Notes from Savannah

I was in Savannah for a conference, which went really well.  Unfortunately, I didn't have as much time for touristy things as I would have liked, but that's all the more reason to go there again.  Here are the highlights from the trip.

Here's that fountain from my previous post, right-side up:

It's in one of the many squares of downtown.  There were so many fountains, and all of them totally over-the-top!

Seriously, Savannah: What's with all the fountains? 


Aside from the spewing of the fountains, my favorite part of Savannah was getting to visit the Flannery O'Connor House.  The guide had tons of hilarious details about O'Connor's childhood, including the fact that although she was afraid of cats and dogs, she had pet chickens.  She taught said chickens how to walk backwards. And was filmed showing them off. This sounded too crazy to be true, so of course it is actually true.  Here's a clip of the video featuring Mary O'Connor (aka Flannery) and her pet chicken that she trained to walk backwards:  http://www.britishpathe.com/video/do-you-reverse-1

Also, at age 4 she stopped playing with dolls.  These are the dolls in question:

I think I would stop playing with them too.  That one, alone on the chair up top....that's just too creepy.

In other Fun Flannery Facts (TM), she started calling her parents by their first names at age 6, and insisted that she had nothing in common with children.  In fact, she refused to go to the children's mass, despite the ruler smacks she got from the nuns for her failure to attend (she went to the adult mass with her parents).

Here's a shot of her actual pram, and a nice one at that. 

I think it suits beside my earlier photo of Cotton Mather's high chair.  Maybe I should start a new blog of creepy children's items from famous people of the past. Babies from the Past R Us (TM)!

And while Babies R Us is combing my blog for historical baby-care items they might want to bring back, I think this is the obvious front-runner:

Yup, that's a baby cage.  It's on wheels.  Seriously.  They put babies in it.  And toddlers.  They put Flannery O'Connor in it.  And if it's good enough for Flannery O'Connor, it's good enough for your child (TM).

There were some lovely photos of her, too:

Oh, and maybe my favorite was seeing some of her handwriting in her books, such as her unfavorable review of this one:

It was really lovely to get to see her house and her things and imagine a young Flannery running about.  If you're in Savannah, definitely check out her place.

I also got to take a ghost tour of Savannah, which was exactly the sort of thing that you should do if you're in Savannah, which bills itself as the most haunted city in America.  I'll hazard to say that I know a fair bit about haunted cities in America, and I'd say Savannah's pretty high on the list.  They do up their hauntings right.

They have the Mercer-Williams House, which is the fodder that became Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (which no, I haven't ready yet), the Sorrel-Weed House, and 432 Abercorn Street and many, many, absurdly many more.  Our ghost tour guide kept telling us to take photos and that we would surely see "haints" in them.  Here's one of Kehoe House:

Yeah, I don't see any haints there, either.  But it's a gorgeous house!  Here's a totally haunted house that you can apparently rent on Air BnB and other vacation rental sites:

Doesn't it look haunted?  And crooked?  (It was getting late.)  It's called Laura's cottage and we got some story about an angry witch-doctor woman who once lived there and now messes with the guests.  Sounds like our next stay in Savannah is all set!

Mid-way through our ghost tour, the tour guide indicated that on other tours, the tourists were drinking, because that's legal on the streets of Savannah.  So one can walk around the streets of Savannah with, for instance, a nice gin and tonic in a giant plastic cup, without any fear of being in violation of a law.  This is genius. Why in the heck didn't he tell us that sooner?  Normally the only reason academics are walking around conference cities without open containers of alcohol is the nagging fear that we're going to have to explain it all to our Dean when our expense report includes bail money.  I soon had an appropriate adult beverage in my hand, and the tour just got better from there.  All those massive, mysteriously empty mansions behind wrought-iron fences really take on a sinister appearance:

Are those bars on the lower windows to keep someone/something out or to keep someone/something in?

And then there's the Spanish Moss.  Dear Spanish Moss: You are creepy.

The streets of the city are full of gorgeousness, particularly gorgeousness in the form of the tiny details; you have to take your time and slow down and just walk around a lot.

Those are pelicans.  Just, you know, decorating the railing.

And yeah, that's a downspout.  Savannah: even our downspouts are gorgeous.  I believe that's in the running for their tourism motto next year.

So that's my Savannah trip.  I hope to get back there soon!