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I ran five miles today. This was one of the sites I shuffled by:
It is a favorite fence and field. I see it a lot, on runs and rides. I haven’t seen it a lot lately, because of our travels, and because of a foot problem. And I’m not sure if the foot problem hasn’t also moved to the other foot as well. This probably means I have a shoe problem. So I am not wearing those shoes right now. But I got in five miles today.
I don’t know how you rank signs on stairs, but this is way up there, if you ask me:
We finally got the chance to dine at The Olde Pink House. Delicious and worth the wait:
The thing about Savannah is, no matter the time of year, things there are always in bloom:
Back home tonight, though I could stay away for some time. Oh, and I forgot this video about yesterday:
Forsyth Park is full of history. It was created in the 1840s, and was, in a way, an original part of the future plans of Savannah. French and American soldiers camped on the site during the Revolutionary War around bloody fighting in the town. The French started building siege trenches there and, then just two generations later, the Georgia home guard drilled on the park during the Civil War. The town’s Confederate monument is there.
This is where The Yankee I visit every time we come to Savannah. We have a tree. We got engaged there and took some of our wedding portraits there. It is a beautiful place and has a lot of history, and contemporary vitality, too.
At a nearby novelty shop:
Funny t-shirts:
Late, late editions … watch the lights in these Boomerang videos:
Another beautiful day in Savannah. Here’s your proof, this is the Independent Presbyterian Church, organized in 1755:
The original church was built on land granted by King George II. A new church went up in 1816. The English restoration style, features Federal windows, Corinthian columns, that picturesque steeple, and a beautiful sanctuary with an elevated mahogany pulpit. It was destroyed by fire in 1889, but a duplicate was built on the same spot just two years later and the interior is faithful to that period, including the baptismal, which survived that fire and is still used today. President Woodrow Wilson’s first wife was born on the property. The great hymn writer Lowell Mason worked there for a time.
We found some swings:
I created some Boomerang videos:
I like watching the kids in the background. It is hypnotic, really.
Some of the trees in Forsyth Park:
And some of the ads that were hanging at the restaurant where we had dinner tonight. People today sometimes think flight-sweep was about tail fins. And while they do stand out, they only ran for another seven or so years on American roads after this ad. No, flight-sweep was really centered around Virgil Exner‘s lower, sleeker designs, inspiring car designers you still see even today:
Doesn’t this just make you want to fly to Hawaii?
The people of Savannah used to call themselves “The Hostess City of the South,” which is one of those surely government-based promotional nicknames that is not in anyway worthy of a lovely town. Savannah is a lovely town. The Yankee and I took our first trip here. We got married here. We sometimes come back, as we have this week.
You do it for scenes like this:
The former was in the historic district. The latter was at Bonaventure Cemetery, where we spent some time today, taking in the sun and breeze and quiet while walking among the history and solemn scenery.
Amidst it all, there are a few dozen military graves in their own formal section.
Edward Myers had service in three wars, and earned a bronze star:
John Carter and the 401st were in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. He died in Belgium:
Charles Higgs Jr. was a marine platoon sergeant. He was killed on the first day of the invasion of Iwo Jima:
Gentry Hoitt was in a different division of marines, but I bet Higgs knew the gunnery sergeant from back home. Hoitt was killed on the second day at Iwo Jima. He had six brothers and sisters, but they are all gone now. The last of them died in 2014. The 5th Division, meanwhile, scratched, cussed and fought on Iwo for more than a month with 2,482 killed in action, 19 missing in action, and 6,218 wounded in action, the highest casualty rate among the three Marine divisions involved in the invasion.
The 6th Marine Division fought in the Solomons, Guam, Guadalcanal and Okinawa. I can’t find anything about him online or what he did in the few years of his short life that he was left with after the war. If he was there for all of those events, though, he probably saw more than he should have had to:
John Chudob served in two wars, and there’s a brief mention of him in a Kansas newspaper, in between. There are a few Chudobas still in Georgia. I wonder if this is one of their ancestors:
It isn’t readily apparent what the 18th did in the Big Red One during World War I, but if William Breen was there throughout he might have seen one or some of these battles, Montdidier-Noyon, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, Lorraine or Picardy. There are reasons the First Division became so famous during and after that war. They were the first to go to Europe, the last to come home and they paraded in New York City in 1919. Who knows, he could be one of the men in the photos on this site covering their return and parade. I wonder if he ever talked about it when he came back home:
One of the steps on this memorial arch is engraved “Heirs together of the grace of life,” which becomes an even more beautiful sentiment the more you think about it.
There are beautiful oaks at Bonaventure:
And back downtown, at night:
But that was before dinner at the Crab Shack:
