Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Savannah in the summer really is a beautiful place. Downtown starts at the river - once the busiest port in the USA. River Street is world famous here [like everything else!] Pirates used to bring their bootleg merchandise up here, past Florida from the Bahamas etc.
Downtown Savannah has 24 parks, surrounded by the most fantastic houses, one particularly that features in the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil [with Kevin Spacey].
In one square, a statue of John Wesley stands testament to his presence here in 1736 - come to preach to the territories. Under enormous oaks squirrels rummage for their lunch, the locals escape the heat, and tourists like us wear out our cameras. Here's another youtube link to Savannah... [please accept my apologies for the infomercial, but it shows off the city really well...] Forest Gump was largely filmed around here, and just over the border in South Carolina. The opening scene is Chipewa Square in downtown...
The Savannah Theatre has, apart from the main entrance, a staircase up the outside of the building that was for the Blacks. Under grudging concession they were given access to the movies, but only in the balcony, and not through the front door. Not too long ago really. Not too far away, on another Savannah square, is the Lucas Theatre that was rigidly 'white only'.
As we were sitting in the park, a black guy [incongruously holding a golf club?] was singing His Eye is on the Sparrow - a rather stirring negro spiritual. We were both quite overcome by it all [the kids on the other hand, had discovered that they could balance a coin on each finger and spin around...!]
That our journey should involve our ordinary selves seems sacreligious somehow. We still need to eat etc, and the kids still gripe at each other, and all the while your eyes and brain are taking in amazing things. Trying to reconcile these things takes some doing... but we'll struggle on! ha
Some other interesting things we've discovered here in the religious south are: Breakfast Cereal called 'Ezekiel 4:9' and Genesis 1 Bread! We also saw at the supermarket - for those of you too tired to cut your own - bags of freshly sliced apple...! couldn't quite believe it. We did some shopping and at the checkout - one person scanning, and another packing - almost every item received it's own plastic bag! Coming from Adelaide where the consciousness is growing about this stuff, it seemed outrageous.
I have felt clear headed this morning - the first time since leaving New Zealand and beginning our time-zone hopping... The kids have not been in bed before 9pm yet, and it has taken it's toll, but still they continue to charm their way into people's hearts. In fact, yesterday on River Street, a man making and selling reed roses gave one each to the kids. He was selling them for $5ea. A little later, in the shade of the great oaks in the park, Aaron approached an elderly lady and gave her his rose. I think it made her day. [She ended up giving him $1 for it which made his day as well! ha Quite the entrepreneur].
The following quote by Mark Twain says so much... 'Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime'. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.