| Submitted by: Mark R. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 15 February 2005 |
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The motel is fine, but it is about a half hour drive from I-16 on route I-280. We just went off down the connecting road of exit 17 and went and went and went. It took something like 25 or 30 minutes to get to 280. The motel is run by Asian Indians. But the room seems to be well cared for. It has a refrigerator. The toilet flushes. Not a bad choice. Toilets that do not flush are the most common problem in motel rooms as I said. Getting home will be kind of sad, but at least the toilets flush.
In the room we worked on logs and we watched a film about what went on in college fraternities in the 1950s. It was okay. I have to look up the title since we missed the first moments of it. [It was Fraternity Row (1977).] All I know was it was narrated by Cliff Robertson and it had Robert Emhardt. Most of the major characters were played by people unfamiliar to me.
Following that AMC had Horror of Dracula. This was a tremendously influential film, but I think the script is not very good. I left AMC on and went to sleep to Tarzan's Savage Fury, an inferior remake of Tarzan Finds a Son. I did not watch it closely and that was probably just as well.
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09/15/97--Savannah, Georgia: Savannah Museum and Fort Pulaski:
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I slept to about 6:30 AM. Over last night and today I have gotten caught up in my log. That sets my mind at ease. I hate being behind.
We had a decent continental breakfast at the motel. I think that the Days Inn has a terrible location here in Vidalia and they are trying to get return business by running everything as well as they can. Motels this well run have been very much the exception not the rule. But the place is practically empty. I wish them luck.
Public Radio has a story about ultra-orthodox Jews angered by a new Holocaust museum in New York having references to homosexuality are suing to have the museum taken off of public funding. Their suit states because it has to do with just one religion. Of course, they are the ones who are trying to redefine the Holocaust by removing references to homosexuality. When I was growing up there was the feel that Judaism was one religion and there were just different flavors. There was Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. And Orthodox had a splinter group called ultra-Orthodox. We all had the same religion and if the others were wrong in some way as to how they worshipped, let God worry about it. It was a good time. Now the ultra-Orthodox have decided that theirs was the one absolutely correct way to worship (fine, let them think so) and all Jews should worship like they do. Here in the United States they have little power to enforce their wishes. They are using what legal power they have to be pains as they are with this museum. In Israel they have more power. They are saying who can pray at the West Wall. The effect is snowballing. Maybe the Jewish fanatics and the Moslem fanatics should get together.
We stooped in Savannah to go to the Savannah Historical Museum. James Oglethorpe and his settlers founded a colony here in February 1733. Oglethorpe planned it as a sort of Christian socialism where property would be communally owned. He had the local Indians point out the ideal spot. Everything would be planned from the beginning. There would be no slavery; it only makes a man idle to have slaves. Only Protestants are really productive people. There would be no Jews and no Catholics, they are not productive. Property would be held in common. Winter and spring went well. Then came the first summer and the colony almost died of disease. It looked very bad for the colony. Luckily a ship came by with Jewish immigrants looking for a place to live. Among them were doctors who saved the colony. 'Did we say Jews are unproductive? No. We said Catholics are unproductive. The words don't even sound similar. We've been looking high and low for some Jews to join us here. You interested by any chance?' Well, that may not be entirely accurate. But in the first year doctors from a passing boat of Jews did save the colony and Oglethorpe removed the restriction on Jews. There was a lot more, but that story appealed to me for obvious reasons.
The rest of the museum is kind of mediocre. They don't have a lot of anything (except for a locomotive engine which is a lot of something). They have a fiberglass park bench from Forrest Gump. One of several identical made for the film. They have memorabilia from various wars in which Savannah participated, like British uniforms from the revolutionary war. Of course, Savannah has reason to want to forget the Revolutionary War when the British held the forts near Savannah and the Civil War when the Federals ended with the forts. Other exhibits included a local statue, The Bird Girl, and a nice model of an ironclad.
A special temporary exhibit in back showed other objects of local importance including crab traps, handmade toys including a bow and arrow, and summer fashions. From there we went to Fort Pulaski, scene of a minor but locally celebrated battle.
On the way we saw a little of Old Savannah. The layout of the city is a rectangular arrangement of town squares and the city is built around them. Parts of the city are very atmospheric. Sort of memories of older days. I guess that tourism is a big part of Savannah's economy. Certainly around the museum there were busloads of retirees who have come to see the museum.
Bumper sticker seen: 'Friends don't let friends vote Republican.'
The story of the battle of Fort Pulaski is fairly simple. On January 3, 1861, South Carolina has seceded from the Union. Georgia had not, but the Governor thought it likely so sent the state militia to hold Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island. Georgia did secede thirteen days later and gave the fort to the Confederacy. The fort had in a large part been built by a young West Pointer, Robert E. Lee who designed the drainage and the dikes.
Colonel Charles Olmstead was given command of the fort. When it looked like the Federals were going to try to occupy forts locally they abandoned Fort Tybee and put all their forces in the stronger Fort Pulaski about a mile away. Olmstead discussed this move with Robert E. Lee. It seemed likely the Federals might want to take Fort Tybee and use it to attack Fort Pulaski, but it would do them little good. The range of a cannon is about half a mile with any accuracy. If the Federals took Fort Tybee it would just lead to frustration. Shelling Fort Pulaski would be as effective as shelling the Rocky Mountains.
Sure enough the Federals did take Fort Tybee. Captain Quincy A. Gillmore assumed command in February 1862. His idea was to try to bombard Fort Pulaski with Parrott Rifles. These were new experimental cannons with rifled bores. Shells came out spinning. They had greater range and accuracy. Gillmore had then brought into Fort Tybee under cover of night and had them out of sight by the daytime.
Olmstead knew something was happening there but did not know what.
On April 10 Gillmore contacted Olmstead and demanded he surrender Fort Pulaski. Olmstead responded that he had been placed there to defend Fort Pulaski, not to surrender it. Gillmore started shelling and shelled the fort all day. The fort stood up terrifically, though Olmstead was surprised at how frequently the fort was hit. In the early evening Olmstead left the fort to judge the damage. Only then did he realize what a terrible beating the walls ninety inches thick had been given. He immediately realized that the fort would be lost to the Federals. It was just a question of how long it would take.
The next day by noon there were holes in the walls of the fort. A shell went straight through the wall and started a fire dangerously near the powder magazine. If the fire reached the powder it would go up and take everyone in the fort. The fire was quickly put out, but Olmstead knew it was time to surrender.
The defenders all surrendered, Olmstead last saying that he was giving up his sword but was confident he had not disgraced it. The battle demonstrated that weapons of destruction had outstripped measures of defense.
The Federals took the fort and turned it into a prison which it remained until the end of the war. A new
sport was also played in the fort. The oldest known photographic image of men playing baseball was taken in the fort.
We stopped on the way off the island at Williams Seafood. We had stayed the previous night in Vidalia. You may associate that with Vidalia onions. In fact they have ads on the highway for Vidalia onions for rings. I wanted to order onion rings somewhere in the area. This seemed a good place so in addition to the cold boiled shrimp lunch we ordered an appetizer of onion rings. Well, what did I expect? Fried onion rings are always a bit greasy. Beyond that they were just about perfect. It goes without saying they were battered, not breaded. The onions were sweet.
Well, we crossed over to South Carolina. I have been expecting some sort of problem with our Toyota. It was darn foolhardy to take a Toyota with nearly (now more than) 150,000 miles on a trip like this. But the honey is still running sweetly. The worst thing is that we have to add a quart of oil every thousand miles. The second worst problem is that bugs are tough to get off the windshield. I don't know much about cars but I have to believe that is one well-engineered motor. I don't require of a car that it looks sexy or get me pretty girls. That I can do for myself. All I require is that when I turn the key the car takes me where I want to go and that a car not require too much in maintenance. That's my car.
We drove to Charleston, South Carolina (or more accurately Mt. Pleasant). The most cost-effective motel is a place called Masters Inn Economy. The sign is on the highway but it took us three passes past the motel to figure how to get to it. It is like a maze of streets. Then when we actually got to the desk we found one guy running the place trying to cover the work of about three. We check in and we do not get a key, we get a combination. They have a combination to get into the room. The claim is that that the combination is changed every new customer. There are five buttons on the combination lock but the three in our combination are worn while the other two are not. I really believe they change the combination each customer. I try to open the door. The combination does not work. I try it four or five times. I go back to the office, a three or four minute walk. Again a wait in line. The guy tells me the motel was 'a little bent in the hurricane.' I should pull back on the handle while I enter the combination. I walk back to the office. Back into line. This time I have to wait for the guy to be free and he walks to the room. The lock needs to be oiled. The guy says it will be done next week. It just means there is an extra step in opening the lock.
Most of the evening I work on my log. I see a documentary on the History Channel about the Scopes Trial. There is also an interesting piece on PBS called 'Affluenza' about buying and consuming too much.
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09/16/97--Charleston, South Carolina: Patriots Point:
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I woke up about 6:40 AM. Evelyn was a little restless and asked what time it was. I think she tried to go back to sleep. I envy her ability to have a cold and get rid of it. I picked up a small cold in Dallas, but I am still coughing from it.
Probably a good thing that I did wake up early. |
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