Last Hodge Podge for October. Where Has This Year Gone?

Joyce has been traveling the past two weeks, and needed to regroup before diving back into regular blogging. Whatever regular blogging means? In the meantime, let's hodgepodge. If you've answered this week's questions add your link at the end of Joyce's post, then leave a comment for the blogger linking before you.

1. What's surprised you most about your life or life in general?
Changes later in life.  I always thought I would retire from BRHS and be retired, but after the mega snow/ice storm I found myself starting over at Randolph County.  The drive is gone, I am home before I ever left BRHS and I leave my house in the morning when I was getting to my old school.  I love it.

2.  Sweet potato fries, sweet potato casserole, a baked sweet potato, a bowl of butternut squash soup, a caramel apple or a slice of pumpkin pie...you have to order one thing on this list right now. Which one do you go for?  I would choose the pumpkin pie.

3. What's a famous book set in your home state? Have you read it? On a scale of 1-5 (5 is fantastic) how many stars does it rate?
Stars Fell on Alabama  would be what first comes to mind. I found it more interesting as a cultural artifact than as a reading experience. Although it was difficult for me to read some sections (like depictions of lynchings), I'm especially glad they were included as documentation and confrontation. I'm sure it was extremely risky for him to write about such things, even while using pseudonyms. Overall the book's really loosely structured--some folk stories, some narrative, somewhere between journalistic and creative nonfiction, --and that style, or lack thereof (possibly combined with the fact that I already sort of knew or expected some of the content), made it a bit difficult for me to feel invested. There are no real threads other than "this is what this part of Alabama is like," so when I closed the book after a chapter, I didn't feel highly compelled to read the next. I think my favorite section is the chapter towards the end that gives spells for john the conquer root, and some of the african american ghost stories and folk tales. I also found the first few chapters on social life in Tuscaloosa interesting, as some things are very much the same (umm, yes, frat students still ditch classes to go to formals, and there are certifiable debutante balls). It is also true that Tuscaloosa was and *currently is* clearly divided into "From heres," "university people," and poor people and minorities... ".  It would be a 4 in my thoughts and is for people interested in history.
Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistlestop Cafe  would be my second choice.  It was written by Fannie Flagg.  It's first the story of two women in the 1980s, of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women -- of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth, who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder.  I have eaten at the Whistlestop Cafe in Irondale, AL and enjoyed the whole experience.  It would be a 5.

4. There are 60 days until Christmas...have you started your shopping? How do you stay organized for the holidays?  I am almost done.  I shop all year so I can get the good bargains.  When I buy something I put it in the gift closet with the person's name on it.. 

5. October 26th is National Tennessee Day. Have you ever lived or spent any time in Tennessee? Is this a state you'd like to visit one day? The top rated tourist attractions in Tennessee are-

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park (Gatlinburg area), Elvis's Graceland (Memphis), Birth of the Music Biz (Memphis and Nashville), Dollywood (Pigeon Forge), Tennessee's Military Heritage (many battlefields), The Hermitage (Andrew Jackson's home), The Parthenon (Nashville), Oak Ridge American Museum of Science and Energy, Chattagnooa and the Tennessee Valley Railroad, Downtown Knoxville, Lookout Mountain, The Titanic Museum (Pigeon Forge), The Museum of Appalachia (Clinton), and The Lost Sea Adventure (Sweetwater)

How many on this list have you seen? Which one on the list would you most like to see?

I love Tennessee.  We go there quite often.  I have a best friend in Knoxville and a sister in Nashville.  I have seen all the attractions listed above, but my favorite place to be is in Cades Cove.


6.  Insert your own random thought here.  My daughter is coming home from Moldova.  Not permanently....but they will land here at midnight on the 26th, spend the night in Atlanta, then start their furlough and fund raising.  They will be here until Dec 4th and I am so excited I can hardly stand it.  I am off the 30th and plan to spend time with them then.  This is their first time home in two years.  This momma is thrilled beyond measure.