Crossing the South

Let's start here: A good chunk of the states of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi is just one big lumber farm. The pine forests stretch forever, and you can see from the highways how they are carefully managed to be continually harvested and produce wood products year after year.

We also drove through miles of pecan and peach groves in Georgia. We were disappointed when we passed Vidalia, GA, and didn't see any onion fields. They aren't next to the highway, apparently,

Confronting the past

I grew up in the south, in and around Houston and east Texas. My mother's family has been in Texas since before its revolution in 1836, and an ancestor was the quartermaster for Sam Houston's army. I have always been proud of being an original Native Texan.

Other ancestors fought for the Confederacy, still others were landowners in South Carolina who likely enslaved other human beings. I've most definitely never been proud of that. Those people did what they did and there is no point in trying to deflect or deny it. I've come to understand that there is nothing I can do about it now, other than do what I can to undo the damage they did in my own small way.

We stopped in Montgomery, AL, to visit the Rosa Parks Museum. It's a smallish museum that packs a very big punch. While Ms. Parks' incredibly brave story is central to the theme of the museum, the overarching message is much more than that.

This is history every American should know, yet too few do and some are trying to hide it once again. I highly recommended that you visit this museum if you ever find yourself in Montgomery.

We continued on to Brookwood, AL, which is at the center of Alabama's coal mining area. It has had its share of tragedies, including a devastating explosion in one of the mines in 2001 that killed 13. It occurred two weeks after 9/11/01, meaning few heard of it at the time as the country was still reeling from the attacks in New York and Arlington, VA.

Brookwood is also the site of a nearly 2-year long strike by the United Mine Workers against the Warrior Met coal company from 2021-2023. That strike ended without a victory by either side, yet it still leaves a bad taste for those of us associated with the union.

I spent some time there, others spent a lot more, trying to provide support for the strikers. But guidance from high-level union officials doesn't win strikes. Solidarity and unity from the workers themselves is what wins strikes and that just wasn't present at Warrior Met.

We went there because I wanted to show Ann the place where I spent a lot of time pretty close to the end of my career. I think she appreciated seeing the places and hearing me recount the events that happened there. It helped her gain perspective about not just what I was doing in Alabama but also what was waking me up in the middle of the night at home while that struggle was going on.

Home Town

We stayed in Tuscaloosa that night, then proceeded to Laurel, MS, the place where the HGTV series Home Town is produced. We have become fans of Ben and Erin Napier and watch every episode. We walked around the downtown a bit, recognizing some of the locations from the show.

We had a nice lunch at Lee's Coffee Shop. We were in the South so it seemed appropriate to have a pimento cheese sandwich. It's probably been 55+ years since I've had one. This one was good, but I'm in no hurry to have another.

Then we did a golf cart tour of the town with a good old boy from Laurel who knows everyone, including the Napiers. We drove past a few dozen of the homes they've remodeled, learned some things about the show's production, and got a general sense of the town.

It's a nice place, but small town Mississippi is not for us. I don't think it would take those folks long to run me out of town.