2/11/2024

 

Weekly Update 2/11/2024

Another Super Bowl is history. I really did not care who won this game, but I had hoped that someone new team would become the champion. It wasn’t to be and the Chiefs outplayed the 49ers. It was a hard game to lose.

While waiting for the game to begin, I participated in Super Museum Sunday. It’s one day every year when most museums throughout Georgia are open with free admission. I was very pleased to see the Bloomingdale History Museum was going to be open. I drive past that building all the time, but it has never been open. When I asked today, I was told that they used to have meetings there about once a month, but they stopped during COVID and haven’t started up again. Some pool City worker must have drawn the short straw and was forced to be there today. She knew little about history, but tried valiantly to answer my questions. There’s only three rooms in the museum, and the items have all been donated by long-time residents. There were old kitchen appliances and utensils, a display of soldiers who served in WWII, some school photos, and old scrapbooks that I didn’t have time to go through. 

Then, I went to be a guide at Green Meldrim. Because it is used as a church hall, the museum was not able to open until after the coffee hour was completed and they had time to clean up. I was in the dining room for the afternoon, and there were over 200 visitors who came to tour the house in the three hours we were open. The time went quickly.

I almost felt as if it was homecoming week. As I was walking around downtown after being a docent at GM Thursday morning, I ran into two friends that I haven’t seen in ages. They live downtown, and like many other residents, are dissatisfied with the tourists, trolleys and air B&Bs. I thought they had moved. So it was great to see Kay and Dennis. Then, on Friday, as I was taking my walk in Daffin Park, I stopped a couple because he was wearing a Detroit Lions shirt and I needed to talk football. Then I realized I knew them as well! They used to own a B&B on Green Square, and I had been to a few gatherings there – a barbecue one summer day and a holiday party at Christmas many years ago. They are out of the business now, and have moved to the ‘burbs. It was nice to see Rob and Angela again and talk to them, too. Also, as I was at Daffin, I noticed that they are expanding Grayson Stadium, so who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to get a ticket to a Savannah Banana game this year!

Saturday was a busy day for me. In the morning, I went to the dedication of the renaming of a Square for Suzy King Taylor. Until last year, it had been named John C. Calhoun Square, but like many other parks, and buildings, as well as some statues, it is the current trend to not honor Confederates and racists. Calhoun Square needed to find a new name. Suzy King Taylor was born a slave in Georgia in 1848, but in 1862, she escaped to Union occupied St. Simon’s Island, where she established a school. During the Civil War, she served as a nurse, laundress and teacher for the Union. After the war, she opened a school and worked as a domestic servant (at Green Meldrim House) until she moved to the Boston area in the 1870s. She died in 1912. The dedication was an opportunity to hear the story again, told by all the politicians who took credit for renaming the Square.

After I left that, I went to Wormsloe to attend the Colonial Faire and Muster. It’s one of my favorite programs and I try to attend every year. This was the first year that there was a fee, but I was able to get around that because I’ve got passes from both the CMA and membership to the Georgia Historical Society. I got there a little later than I usually do, and I had to rush through. I didn’t watch the musket or cannon firing exhibits, and I didn’t look in all the vendors tents. But I did go to the Colonial Life area to watch cooking, tea making, flax spinning, and blacksmithing. It was all so interesting. They also have a new center, and when I arrived at the arched entrance, the gates were closed. Because I’m not totally stupid, I finally read the sign that said the entrance had moved a short ways down the road. The new welcome center is lovely, and large. No wonder they need to charge people to get in. It’s been open only a month.

So, there was much to do this week. And not all my activities involved sitting in my recliner in front of my tv.