Alabama and the missing woman - we need ID for drinkers!

Flag of the USA

A worrying news story about Alabama caught my attention. A missing woman reportedly left a bar in Alabama with two men who were strangers to her.

What could we do? One safety rule would be to make everybody drinking in a bar register their name and address with an ID. Register.

Sounds impossible? Too complicated? No, it isn't. It was done in West Virginia years ago.

Advantages. Any regular at a bar is known to the barman who had the customer's ID.

As a customer, you can carry your local bar's ID, or even a national chain, rather like a Starbucks card.

Drinking Clubs In West Virginia
When I lived in the USA, in West Virginia you could only drink in a so-called club. You got club membership instantly by showing your ID, getting a club card and paying a nominal one dollar.

This proved that you had been drinking. If you were stopped for driving whilst drunk if you had just bought a drinking club card it did not do you any favours.

Equally important, it gave the premises your identity. Want to know the stranger's name, or that they are of drinking age and not a minor, just ask to see their drinking club card.

Or ask the barman to confirm the customer's name.

The barman then knows the identity of the men, and women, instantly. They can inform police. Much faster to identify a suspect, go to locate and visit where the person lives and ask where they last saw their companion.

Note that the drinking ages and ages of consent vary from state to state.

It may be illegal to drive a minor passenger across a state line in order to have drinks or sex with them in another state. Now, what is there to see nowadays in Alabama? See my earlier post.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Alabama: And What Tourists Should Visit in Alabama: Helen Keller and Hank Williams

Flag of the USA


The state of Alabama.

ALABAMA TOURISM
My son's fiancee grew up in Alabama. When we visited New Orleans we drove into Alabama.

Alabama's capital is Montgomery. But the biggest city by population is Birmingham.

What can a tourist see in Alabama nowadays? My hitlist:



1 Helen Keller's Birthplace House, Tuscumbia, Alabama
Helen Keller Festival June 24-8 2020
2 Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Alabama
3 Hank Williams Museum, Montgomery, Alabama

Helen Keller lived in Tuscumbia which is in the North West of Alabama near the border with Tennessee.

Helen Keller Museum, Ivy Green, Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA.

Helen Keller's Birthplace House, Ivy Green, is named after the ivy which grows there. In the museum you can see her Braille typewriter. Helen Keller lectured in more than 25 countries.
She said, Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.



Statue of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, USA.

From the spoken word, and the written word, let us move on to songs.

Hank Williams publicity photo from 1951.

Alabama Singers
The Alabama Hall of Fame (AlaHOF) features several well known names including:
Nat 'King' Cole, Hank Williams, Dinah Washington, Tammy Wynette, The Commodores, The Temptations, Lionel Richie.

Hank Williams, singer-songwriter, is credited with being the founder or father of modern Country Music..
He wrote Jambalaya, (Son of a gun, we're having fun on the Bayou).

Hank Williams Memorial sign at Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, capital of Alabama.

Where Else For Hank Williams?

Star for Hank Williams in Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA.

Useful Websites
https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/west-virginia-alcohol-laws-know/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_West_Virginia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama
http://www.helenkellerbirthplace.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Music_Hall_of_Fame
https://helenkellerfestival.com/site/index.php/helen-keller-story/
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears_National_Historic_Trail
https://www.thehankwilliamsmuseum.net/storec32a7e59/Clothing-c37142025?offset=9

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Literary Landmarks: To Kill A Mockingbird in Alabama

To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel set in Macomb, Alabama, based on Monroeville, USA, home town of the author Harper Lee. The town was named after President Monroe. It is now known as Literary Capital of Alabama. Harper Lee died, aged 89, in February 2016. Landmarks in the town of Monroeville are:

• SIGN: The welcome visitors sign (billboard) showing covers of Harper Lee's two books and thanking her. Placed on the site of the home of her neighbours, family of Truman Capote. (The house burned down.)
• COURTHOUSE SQUARE STATUES: Courthouse Square statue Celebration of Reading of the girl on seat reading the book, statues of two boys standing behind. You can sit on the seat for a photo opportunity.
• COURTHOUSE BUILDING: The Courthouse building exterior and picnic area.
• MUSEUM: Monroe County Heritage Museum, interior to visit: court room, shop.
• MAP A walking tour map is supplied by the museum
• Mockingbird Inn
• First United Methodist Church and cemetery alongside with graves of Harper Lee, her sister Alice Lee who lived to the age of 103 and their parents A.C. Lee and Frances Finch Lee.
• http://www.monroecountymuseum.org/#!functions/cq4e Buy a copy of Kill A Mockingbird or Go Set A Watchman when visiting or online. DVD of the movie.
• PLAY Annual performance of a play based on the story of To Kill A Mockingbird is performed outside and inside the Courthouse building in May. Tickets on sale from late February.

Quick Guide to Facts

• Nelle Harper Lee born 28 April 1926.
• Harper Lee's childhood friend and neighbour was Truman (whose mother's second husband had surname Capote).
• Harper Lee studied law and wrote articles and short stories.
• Truman went to New York and wrote Breakfast At Tiffany's.
• Harper Lee travelled with Truman to interview people whose story was the basis for Truman's book In Cold Blood. 
• Harper Lee worked for BOAC and was introduced to a literary agent by Truman.
• Two of Truman's friends subsidised her for a year so she could give up work and write a book.
• Literary agent who had written the biography of a campaigner helped Harper Lee turn 'a series of anecdotes' into a novel.
• Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird was published in 1960.
• 1961 Pulitzer prize awarded to To Kill A Mockingbird.
• Movie in 1962 starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.
• To Kill A Mockingbird was on the school syllabus in USA.
• Lee was awarded Presidential Medal Of Freedom by President George W Bush Nov 5 2007.
• Book To Kill A Mockingbird was semi-autobiographical.
• Hero of book, Atticus Finch, (lawyer father of 6 year old narrator Scout Finch), was based on the author's father.
• Harper Lee's friend Truman Capote was the inspiration for character Dill.
• 1970s Harper Lee researched a murder case for use in a book she never published. She met the man who shot a suspected serial killer (several members of his family died including a close relative of the man who shot him). She interviewed the lawyer who defended the suspected serial killer and afterwards the man who shot him.
• 2003 Museum was sued by Harper Lee's lawyers.
• Harper Lee's second book Go Set A Watchman was published July 2015.
• Harper Lee was in Meadows nursing home.
• Harper Lee died aged 89 on Friday 19 February 2016.
• Funeral on Saturday 20 February 2016 at First United Methodist Church.
• Harper Lee is buried in the cemetery beside First United Methodist Church where her family are buried.

Books
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee published by HarperCollins.
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee.
Mockingbird By Harper Lee by Charles Shields, a biography.
The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee by Marja Mills.

See Wikipedia for an article on Harper Lee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_Lee

Also see articles in

BBC website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35623948

CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/19/entertainment/harper-lee-obit-feat/

Daily Mail online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3456366/The-Latest-Harper-Lee-laid-rest-private-funeral.html

The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/09/alabama-harper-lee-true-crime-book
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/20/harper-lee-to-kill-a-mockingbird-monroeville-alabama

Visits
http://alabama.travel/road-trips/monroeville-the-to-kill-a-mockingbird-experience
http://www.ruralswalabama.org/attraction/atticus-finch-monument/
http://www.monroecountymuseum.org/#!functions/cq4e

Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, CL, ATG, travel writer, author, researcher, speaker.

Armchair Traveller's Wish List - Hank Williams Trail Alabama

ARMCHAIR TRAVELLER'S WISH LIST
Alabama, Home of Hank Williams Trail, Helen Keller and More

We drove into Alabama East from New Orleans. We didn't immediately come across any signs to tourist sights. So it is best to set off with planned route to a destination in mind.

Alabama is Northwest of Florida.


Alabama Wish List
Alabama is home of Hank Williams, so it is on my traveller's wish list, high today. It was not high previously, admittedly rather low, but it was on the wish list. Not just because of Hank, but because I have not visited it yet, although I have seen half of America's states and sites connected with singers including several in Nashville, Tennessee.

Yes, I have visited several popular places such as those associated with writers such as Poe and singers such as Presley and Parton. I have bought souvenir postcards and books on writers, songwriters, singers and songwriting.

Hank does not have a lot of rivals. How many immortally famous people, come from Alabama? Alabama is the home of two or three Americans who are watching my blogs - Alabama? I thought of asking them to tell me about Alabama but decided that it would sound rude to admit that my knowledge of Alabama is so sketchy, a bit black and white. The only images I associate with the historical deep south and Alabama were the Civil War, killing black people and marrying girls aged 12 wearing little white dresses.

Alabama As A Side Trip From New Orleans
I confess I should know better and more because I have actually been to Alabama. But although I used to be a travel writer, I never found the Alabama tourist board at the American travel trade Pow Wow, and they never found me. However, I'm always keen to add new places to my list of been there, done that, so when I was in New Orleans we drove into Alabama.

But after several miles of seeing nothing interesting my driver insisted on turning back to the jazzy attractions of New Orleans. To be polite to my Alabama readers, I should first check out Alabama on the Internet and find something warm to say about the tourist attractions of their region.

Where would I find tourist information and houses of famous residents - from the tourist board of course. One click and up on the computer screen is all you and I and anybody else would want to know to set our hearts racing - the allure of Hank Williams Trail.

Hank Williams' Famous Songs
Although I'm a rabid lover of country music, you can tie me to a chair by playing Patsy Cline, it took me a second to recall Hank Williams. What did he sing?

He sang "Hey good lookin' ". What else? "Your Cheating Heart."The Museum in Montgomery, like any good old American museum, has the coloured car - blue -with haunting memories, this being the car he died in.

Highlights and landmarks of the trail include:

1 Mount Olive, Hank Williams' birthplace.

2 Georgiana - Boyhood Home and museum.

3 Montgomery - Life-size statue of Hank holding his guitar opposite (Americans say across from) the Municipal Auditorium (now offices) where his funeral was held for 2,750 mourners, with an estimated 20,000 standing outside in the cold.

4 Oakwood Cemetery nearby has a wreath-laying ceremony on New Year's Day followed by music at the museum.

5 Alabama's Music Hall of Fame is in Tuscumbria.

Traveller's Calendar
New Year's Day - Oakwood Cemetery and Montgomery Museum.

First Saturday in June music celebration.

What else is there to see in Alabama? Any romantic restaurants with mood music and memorabilia or amazing views, or hotels with honeymoon suites?

Helen Keller's Home.

Please tell me.angelalansbury@hotmail.com
If anybody can send me a picture of Alabama, its attractions and Hank Williams, or which is out of copyright or available free to journalists and bloggers promoting something suitable. I'd be glad to receive it.
My websites include: annalondon8.googlepages.com

Alabama Tourism Websites:thehankwilliamsmuseum.comalamhof.org
Labels: Alabama, Hank Williams 'Hey good-looking' songs

https://www.deep-south-usa.com/alabama/fly-drives/hank-williams-trail

Update in October 2021 - now that my son has married, I have a daughter-in-law who comes from Alabama so I have renewed interest in knowing about the place. I had If you ask around you might find you know somebody who knows about Alabama because they worked there, they were born there, their parents came from there, and who has a connection.