Oh, The Joys Of Living In The Deep South

The rest of my family lives in and around Birmingham, Alabama.  I lived there off and on after my father moved us (kicking, squealing and crying in protest) in the summer of 1968.  If you're old enough to remember, 1968 was a HUGE year of protests so we girls were just part of the mood of the times, as it were.  Anyway, the Motel Birmingham has been there forever--now it's called the Delux Inn & Suites but it kept the cool diver and the bottom half of the sign.  Wonder what happened to the "Motel" part?  Of course you know I would KILL to have it.

(I'm pretty sure this is an example of the architectural genre named after me, Googie.  Right?)

I now live in Mississippi, a state that has the distinction of continually being #1 or #2 on all the "Worst" lists like "Laziest States" or "Fattest States" or "States With Drivers Who Don't Use Their Turn Signals".  Mississippi is the state that Louisiana is often grateful for because we're usually #1 in bad things and they're #2.  Unfortunately for them, earlier this year THEY won the "Laziest State" award.  They still haven't gone to pick it up, being so lazy and all.  I mean, come ON!  You've seen the video of the people cleaning up the beaches.  They look like they've been filmed in slo-mo, and don't give me the "but it's so HOT" excuse.  They move like that ALL THE TIME!  Sorry, just went off there for a minute. 

I've been fooling y'all.  THIS is our condo!

Now don't trample each other on your way down for a bucolic weekend . . .

While wandering through Poplarville, MS I saw this sign.  When I was a kid one of my many slave duties was to muck out my horse Red's stall.  Seeing the sign brought back fond memories of shoveling horse shit and fending off botflies while keeping an eye out for Red who used to think it was fun to try and bite me.  Good times.

 

And now that we live part-time in Florida--and to me, that sounds like we're old and Jewish and can't take the harsh northern winters, bubbala, not that we're rich--I heard that Pace, Florida is a great place to find good deals on vintage and antique stuff.  So here's one of the first things I saw.  Breathing a sigh of relief that I wasn't driving my car with the "We beat your ass big-time" Obama sticker, I did a quick tour and hightailed it outta there.  Northern Florida is apparently full of "patriotic" militant wackos and I'm pretty sure a high percentage of them live right there in Pace.   Note to self: always drive the big diesel "My husband has a gigantic wee-wee" 3/4-ton Dodge truck whilst driving about the Florida Panhandle and save the car for trips to New Orleans.

I am soooooo tired of this crap.  Seriously.