Can't Tear It Down? Legislate It Away.

Growing up I lived in four places: Brunswick, GA; Atlanta, GA; Macon, GA; and Ellijay, GA.
Brunswick, Macon, and Atlanta were all majority African-American. (And still are.) But there are Confederate memorials on public property in all of them. Atlanta has the most wide-spread of these things. I mean, hell...the entire freaking city is a Confederate Memorial. My home town, Brunswick, has the least presence of such memorials. There is one that I know of, and it's really obscure and isolated...so isolated that it's not really very objectionable. As far as I know it's the single such memorial in the city.
Ellijay was not merely majority white--it was 100% white. And as I recall they also merely had a single Confederate memorial; which is really weird because that part of GA refused to support the Confederacy and instead sided with the Union. But it's also the most virulently racist place I ever lived so I reckon they figured they'd best have a monument to the Confederacy.
At any rate, I wonder why any city with a majority of black voters would put up with this shit.
And here is Stone Mountain, GA. It is not technically Atlanta, but is nearby, and is home to the most vile of the Confederate Monuments. It should be scrubbed off of the mountain. I'm sure it could be accomplished without blasting.

Fresh Air Barbecue.

When I was a kid I would often ride with my parents on trips between Macon GA and Atlanta GA and sometimes to points north such as Ellijay GA. All places where my parents had homes or businesses or both.

To keep from traveling on the boring Interstate all of the time my parents would often jump off to ride a state highway. Because, face it--Interstate highways are not known for beauty and variety. If you ride the backroads you get to see isolated parks and rivers and lakes and encounter quirky villages tucked away in the country.

One spot that would always cause us to pause in our journeys was a restaurant called Fresh Air Barbecue in Jackson, Georgia. The place was legendary by the time I was a kid. We'd pull over into their big parking lot, go in and usually order sandwiches and chips to go, with drink. I know everyone says this a lot, and everyone has their favorite barbecue joint...but the barbecued pork at Fresh Air is the best I have ever tasted. It is indescribably delicious in every way. No barbecue I have ever tasted comes close.

So, when Carole and I were staying at Indian Springs State Park, we made sure to ride up to the old Fresh Air Barbecue and order a couple of meals. Carole was dubious about my stories concerning the unmatched quality of the barbecue, but she was soon singing their praises, too.

I had not been there in decades, and the flavor of their food was everything I had remembered.

Seriously. If you ever get even the slightest chance to eat at this place, do it. The world's best barbecue.

The place hadn't changed! Pretty much as I recalled it.

Fresh Air Barbecue. The best 'cue I've ever tasted.

I love it when something remains much the same as it has existed since my youth.

The same sawdust floors at the outdoor benches and tables.

Even the interior was the same.

Do yerself a favor: get you some barbecue here.

First Meeting

I've mentioned here several times about the last meeting I had with Ray Bradbury. It was at the 2010 signing event for an anthology in which both of us had stories. He was frail and was obviously not in complete control of his mind at that point. For me, it was a sad meeting because of that, and because he was not the hearty man I had first met in 1986.

Yesterday I stumbled upon some photos that I took of Bradbury (and one obviously taken by someone else because I'm in it with him). This was at the 1986 World Science-Fiction Convention which was being held in Atlanta GA and was called CONFEDERATION. It remains the best science fiction convention I've ever attended. Mainly because I got to see and hear so many great writers I had long admired, and because it was one of the last mostly literary conventions before movies and cosplayers and scumbags took over the shows.

I do remember that Bradbury told me that he was in town not just for the show, but to also meet with the Turner Network people about the possiblity that they would take up The Ray Bradbury Theater which had just been canceled at another network. I don't know how that worked out. But I had a great experience just seeing him.

Confederation remains the single finest science-fiction convention I ever attended. Everything else since has been involved in a losing competition to measure up.

Ray Bradbury in his signature white get up (he did it first, Wolfe!). I don't know who the woman is.

Here is Bradbury autographing a book for me. He then apologized profusely for not having written back to me when I sent him a photo of Ryerson Johnson (who was then in his 80s), one of the first editors who had ever bought a story from him.

And here is a much younger, much thinner me speaking to Ray Bradbury.

Contrasted with a much heavier, older me with a very frail Ray Bradbury in 2010.