Red Bay, AL: Things Are Different Here In The South

MLA is having trouble adjusting to the way of life here in the South.

Yesterday she went to the grocery store to pick up a few items, including ice. She completed shopping, paid for them and much to her delight, watched the bag boy bag the groceries. Our usual grocery shopping is done at Super Walmarts across the country since they can almost always accommodate the combination of our RV plus towed car without having to disconnect the car. It's pretty rare to have someone bag our groceries. Here in Red Bay, Alabama, its like stepping back in time.

Anyway, after paying and watching the bag boy, MLA grabs the cart and starts towards the door. A man tries to grab her cart. Quickly overcoming her surprise she starts to fight back against the 'grocery grabber'. Boy is she surprised (and embarrassed) when the guy explains he is just taking her cart/groceries to the car so he can load them into her car. In addition, he explained, he would get the ice from the large outside cooler so she 'didn't have to reach deep into the ice box'.

So she let the man get her ice, wheel the cart to the car and unload the groceries. Still a bit shocked by the whole turn of events, she tipped the guy. She said from the surprised look on his face that didn't happen much.

Turns out he is the store manager and always takes time to assist his customers by pushing their cart and loading the groceries into their car, all the while asking questions about thier family, usually by name.

In any case, I'm just glad she didn't get to her pepper spray; I'm guessing this guy has a lot of friends since he meets nearly everybody in town during his workday. And a couple of us crazy RV'ers.....

In any case, today we drove over to Tupelo to see Elvis' birthplace. It's a small two room building that Elvis dad, Vernon, built along with his grandfather and uncle. All for $185; this was during the depression (1934) so $185 was a lot of money.

There were lots of stories about Elvis and his family however the one I found most interesting was about Elvis' 11th birthday. He really wanted a .22 rifle. He wanted one and nothing else; well, OK, if he couldn't get a gun he would like a bicycle but he really wanted a gun. He was pretty adamant about getting a rifle so his Mom, took him to the local hardware store. She had major reservation about giving him a rifle or a bicycle. After asking a few questions she decided both the gun and the bicycle were just too dangerous.

The man at the hardware store suggested a guitar. Elvis did not want a guitar and threw a fit. His mother told him to 'straighten up and fly right' or words to that effect. After playing with the guitar for a while in the store he decided to take the guitar for his birthday. So, for a little less than $8, Elvis had his first guitar. Wasn't long and he was taking it to school everyday. While he was very shy, he was soon singing songs to the kids at school over lunch.

All of Elvis' success is quite amazing when you see just how humble his life was in the early years.

On the way back from Tupelo we took the long way home and drove a portion of the Natchez Trace Parkway. This is an old Indian trail that was used extensively for east to west travel until the paddle wheels began service on the mighty Mississippi River. Today its a Federal Park much like the Blue Ridge Parkway. Unlike the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is 469 miles in length, the Natchez Trace is about half that length. While the Blue Ridge runs mostly along the ridges of mountains, the Natchez Trace run mostly through bottom land and small hills of Mississippi up to Nashville Tennessee. I have not driven the portion around Nashville (yet) but I think that's a little more hilly than here in Mississippi.

Until later - See Ya!