It’s Rooster Day in Demopolis, Alabama, the second annual festival commemorating the famous Rooster Sale of 1919. The auction of over 200 roosters and one hen, donated by Helen Keller, was to be the local contribution toward a bridge across the Tombigbee River, outside “the City of the People.” It would be the last link in an overland highway from Savannah, Georgia, to San Diego. The sale garnered pledges of more than $200,000, though accounts say many were never honored. I encourage you to search the subject, and be sure to search “Tombigbee flood Rooster Bridge towboat.”
When I was a young whelp in the early 80s, I hitched on with The Jackson Daily News in Jackson, Mississippi. As I was a native of east Alabama, on the Georgia line, I would travel home several times a year to visit family. This journey took me through west Alabama on U.S. Highway 80, then a narrow two-lane road from the Mississippi line to Selma, a distance of about 100 miles. This was before the rapacious scalping of southern woodlands for the export of wood chips, and for some distance forests would grow close along both sides of the right of way. It was like something out of Hansel and Gretel. Right in the middle of this stretch of “the widows’ highway” was the original Rooster Bridge outside Demopolis. It was a rickety iron structure high above the water that carried only one lane of traffic. There actually was a stoplight at each end. If it was green, it was safe to proceed; it it was red, you waited for oncoming traffic to clear. I managed to survive many a crossing at all hours of the day and night, and it was always a macabre highlight of the long drive.
That entire stretch of road is divided four-lane now, and the old Rooster Bridge is gone, replaced by a wide modern span just upstream, also named “Rooster Bridge.” A historical marker that stood at the old bridge has been moved to the new, and it details the unusual history of the rooster sale and the ambitious plan to “span the ‘Bigbee with cocks.” Really. It says that, cast in bronze on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 80. You can look it up.
165 responses to “Rooster Day, 2017”
How interesting. I had cataract surgeries on both eyes three years ago that took care of the cataracts and my myopia. I have to use readers for reading and close work, but I don’t need to wear glasses all the time. I’ve worn glasses since I was six.
You started earlier. I was 10, and it proceeded oddly. Left eye went myopic well before right, and I had serious headaches often well into my teens. By college, both were quite myopic, but left always worse. But I met this almost equally myopic coed. Ta dah!
Peace,
Mark
We are MEN we don’t need instructions. 🙂
Rick in S
You mean cheap – er Penurious, My brother claims I invented copper wire
when someone tried to take a penny from me. 🙂
Including us, I believe that they’ew five aides in
Syria.
Until recently we were on the side of Syria’s government and its ally, Russia. Don’t be silly and ask why. The other two sides don’t like us either. We are sending troops, but I wouldn’t know who to tell them to shoot at. As far as the rockets go, I’ve done more damage with cherry bombs.
I’m not responsible for the above spelling or format. It did not look like that when I pressed submit.
United airlines to passenger: “Come on. We’ll be over Syria in a minute.”
“Loose Parts” seems good this morning. Another, too, but forgot which! Perhaps I am not really 30.
Three Morning Random Thoughts:
I am not humorous. I am merely pleasantly disturbed.
Don’t believe everything that you think about yourself.
I’m not sure which is worse: dealing with stupid people or dealing with my own stupidity.
Good morning Villagers…..
J. Geils died. I remember the band’s videos from the early days of MTV
Also learned the Beatles’ White Album, which I had at one time, could fetch a whopping $9,000…I’m sure it has to be in mint condition with cellophane still unwrap.
Beat the birds up this morning….seen three o’clock am…..arrgghhhh!!!
Ian reloaded Windows 10 last night, no email recovery yet for me…heck, I’m on his user account. Going to break his tweaking fingers if he doesn’t get it right this time and leave it alone. Said the lap top was designed to use Windows 10….he likes 7 better…I don’t care, just give me the internet!!!! I even have to have the Ethernet plugged in to access the internet….so I am not in my comfort zone on the love seat couch.
Jeep Update: Maybe tomorrow, maybe next Tuesday…BIL is finding out if KY title needs notarized, if so my niece will not be home from Louisville until this weekend. Budget cuts has the license branch here open only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
later……having an allergy attack now
GR 😉 classic video too
http://ew.com/music/2017/04/11/j-geils-centerfold-4-things-you-didnt-know/
River water about as high as I’ve seen it, but no hippos. They are usually in water in the heat of the day [1447 EAT]. Could be upstream or down. Peace,
http://explore.org/live-cams/player/african-safari-camera
Rick:
Olive-green VW bug in town has a bumper sticker, simply ‘Don’t believe everything you think.’ Perhaps in reply to vehicles that say ‘One Way’ or ‘[emoticon] You’d smile, too, if you knew you were going to Heaven.’
Peace,
David Lettterman’s mother Dorothy passed away yesterday. Before Dave’s show became unwatchable for me, I used to love the segments that she did with him. I really though it captured the Midwest lifestyle(if you can use that term without ticking people off). She was a Mom that loved her son and it seemed always was funny and very classy. A lot of us had Mom’s like that.
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