Montgomery Alabama

About a week after Jacob's field trip to the farm, Taylor's class went to Montgomery, Alabama, home of our state capital. This year he has to do the "Alabama Notebook" which is a pretty big project. It is done in sections with the first section due November 14 and the completed project due the first part of May. So you can see it will take a while to do. His teacher (Jenny Crotts) is so wonderful! She gives them plenty of time to get each section done. This not only teaches the kids about our wonderful state, but it also teaches them time management. (you can't wait till the night before it is due to start on it!!) The field trip was a way to get some important pictures to use in their notebooks. (Which is really a 3 ring binder filled with pictures and information about Alabama.)

Here are some pictures we will be using in his project. Montgomery is a beautiful city with lots of solid, white government buildings. It is truly "old south". They also have a place called "Old Town Alabama", that is set up like pioneer days. You can tour it on your own and see lots more than we did that day (2 years ago, Jorden did this same notebook and Jeff and I took the boys down one weekend to get pictures). Taylor's class and parents took the "working tour" which showed us 4 buildings and took one hour to do. It was very interesting because they share lots of information, but doing your own tour lets you see lots more. There are a lot of buildings to go through! Both Living and Working sections.

This is a lady that showed the kids how to work a spinning wheel and turn cotton into yarn.

Here she is showing us a loom and how it works. All of the workers are actors, dressed in period clothing.

We also went inside a school house. The actor that played the school master was very believable. He had the kids line up outside and wait for the bell to ring. They then lined up along the wall inside and he said "Good Morning class!" in a loud booming voice. They all just stared at him with large eyes. ha! Then he told them they were to answer him "Good Morning, Sir!" and he said his part again and there were a few that mumbled their part so he said it again after banging his stick on a desk and this time they all said it very loud! ha! He told them the rules for school and all about what they would be doing and what was expected out of them. It was very real! Every now and then he would point to one of the girls and tell her to stand up straight or she would be pigeon toed and never marry. They all laughed at that. I think they all sighed with relief when we left that building. But at the end he did change voices and tell the kids that he was just an actor and he was a very nice man. He explained though that the school teachers (or masters) were just like that-the kids were scared of them and that was the way the teachers wanted it. I am very glad it is not like that today. We also went inside a general store and a cotton mill.

This is the "Little White House". We didn't have time to tour it. It is the first White House of the Confederacy where Jefferson Davis first served. I was able to tour it one time on a field trip of my own when I was in High School, but don't remember much about it except that it is very beautiful inside.

The Alabama State House

Our Beautiful State Capital!!

When we went inside where the dome is, our tour guide had the children all hold hands and form a circle then lie down on the floor. That way they could all look up at the beautiful murals around the dome. Jeff went upstairs to a balcony and took these pictures.

Taylor (bottom left in gray shirt) looking up at the murals...

One of the murals up close. Each pictures depicts Alabama history.

Here is a little glimpse of what it looked like from down below...Beautiful!!

This is an incredible winding staircase that went up three flights. It was a little unnerving for those of us with "acrophobia". I preferred holding on to the wall, instead of the banister which was very low (it hit you about thigh level). It made my head spin! But it is very lovely!
There is a machine in the ceiling that lets this chandelier all the way down to the bottom floor for the maintenance men to clean it or change the light bulbs. It was fun watching the kids try to figure out how they would do that before the tour guide explained it to us

We finally talked Taylor into looking over the balcony for this picture. He doesn't like heights either! He crawled up the stairs, because standing up made him dizzy.

Here is his class at the end of the tour. (Taylor is the second one on the front left-gray shirt) They are in front of a bust of Lurleen Wallace (the first and only female Governor of Alabama) She was diagnosed with cancer shortly before being elected (she beat 3 other men) governor and died after serving only 16 months. Her husband is the "famed" George C. Wallace who served as Governor both before and after her service.

We all had a great time. Jeff and mom got to go with us and I am so glad. I was dreading driving that far (it is about 2 hours away from our school) with a van-load of kids and so I talked Jeff into taking the day off. Thank goodness because it poured "cats and dogs" on us both going and coming. As a result I didn't get any pictures of Taylor outside the Capital. We were hurrying to get there for our tour and it wasn't raining then so we all planned to get pictures afterwards-NOT! When we came out of the Capital it was pouring buckets. Jeff and another dad ran to our van and took turns driving all the other drivers to their vehicles so that they could come pick their riders up at the door. So we didn't get to have a picnic together as planned, instead we all ate our lunches in our vehicles on the way home.