SOLTuesday: Getting Out of the Cold

I’m packing today for a trip tomorrow.

            I never understood why older people became snowbirds, going south in the winter. Then, the winter my husband died, New York City’s cold weather became harder for me to take. The wind off of the river up my street felt colder. Was it just that I was older? Or because I had no one to hold hands with as we walked up the street? I’ve never liked winter weather anyway.

            I decided to start taking short trips to warmer places. I don’t want to leave the city for months at a time—there’s too much happening here that I don’t want to miss. But a few weeks away is a nice

Kailua tree, 2017

Beach near Mazatlan, 2018

break from the cold.

            In 2017, I visited one friend in Hawaii for a while, and another in central California, where I also was able to see my brother and one of my nephews.

            In 2018, I visited a friend who was herself a snowbird in Mexico with her partner—and she apologized the whole week for the colder than usual temperature. (And about the same temperature as back home!) Then I went on to New Orleans, for my first time in that city.

            In 2019, I went to Alabama. I had a friend who’d moved to Mobile when she got a job teaching almost 15 years earlier. (She arrived just in time to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Katrina.) I’d promised to visit, but this was the first time I actually did. Then I moved on to Montgomery and visited Bryan Stevenson’s Legacy Museum and Lynching Memorial. These were extremely moving places to see, and I strongly Civil Rights Institute. I happened to be in that city on President’s Day and found a Not My President’s Day demonstration there; maybe there were a couple of dozen people, and I got into conversation with one woman and we went to lunch and then I got a personal tour of the city. Traveling is such fun.

Civil Rights Institute, 2019

recommend everyone go there. And then I was on to Birmingham, to the

            This year, I’m off to Southern California. First, Los Angeles, where I have a college friend I will have dinner with, and another nephew, who I’ll also have dinner with along with my brother driving down from San Jose. Then on to San Diego, where I have another old friend, as well as a friend of hers who’s become my Facebook friend and who I will now meet IRL.

            I’m grateful I have the means to take these trips and the free time. 

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It’s Slice of Life Tuesday over at Two Writing Teachers. Check out this encouraging and enthusiastic writing community and their slices of life every Tuesday. And add one of your own.

SOL16: Artifacts

            Artifacts from my Alabama pilgrimage last month. The collage card is by Michelle Browder, artist and leader of MoreThan tours in Montgomery. You can see more of her work at iammorethan7053.com.

            Alabama became a state 200 years ago, and a historical house I visited in Mobile handed out these tokens. Parts of what became the state were claimed by Georgia, and parts had been what had been West Florida, and was the site of much land speculation as slavery expanded into what was at the beginning of the 19th century the southwest frontier. The Birmingham tie pin celebrates what had been an industrial city; many of its workers were convict labor, a form of post-bellum slavery.

            That tiny bottle? It contains soil from the site of the lynching memorial in Montgomery. It echoes an exhibit at the nearby Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, where the locations of known lynchings are commemorated with gallon bottles of soil from each site. Browder collected soil from the site of the National Memorial for Peace and Reconciliation and presents this memento to tour participants.

 

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I’m participating in the 12th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 1 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!

SOL5: Why I Love Facebook

            Lots of people are now hating Facebook. They don’t like having their personal information collected for who knows what nefarious purpose. They fear becoming addicted to reading post after post after post for hours. But the thing is, we also like keeping in touch with our friends and relatives, and we can’t always be on the phone or seeing people F2F.

            I recently made a pilgrimage to Alabama, to Montgomery and Birmingham, to visit civil rights and African-American history museums and memorials. I posted frequently during the trip about what I was seeing and what I thought about it. Friends commented occasionally, and those were encouraging, and obvious, connections.

            But as well, yesterday I ran into a neighbor who’s also a FB friend, who hadn’t commented or “liked.” She stopped me to tell me how much she had enjoyed reading my posts about the trip, and how much she also wants to go to these places. And we talked for a while. And today, I met a work colleague, who also told me how much she had enjoyed reading about my trip.

            So I know I am reaching many more people than those who bother to comment or click “like.” I like that connection, that reinforcement that I am not alone, that others are touched by what I throw out into the Internet void. There is a there out there. 

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I’m participating in the 12th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 1 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!

SOLTuesday: Rainy Traveling Tuesdays

It’s my annual trek to warmer places, if only for a few weeks. This year I’m visiting Alabama, where I have a friend who teaches in Mobile, and civil rights museums and memorials to visit in Montgomery and Birmingham.

            Last Tuesday and today, it’s been rainy. Warmish, but wet, both days. Last week I was in Mobile, today I’m in Montgomery. Last week, I was feeling the culture shock of living in car culture. At home in New York, I walk many places and take the subway or bus—have never owned a car in my life. When I travel, I often rent a car, and I love to drive, but driving is just another mode of sitting. I think last week my body wasn’t used to the walk-to-the-car-drive-park-walk-to-wherever-drive-park, and it rebelled by, paradoxically, not wangint to do anything. And I couldn’t go for much of a walk in the rain.

           So last week, I drove to a barbecue place called Meat Boss, had a pulled pork sandwich with sides of baked beans and Asian slaw, then drove to a couple of malls and just walked around the stores. The Walmart was the most interesting to me, since we don’t have one in New York. It’s like a department store, but horizontal instead of vertical, and in miniature, since each department is smaller than, say, a Macy’s, but there are some departments our New York Macy’s doesn’t have, like automotive supplies, or guns. I didn’t buy anything, just walked.

            This week, in Montgomery, I’m in a hotel in downtown. Most of the sights I want to see are in walking distance, so I feel much more at home. Luckily, I was in a drugstore when the deluge came, so I was able to sit inside until the rain slowed, then found a coffee shop a few doors down. Then an art gallery next door, with a tour company next to it. By the time I’d arranged for a civil rights tour for Thursday the rain had stopped and I could go across the street to Island Delight, a Jamaican restaurant, for jerk chicken lunch. Delicious. Walked some more around the city, made a reservation for dinner tomorrow night, found where I’ll eat dinner to night (more barbecue), and back to my hotel. I haven’t quite gotten to 10,000 steps, but maybe getting out for dinner will do it.

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It’s Slice of Life Tuesday over at Two Writing Teachers. Check out this encouraging and enthusiastic writing community and their slices of life every Tuesday. And add one of your own.

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