This afternoon I had lunch with three people I used to work with here in Tullahoma.
They are people that I have known for years and who I know were closely following both my adventures and my misadventures during my time in first Juneau and then Cody.
Two of them contacted me not long after they found out I was leaving Juneau, and at a time when I felt like I was completely surrounded by enemies I knew that these people were on my side.
To know that was more helpful to me during that time than I could ever describe.
And so today we sat beside each other and across from each other and laughed and caught up on lives, and adventures and misadventures both theirs and mine.
The woman of the three brought up an experience we had shared and it was funny that she remembered it because I was laughing about it with LC not too long ago.
The woman and I were both in a quiet period of the year at work and we took advantage of that quiet to paint something that had needed to be painted for a long time.
It was an all day project and just as we were getting ready to take a break we stood with paint brushes in hand talking for a moment before starting our clean-up.
As she was talking I started playfully motioning my paintbrush around in front of her.
She looked at me and smiled in that "I dare you" kind of way and I looked at her and then slapped blue paint on her bare arm.
To use an expression that I heard from a politician recently it was "game on".
She tried to paint my arm and then my leg and I tried to do the same thing and we grabbed each others wrists struggling to keep the brushes away from each other.
At the same time we two middle aged women were laughing hysterically.
We ended up chasing each other down the hall, hiding behind doors, and eventually falling into chairs still laughing like crazy and calling each other unlady like names.
It was soooooo funny at the time and without a doubt broke up a quiet day.
Today, a few years after the "Great Paint Fight" we still laugh about such silliness................
After lunch I drove down the ridiculously busy South Jackson Street and pulled into the South Jackson Civic Center.
This building was the first school in Tullahoma and was built in the late 1800's.
It is now the location of the city's civic center. A center for plays and concerts and musicals.
More information on the Civic Center:
The center was closed when I visited this afternoon, but I spent some time walking the grounds on a day that was so warm it felt like Spring instead of the end of the first week in January...............
I have only been inside the Civic Center once and that was to attend a Gaelic concert with LC a few years ago.
The building shows its age, but only in good ways.
The ways of beautiful aged brick and wonderful dark aged wood.
Immediately across the street is the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center.
I have only been to the civic center once and have never been to the fine arts center.
I don't know why.
I will make a conscious effort to change that..............
A beautiful lady outside the arts center.............
Looking back at the civic center and the log cabin mentioned on the sign above.
The cabin is thought to be the oldest building in Tullahoma................
South Jackson Civic Center with a bit of a sad looking Christmas tree standing in front of the steps............
There is a whole series of buildings surrounding the civic center so there is a lot happening in one small cross section of this small city.
Next door to the civic center is the Red Cross building.
Next door to that is the Board of Education building.
Across the street is the fine arts center and right behind the civic center is a grade school.
I walked the grounds of the civic center today (for the very first time) and found not only the large historical and beautiful building, but also the log cabin and multiple markers providing information on the rich history of this area (particularly as it relates to both the railroad system and the Civil War).
Even with the four lane road (that is always busy and that dissects the city in two) directly in front of me, the tree filled grounds and interesting things I found during my wanderings made for a relaxing trip.............
I had to look this person up to learn more about him. There is also a link in the text providing information on the Tullahoma Campaign:
After reading over all of the signs I headed towards the log cabin that was located adjacent to the civic center...............
The door to the entrance of the cabin was locked so I could not go inside.
Pictures of this section of the grounds............
As with most structures of this era, the civic center is an architecturally beautiful building............
On a day when the sky was blue, the sun was shining and it was 62 degrees, and two weeks after Christmas, this huge tree standing in front of the stairs of the civic center looked a little sad sack.
My trees are down and my Christmas decorations are now put away except for those things that I (on the spur of the moment as I was packing everything away) decided should not be stuffed into boxes and then unceremoniously dumped up into the attic.
Decided that they should stay out all year long.
Although the holidays are done, I stood looking at Sad Sack Tree and smiled at it.
I liked it very much.............
Over sized and very sweet Christmas tree decorations...........
The public attending concerts, plays and musicals enter through this side door, and the area happily is still lit up with holiday lights.
Decorative touches on an outside wall of the building..............
And one last look at the very historic and lovely small cabin..............
The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love..............Hubert H. Humphrey Jr.
No comments:
Post a Comment