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”
Trucker, that Star Wars Bohemian Rhapsody was excellent.
Beautiful day is SE Ohio. Redbuds are out… tiny tree leaves… blue sky… Does the heart good.
All is A-OK with me. Job is good. Challenging, but a lot of fun. At least it is for someone who loves puzzles – taking things apart and putting them back into some semblance of order. When I took the job, I said I would help them out in their need, but I wanted them to make plans to get someone in there that could give them more years than I have left. So… I think that I will probably be working another year before plans are in place. But – in the meantime – let the good times roll!
Glad to see Debbe back to the Village. Love you, girl!
BTW, the age test says I am 32… less than half my chronological age. I’ll take it!
Hey, you all knew it had to be posted, but with soul…definitely a bookmark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9-yfeA2JZs
GR, my age came out about 1/2 too although since they asked up front how old you were, maybe they just to that to make people feel good.
31 for me too, also less than half my age.
A local weather service’s forecast for western NC today included this: “outdoor activities are mandatory”. It was a beautiful day, chilly morning and then mild – cool to warm depending on elevation. There was even a little snow and some icicles on the side of Roan Mountain.
Only notable bridge so far on this trip is a covered one in Elizabethton, TN.
Thank you Gal….glad to see you back here too. Contrary to popular belief, not all people can be replaced….immediately. You go girl..see, you are two years behind me in ‘mind set’ 🙂 Love you back too lady….
Laura, good to stir up a good memory. And yes, they are becoming more scarce here. Baby sister took a couple of pics of her morel against a ruler and it measured at eight inches.
…good night and God bless
Did you all know Red Skelton was from Vincennes? Loved his show and never missed it growing up.
I did get 34 “big kid”.
EMB:
Your post could be taken a number of ways.
Care to elucidate?
I retook the age test, once with a “real age” of two-thirds of truth, and again with “real age” of one-third of truth. Original result had been 30; the above pair were 33’s. As the final test had my “real age” as being under 33, it told me I was older than supposedly true.
Not all will get ages under their real ages, probably the more so with lower real ages. That makes sense, as someone in their 20’s presumably has more years ahead than behind. A person of 80 has more years in the rear than ahead, so test results are likely less than real age.
GR 😉 always made sure of who was…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZA6qiJVfU&list=PLbH5uU845oXarYAhBvVq_IK8DimHoslU2
So what will the Village do for Easter? I will be having breakfast with the Easter bunny at 9.30 a.m. at the Philbrook Museum, then touring the gardens and galleries and going to a matinee of Dirty Dancing Live.
Sounds totally wonderful to me. My grandson and his parents were not available to visit. Tried.
So grandmother will have fun. Bunny Time.
Calendar age 74, test age 34—another big kid. Fine with me. Tired tonight. Sort of sang a major concert this afternoon through/over/around laryngitis/coughing/phlegm from allergies. Concert went well, nice crowd.
Hi, Gal! I’ve missed you.
Somehow, I’m not at all surprised this is a “young at heart” group.
Steve: Glad to.
I do not think you are a bigamist. But, ‘break that perked both my wife up’ looks at first like someone forgot to write “wives” since it refers to both of them. A more reasonable reading, perhaps, is that the grammar is fine, but that you left out “and me”. Typos are easy things to do, and I am a picky copy editor. I thought it would be obvious I was playing with words. Sorry.
Peace, emb
Debbe 😉 In response to your Tom Petty video, I give you this. My understanding is this was done as a single take, with no CGI or “camera tricks” used. That appears to be the case, although I will admit there was one section of the video where I more focused on the “foreground” than the “background”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TlBTPITo1I
Making that video was obviously hard work, but someone had to do it. Were you referring to the young lady applying for a mortgage? Whoops, that was in the background.
What is with insomnia? It is pitch dark outside at this hour.
“The Lion King” featured a song that became extremely popular: “The Circle of Life.” Perhaps a better title for that song is “Eat and Be Eaten.”
Strip of 04.10.17:
Mary Lou: I have news for you. The wife being in total control doesn’t happen only with old married couples.
Good morning Villagers…
Jackie, the sun starts peeking the horizon here around six-thirty, with sunrise at 7:15…birds are chirping at 5ish….love that sound. The city is putting in a drainage ditch along the road here, piles of fresh dirt is attracting quite a few birds…bet there is some good fishing bait in that dirt.
Rick, one of the visiting nurses told me this…wrote it down and it is posted on the front of the fridge here…..
“The man is the head of the family, and the woman is the neck….she can turn the head anyway she can” 🙂
Miss Charlotte, time for you to check in lady!!!!
Re: ‘eat and be eaten’….food chain sucks sometimes out in the country, seen hawks and even a couple of beautiful eagles flying off with their breakfast. Lost a kitten one time at night time to a owl, heard the cries of kitten distress…. had to have been an owl….Emb, do they only hunt at night, owls that is!!??
Miss Fluff and Puff is wanting my attention right now…gave Dad a cup of milk and a few Vanilla wafers last night before bedtime….cutting of his chocolate milk at 6sih….anyhoo,walked back into the living room to find that cat drinking out of Dad’s cup of milk….gasp!!!!!! Told me to leave her alone that she was the queen of the house….and here all this time I thought it was me!!! 🙂
later……
GR 😉 yes, that is the one I have bookmarked…this old mom was born to rock, I’m still trying to beat the clock!!!!! All the times I’ve watched that video, never really paid attention to the background….you gotta read some of the comments too, love the one that said the background made him so nauseous he had to…., oh, you’ll have to read it for yourself, don’t want to spoil anyone’s breakfast here 🙂
Thought you would appreciate the view from this angle…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99svrFj-G_g
today’s grin…..
http://cheezburger.com/8976771328/very-safe-much-protect-wow
Pretty cool….
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/64gs70/this_cat_has_a_sword_in_his_fur/
Birds outside my window chirping away. I encourage them. It’s light outside and I am getting up. Fell asleep early last night.
There was a new strip?
Dickens refuses to get up this early. Last I saw he was curled in Basket of laundry. The Chinese laundry has reopened and I have washed two more loads and hung lots on hangers and dried another load and folded.
What’s with new clothes, not safe to dry? Drip dry lots.
It’s not that I am not good at this. I grew up like Cinderella before the glass slipper. I just thought I had found my prince.