Kay and Sarah's Dec Trip

Kay and Sarah’s Wanderings, Dec 2010

Monday 27th

Had a great visit with my mother, brother Bill and nephew, Izra, and dropped off a bag of goodies for mother, chocolates and other eats. We visited with everyone, as my mother has been ill and seems to be eating and drinking less than she should. We will continued to visit with her after we get back from New Orleans.

We drove on to Montgomery Al and spent the first night on Gunter Air Field in Montgomery, I believe it was an old Army Air Field during the 40’s and 50’d. The room was cheap and very nice, with a small kitchen, queen size bed and bath, room was rather hot and we turned in earlier than we normally do.

Tuesday 28th

We woke up and before we left the air base we visited the Enlisted Memorials as C-47 on display that they had reconfigured and restored as a plane that was important during the Vietnam War. This was a memorial to the plane known as “ Puff, the Magic Dragon” and was renamed “Spooky”, with 3 miniguns that fired 7.62 rounds at 9,000 to 18,000 per minute. It was flown for defensive support for First Air-Cav Division.

We drove West to Selma on US 80 which is known as the Historic Route that Dr. King and the other marchers took on “Bloody Sunday” and later to Montgomery. Kay and I stopped t seed the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, which displays and chronicles the march in pictures. An older gentleman stopped and chatted with us, telling us that he was in Selma when the march happened and was involved in the events leading up to that Sunday. He was 11 years old and left school early to meet the other picketers at the Church, get their sign and walk in front of the Court House in Selma to protest.

He said “they knew that what we were doing was important, that segregation was wrong, separate schools, bathrooms, lunch counters, water fountain, movie theaters. We were marching for our rights, as young children they knew their rights. They were arrested at 11 am one morning and were loaded into school busses and taken to jail. The Boys were separated from the Girls and were stuffed into several separate cells. They knew a lot of the other young boys and spent most of the time talking. They stayed in the jail cells until the next day when their parents were allowed to sign them out, around 2 pm. The sheriff had a tub of water with a ladle in the jail cell for them all to drink from.”

After our tour of the museum, we had lunch at the Downtowner Restaurant, good home cooking, great cornbread.

Maybe it’s just coincidence but our drive took us through “Lowndes Co” Alabama, and “Lowndes Co.” Mississippi. We had planned to drive thru to Oxford Miss, but because light was fading and time was running out we ended the day in Tupelo, Miss,. We will continue with the telling of the journey tomorrow.

Note, this was the site of the original museum which moved to the other side of the bridge