Sweet Green Alabama - Jesse Owens Museum and Park

 Coming into Oklahoma from Texas and New Mexico we were struck by the change in colors, but Alabama takes the honors for Spring! The lush green fields were capped with multi shades of green trees, interspersed with flowering fruit trees and dogwood. Rivers of gold flowers turned whole fields bright yellow. I'm saddened by the fact that on the roads we traveled, there were never good spots to pull over and get photos. 

This is the best photo I got but it's not good enough! The field here is dull compared to miles of pastures we saw on our trip through Alabama. 

We left Arkansas in the morning and crossed Tennessee and a little corner of Georgia, before reaching our destination, Oakville, to spend a night at the Jesse Owens Museum and Park. We belong to Harvest Hosts and have stayed in many wineries, farms, and attractions for one night free as we travel. On our way there, we stopped to have lunch at Tuscumbia's Big Spring Park. What a beautiful spot. Tuscumbia was originally named Big Spring when incorporated in 1819 but changed its name to honor Chef Tuscumbia, a Cherokee Indian. The town prides itself on its support and help to those same Indians as they passed through their town on the Trail of Tears. What a despicable part of our history that is! We have passed many monuments and memorials detailing this horror but it's never enough. The town is the birthplace of Helen Keller, proudly proclaimed on the water tower visible for miles. 

Big Spring Park with its waterfall and pond is beautifully landscaped and lots of families were enjoying the playground and feeding the ducks.

Jesse Owens was not just an amazing athlete, he was an amazing man. I grew up with knowledge of his accomplishments at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, but I learned here about his life before and after that. We watched a documentary he narrated about his return to Germany for the 1972 Olympics as a special guest of the West German Government and his memories of the Olympics with footage of the 1936  event. We found the story of his assistance from Luz Long, the German champion long jumper, and their friendship. He met with Luz's son after the war as Luz died in 1943. 

A photo of Luz and Jesse arm and arm during their victory march around the stadium. There is an even more touching photo of the two of them lying on the ground laughing and talking. 

Jesse was the youngest of 10 children born to sharecroppers in a 3 room cabin (a replica was at the museum). He moved to Ohio at 9 years old and began his athletic career there, attending Ohio State University and breaking all track world records. I highly recommend reading the Wikipedia article on him and learning more! 

We were off next across Alabama, another little corner of Georgia and then on to Chatanooga, Tennessee to visit Ted & Juanita Tumelaire. More on my next post.

This is the center geyser in the 
"dancing fountain" at Big Spring
Park - a memorial to the wife of
Chef Tuscumbia. 

One of the many memorials we saw
as we drove west along the Trail of
Tears.

The lake at Big Spring Park. You can see a few more of the dancing fountains here. This was an amazing display for a small town like this. There were about 20 jets and the program lasted about 10 minutes. 

The Jesse Owens Museum

Surrounded by lovely fields of green and gold.

A Statue of Jesse and his four Gold metals

Scott fires up the grill with our table set for dinner.
This was only the second time we used the table,
as often we have a picnic table at our site. But we
have not had the weather to eat dinner outside very
often. 

Sunset as we finish dinner

We were parked right near one of the two ballparks at Jesse Owens and enjoyed hearing the cheers
and laughter during their practice. The Museum also has a full-service park for the local community. Unfortunately, we saw only the white residents of the town!!!