March 19, 2004
Birmingham was quite a surprise. I'd never been there and was expecting an industrial city with a rail road down the middle and defunct steel mills littered about. It couldn’t have been more different. I met my old drinkin' buddy Taylor Dawson at his office in downtown. After chatting a while and running by the house to say Hi to Rebecca, Taylor took me to his favorite watering holes including Lou's Pub & Package Store. The only Package store I've ever seen with a full bar and Lou himself behind the counter.
The next day was sunny and warm. Rebecca showed me the around town. Downtown, Hollywoood, Mountain Brook, etc... The steel mills have been replaced by hospitals as the local industry. Two big ones. We picked up Taylor for lunch and headed over to Sam's Super Sandwiches. We marched right in an orderd three of the house's roast beef specials. "No Roast Beef Today." Rebecca's face fell. She looked so dejected that Sam patted her on the hand and offered her a free on next time...... In the face of adversity we had to buck-up and regroup "Two Super Burgers and Two Super Dogs...." 
Mmmmmmmmm Goood!
We made short work of that.
Off to the famous Sloss Furnace. "On April 12, 1882 the giant Sloss Furnaces began producing pig iron and it did not stop until almost ninety years later. Now recognized as a National Historic Landmark Sloss Furnaces is open to the public as a museum of industry. With its massive furnaces, web of pipes, and tall smokestacks, it offers us a glimpse into the great industrial past of the South and the nation."
Back downtown, we dropped Taylor off back his office. We randomly decided to take a spin by the old Alabama Theater just for fun. Naturally, it was all locked up, but a little sign pointed to the office next door. We went in..up some stairs..and entered into a cluttered little ante-room. No receptionist, just some doors to offices. We looked in to the offices...no one. We could hear voices in the background so we milled about for a while. I was getting ready to intentionally knock something over when a man appeared. "uh...uhh.. we were wondering if we could see the theater..." "OH SURE!" He opened what looked like a door to a closet, but shazam, there was the inside of the theater. "Just go right ahead, go anywhere you want" And we did! We climbed all over that place. Up in the balcony, down on the stage, back stage, side stage, dressing rooms, royal box, lobby, everywhere. We were pretty happy with ourselves. Afterwards we were milling around outside. next door in an old storefront was the original movie projector from the theater. We were looking at it and all of a sudden an older gentleman walked past and started telling Rebecca about it. "That projector weighs 600 pounds. We had a hell of a time getting it out of there." We didn't now exactly what to think at first... was this guy a crack-pot? He seemed believable. He told us all about the history of the theater and the other theaters in the area. It turned out that he was the president of the theater foundation, and had even written a book on the Alabama Theater. Crazy.
B'ham is a great town. Did a project there once - an upgrade to The Shades Mountain Filter Plant near Mountainbrook. I could definitely live there...
Posted by: Dean | April 22, 2004 at 11:17 AM