Brookwood

We had an extended morning in bed, eating cereal and watching Friends on TV. Well, it was a Sunday.

Once ready, we proceeded to walk towards downtown. The first thing we noticed was how quiet it was. We weren't sure if this was a Sunday thing, as there are Churches everywhere, or just an Atlanta thing. It was a bit eerie with the occasional jogger passing us by. It wasn't long before we reached our first activity of the day. Its to do with a famous book that became a movie and this time it was Alice's suggestion. We were visiting the house where Margaret Mitchell lived, the author of 'Gone With The Wind'. We went on a tour of the house and the tour guide was very informative and shed much light on the interesting life and tragic death of Margaret Mitchell. My knowledge of either the book or movie is close to nil, however this didn't matter as the focus is squarely on the person with reflections on the material that she wrote. After the tour, we were free to walk around the house where there was more information about the movie, it's release and its huge influence on the city of Atlanta on release. The tour guide even said that there was basically a state holiday on the day of the movie's release every year up until the 1980s!

We left the house and walked into downtown, and people were still hard to come by. Maybe we were in the business district? We weren't sure. We had lunch in a food court by a main subway station and there were more security guards than customers. We were also going to have a look around the shops, however the vast majority were closed. We started to lean back on the religious reason for the lack of people.

We then headed towards a site celebrating the achievements of one of Atlanta's most famous citizens. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site contains various buildings and Alice and I started at the visitor center. There is a museum here that uses archive footage and the power of the word in a poignant and powerful way to explain both the rise of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr's life. A group of statues in the middle of the museum walking as though on a march perfectly captured the mood of unity and purpose. Just outside the visitor centre is the original Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church where King was baptized and both his father Martin Luther King, Sr., and he were pastors. Alice and I didn't go in as it looked like a service had just finished. From here we walked towards the main throughfare of the city, Peachtree Street. Our route took us through an area that had seen better days. Houses were boarded up, crashed cars had parts missing, and garbage littered the street. And yet, after walking down this street for ten minutes, a short steep street later and we were clearly in an affluent part of the city right next to the glitzy Peachtree Street. The geographic symbolism of a wealthy predominantly white high ground and a solely poor black low ground was evident. As I've said before on this blog, many social and economic issues are not the sole preserve of American cities. They just feel more amplified here.

We walked the length of Peachtree Street and finally there were people about! The Fox Theatre was showing 'Cabaret' and people in fine clothes were looking forward to a night out. Alice and I stopped off in an Irish pub to kill a bit of time before dinner. We were going to an Indian Restaurant and it was for an occasion too. Today was the tenth anniversary of the passing of Alice's Father, Colin, and we decided to honour him with a meal Alice knew he loved. Unfortunately they didn't have one of his favourite dishes, onion bhajis (we couldn't believe it either!). However, we both enjoyed our meals, a biryani for me and a balti for Alice, and we raised our glasses to Colin.

Song of the Day:
Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday (a song written by Stevie for a movement that championed a national holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. And it succeeded. Celebrated on the third Monday in January every year)Read more