Anita, Petra, Tabitha and I went to visit a reconstructed Old Alabama Town. First we had to find it. We stopped by the visitor's center, they gave us a map, we wound our way through the drizzly streets. It was very light rain at first. The scene was surreal. There was an old-time herb festival in a courtyard surrounded by historical buildings. These buildings had been moved from their original locations and gussied up.

We found some bratwurst and devoured it. We were hungry. To drink they had lemonade or sweet tea. Mostly down-home white folks selling canned jellies, homemade soaps (scented with herbs), and a group of musicians played blue grass music. Old white guys and a cute little brown-haired boy who had his turn precociously playing the fiddle. He was adorable.

There were just a few black people attending the festival. One other guy with dreadlocks. Anita felt conspicuous as a black woman with dreadlocks.

Check the website of Old Alabama town to see how the servant quarters is described. It was cutesified, like a doll house. Seemed like the shackie house on my grandparents' property. Actually, it was bigger than the shackie house where my mother's family lived on the farm.

------ Carrie Sandahl