Florida Road Trip 2014 - Day 9: Thursday, December 4th

Another FANTASTIC Day of vacaton.  This morning after breakfast we drove to the W. C. Handy Birth Site and Museum.  Nice little library and display of items related to W. C. (William Charles) Handy, who is considered the Father of the Blues, mainly because he wrote the blues music down.  He went blind in his 40s and then published music in braille. He was born in Florence, Alabama in a 2 room log cabin that is now attached to the museum.  He died in 1958.  His father, Charles B. Handy was a preacher in Florence.  He helped hide James T. Rapier, Congressman from Alabama, 43rd Congress, from the Ku Klux Klan on an island in the Tennessee River, for escape to Washington for Congress. 

A bust and painting:

W. C. took a band to play in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair when he was about 20 years old.

Piano he composed Memphis Blues on - -in Memphis-and donated to City of Memphis who then donated to this museum. The City of Memphis also claims W. C. Handy and has a little park and a home they moved to the site that says it is the birth place of some of the SONGS he wrote.  There was a letter from a woman confirming that one of his songs was dedicated to her father who ran a riverboat out of Memphis that W. C. played on.

He also had a Handy Brother's Publishing Company in New York.  His brother worked for him.  

George Gershwin autographed his copy of Rhapsody in Blue to Mr. Handy on Augud 30, 1926 

"Mr. Handy, Whose early blues songs are the fore fathers of this work, with admiration and best wishes, George Gershwin"

Song "I'll Never Turn Back Now"

This was a set of boxing gloves with bells and ankle bracelets with bells that were said to be worn in minstral shows.

Next--Went to Helen Keller's Birth Site in Tuscumbia just a few minutes down the road.  Their libraryis named for Helen.  This home and plantation of about 640 acres was owned by her grandparents and settled in 1820.  Apparently her grandmother was an Adams and her ancestor included John Quincy Adams, and she was a college graduate.  The tree in front was a beautiful magnolia tree - very tall! That's Rick standing there to show you how tall that tree is!  Also, on the right side is the small house where Annie Sullivan took Helen to live after driving her around for 2 hours around town to make her think that she was way far away from home. She didn't know where she was until a couple weeks later when her dog came over.  The big house had no kitchen - the kitchen and kitchen helper's room were in back.  We found a "moon tree" planted in the back yard.  The seed had been taken to the moon and back and planted. Also in the back yard was a Lion's display of being the Knights for Blindness and a video of Helen talking.  She sounded really pretty normal - I was amazed.

Here is the little cottage. This was the orginal house that Helen's parents lived in before they moved over to the big house.

This was Helen's bed upstairs in the big house - Annie's was on the other side of the room.

This was a statue just like the one in Statutory Hall in WDC.  Rick noticed that the well was not like the one that was outside that she pumped from.......

Next---Lunch with cousin Don Nicolaresn who is an engineer with the space program. Really gald he was able to work part of the day and spend the rest of the day with us. We ate at Clanch Cafe near a pond in Tuscumbia then went to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

We watched the documentary Muscle Shoals about the music industry -- Rick Hall and Fame Studios that started the Muscle Shoals sound. 

 Percy Sledge--a hospital orderly in Sheffield who recorded at Fame Studios  - "When A Man Loves A Woman" which made it to #1 and made the Rolling Stones want to come to see who the Black Studio Musicians were, only to find they were these white guys known as the Swampers.

Afterthe museum closed at 5pm we said good-bye to Don and headed toward Memphis, TN.  Just before we left Alabama, we found gas for $2.39 -- had't seen that price since Columbia, MO so got some.  Checked into the world famous Peabody Hotel and then went to world famous Beale Street around the corner.  Lots of music clubs with live music but not a lot of people on the streets.  Ate at Pig on Beal-a BBQ place that had won lots of awards for a great supper.