Definitely Not a One Car Parade

Though Hilton Head Island was our home base for the first week of our trip, January is not the ideal time for beach activities.  We spent our first full day after our arrival an hour away in Savannah, one of my favorite CITIES in the United States.  PLUS, it is where Forrest Gump sat at a bus stop and narrated a movie by the same name, one of my favorite MOVIES of all time.

Our plan to hop on a trolley and tour the city was derailed because we arrived on a national holiday, Martin Luther King, Jr. day.  Instead of riding around and viewing the sights of Savannah we sat curbside at the intersection of M.L.K., JR. BLVD & Oglethorpe and let the sights ride by us in Savannah’s MLK, JR day parade.  The entertainment actually started a little early when a little old lady in a Cadillac tried to get onto MLK, JR. Blvd just before the parade began.

COP:  STOP RIGHT THERE!  YOU ARE GOING THE WRONG-WAY ON A ONE-WAY STREET!  The little old lady then backed up, steered into a parking lot and reemerged on MLK, JR. Blvd a half-block away, leading the parade.

Other than that incident, the parade was memorable for me in four ways:

1.      Unlike parades back home, I did not see one tractor or pickup truck.

2.      It was TWO HOURS long;

3.      My butt’s curb-sitting ability maxed out at ONE HOUR; and

4.      As certified hillbillies from Missouri, WE were the main source of diversity.

Savannah was established on February 12, 1733 with the arrival of General James Edward Oglethorpe.  General Oglethorpe was dispatched to the area by King George II to establish a city and protect British interests.  When Oglethorpe founded the city of Savannah, he had only 4 rules:

1.     No slavery.

2.     No hard liquor, though beer, wine and ale were acceptable.

3.     No Catholics; and

4.     No lawyers.

Over the years those rules have been defended, derided, amended and rescinded various times.  After Oglethorpe was recalled to England, slavery was allowed until the Civil War brought it to an end.  Savannah now allows alcohol of all types to be consumed on its streets as long as it is in a plastic container.  The city houses St. John the Baptist Catholic church, one of the largest and most beautiful Catholic churches in America.  AND, there are 675 listings for attorneys in the Savannah yellow pages.

After the parade we had an alcohol-free lunch at the historic Blue Moon Brewery, reportedly the only haunted brewery in the United States.  (Motto: Come drink with friends past and present).

At 1:30 the trolleys finally started rolling.  Due to the shortened time frame, the Old Town Trolley Company gave us a two-day pass for the price of a one-day pass.       Forrest Gump once said “My Mama always said you've got to put the past behind you before you can move on”.   Not so for us.  With a trolley beside us and Savannah’s past ahead of us, we hopped on a trolley and moved on.

Bystanders and Bysitters at Savannah's MLK Jr. Parade