Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The Big Chicken
Just when I thought that Chick-fil-A would take all the poultry glory in this blog, I come across Marietta's greatest sight - the Big Chicken.
It was originally built in 1956 for Johnny Reb's Chick, Chuck and Shake, itself a great name. It was eventually sold to a KFC franchise and is considered a great way to direct people, i.e. "take a left at the Big Chicken" or "about two miles past the Big Chicken". When a big storm damaged it and there was a threat of the structure being taken down, many folks came to its defense, not the least being pilots from the nearby Dobbins Air Reserve base, who used it as a visual marker.
So you know, the beak opens and closes and the eye rotates around. Funny, slightly odd and perfectly awesome.
It was originally built in 1956 for Johnny Reb's Chick, Chuck and Shake, itself a great name. It was eventually sold to a KFC franchise and is considered a great way to direct people, i.e. "take a left at the Big Chicken" or "about two miles past the Big Chicken". When a big storm damaged it and there was a threat of the structure being taken down, many folks came to its defense, not the least being pilots from the nearby Dobbins Air Reserve base, who used it as a visual marker.
So you know, the beak opens and closes and the eye rotates around. Funny, slightly odd and perfectly awesome.
"Atlanta is ours, and fairly won"
On Saturday, I took a ride out to Kennesaw Mountain, just north of Atlanta. It's the tallest area in the Atlanta metro region and the site of a battle in the Atlanta campaign. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston eventually held his ground against Union General William Tecumsah Sherman, suffering only 1000 lives lost to Sherman's 3000 lives. Many thought it was a bad move on Sherman's part to engage such well-entrenched defenses (seen below in the mountaintop photo), but he later said that it was important to show that he would engage the enemy even under long odds.
Sherman is famous for his March to the Sea, a living example of 'total war' and the policy of 'scorched earth'. He was also a great quote-maker. Here are a few:
While it was said that the Confederates won, Sherman just wound up going around the enemy encampment, having had declared that there was only one mountain between him and Atlanta. Not anymore. A couple of months and battles later, he engaged in, and won, the Battle of Atlanta
While this photo seems to show a blank horizon, if you click on it and look hard though the haze and pollen (the pollen release this week was extraordinary), you'll see two separate skyline of Atlanta buildings. All the way to the left, if you look very closely, you'll see the bump of Stone Mountain, 28 miles away.
Months later, after successfully taking this important city, Sherman sent a telegram to President Abraham Lincoln stating, simply, "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won".
looking northward, away from Atlanta
Sherman is famous for his March to the Sea, a living example of 'total war' and the policy of 'scorched earth'. He was also a great quote-maker. Here are a few:
"I hereby state, and mean all I say, that I never have been and never will be a candidate for President; that if nominated by either party I should peremptorily decline; and even if unanimously elected I should decline to serve." (to Harper's Weekly)
"I would make this war as severe as possible, and show no symptoms of tiring till the South begs for mercy."
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."
"I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah." (telegram to President Lincoln)
"The carping and bickering of political factions in the nation’s capitol reminds me of two pelicans quarreling over a dead fish."
"I intend to make Georgia howl"
"Grant stood by me when I was crazy and I stood by him when he was drunk and now we stand by each other"
While it was said that the Confederates won, Sherman just wound up going around the enemy encampment, having had declared that there was only one mountain between him and Atlanta. Not anymore. A couple of months and battles later, he engaged in, and won, the Battle of Atlanta
While this photo seems to show a blank horizon, if you click on it and look hard though the haze and pollen (the pollen release this week was extraordinary), you'll see two separate skyline of Atlanta buildings. All the way to the left, if you look very closely, you'll see the bump of Stone Mountain, 28 miles away.
Months later, after successfully taking this important city, Sherman sent a telegram to President Abraham Lincoln stating, simply, "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won".
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Stone Mountain's Troubled Past
One of the things that interests me a great deal wherever I go is the effect that history has on how we live today. For those of you who are saying, 'yeah - but you're more interested in barbecue, right?', I answer - 'only around lunch time'. In fact, I would argue that barbecue falls firmly into the axiom that 'past is present'. Right now though, it's Stone Mountain that still has me thinking about our shared history and how we deal with it. To deal with it, though, we must know about it.
I mentioned in a previous post that Stone Mountain was the place in 1915 where the Ku Klux Klan was revived. The Klan was originally founded in 1865, by disgruntled Confederate veterans from Tennessee.Some of you might even remember the name of the first Grand Wizard - former Confederate general Nathan B. Forrest, the supposed namesake of Forrest Gump. They formed to use force and intimidation to restore white supremacy after the Civil War and their targets were mostly freedmen and white, progressive Republicans. After Reconstruction was weakened and eventually surpassed by 1877, organizations like the Klan and the White League and the Red Shirts (all white supremacy groups) became less important.
By 1915 though, the second iteration of the Klan came to the forefront, led by William C. Simmons, a so-called doctor and Methodist minister who had the habit of joining or creating fraternal organizations. While recuperating from a car crash, he became obsessed with the rebuilding of the Klan, which he'd seen depicted in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. The opportunity came with the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager that was convicted (now universally considered unfairly) for the rape and murder of a 13 year-old worker named Mary Phagan. After his death sentence was commuted to life in prison, the self-named 'Knights of Mary Phagan' kidnapped Frank and drove him to Marietta to hang him. The plotters planned extensively and even made sure that they used the route the most closely resembled Union General William T. Sherman's March To The Sea. Tom Watson, publisher and main provoker had this to say:
On a related note, Leo Frank was B'nai B'rith president for Atlanta, Georgia and the antisemitism surrounding his case, trial and lynching was the catalyst forming the impetus and inspiration for creating the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith in 1913, an organization dedicated to stopping the defamation of Jewish people, bigotry, racism and discrimination.
This is probably not the last I have to say in this blog about Stone Mountain.
I mentioned in a previous post that Stone Mountain was the place in 1915 where the Ku Klux Klan was revived. The Klan was originally founded in 1865, by disgruntled Confederate veterans from Tennessee.Some of you might even remember the name of the first Grand Wizard - former Confederate general Nathan B. Forrest, the supposed namesake of Forrest Gump. They formed to use force and intimidation to restore white supremacy after the Civil War and their targets were mostly freedmen and white, progressive Republicans. After Reconstruction was weakened and eventually surpassed by 1877, organizations like the Klan and the White League and the Red Shirts (all white supremacy groups) became less important.By 1915 though, the second iteration of the Klan came to the forefront, led by William C. Simmons, a so-called doctor and Methodist minister who had the habit of joining or creating fraternal organizations. While recuperating from a car crash, he became obsessed with the rebuilding of the Klan, which he'd seen depicted in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. The opportunity came with the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager that was convicted (now universally considered unfairly) for the rape and murder of a 13 year-old worker named Mary Phagan. After his death sentence was commuted to life in prison, the self-named 'Knights of Mary Phagan' kidnapped Frank and drove him to Marietta to hang him. The plotters planned extensively and even made sure that they used the route the most closely resembled Union General William T. Sherman's March To The Sea. Tom Watson, publisher and main provoker had this to say:
Two months after the lynching, the 'Knights' burned a cross on top of Stone Mountan and did so again on Thanksgiving night, 1915, under the leadership of Simmons and with a couple of old, original Klan members, when they rechristened the KKK. This group spread its hate wider, encompassing anti-Catholicism, antisemitism, nativism, as well as anti-black and freedmen. The oath was administered by Nathan Bedford Forrest II, the grandson of the original Imperial Grand Wizard, Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, and was witnessed by the owner of Stone Mountain, Samuel Venable. Fundraising for the monument resumed in 1923, and in October of that year, Venable granted the Klan the perpetual right to hold celebrations as they desired."Hereafter, let no man reproach the South with lynch law: let him remember the unendurable provocation; and let him say whether lynch law is not better than no law at all.... "[W]hen mobs are no longer possible liberty will be dead."
On a related note, Leo Frank was B'nai B'rith president for Atlanta, Georgia and the antisemitism surrounding his case, trial and lynching was the catalyst forming the impetus and inspiration for creating the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith in 1913, an organization dedicated to stopping the defamation of Jewish people, bigotry, racism and discrimination.
This is probably not the last I have to say in this blog about Stone Mountain.
"...from Stone Mountain of Georgia"
Finalmente! as Mozart would have said. We finally got to Stone Mountain, a famous monadnock just east of Atlanta. A what?! I'm not sure that 'inselberg' or 'kopje' is much better. All those words describe a small mountain or hill that rises out of a gentle slope or plains. Think Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
This one is mistakenly referred to as the largest exposed piece of granite in the world. It is not, but it does have the largest bas-relief in the world - of three leaders of the Confederate States of America. Click on the photo to see it bigger:
The Confederate leaders, from left to right are: President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and 'Stonewall' Jackson. They're seated on their horses, 'Blackjack', 'Traveller' and 'Little Sorrel' respectively. Just to give you some perspective, the carving of General Lee is 9 stories tall. Yep - we're that far away in this photo.
Stone Mountain today is like a Six Flags. You pay to park and then you have to pay for all the attractions, a scenic railroad, an antebellum plantation, shows, a giant jungle gym. The one thing I was interested in was the SkyRide, a Swiss-type cable car that takes you 825 ft.to the top.
Of course, I deeply appreciate the history to this rock, which is in this case a very troubled history. Turns out that it was at Stone Mountain that the Ku Klux Klan was revived in 1915. The Confederate carving was determined three years earlier, but the connection was deep and the KKK heavily influenced the Confederates-only depiction. Turns out the the Klan's philosophy and followers were emboldened by one of the first great movies, D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. Also by the lynching of Leo Frank, to date, the only Jewish person lynched in America. He was a factory manager who was accused of the murder of a 13 year old worker, Mary Phelan. He was convicted, then had his sentence commuted - only to be lynched on August 17, 1915. One of my next posts will have more about that.
Troubled history aside, it's apparent that Stone Mountain is an important cultural touchstone in Atlantans lives.
When we got to the ticket counter, they were telling everyone that the SkyRide was closed due to high winds - a total bummer. We traipsed through the park, taking photos, stopping at every gift shop there was. Finally, while I was waiting by the third gift shop, craftily positioned next to the empty SkyRide ticket booth, a cry rang out - "winds are down! SkyRide's open!'. I jumped up, got my family, grabbed tickets and we were in the first gondola up the mountain. It was four minutes getting up there and three minutes coming down. And it was spectacular.
That's Atlanta behind our heads and the rounded edge of the rock face about 200 feet behind us. It was totally worth it. More on Stone Mountain to come.
This one is mistakenly referred to as the largest exposed piece of granite in the world. It is not, but it does have the largest bas-relief in the world - of three leaders of the Confederate States of America. Click on the photo to see it bigger:
The Confederate leaders, from left to right are: President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and 'Stonewall' Jackson. They're seated on their horses, 'Blackjack', 'Traveller' and 'Little Sorrel' respectively. Just to give you some perspective, the carving of General Lee is 9 stories tall. Yep - we're that far away in this photo.
Stone Mountain today is like a Six Flags. You pay to park and then you have to pay for all the attractions, a scenic railroad, an antebellum plantation, shows, a giant jungle gym. The one thing I was interested in was the SkyRide, a Swiss-type cable car that takes you 825 ft.to the top.
Troubled history aside, it's apparent that Stone Mountain is an important cultural touchstone in Atlantans lives.
When we got to the ticket counter, they were telling everyone that the SkyRide was closed due to high winds - a total bummer. We traipsed through the park, taking photos, stopping at every gift shop there was. Finally, while I was waiting by the third gift shop, craftily positioned next to the empty SkyRide ticket booth, a cry rang out - "winds are down! SkyRide's open!'. I jumped up, got my family, grabbed tickets and we were in the first gondola up the mountain. It was four minutes getting up there and three minutes coming down. And it was spectacular.
That's Atlanta behind our heads and the rounded edge of the rock face about 200 feet behind us. It was totally worth it. More on Stone Mountain to come.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Atlanta Cyclorama, and 360 Degrees of Barbecue
On our second full day, we scrapped the plans for Stone Mountain and went to the Atlanta Cyclorama. This was because of a combination of bad weather and certain people thinking other people would fall off the cliff face. The cyclorama is a unique type of historical display, a screen or a scrim hung 360 degrees around the public featuring some kind of vivid depiction. In this case, it's of the Battle of Atlanta, a meeting of Union and Confederate forces on July 22, 1864.
First, however, was a visit to the gift shop.
First, however, was a visit to the gift shop.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
"...that I will faithfully execute..."
Our second stop today was to the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, which is just down the street from the Martin Luther King, Jr. NHS. In fact, they're both connected by the Freedom Parkway, just off I-75. On the same grounds as the library and museum is the Carter Center, an NGO created to “to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development".
This makes my fifth Presidential library (Truman, LBJ, JFK and FDR are the others) and I have to say, this might be my favorite. Maybe. JFK's is in an I.M. Pei edifice and that's pretty banging. Still - this is a wonderful building and the three of us had a great time.
I kept asking Kyle where he wanted his Presidential library. He looked at me like I started speaking Farsi. I do think though that he should dream about what he can achieve and then shoot past it.
Jimmy Carter started out as the son of a prominent Georgia businessman. He chose to leave his hometown of Plains, to join the nascent U.S. nuclear submarine fleet. He served under the imposing Hyman G. Rickover, the 'Father of the Nuclear Navy'. When his father passed in 1953, he immediately resigned his commission. As people were coming by the house, telling his son about how James Earl Carter, Sr. affected their lives with his compassion and kindness, James Earl Carter, Jr. (Jimmy) realized that he could positively affect more people coming back to Plains than he could serving in the Navy.
Every Presidential Library has a replica of the Oval Office. I'll post more pictures of that later, but here's a great photo of Kyle and my mother in that hallowed (if fake) space.
Tomorrow - Georgia's great Stone Mountain, and some of its history
This makes my fifth Presidential library (Truman, LBJ, JFK and FDR are the others) and I have to say, this might be my favorite. Maybe. JFK's is in an I.M. Pei edifice and that's pretty banging. Still - this is a wonderful building and the three of us had a great time.
I kept asking Kyle where he wanted his Presidential library. He looked at me like I started speaking Farsi. I do think though that he should dream about what he can achieve and then shoot past it.
Jimmy Carter started out as the son of a prominent Georgia businessman. He chose to leave his hometown of Plains, to join the nascent U.S. nuclear submarine fleet. He served under the imposing Hyman G. Rickover, the 'Father of the Nuclear Navy'. When his father passed in 1953, he immediately resigned his commission. As people were coming by the house, telling his son about how James Earl Carter, Sr. affected their lives with his compassion and kindness, James Earl Carter, Jr. (Jimmy) realized that he could positively affect more people coming back to Plains than he could serving in the Navy.
Every Presidential Library has a replica of the Oval Office. I'll post more pictures of that later, but here's a great photo of Kyle and my mother in that hallowed (if fake) space.
Tomorrow - Georgia's great Stone Mountain, and some of its history
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