Well - after that rather obvious sop to baser instinct in my previous post (pardon the double entendre), we're back to the history portion of the trip. My brother and I chose to actually go in to Charlotte to check out the city and found it really beautiful. Called 'The Queen City' after Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg who became the consort of King George III (remember him? think ass-whooping, Concord, Lexington, Mel Gibson in 'The Patriot'), it's one of many rocking towns in NC.
There's a great museum in the middle of the downtown area called the Levine Museum of the New South. By 'New South', they're referring to post-Civil War. There current exhibit on the history of Charlotte is riveting (no, really). It's a microcosm of the South and all of America really, especially in terms of the history of poverty, racial politics, resurrection, achievement, religion and resilience. We can only be ennobled and emboldened by learning our history and this museum does a wonderful job of taking us there.
After that
, we headed to the President James K. Polk State Historic Site in Pineville (just south of Charlotte). Now this blog has established that I'm a history buff (freak?), but my knowledge of President Polk, is up there with Millard Fillmore and Martin Van Buren. Which is to say, not that much. However, now I'm all up on our 11th president. Did you know he started the Mexican-American War? And that he was known as 'Young Hickory' because of his association with mentor, Andrew Jackson ('Old Hickory'). What really makes this all fascinating is to see how people lived. They actually 'made' things. It's not that I'm not proud of what I do or what my friends and family does, but which one of us really 'makes' something? Something that, if we didn't make it, might endanger our very survival. OK - too deep maybe.
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There's a great museum in the middle of the downtown area called the Levine Museum of the New South. By 'New South', they're referring to post-Civil War. There current exhibit on the history of Charlotte is riveting (no, really). It's a microcosm of the South and all of America really, especially in terms of the history of poverty, racial politics, resurrection, achievement, religion and resilience. We can only be ennobled and emboldened by learning our history and this museum does a wonderful job of taking us there.
After that
, we headed to the President James K. Polk State Historic Site in Pineville (just south of Charlotte). Now this blog has established that I'm a history buff (freak?), but my knowledge of President Polk, is up there with Millard Fillmore and Martin Van Buren. Which is to say, not that much. However, now I'm all up on our 11th president. Did you know he started the Mexican-American War? And that he was known as 'Young Hickory' because of his association with mentor, Andrew Jackson ('Old Hickory'). What really makes this all fascinating is to see how people lived. They actually 'made' things. It's not that I'm not proud of what I do or what my friends and family does, but which one of us really 'makes' something? Something that, if we didn't make it, might endanger our very survival. OK - too deep maybe.
Here's something interesting from Wikipedia. It says, 'scholars have ranked him 8th to 12th on the list of greatest presidents for his ability to set an agenda and achieve all of it'. What?!
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