April 20, 2007 – Hey Brother, can you spare a dime?

I finally made it to Atlanta last night. Julie, a friend of Melanie’s mom’s, is being kind enough to take me in for a few days so I can enjoy the biggest city in the South for what it is: THE BIGGEST FUCKING CITY OF THE SOUTH!!!!

(This, I think, is a slum in the middle of Atlanta. Fun!)

But before I got here, I visited a much smaller town a bit closer to the western border of Georgia.

Warm Springs is a VERY small town that President Franklin Roosevelt fell in love with before he became one of our greatest presidents. Soon after he contracted polio he went there for the research facility. While there a man walked up to him with a cane and said, ‘Sir, I think you need to take a swim in the Warm Springs. I was like you, but now I can walk a little.’

Well, FDR was never able to walk without help again, but he was able to move parts of his legs that he hadn’t moved in three years. He figured that the Warm Springs were a miracle cure and that a real cure would be found within a few years.

He bought some land and built a home, the Little White House, on the outskirts of town.

After leaving my campsite on Lake Delano, the first place I went was Dowdell’s Knob, the President’s favorite place on Earth.

He would go up there and sit (either on a lawn chair or a disencared (new word) car seat) for hours just contemplating the world.

(A quick over the shoulder shot)

He would have picnics up here, too, and had a pit built just for that purpose. It’s still there, but it’s filled in.

Then I headed on to the Little White House.

The tour starts with a museum that takes you through the entire life of FDR. He was a pretty amazing man, but we all knew that. I gained a lot more respect for him after going through this museum, though. Nothing I didn’t really know already, since I did go to a decent school, but putting it all together made it all so much more real. And seeing where he came from and how he cared about the less fortunate amazed me even more. He was absolutely an aristocrat. His family was all kind of rich. But when he started meeting people who were affected by the Depression, he knew that someone had to help them.

Where’s our president like that now? All we can get is someone who doesn’t realize how good he’s had it. He hasn’t had to work for anything a day in his life, so he takes for granted that EVERYBODY is just as fortunate as him.

Oh well. This isn’t a political forum. (At least, I’m trying not to make it one.) Let’s just leave it at the fact that we haven’t seen a President like Roosevelt since April 12, 1945 when he died right here in Warm Springs at the Little White House. I saw the bed that he died on. It was kind of creepy, but it brought the entire day into perspective. Even a mighty man like him could be taken down by a small creature like the polio virus.

The museum ends with a lectern that has been used at the Little White House for many years. I don’t think FDR used it, but it does go back to Kennedy. For a short time they are allowing people to take their pictures behind it. There was no one around to take my picture, and I don’t think I would have wanted to cheapen it by posing, anyway. But I did stand behind it. I felt a strange kind of power behind it. Some of our greatest leaders had stood behind that thing…and now I was. It was like all of them were still there. Kennedy, Carter, Clinton…all of them. What the fuck was I doing standing there? But they didn’t care. They were glad I was there.

I don’t know what that means, but there it is. It’s how I felt standing behind that thing. I hope that everyone who stands back there feels the same surge of power. That’s what our government is for, right? Everyone has a voice? That’s what we’re told, anyway.

(No wishes left for this well. It’s all filled in.)

(This is the walk way to the old museum. These are the flags of all 50 states and pieces of each State Stone.)

(And, of course, being from Texas, I had to take this picture.)

(Here’s the old museum, in case you’re interested. It was left to the institute by the old owner. Now it’s the admin offices.)

Then on to the House itself. Of course, I couldn’t take any pictures inside, but it was remarkable in its unremarkableness. It was, literally, a little white house. No frills. Just a bed for him and a room for Eleanor. She rarely ever visited, but there were two beds for the kids because they came out quite a bit.

(On the left is the guest house. On the right is the servent’s house. The servents had jobs in town that FDR pulled them away from when he was in town. I bet he paid better.)

(The house itself.)

Roosevelt came out to Warm Springs 41 times during his life. The last time, he was posing for a portrait for Elizabeth Shoumatoff. He complained of a headache, was taken to bed and never left it. The President was dead.

The portrait is hanging in a little annex on the way back to the parking lot. I don’t know if we were supposed to take pictures in here, but I took one without a flash because the people who were in there with me took one, too. We’ll see if the Feds come after me.

It was a pretty amazing tour, but it wasn’t over yet. Up the road were the pools that Roosevelt swam in that made him feel so amazing. They had fallen into disrepair for years after he died, but the institute is putting them back to their old glory. In a month or so they’re going to have a public swim for the first time ever. Then it will be used for people with disabilities to help them feel better about themselves, just as it did back in the 30s and 40s.

So, finally, that was all of my FDR adventure. He was a great man that I admire a LOT, and I can only hope that someday we can find someone who measures up to even half of his greatness.

It may be a while, though.

I took some time to eat in town and almost had fried green tomatoes for the first time in my life. Unfortunately, they were kind of mixed in with fried apples and I think I got two of those instead of one of each. Oh well. Better luck next time, eh?

Then it was on to Atlanta…just in time to hit Atlanta traffic when I got in town!! It was pretty amazing. But I made it to Julie’s place with no real problem.

Today I managed to make it downtown…and figured out that Atlanta is NOT for me.

Let me let you in on a few quirks of this town:

First off, the roads, for the most part, are not grided. Just like New Orleans, they follow their own logic. Actually, they follow old Indian paths.

You read that right. These roads follow trails that haven’t existed for a couple hundred years. Trails that were never meant to get people from one building to another, but to get from one VILLAGE to another. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?!

And the even better idea, there are about 100 streets named Peachtree.

Again, you read that right. I am not exaggerating. I read that in three different books. 100 roads named Peachtree.

So, I parked at Peachtree and Peachtree. Then I took a walk down Peachtree. I met some pretty amazing people on Peachtree. I found a pretty cool little smoothie shop on Peachtree.

FUCK!!!! Where was I?!?!

Ok. It wasn’t quite THAT bad, but it was close. I managed to find The Varsity (with the help of a guy looking for money, of course, ’cause they’re the only people willing to help a tourist out), which is the world’s biggest drive in. They serve tiny burgers that, luckily, only cost $1.15. If you add cheese it’s $1.50. They’re slightly bigger than White Castle’s Sliders, but not much. But with that and an order of onion rings, I had enough food.

(This, of cousre, is just one corner of it. It’s about a full block of hamburgery goodness.)

The place has some significance in the Civil Rights Movement, too, I think. Maybe some kids did a sit in there after the kids at Woolworth’s in Birmingham? Maybe? Sounds right.

The place is HUGE. It started in 1928, but not with THIS behemoth of a building. It was a tiny place like Top Notch back home. (If you’re not from Austin, see Dazed And Confused.) But now it’s gigantic with, like, six different rooms for people with different tv tastes. There’s an ESPN room (unfortunately, where I sat because it was close and I didn’t know what I was doing), a CNN room, a Faux News room, a CSPAN room…I didn’t see a Cartoon Network room, but I’m sure it’s hidden away somewhere.

The burger was alright. Nothing to write home about, but it was kinda cool just to eat at this place.

Peachtree Street (the main one that runs all the way north/south) is the main drag, I guess. It’s where a lot of the big stuff is. At least, that’s what I was told. I didn’t see too much of any kind of significance, except for Margaret Mitchell’s house and the Gone With The Wind museum. I, personally, didn’t like the movie, so I didn’t go through the house. Blah, blah, blah, ‘whatever shall I do?’ blah, blah, blah, I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies…whatever. As far as racial stereotypes in movies go, this is supposed to be one of the big ones. I just kind of see the whole thing as a farce. I think that women should be as pissed as black people about this story. Scarlett is NOT a strong character. She just whines the whole time about finding a man to help her out of her problems.

(The only place of any real significance on this particular Peachtree. Sad.)

Besides that house, there was also the Fox Theatre. Wow, do these people know how to build a theatre. I wish I could have gone inside, but only people who buy tickets can go in. It’s HUGE!! And I thought it was a mosque at first because of the big Taj Mahal type dome on it.

(And then there’s this…which is even better.)

Anyone, however, can go into the outside lobby. Walk under that big sign and there’s enough room to put two cars with plenty of room leftover. I know this because there WERE two cars under there.

I’m a theatre head. What can I say?

I also saw something that I have never actually witnessed in my entire life until now: an actual catcall. I was walking towards this hot blond chick. Not 7 seconds after I noticed her, some dude on a bike heading towards me said, ‘Ooooooh, girl!’ She just turned, gave him a ‘what the fuck?’ look and moved on. I kind of wanted to apologize for the entire male of the species, but I figured that would call more attention to it than it really needed. It was really strange. I guess guys in Austin don’t do that because WE KNOW IT DOESN’T GET YOU SEX!!!!! It gets you awful looks. These guys apparently haven’t learned that yet.

Anyway, I hopped on the MARTA (Atlanta’s mass transit system) and went to where The World Of Coca-Cola and CNN are…which apparently is kind of the hood. The Atlanta Underground is also there and I was told by Julie and her friend that this is NOT a place for a tourist to go. Lots of pickpockets and muggings going on down there. I looked down in it and figured that was enough. Who cares? It’s a mall underground. Yay.

The Coke museum was, of course, closed. The moose outside should’ve told me.

I did, however, get to go into the CNN building…just in time to find out that NASA was being held hostage by a guy with a gun. Fun. My uncle works there. Even more fun.

Thirty seconds after a saw one of the million tvs set to CNN in the CNN building, I got a call from my mom saying that my uncle wasn’t at work today and everything was fine.

Good.

What the fuck is going on lately? That’s two fucking shootings in less than a week. Is the whole world going insane without me being in Austin? I think that’s it. Maybe I need to go back home.

Fuck that. I’m out here, so I’m staying out here. The world must go on without me.

Anyway, the last tour of the facility took off without me, so I walked around the GIGANTIC food court on the bottom floor of the building (which is also the Omni hotel) and took off for MARTA again.

(Food Court below. Sorry I didn’t get a picture of Taco Bell. This seemed a bit more interesting, though.)

It was, once again, just in time for traffic, so I sat it in for a while trying to figure out how to get ‘home.’ With the help of Gawd, I did, but it took her a while to figure it out. (Hey, it has a female voice. And she’s kind of a bitch with her, ‘Off course.’ Who knew Gawd was a backseat driver?)

So, now I sit at a little coffee shop/bakery near Julie’s place…mainly because I can’t get Julie’s internet to work on my machine. Weird, that. It’s the second time the net has been fucked up on this computer. But it works every other time. Only her place and Kris’ coffee shop.

We’ll see if Atlanta holds any more interest for me over the next couple of days. There are a lot of battlefields of the Civil War nearby. I may do that tour tomorrow. And I kind of want to see the Martin Luther King, Jr. museum downtown…but that means that I have to go downtown again. (shudder)

So far, though, I’m not liking Atlanta too much. We’ll see, though.