that I had left at the store the day before. 

It began to rain as we started our journey home.

2024 July 22, Monday Microwave Dave 

Today, we went to Florence Library to see Microwave Dave and to make musical instruments out of trash.

Ava made a guitar out of a shoe box.

And a water bottle with seeds.

The kids, as well as the adults, had a good time.

Ava put her finger in the alligator's mouth. 

Ava wanted ice cream, and we were going to Tuscumbia I remembered The Palace had good ice cream. 

Ava ordered Smokey Mountain Fudge.

Ava enjoying her Smokey Mountain Fudge Ice cream in a cone. 

I ordered pecan praline. 

Then we went to Helen Keller Library to listen to Book It with Jazz the Jazz Allstars.

Afterward, we went to Champy’s for lunch. 

Hubby ordered a salad, and we shared a catfish meal.

Ava ordered a chicken fingers meal.

We had leftovers.

Microwave Dave went through the cycle of Blues Music From the days of slavery. 

The people make music with a rhythm to help pass the hard time. 

Then, the clicking and clacking of the railroad era, the sounds of the wheels on the train as it went down the tracks. 

The free slaves moved to the city with a different rhythm. 

The time the people were paid to play music. 

He asked if any of the kids knew about fractions. 

Then, he began telling us how the beats were fractions. 

The kids blew their paper horns, and they beat on their coffee cans for drums. 

They picked the rubber band strings on their shoebox guitar. 

And shook their water bottles filled with bird seeds

In rhythm with Microwave Dave’s music.

On Tuesday, we rode to Rogersville Library to see Microwave Dave.

Ava made a drum out of an oatmeal box, a paper horn, and a shaker out of a Mt Dew bottle. 

We did a sing-along and played our handmade instruments with Microwave Dave.

We learned about the history of jazz. 

Everyone had a good time. 

July 24, Wednesday Day Trip to Corinth, MS

Today, we rode to Corinth, MS.

We stopped at the Visitor Center and were given information about sites to see in Corinth, MS.

We walked to the Corinth Train Depot and Crossroads Museum, but it was closed. 

I, too, have pictures of the 1924 American LaFrance Fire Truck and a sign of Caboose # 2994, a Civil War Corinth, big guns, and the Miniature Hurlbut Amusement Equipment Co. locomotive No 1009. 

We stopped at the New Coca-Cola Museum. Outside was a carved giant wooden Coca-Cola bottle.

There was a buzzer on the door which, when pressed, released a locked door that let you inside a one-room museum. 

The museum featured over 1,000 Coca-Cola artifacts: a truck, soda fountain, coke boxes, bottles, signs, toys, etc.

Ava at the Coca-Cola Museum 

In the front of the museum sat a Coca-Cola drink machine with small glass bottles filled with Coke products you could purchase. 

That took me back to the days when a Coke cost 6 to 10 cents, not a dollar or more.  

We stopped at the 15,00 square feet  Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center Museum, which features interactive exhibits and a memorial Garden for the 1862 battles of Shiloh and Corinth.

Ava at the Interpretive Center 

We stopped at the Corinth’s Highway Hospitality Building, and I said the Crossroads Museum was closed. 

The curator tried to call the museum, but no answer. She said it should be open, so we rode back to the museum.

It was open the curator said her dog was sick, and she had taken him to the vet. 

We paid the admission fee and walked through the museum.

We enjoyed the miniature running train display. 

It was now lunchtime, and everyone was ready for lunch. Borroum’s Drugs Store Diner was just a few blocks away from the Crossroads Museum.

The diner was very busy we finally found a table where people had just finished eating lunch with their dishes still on the table. 

Our waitress finally cleaned the table and took our order. 

 I ordered a hamburger with chips. Ava ordered chicken nuggets and fries. Hubby ordered a double cheeseburger with onion rings. 

This was our last stop before starting for home. 

It rained a little on us but not much, and it was clear by the time we left. It was still pretty wet when we got home, but it soon cleared off.

We had a great time the area was not overcrowded with people, which is so much better than fighting a crowd.

Ava had to get her picture made with a slug at the Park near the Visitor Center. 

Ava and the Slugg

Last week was their slug Festival, and there were slugs all around town.

Monday, July 29, Day trip to Danville and Hartselle, Al

Today, we went to town to pay our Utilities and to get our B-12 shots.

Ava and the Jesse Owens statue

Ava and Jesse Owens 26 feet Long Jump 

Then we rode to Danville by way of US 72 East towards Cullman.

We stopped at the Jesse Owen’s Museum. 

There, we watched the 1936 Olympics and how Jesse Owen won the gold medal right before World War Two. 

Before Hitler killed all the Jewish people. 

It was a very moving story, and it helped me understand more about the Olympics then. 

We walked outside, where we saw Jesse Owens’s Statue, a replica of his birth home and a replica of the long jump Jesse set a world record at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. 

Ava and Sequoya statue 

We stopped at the Oakville Indian Museum.

We saw arrowheads and other artifacts from the Mississippian, Archaic, Paleo, and Woodland Periods American Indians. 

We saw a wooden carving of Sequoyah, a mixed-blood Cherokee who developed an alphabet or syllabary. 

Ava was not impressed, for she rushed through it.

In the gift shop, we bought her a bag of colorful rocks and a mood ring. 

Ava and the Blues Brothers

We stopped for lunch at Oh’Bryan’s in Hartselle. 

Ava and I ordered the special for eight dollars everything was included. 

Ava ordered fried chicken fingers with fries and a doctor’s pepper.

I ordered grilled chicken fingers and a sweet potato with iced tea 

Hubby ordered a salad, steak potato toast, and iced tea. 

We filled up with gas at Murphy.

And we stopped at Krogers for sodas.

We were home by 3:30.

Governor Robert Burns Lindsay and daughter Maud McKnight Lindsey Historic Markers

Maud Lindsey's home as it looks today

 Governor Robert Burns Lindsey July 4, 1824-Feb 13, 1902 

A native of Lochmaben, Scotland, Robert Burns Lindsey was Alabama's only foreign-born governor. He immigrated to North Carolina in 1844 and relocated to Tuscumboa in 1849, where he worked as a teacher and read law, obtaining admittance to the Alabama Bar in 1852. The following year, residents of Franklin County elected him to the Alabama House of Representatives. In 1854, Lindsay married Sarah Miller Winston, sister to John Anthony Winston, who served as governor from 1853 to 1857. the couple had nine children, four of whom survived to adulthood, among them educator and author Maud McKnight Lindsey (see other side). 

In 857, Lindsay won the election to the Alabama Senate. In 1861, he joined Colonel Philp D. Roddey's Fourth Alabama Cavalry, CSA. At war's end, voters returned him to the Alabama Senate. In 1870, Lindsey became the first Democrat elected governor of Alabama since the end of the Civil War. His turbulent two-year there in office amidst Reconstruction was beset by economic and political difficulties, compounded by the failure of a state-supported railroad venture. Declining to run for reelection in 1872, Lindsey returned to Tuscumbia, where he continued a limited law practice, hampered by ill health, until his death. 

Sponsored by the Maud Lindsay Study Club and The Colbert County Historical Landmarks Foundation Alabama Historical Association 2022.

Maud McKnight Lindsay
May 13, 1874-May 30, 1941

International educator and author Maud Lindsay was born at this home, then a frame structure in 1874. She was the daughter of Governor Robert B. Lindsay (see other side) and Sarah M. Winston Lindsey. 

In 1898, after working in a private kindergarten in Tuscumbia, "Mis Maud" crossed social barriers and established Alabama's first free kindergarten program in the working-class cotton mill district of East Florence. 

She remained the teacher and principal of the school for more than four decades. In 1900, Milton Bradley Company published Lindsay's first book. Mother Stories. She subsequently authored sixteen additional works, many of which reflected her childhood experiences in Alabama. Although she had no formal higher education, Lindsay became a sought-after speaker.

She lectured on the art of storytelling at New York University. Rebuffing many offers to teach elsewhere, including an invitation from renowned Italian educator Maria Montessori, Lindsey chose to remain in Alabama. Her childhood friend Helen Keller described her as "one of the truly progressive women of the southland and an example of Alabama's true wealth and greatness." Lindsay was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1995. 

Maud Lindsey Kindergarten Florence, Alabama 

Maud McKnight Lindsey 
The Florence Free Kindergarten 

Singing River Sculpture in Florence

Singing River Sculpture 

Singing River Sculpture in Florence 

Dedicated to the world-renowned musicians, recording executives, writers, producers, and performers who made Florence and the Muscle Shoals area the “Hit Recording Capital of the World” in the 1960s and 1970s and to those who continue that legacy.

2020 

Legend of the Singing River 
The Yuchi and other early Native Americans who lived along the banks of the mighty Tennessee River long held the legend of a Spirit Woman who lived in the river, sang her song, and protected them. She sang to them loudly if the drive was angry, softly and sweetly when the river was peaceful, and sometimes in the calming hum of a lullaby. In her honor, they named it the Singing River.
Some say that all they heard was the high waters’ mighty rush and roar over the mussel shoals or the calm, low waters babbling through the river rocks. 
Others say she is real and over the waters, just as she did many years ago. So goes the legend of the Singing River. 

The World-Changing Music Shoals Music 
From the last half of the 20th century to the present, Muscle Shoals area artists, musicians, songwriters, and music industry professionals have helped shape the world’s expansive musical heritage. 

Few styles of music were untouched by Muscle Shoals music, and local contributions have been made in all the areas of the complex industry; producers, recording engineers, songwriting, music publishing, and music business interest.

Many of the world’s greatest performers began their assent to stardom in Muscle Shoals. Artists such as Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, The Staple Singers, Bob Seger, and many others quickly created a legacy that earned the area the title “Hit Recording Capitol of the World.”

The warning in Arthur Alexander’s You Better Move On got the attention of the Rolling Stones. The Beatles heard Alexander’s song Anna, and each band acknowledged their respect for Alexander by recording their version of the songs on their first albums. 

The songwriting tradition continues as one of the strongest facets of Muscle Shoals music, with area songwriters penning songs such as When A Man Loves a Woman, I Swear, Blown Away, Before He Cheats, and hundreds of other hits over the decades. 
The area grew a music center by drawing together people of all races and religions. In the 1960s, despite the segregation of race enforced outside the studio, area soul classics were being created in the studios with musicians contributing their innate musical talents. The collaborations created some of the most widely loved music of the 20th Century, including When A Man Loves A Woman, Mustang Sally, Tell Mama, Patch, Respect Yourself, and many others. 

The heart and soul of Muscle Shoals music have always been the players and singers. Four members of the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section were immortalized in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song Sweet Home Alabama. The lyric, “Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers, and they’ve been known to pick a song or two, “ honors Barry-Beckett, Jimmy Johnson, David Hoot, and Roger Hawkins, owner of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, and studio musicians who produced and played on hundreds of hit recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios from the late 60s until the mid-70s.


Florence’s Contribution to this Golden Era
Florence has long had a rich and varied music culture and heritage. Building on the foundation of Blues and Spiritual music laid by Florence native W.C. Handy, known as the Father of the Blues, composer of Beale Street Blues, St Louis Blues, and others, that legacy continues to the present day. 
The roots of what became known as the Muscle Shoals sound are found north of the Tennessee River in Florence, AL. They were planted by pioneers such as James Joiner, Tom Stafford, Rich Hall, and the many talented musicians and songwriters who recorded in Florence studios before 1960.
Other notable music personalities from Florence include Sam Phillips, Buddy Killen, Billy Sherrill, and Kelso Herston, all of whom found major success in Memphis and Nashville. 

In 1956, Joiner wrote and produced the area’s first regional hit, Bobby Denton’s A Fallen Star. He, Kelso Herston, and partners established “Tune Records and Publishing Company, the first of its kind in Alabama, and published the classic Country song Six Days on the Road, written by Earl Greene and Carl Montgomery. 


Stafford, Hall, and Billy Sherrill created Florence Alabama Music Enterprises (FAME) above the City Drug Store, owned by Stafford’s family. The studio attracted young talents such as David Briggs, Norbert Putman, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, Jerry Carrigan, Earl “Peanutt” Montgomery, Donnie Fritts, Arthur Alexander, Bobby Denton, and others who would go on to be legendary musicians and songwriters. 


In 1964, at the request of John Lennon, four members of the original Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Norbert Putman, David Briggs, Jerry Carrigan, and Terry Thompson, backed opening acts for the Righteous Brothers and Tommy Roe for the Beatles at their first US concert in Washington D.C. 

In 1976, Wishbone Studio owner and producer Terry Woodford cofounded the University of North Alabama Commercial Music Program, which prepared many for success in the music industry, including Randy Poe, President of Leiber & Stoller Music Publishing/music biographer; Walt Aldridge songwriter/producer, Nancy Lee, V.P. Music Industry Business, Manager Higham Management Ince.; Mark Narmore, Songwriter/singer/keyboardist; John Briggs, V.P. ASCAP (Retired), V.P. Entertainment and Pro Sports, Tower Community Band, and Kevin Lamb, V.P. Peer Music (Retired).

Photos: William Christopher (W.C)Handy
Photo courtesy of W.C. Handy Foundation Inc. 

Photo: James Joiner  and Kelson Herston (L) 
Photo editing courtesy of Glenn Bevis 


Joiner’s Bus Station 
Site of Joiner’s first recording studio 
Photo courtesy of Joiner Family 

Photo: Tom Stanford 
Enigmatic mentor to many young Muscle Shoals musicians 
Photo courtesy of David Briggs

Photo: The Original Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section 
Terry Thompson, Norbert Putman, Jerry Carrigan, and David Briggs 
Photo completion courtesy of Will C. Roberson and Trevor J. Joiner 

Photo: Terry Woodford 
With guest speaker Glenn Frey of the Eagles in UNA Commercial Music class 
Photo courtesy of Terry Woodford. 

The City of Florence, Alabama 
Mayor Steve Holt - Eric Nubbe, Sculpture 
A special thanks to former Mayor Mickey Haddock and former Mayor Bobby E. Irons for their early and unwavering support and encouragement.
Historical commentary by Dick Cooper, David Anderson, Bill Matthews, and Sandra Vetters.

Singing River Sculpture