Fresh and Local

The Good Ole' Days are here again with markets buying local

 so that we can eat fresh!

While we plant a few vegetables around the yard each spring,

 we don't have room for great big, fresh-out-of-the-ground  greens

 like these. The Orrville Farmers' Market has them though! 

Linking to Our World Tuesday

Old Cahawba Collage

Visitors aren't just visitors at Old Cahawba. 

They're explorers!

The archaeological park located at the confluence of the Cahaba and Alabama 

rivers was best known as Alabama's first state capital (1819-1826),

 but in the 16th Century, it served as an Indian village. Then, in the 1800s,

 Cahawba became a wealthy town with some 3,000 residents.

 During the War Between the States, a federal prison housed Union soldiers,

 and after the war, emancipated slaves took refuge there. 

Now a ghost town, St. Luke's Episcopal Church (recently moved back

 to Old Cahawba) greets guests as they enter the park.

  At right above stand brick pillars that are all that remain of the Crocheron home

 and store that overlooked the rivers. Below at right sits the Perine

 artesian well which furnished air conditioning to the Perine mansion.  

Linking to Mosaic Monday

The Designers Behind the Exhibits

Thursday's grand opening of the Selma Interpretive Center's second

 and third-floor exhibits included the hospitality of exhibit designers

 John Wood and Linda Byers.

 As employees of the National Park Service's regional office in Atlanta,

 the pair designed, built and installed the new exhibits

 depicting the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March

 and the Courageous Eight activists. 

"We wanted to recognize not only the Courageous Eight

 but other individuals as well," Byers said.

 Woods built the background for the second-floor exhibit (shown in photo),

 and Byers designed the Courageous Eight banners that hang

 in the third-floor meeting room. 

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An Alabama Natural Wonder

Here is where the Cahaba flows into the Alabama River, ending its long journey

 from near Springville, winding its way into environmental science

 as an Alabama Natural Wonder.

The free-flowing waterway is considered the most biologically diverse

 in America and is home to 125 species of fish and rare plants

 such as the Cahaba lily.

The two rivers' banks once supported a Mississippian Indian village

 followed later by Alabama's first state capital. Today, it's a ghost town

 known as the Old Cahawba Archaeological Park. 

Linking to Signs, Signs   

GONE too Soon

Addie, aged 6 months and 5 days

John, aged 4 months and 5 days

Maggie, aged 7 days

GONE too soon!

The  GRAVE markers in Old Live Oak Cemetery tell the heartbreaks

 of yesteryear. They were the children of John and Julia A. Moran. 

Linking to ABC Wednesday where the letter is G

On the Walls at Charlie's Place

The decor at Charlie's Place is as good as the food!

Housed in The Harmony Club on Water Avenue, the exposed interior brick

 displays old signs form current and former businesses, historic photos

 and documents plus a splash of colorful art by local artist Julian Helms. 

Linking to Our World Tuesday

The Welcome Barrel

Proprieter Judy McKinney planted daffodils, pansies, cabbages and strawberries

 in a barrel to welcome folks to the Orrville Farmers' Market.

 The business sells seeds and plants, produce and gifts.

 Her future plans include a kitchen/cannery for classes in canning,

 breadmaking, soapmaking and more. 

Linking to Monday Mellow Yellows

Orrville Farmers Market

If you haven't experienced the Orrville Farmers Market yet,

 well, head on down Highway 22!

This brand-new business between Selma and Safford

 is far more than a produce market where folks can purchase

 giant ripe tomatoes, huge homegrown cabbages
 and Mississippi sweet potatoes.

 But those things alone drew me in! 

It's a hot-breakfast stop at 6 a.m. and a meat-and-three restaurant at noon.

 It's where you go for seeds and plants and all things local or close-to-local

 as in Alabama.  Try the goat's milk lotion and soaps

 and the Marion Junction honey. There's a barrel of raw peanuts and pecans,

 shelves stocked with jellies and jams and Rachel's Cinnamon Rolls.

 There are T-shirts and cotton kitchen towels, country signs

 and sacks of biscuit mix. And just a whole lot more! 

Linking to Signs, Signs

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Lunch at the Library with Thom Gossom Jr.

Who knew of the social isolation and great cultural divide

 experienced by Auburn University's first black athletes?

Heroes on the field but loners on the campus?

Certainly not me! But I was there during some of those years 

and discovered Thursday that I even graduated Auburn on the same day

 as Thom Gossom Jr. At AU, he was a walk-on football player 

who achieved scholarship status and made first string.

 And he became the first black athlete to graduate that university,

 a feat he attributes to his parents' insistence for a solid undergraduate education.

 

As February's featured author at Selma's Lunch at the Library series, Gossom

 reminisced about his days as a reluctant pioneer of integration in the New South.

 He went on to a brief career in the NFL followed by public relations, acting

  and writing. The Birmingham native appeared in such television shows

 as "Boston Legal," "In the Heat of the Night" and "NYPD Blue." 

There were also a few films. 

But yesterday, his amiable personality connected with a full house
 as he mostly focused on football and how he finally made amends

 with the emotions that threatened to throw him off course during his his younger

 years. Gossom signed copies of  his autobiography,

 "Walk-On" along with his "Slice of Life" short story collections. 

    

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Sign for the Times

New Hope Apostolic Church in Selma offers some advice

 for the contentious change in U.S. administration. 

Linking to Signs, Signs

 

Epithet

"Budded on Earth to Bloom in Heaven" reads the epithet for little Margaret Nell.

 The many graves of children in Old Live Oak Cemetery reminds us how fragile life

 is and certainly once was for the very young. 

Linking to ABC Wednesday's (The Letter E)

Season for Mardis Gras

Fat Tuesday isn't until Feb. 28, but the Mardis Gras celebrations down south

 in Mobile begin this weekend. And while Selma isn't particularly known

 for this event, there are a few places around here that decorate.

 These homeowners have quite the colorful touch!

Linking to Our World Tuesday

Dance of the Daffodils

In the words of William Wordsworth, I do believe these daffodils

 are "tossing their heads in sprightly dance!"

No matter how bare the branches or how gray the sky,

 we can always count on February daffodils to remind us

 that the groundhog was wrong!

Linking to Monday Mellow Yellows

At the Top

Selma has enjoyed blue skies, flowering Japanese Magnolia

 and spring temperatures this past week, and here is a peek

 at the top of Sturdivant Hall. What a magnificent view 

that must be looking down! The antebellum Greek Revival house

 museum is located in Old Town Selma. 

Linking to Skywatch Friday

The Doctor's Office

This 1800's McKinnon-Riggs doctor's office in Heritage Village preserves

 not only the building but medical equipment and furnishings.

 It will be open during Selma's Historic Pilgrimage March 17-18.

 The office was moved in 1981 from Pleasant Hill to property 

owned by the Selma-Dallas County Historic Preservation Society

 and is located near Sturdivant Hall.

 The light in front was an original on the Edmund Pettus Bridge 

and used from 1940 until about 1960.  

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City Daily Photo Theme Day (LOVING LIFE)

The tractor parade at the Orrville Tractor Show always attracts a crowd,

 and this driver and the onlookers are loving it! The tractor show is held

 in November, but I held this photo over for the "LOVING LIFE" Theme Day 

at City Daily Photo blogs. 

Linking to City Daily Photo Blogs February Theme Day