Montgomery to Tucson

Ryan -- I finally sent off the Flat Alex assignment that you and Alex sent me. I have a about 10 pics of the Montgomery, area included with the letter. So, since I sent it right to your kid's school, I figured I'd post what I wrote to his class. Enjoy:


Dear Mrs. Osborne’s Class-

Hopefully the contents of this envelope will make it safely to your classroom, and yet another Flat student will be returned to you with tales of fun and adventure. We were privileged to receive Flat Alex Pederson in the mail, with a short story of how he was flattened in a tragic “brick” accident. After reading your class letter, we dusted off Flat Alex and decided to hit the town.
As you may know, Flat Alex found himself in Montgomery, Alabama, which is approximately 1,598 miles from Tucson and takes almost exactly 24 hours to drive by car. I know this, as I have made this very trek by car several times. Now, I did not grow up in the south, but rather in your own home city of Tucson. When I first moved out here, I noticed that people here sure do talk funny. Ironically, they thought I spoke funny, so I guess we were even. I realize that there are a lot of stereotypes of the southerners and the south, and I was pleased to find out that they weren’t true. For example, people here actually do wear shoes, don’t eat road kill, and choose to brush their teeth occasionally (assuming they have teeth). I have essentially found that cities in America, even though they are different, are pretty much the same in many ways, but I made an effort to take Flat Alex to places that I felt were unique to the Montgomery area.
The first stop on our adventure was to get some grub at the local eatery. Down south, natives often refer to food as “grub.” Not really kids, I’m kidding. In any case, we hit a restaurant that seems to be a local favorite in Montgomery. There’s quite a variety of food to choose from on their menu, but after several minutes of deliberation, Flat Alex and I finally decided to go with something known as a “Number One Combination.” This unique meal combines three items for one low, low price. This particular combination included something Southerners call a “Big Mac,” a tasty burger-type sandwich that contains some mysterious special sauce that leaves you wanting more. It also includes Freedom Fries and a drink. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the restaurant. I’ll send you the name the next time I drive by it. You can see a picture of Flat Alex about to devour his unique southern meal.
After lunch, Flat Alex and I traveled to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. Here’s the website if you wish to check it out: http://www.mmfa.org/ It’s a nice art museum that features many paintings and sculptures of local artists but also hosts traveling art exhibits of famous artists. I’ve included a picture of Flat Alex standing in front of the building (the picture with a pond in the background) right before he was attacked by a gaggle of Canadian Geese. It wasn’t pretty, but we made it out alive. If you decide to visit the museum, be sure you bring some bread to distract any potential carnivorous Geese from biting you.
The next place we visited was the Alabama Shakespeare Festival http://www.asf.net/. It is the sixth largest Shakespeare Festival in the world and it operates year-round, producing 14 world-class productions annually, including three works of William Shakespeare. Mr. Shakespeare had a funny accent himself, but he was not from Alabama. The festival has two indoor theaters and one outside theater. It’s a lot of fun, especially if you haven’t been hurt financially due to the global economic crisis we currently find ourselves in.
After touring the Shakespeare festival, we got in the car and went to downtown Montgomery. We did make on stop in front of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church http://www.dexterkingmemorial.org/. This is a famous church where Martin Luther King Jr. pastored from 1954-1960 and began his quest for civil rights. In the basement of this church is where meetings were held to discuss on they would handle the Montgomery Bus Boycot after the arrest of Rosa Parks.
Within walking distance of the church, is the Capitol building of Alabama (Montgomery is the capital of Alabama incase you didn’t figure that part out yet). You can see a picture of Flat Alex in front of the Capitol building, in addition to several sites around the building. One item of note is that during the Civil War, the city of Montgomery was the first capital of the Confederacy. In fact, the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, was inaugurated on the steps of the Capitol building you see in the picture. There is a gold star to show where Jefferson Davis stood during his inauguration on Feb. 18th, 1861. I had Flat Alex lay down next to the star so I could take of picture of it. You can see him next to it with the pictures I sent. I also sent a picture of Flat Alex standing in front of a statue of Jefferson Davis. You will also find a picture of Flat Alex standing in front of a Confederate flag, which you might remember from such TV shows as Hee Haw and The Dukes of Hazzard. Hmmm… Maybe that was before your time. In any case, the Confederate Flag is no longer allowed to fly on top of the capital building, but it does remain on the property of the capitol building grounds. I’ll let your teacher explain that one, kids.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and hopefully you learned a little something about Montgomery, Alabama.