BEDA Entry 28: A Trip to Montgomery
I have lived in northern Alabama for almost two years now, and over these two years, I have slowly traveled to other cities in the area. I've gone to Nashville, Tennessee a couple of times, both passing through on our way to Indiana and to go shopping. Last year I went to Oxford, Mississippi with Sigma Tau Delta to visit Faulkner's home and a traveling museum of old texts that was set up at Ole Miss. Last October, I went to Birmingham by myself to take the GRE. Last November, I went to Gadsden to see John Green at the Gadsden Public Library. I also drove to Auburn last month to visit the university. This doesn't include camping trips to Lake Guntersville and Boaz, driving to Destin, Florida to go to the beach, and countless other trips to places with my family. I had never visited our state capital, though, and this past Saturday, I went to Montgomery to visit the heart of Alabama.
We set out at around 7:20 AM in two large vans. The smaller van was purely faculty and family members/friends and my van held a variety of students and others. Our driver was chair of the English department, Dr. Elmore. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get there. We played word games and answered trivia questions posed to us by Doc. When we got there, we were late to our first appointment at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Parsonage. This church is the church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pastored from 1954-1960 and began his quest for civil rights. It was the center point of the Montgomery bus boycott started by Rosa Parks. The Parsonage was the home of Dr. King and his family at the time, and it still holds much of his same furniture. We were very rushed to get to our next appointment, but it was very interesting to say the least.
Our next appointment was at the F. Scott and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald museum. It is located in their house in Montgomery. They only lived in this house for six months, but we were told that it is the only home that belonged to them that is open for the public to see. Zelda was born in Montgomery, and the picture that was taken for her only novel was taken in a room in the house. Unfortunately, the tour only allows you to see a couple of the rooms in the house, as the museum is very poor. One interesting fact is that the Fitzgeralds rented out some of the rooms in their house as apartments and to this day, the museum still rents out the rooms. They someday hope to house writers in residence there, but wouldn't that be cool to rent an apartment in Fitzgerald's house? Although the home was in a somewhat run-down neighborhood, I think it would still be neat.
After that, we had a quick lunch at a Burger King that was on our way to Troy University. We visited Troy University to go to visit their Rosa Parks museum. This was probably the most organized tour for us. I don't really know how to describe the experience, but it was really almost like something at an amusement park. They started us out in a room where we started to watch a film about Rosa Parks on these big screens. In the middle of the movie, these two doors opened up and we were to stand in front of this interactive bus where we could watch a reenactment of the scene on the bus. Then, we have 15 minutes to walk through the museum to look at pictures, read newspaper articles, and watch videos about the Montgomery bus boycott. It was interesting.
After that, we were supposed to visit a bookstore, but as we had been running late to all of our appointments, the store was about to close and we weren't even sure where it was. I was a little disappointed, but totally exhausted after all of that. We arrived back home in Athens at about 6:30 PM, and I went home and went to bed.
Overall, it was a fun trip, though I wish we had had more time to really appreciate what we were seeing. The state capitol building was just down the road from us when we were at the church, but we didn't have time to stop at it. Maybe next time. :)
We set out at around 7:20 AM in two large vans. The smaller van was purely faculty and family members/friends and my van held a variety of students and others. Our driver was chair of the English department, Dr. Elmore. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get there. We played word games and answered trivia questions posed to us by Doc. When we got there, we were late to our first appointment at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Parsonage. This church is the church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pastored from 1954-1960 and began his quest for civil rights. It was the center point of the Montgomery bus boycott started by Rosa Parks. The Parsonage was the home of Dr. King and his family at the time, and it still holds much of his same furniture. We were very rushed to get to our next appointment, but it was very interesting to say the least.
Our next appointment was at the F. Scott and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald museum. It is located in their house in Montgomery. They only lived in this house for six months, but we were told that it is the only home that belonged to them that is open for the public to see. Zelda was born in Montgomery, and the picture that was taken for her only novel was taken in a room in the house. Unfortunately, the tour only allows you to see a couple of the rooms in the house, as the museum is very poor. One interesting fact is that the Fitzgeralds rented out some of the rooms in their house as apartments and to this day, the museum still rents out the rooms. They someday hope to house writers in residence there, but wouldn't that be cool to rent an apartment in Fitzgerald's house? Although the home was in a somewhat run-down neighborhood, I think it would still be neat.
After that, we had a quick lunch at a Burger King that was on our way to Troy University. We visited Troy University to go to visit their Rosa Parks museum. This was probably the most organized tour for us. I don't really know how to describe the experience, but it was really almost like something at an amusement park. They started us out in a room where we started to watch a film about Rosa Parks on these big screens. In the middle of the movie, these two doors opened up and we were to stand in front of this interactive bus where we could watch a reenactment of the scene on the bus. Then, we have 15 minutes to walk through the museum to look at pictures, read newspaper articles, and watch videos about the Montgomery bus boycott. It was interesting.
After that, we were supposed to visit a bookstore, but as we had been running late to all of our appointments, the store was about to close and we weren't even sure where it was. I was a little disappointed, but totally exhausted after all of that. We arrived back home in Athens at about 6:30 PM, and I went home and went to bed.
Overall, it was a fun trip, though I wish we had had more time to really appreciate what we were seeing. The state capitol building was just down the road from us when we were at the church, but we didn't have time to stop at it. Maybe next time. :)