Feb. 12 is Georgia Day. In 1733, James Oglethorpe, a general and social reformer, spent the day founding the last of the 13 English colonies.
Georgia began with great ideals: no slavery, no big landowners — a haven for ordinary, independent people. Obviously, that didn’t last.
I’m using the day to educate myself about the history of my new home and its people. And, because my friend Christopher told me about a good documentary, I’ve been thinking about Willie McTell, a bluesman who was still playing on the streets of Atlanta when I was a boy in Texas. Here are a couple of lines from his “Statesboro Blues”:
Mama died and left me reckless, Papa died and left me wild,I ain’t good lookin’, baby, but I’m someone’s sweet angel child.
In an age before nationalism had become thoroughly disreputable, Schopenhaur observed that all the countries that claimed greatness pointed to their musicians, artists and writers. The Germans pointed to German artists. The French pointed to French.
Schopenhaur noted the many histories of literature and said he was waiting for a tragic history of literature, accounting for how each nation that claimed to be great had treated its writers, musicians and artists. He said that almost every enlightener of humanity was some kind of martyr.
• Blind Willie’s Blues, a 1997 documentary about the life of Willie McTell, is part of the South Georgia Folklife Collection at Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections. It’s available here:
Every time I make eggs w/cheese, his “Travelin' Blues” runs through my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2WAoAPogGE. “Scramble ’em down.”
ReplyDeleteGreat tune. I thought it might be just a family thing, but the song has me wondering. In my memory, scrambled eggs was breakfast, but scrambled eggs with cheese was dinner.
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