Monday 22nd February 2010 - Digging up Glasgows

          It's a lovely morning.  It must be well into the 60s. Coat off and airconditioning on,I decide that, even if the directions are 50 years old, it's worth a try to find the Glasgow graveyard.  I start by going much to far down the Mobile road.  I expect I would find lots of cemeteries in Mobile.  I remember from my student days that there was an awful lot of everything in Mobile.

          I stop and consult the cemetery directions and a road map, and make some guesses at what might be called what now.  And it kind-of works out.  I figure out where the instructions must be starting, and count the distances.  But it's clear the roads are not in the same place.  They may not even be the same roads.

          From where I end up, it's just possible that the place I'm being directed to, described as being "behind a house" is in fact behind the house of the Glasgow I met on the first day.  But, since it's pretty doubtful it's the right place, and since hardly anything was visible 50 years ago, I don't feel I can knock on the door and ask if they've got anybody buried in the back garden.

         But it's a lovely day, and I enjoyed a nice drive in the country.  There seems to be quite a lot of forestry just south of Greenville.  And, even on US 31, not much traffic at all.

 

          Then I succumb to the lure of the library, and wander back there for a rest.  I read a bit about the Civil War.  Did you know that of all the American soldiers killed in battle, from, and including, the War of Independence till now, more than half died in the Civil War.  On the Southern side, a quarter of all males between 20 and 40 died.  It must have been the first industrial-scale war.  It must mean to them what the First World War means to us.

 

          Later that night I decide I want to see "Avatar" before the Oscars are announced.  The cinema is just beyond the edge of town.  There is a large development block, with the motels, including mine, on the town side, and Walmart on another side, with a huge empty space in the middle.  The cinema, which, rather courageously, has called itself "The Edge", is on the far side.

          I drove into an empty parking lot.  I think I was the only customer (it is offering ten movies).  The two members of staff were most attentive.

          "Avatar" is very good.  Sort-of "Star Wars" meets "Lord of the Rings".  The story is the conquest of the American West.  The good guys are really, really good, and the bad guys are really, really bad.  I can't wait to see the 3-D IMAX version, which I should be able to do in two months.

          As I left, I was still the only car in the parking lot.  I thanked the staff and told them I wouldn't be needing them again tonight.