How quickly we forget

It's been 4 years now since I lived in Washington DC, and I've already forgotten what fall was like there. I have a vague recollection of it being pleasant and not too hot. One year I went to Gettysburg in early November and it was like 70 degrees, which I found amazing. But overall, it's kind of a blur.

Now I'm trying to adapt to autumn in the South, and it seems really different. As in, it still feels like summer. The last couple days have been a little rainy, but it's still warm. This week's forecasted highs are in the mid to upper 80s. And I haven't seen any leaves changing yet. The only reason I know that fall is coming is because everyone decided to start decorating for it.

Exhibit 1: pumpkins in the parking lot

I snapped this photo while we were driving by a Target parking lot. That's an inflatable pumpkin advertising the "pumpkin patch" set up there - as in, a bunch of hay bales with pumpkins placed on them along Germantown Pkwy. It's like a Christmas tree stand for gourds. I have never seen this before but I've heard of such attractions in Southern California. When we saw the first one, I was really confused. Why don't people just go to a real pumpkin patch? But then I realized I was being rather snobby about it. Not everyone has the time, resources, or desire to bundle their kids up in boots and tromp around in the mud just to pick out a pumpkin they could've easily bought at the grocery store.

I reminded myself to be a good exchange student and say, "It's not good or bad; it's just different." Inflatable pumpkins in parking lots. That's different!

Exhibit 2: fall wreaths

Ok, so I don't have a photo of the actual wreaths I saw at the Cordova festival, but believe me, they exist. Here are some examples of similar creations. This is another phenomenon to which I say, "that's different!" There might be a few Northwesterners who are into seasonal wreaths, but I feel like this is more of a Southern thing. I refrained from buying one. I don't need to give the neighborhood insects another nesting place...

Meanwhile, I'm kind of glad not to be in Seattle about now, where they keep having crazy wind/rain storms and it feels like winter already. No thanks, I'll just keep milking this extended summer for all its worth :)

Free Museum Day

There's nothing like a "free" price tag to get us to try something new! Saturday was Downtown Museum Day around Memphis, with museums offering buy-one get-one or complimentary admission to TN residents. I guess these sorts of things are our reward for surviving the DMV experience!

First stop: Sun Studio Tour (alert: if you open this link, it starts playing a song). This is one of the major tourist attractions in town. It's known as the "birthplace of rock 'n' roll." Many famous musicians were discovered here like Elvis and Johnny Cash. On the tour, you learn about the history of the studio, and you can go into the recording room where the musicians actually stood to record their albums. It is pretty cool. Our tour guide was great - very energetic, informative, and passionate.

 Outside the studio

I am not 100% sure I'm remembering this correctly, but I think this was the device that recorded the very first ever rock 'n' roll song. Of course, this song's status is up for debate.

The "million dollar quartet" singing at Sun Studio - Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash

The roof in the recording room - it has this wave effect going on that's supposed to be good for acoustics.

After we had thoroughly rocked out, we continued downtown to the Cotton Museum. It was...about as exciting as you'd expect a museum devoted to cotton to be. It explained how cotton grows and the technological innovations through the years that have affected cotton harvesting and production. It also told about the importance of cotton to the Southern economy and Memphis in particular. There was a lot of pro-cotton propaganda. Monsanto is one of the museum sponsors, so genetically modified seeds are portrayed as a beacon of light to humanity. And cottonseed oil is touted as an excellent addition to your diet. But it was fun to play with cotton puffs :)

 Here is what a cotton plant looks like

The main part of the museum is set up in the old Cotton Exchange building, which is pretty cool. It's was like the Wall Street of cotton back in the day before computers. This is a replica of what the board looked like where workers would write in various prices.

Staring in the 1930s, Memphis held a cotton carnival to promote wearing and using cotton. This is a bouquet and some other memorabilia from those events. Apparently the carnival still goes on today, but with less of a cotton focus.

This was the room where I felt like they were trying to brainwash me.

So yeah, the second museum was less exciting but still free.

For dinner, we took the Food Network's recommendation and tried Uncle Lou's. D.F. thought his chicken was tasty and I enjoyed my burger. The sweet tea was sweeeeeeeet!  

Cooper-Young Festival

Last Saturday was the annual Cooper-Young Festival held in one of Memphis's cooler neighborhoods (Cooper-Young, naturally). This is one of the areas I wanted to live when we were looking at where to relocate. It's kind of like the Fremont of Memphis, maybe. Since it's more of an established neighborhood, it's not the sort of place that has apartment complexes with lots of online reviews to reassure those people who are moving sight unseen...hence we wound up in East Memphis. But it's ok, we can still hang out in C-Y and pretend like we're hip.

The festival took place on two main roads that were blocked to traffic and filled with vendors/booths. On each end of the closed streets, there were stages set up for various artists to perform. The weather was perfect - about 80 degrees, low humidity, not a cloud in the sky. I heard this is what passes for "fall" here...(?)

Look at that bright blue sky!! (I actually had a hamburger, not a pronto pup)

I really enjoyed this festival. Maybe it was the fact that the weather was nicer than it has been in a long time, or the good music, or just the general setting and communal feel. It was fun. We stopped by a number of local shops, too - got some tasty iced coffee at Java Cabana where they also have board games! We made up our own game with a box of mixed trivia cards from several different games. Though we didn't keep score, I'm sure that D.F. won :)

Here are my observations from this festival, as compared to similar Seattle festivals (closest comparison I think is the West Seattle Summer Fest):

• A lot more cigarette smoking, and smokers stood in the middle of the crowd - not off to the side
• Way less pot. D.F. thinks he saw some people with a joint. I didn't smell anything suspicious.
• Fewer dogs, which I think was because the festival had a no-pets policy.
• Public drinking is allowed and encouraged. People were walking around with their own cups of adult beverages they brought from home.
• Beer choices were Bud Light and Miller Light in aluminum bottles, and a ton of people were paying $4/bottle to drink it! I scoured the premises and found one booth with an IPA on tap. Yes, that was one beer on tap for the whole festival. I don't even like IPAs. Would it kill you to have an amber, Memphis???? 
• No recycling. At all. All those aluminum beer bottles went in the trash.

Ok, so those last two were more complaints than just observations. I'm not being a very good cultural exchange participant here, sorry...

After living it up at the festival, we got stuck in a bit of a traffic jam trying to get home because there was a big football game going on for the Southern Heritage Classic. People were parking all over the place - like on the grassy median in the middle of the road, and local residents were charging $5 or $10 to park on their yards. (Aside: parking on grass seems to be standard practice here. We've done it ourselves for a few festivals/events.) Traffic was backed up for miles. I think they need a better off-site parking/shuttle system, but hey, that's just me. Luckily we were trying to drive away from the stadium, so we escaped before too long.

Germantown Festival: Weenie Races!

Last weekend was the annual Germantown Festival, which is a way bigger event than I realized before we got there. They haev 400+ booths with all sorts of arts/crafts/food/other creative vendors, rides for the kids, musical performances, a car show, and a whole lot more going on. Unfortunately it was hella hot outside and I was wilting in the humidity, so we didn't get to see everything. But we did watch the weenie dog races!

First, there was a dog fashion show. I was a bit too far away to get great photos, but here are a couple. This is the dog who wound up winning - he's driving a tractor.

This group of dogs performed a little skit - I think these ones are supposed to be on a boat, and then later another dog ran after them wearing a shark costume. They got 2nd place.

And then it was off to the races! There were 6 preliminary heats leading up to the championship race.

Oh, a picture just doesn't fully capture the moment. Here, watch this video instead :)

A fun time was had by all. A dog named Nitro claimed the winner's crown for the third year in a row.

Whenever

How do use use the word "whenever" in common speech?

Here are some examples of how I would use it.

• Come over whenever you want; we'll be home all day. (Definition: at any time)
• Whenever I visit New York, I like to eat bagels. (Describing a habitual/repeated action)

In addition to those two usages, some people in Memphis have added the following option:

• That park wasn't here whenever I first moved to this neighborhood. They built it about 5 years ago.
• Whenever I was in third grade, I loved playing baseball.

The best definition I can come up for this usage is equivalent to "when." It's not describing a habitual action - the speaker did not repeatedly move to the neighborhood or repeat 3rd grade over and over. From context, it seems the speaker means to describe one point in time. 

Apparently, I'm not the first person to notice this difference. I'm just calling it a regional variation in English - not saying that it's wrong. It does strike my ears a little strange, though.

Little Rock

D.F. and I took a little Labor Day getaway to Little Rock, Arkansas. It's about 2.5 hours away from us, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump in our peppy car :)

We went without much of an agenda. I starred a couple attractions on Trip Advisor but that was about it. On the highway, I saw a billboard for an Indian lunch buffet so that's where we ate first. (Technically we ate a different buffet because the one on the billboard was either closed or I was confused about its name.) Probably not what comes to mind when you think "Arkansas," eh? It was ok. I'd probably give it 3.5 stars. I did like the variety of options, but there were no lentils. Travesty!!

Our first tour stop was Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. For those readers who weren't alive in 1957 and/or have forgotten what you learned in history class, Little Rock Central High School was the site of a national crisis in September of that year as 9 African-American students attempted to enroll at the all-white school. After the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that declared segregated schools unconstitutional, all of the states were supposed to integrate their schools. Little Rock dragged its feet, and the scene turned ugly with angry white protesters surrounding the black teens, screaming insults in their faces. The Arkansas Governor had called out the National Guard to prevent the youths from enrolling. This was all broadcast on the national news, and it shocked people. Eventually President Eisenhower got involved. Saying "mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of the courts," he sent the 101st Airborne Division to protect the students and escort them to and from school.

The exhibits are neat - the have videos of interviews with the "Little Rock 9" as adults, reflecting on their experiences. Central High School is still in operation today! Here's a picture of the school.

Next, we headed to our hotel in the River Market district, which seems to be a hip area of Little Rock. We walked around the neighborhood, through Riverfront Park, and over one of the 6 bridges. It was scenic, and although I thought it was hot and sticky outside, it was apparently not that humid!!

On the other side of the river (the Arkansas River, if you were wondering), we came across this Beacon for Peace and Hope. It's a nice sculpture. It lights up at night.

The rock outcropping at the base of the bridge is the original Little Rock for which the town was named.

Next, it was time for dinner. Being good Memphians, we had to sample the local BBQ flavor. The internet was abuzz with features on Whole Hog Cafe. Here is their mascot with some of the trophies they've won in BBQ competitions. We shared a "whole hog platter" with ribs, pulled pork, brisket, and sides. It was all very tasty and finger-lickin' good!

After dinner, we went out in search of the Little Rock nightlife. In L.R.'s defense, it was a Monday night (Labor Day). But man, there really wasn't much going on. We heard loud music coming from one place that turned out to be a dueling piano bar with 3 patrons inside...so we went over to the Flying Saucer, since it was pint night. (Yes, we've been to the one in Memphis already.) And they have darts, so that's always a plus. There actually were a lot of  people at the Flying Saucer - maybe that is where everyone hangs out.

The next morning, we did a quick walk through the farmer's market where I saw some weird purple pods. I asked the vendor what they were, and he showed me a bag of something that looked like black-eyed peas, but I really couldn't understand what he called them. He might have said cow peas or southern peas though, guessing from my Google search results for "big purple brown pods."

Little Rock is home to the Clinton Presidential Library & Museum and we spent quite a while there looking through all the exhibits. It was kind of a glowing tribute to the glory days of the 1990s, but really, if I was building my own library/museum to commemorate my accomplishments, I think I'd run a highlight reel too :)

The presidential limo

A table/place setting from the White House

Looking down at the exhibits by year

We also ate lunch in their cafe called "Forty Two" but I am not even going to link to it because the food was really not very good. I'm going to write them a 2-star Yelp review instead.

Next stop: the Arkansas Capitol Building, Mr. Clinton's home office for over a decade. Did you know he was the youngest governor AND ex-governor in American history? He got voted out after his first term, staged a comeback, and then governed for 10 more years. The capitol is your basic capitol building with marble staircases and guilded legislative chambers.

 Outside on the capitol grounds, there is a sculpture of the Little Rock 9, walking towards the building.

Our last stop in L.R. was to support a local business, Rock Town Distillery. They opened about 4 years ago and are the first distillery in Arkansas since prohibition. One of the friendly staff members took us on a tour and explained how they make all their different spirits. Apparently they are a bit odd in that they make a wide variety of products (rum, vodka, gin, bourbon) since most distilleries just focus on one type of spirit. They use local ingredients whenever they can. And, our guide told us all about liquor laws in AR. It was an educational experience!

That's the story of our trip to Little Rock. Hope you enjoyed the journey!