“Studying cows, pigs, and chickens can help an actor develop his character. There are a lot of things I learned from animals. One was that they couldn’t hiss or boo me.” (James Dean)

One of the most useful online sources I employ for planning our independent travel itineraries has been “Atlas Obscura.” Each weekday, I check their daily update online to read captivating stories about unique places to visit around the world. A recent entry describing an animal rescue farm titled “Where Pigs Fly”, thus caught my attention as we followed our current road trip itinerary through the backwoods of Central Missouri. Deciding that the one hour diversion from our currently route would be worth our time, we then decided to book a mid morning appointment time to this farm for the next day. Billed as the world’s largest pig museum in the country, in fact these intriguing grounds thrilled us with so much more. For beyond the front gate of the farm lay a fascinating menagerie of over 500 rescued animals including horses, donkeys, pigs, hogs, sheep, goats, fowl, dogs, cats, llamas, emus, and a large camel.

During the course of our two hour farm visit to “Where Pigs Fly Farm”, several memorable encounters in close interaction with these animals vividly come to mind.

(1) A blind donkey stubbornly refused to move out of our way and blocked the main road to the facility. How amusing that this mule seemed utterly afraid of our moving vehicle at the time.

(2) A playful St. Bernard dog ran up to me as I left the car and curiously sniffed at my shoes. He then laid down on his back and proceeded to whine as I rubbed its belly.

(3) A hungry emu stalked me as I made my way to the ticket office and aggressively pecked at a grain block that I was holding in my hand. Yet he allowed to me to pet  him while he chewed each morsel.

(4) A lazy hog oinked in sedentary contentment as I plunged my fingers into its filthy stomach.

(5) A billy goat found my shirt more appetizing to munch on than the crackers I held in my hand.

(6) A white cockatoo quietly perched on the door of his open cage allowed me to gently stroke his feathers as he flashed me a loving eye.

The previous examples show  that I experienced a definite sensory “high” from interacting in close proximity with these animals at “Where Pigs Fly” Farm. For I undoubtedly had savored such affectionate contact with farm animals to counteract my emotional blues of social isolation that persists for me in these pandemic times. So if these rescued animals can project such love and kindness in spite of their abandonment, abuse, or physical handicaps, why can’t humans experiencing chronic Corona stress today do the same? Enjoy the photographs below.

https://www.wherepigsflyfarm.com/index.html

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pigs-aloft-museum

“The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.” (Chief Joseph, Nez Perce Tribe)

Getting a good education meant everything to fifteen year old Terrence as he looked forward to excelling in his class work during his upcoming junior year of high school. After all, he had been selected by a special school committee from a pool of academically elite high school applicants to become one of nine African American students to first break the color barrier of segregation to attend an all white, U.S.  public school. Terrence knew that both of his hard working parents always supported his decision to transfer to this new school. But they also cautioned him about angry white protesters who might block his entrance to the school. After all, the tragic legacy of antebellum slavery and its racist overtones had never vanished in this ‘’Old South’’ region..

So as Terrance and these eight other courageous teenagers decided to move forward in their lives and attend classes there each weekday amid such racial tensions, they would develop a keen eye for whom to trust. They also learned to never stray far from those army men and city police who who seemed to be roaming everywhere around school those days. It thus seemed apparent  to each of them that it was this militia’s job to protect all students, black and white, from harm when needed. So they embraced this joyous opportunity for them to compete with white students on equal terms and excel throughout  the entire school year. 

Terrance, in particular, also resolved to find places on campus where he could be most safe throughout the course of each school day. At first, he assumed that each of his classrooms would provide a secure place of refuge for him. Yet he soon learned that many of his teachers and fellow classmates seemed to hate him and often berated him regularly about why he chose to stay as a student at this school. However, Terrence noticed that in Math class, his stern looking  teacher did not outwardly show dislike of him and the classroom atmosphere seemed relatively calm. He also noticed that she would would actually stick up for him when other students picked on him and and often called upon him regularly to answer challenging questions about assignments in class.

Clearly, Terrence had found a safe place in his Math classroom to maximize his chances for learning success every day. Yet he would now need to find other strategies to survive the school year in the face of such openly racist circumstances. Thus he would learn that “keeping his cool” to avoid physical retaliation  when white students bullied him worked best. He would also spend more study time alone in the library when forced to be isolated from the eight other African American students who attended the school. He would in addition avoid drawing attention to himself after school by exiting the campus quietly each day through a basement garage. So as Terrence successfully completed this crisis ridden junior year of high school, the groundwork had been set to mold a future scholar whose will to succeed could never be denied. What other challenging deeds could be mastered in his future of endless opportunity?

Understand then my efforts to provide an authentic sense of Southern racism’s wrath in the above story of Dr. Terrence Roberts, one of the of the nine student members of the so – called “Little Rock Nine.” For during those tumultuous times of September 1957, they would put their lives at risk on several occasions to successfully enroll as African American students at all white, Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas. Racial integration of U.S. public schools as required by the 1954 legal outcome of Supreme Court Case – “Brown vs. Board of Education” had finally been achieved. Terrence would go on to earn his Ph.D. in Psychology from Southern University. He would also enjoy a long career as a distinguished professor, gifted book writer, and coveted speaker around the nation.

For a closer look at the historic events surrounding the “Little Rock Nine”, take a look at our road trip visit to Central High School/Visitor Center in these photographs below.

Source: https://facingtoday.facinghistory.org/60-years-after-little-rock-a-qa-with-terrence-roberts

 

“The cities and mansions that people dream of are those in which they finally live.” (Lewis Mumford) Continue reading “Natchez Longwood: Charming Opulence Unfinished” →

“ A place can fall victim to amnesia. It can lose he memory of what it was and thereby lose touch with what it is, what it wants to be.”(Sidney Hyman)

Tallahassee functions today as the capital city of Florida, home of two, major universities and the state’s 5th most populated city. Yet it thrives today in spite of being geographically isolated from other population centers in Florida. So this thought often crossed my mind on our road trip beginning  yesterday as we took an “off the beaten track” drive along U.S. Highway 27 in North Florida through “sleepy” southern towns of Spanish moss profusion. Yet upon entering the urban environs of Tallahassee, our upcoming visit would seem oddly out of “Old South” character.

I thus became curious to find out more about Tallahassee’s legacy of fame amidst such rural isolation. So we took a few hours time for a morning visit to the Tallahassee Museum obscurely located a few miles southwest of the city. Walking amid an early 19th century community of authentically restored buildings at this “living history” site, for the first time I envisioned how an “Old South”,  Tallahassee impression now seemed real to me. For throughout its history in the past two centuries, I had then learned that Tallahassee had once served as a Native American settlement, cotton producing giant , slave holding hub and seasonal hunting ground. So I would not be be fooled by the modern look of the massive State Capitol complex prominently situated atop a steep hill in downtown or the sprawling campus of nearby Florida State University. For from a deeper historic perspective, “Old Tallahassee” would be a most accurate description of this community.

Beyond observing such evidence of how human life once thrived as “Old Tallahassee” culture, strong  evidence of the impact of environmental change  in this region would be revealed as we leisurely moved forward along an elevated boardwalk named the “Old Florida” Trail. For before waves of human settlement inhabited this land, the “Greater Tallahassee” once stood as a thriving ecosystem of densely forested swampland and nutrient rich lakes teeming with wildlife and aquatic species. How much of this pristine natural beauty would be lost I pondered in Tallahassee’s inevitable rise to city status? Would its busy commuters going to and from work each day downtown take the time to even care to know? With Tallahassee’s past vs. present timeline in mind, I present the following photographs.