The Saturday Morning Post: 50 States in 52 Weeks: Alabama

 

I saw a calendar / diary in a bookstore that had a page for each week of the year with questions about the users experience with the 50 United States, and adding in Washington DC, and Puerto Rico to round out the 52 weeks of the year.  What a wonderful idea for a theme day on a blog. 

So here I begin. 

Alabama

Alabama is in the deep south of the United States. 

The first time I was there was in the late 1970's. I drove my grandmother from Florida to Michigan one spring and she wanted to go west across the panhandle of Florida, stop at Bellingrath Gardens in southern Alabama, then north across Alabama and Mississippi to St Louis on the way.  

My second time was in the early 1980's I drove from Orlando to New Orleans for the World's Fair, stopping to see Bellingrath for a second time.  I was driving a nearly new Renault LeCar, a fun little car with a canvass sunroof, a great radio, and air conditioning so cold ice would form on the vents. 

I have been back once, in the early 2000s to present a training in I think Birmingham. That one was in late summer, I had been at a Kentucky Statewide Legal Services Conference, drove from that conference directly to the airport.  I was dressed casually from the KY conference that was better known as the drunken party in the woods. Delta lost my bag on the way to Alabama. I showed up for dinner that evening with the state attorney general is shorts and a yellow polo shirt. The bag arrived at the hotel late that night. Normally the trainings were 40-50 people, there were nearly 200 in Alabama.  I switched up a few small group exercises to work for large audiences and the show went on.  I have fond memories of the program. 

And no real desire to return to Alabama. 

The photo, is not from Alabama, those visits were before my digital archive. The bright colorful flowers, very much remind me of Bellingrath Gardens.