I suppose in hindsight my most influential musician has been Neil Young. I have always loved his work and followed him through the years. He has a great sense of simply melody and a sort of odd way of phrasing his thoughts. My very favorite for those was when Bush 1 was in office, a verse in “rockin in the free world” it goes ………“ we have a thousand points of light. For the homeless man…. We got a kinder gentler machine gun hand.” If you are of the age to remember Bush 1 and his slogans I though that was a great counterpoint. Ok so I am off track a bit. I was making my way into the heart of Alabama. I kept thinking of another line in a Neil Young song he wrote about Alabama….. “ Banjos playing through the broken glass” when you examine that line it is so odd. No one would ever say that in conversation, but in one sentence it really captures the feel of Alabama. I traveled the entire state in one day diagonally west to east. I did this all on backroads avoiding major population centers. I know that some people will get pissed that I am going to say this but Alabama is a dump. I mean I suppose I would rather live there then Jersey City but it would be a close tie. It was a long drive today. I wish I could have found something positive to report. Unfortunately there was nothing along the way I saw other then mobile homes and shacks. For whatever reason this seems to be the theme to the whole state. Get a trailer, stick it in a yard with a pile or rubbish and call it home. You think that is cruel? Sure there are normal houses, but overwhelmingly you are looking at trailers and double wides. Now in theory there is nothing wrong with these. I myself lived in a trailer and a shack for a number of years. But to live in a squalid trailer with yard full of trash and broken cars? I simply don’t get it. Ok so you’re poor. So are the Amish. How about taking just a small amount of pride in where you live regardless. Yeah Alabama has huge issues. I had a number of towns to look at, but honestly once I saw what it was like I knew there was no way in hell I would spend any more time there then I had to here. Around noon I started looking for a place to eat. There seemed to be only fast food joints but I noticed a restaurant attached to a gas station that was packed with cars. It was called something like “the blue plate inn” I figured if all the locals were there that had to be the place. They had a big sign that said “all our customers are family” and I thought you know I bet that is literally true. The place had a very Formica and fluorescent light thing going on. The bathroom reeked of urine. I ordered the recommended special Meatloaf. I noticed while waiting for my meal that every single person weighted about 300lbs, except the kids they were like 150lb. The meal comes to me on the platter. Generally when I think of meat loaf there is a loaf part to it. You know some form; this was more like meat mush. Sort of a big pile of very greasy meat. Like no breadcrumbs were used just pork. Anyway, I have to admit it was tasty. It also came with fried green tomatoes good but they are like a big grease sponge, something called a squash casserole also excellent tasted like macaroni and cheese, fried new potatoes with onions again superb dripping in what I assumed was bacon fat. And a corn muffin. This gastronomic delightful mountain of food set me back $5.99 I got to say it honestly tasted great but how anyone can eat all that grease all the time I don’t know. I seriously think the health department should go down to bama and hand out food vouchers for super size McDonalds meals. People would be getting a lot less calories and fat.
So the drive continued. I was sort of in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains so it was pretty hilly, unfortunately the rampant squalor destroyed any sense of beauty. It was almost like there idea of community planning was to drop 100,000 trailers out of an airplane and wherever they landed in whatever position that is how it had to stay. The only good thing was in some ways it is really fascinating. Like watching a car wreck. At some point late in the day I crossed into Georgia. The difference was immediate. All of a sudden for some unknown reason most people lived in a real house. The road got nicer, the scenery better. I stopped into a town called LaGrange. It was a pretty decent little town. Had a small college there. The town had a nice feel to it. They have been trying hard to promote and save there downtown. There was some artsy stuff, a big theater. People were out and about late into the night. Good to see. There were about 5 nice restaurant right on main street. Some were pretty pricey. I gave them all a bit of my money. At one place they charged me $7.56 for an absolute on the rocks. Jeez I’m not made of money. I’ll go next door. Try as I might I could not really drum up any local color. Had a good meal though and called it a night.
