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May 26, 2008
My Memorial Day Misadventure....
Staying at home when the backyard needs mowing, the kitchen needs cleaning and there is a mountain of paperwork awaiting your attention is a bad idea, especially when you are getting paid to not go to work. The sun was out, and it was the perfect day for adventure.
This is me, looking for adventure.
Maybe it's not so obvious but I actually had a plan. A few months back I watched the movie "Paperclips", which is a documentary about the Whitwell, TN Children's Holocaust Memorial.
What better place could there be to find adventure on Memorial Day?
But, alas, it was not to be.
The sign said I could get a key for the memorial from the Police Department, and it just wouldn't be an adventure if I didn't somehow find myself inside a Police Station, so off I went, in search of the key.
This is my sidekick, giving me directions to the Police Department. (He does a pretty good job as a navigator, although at one point I thought he had given me bad directions and I had wound up on a NASCAR track. Then I realized the driver in front of me was merely an idiot, and probably wouldn't give me an autograph anyway, so I slowed back down to a safe driving speed.)
We found it, but we were too late. The Memorial is in the process of being moved, and is closed until the move is complete. The nice young lady behind the desk told me it would be around two weeks. TWO WEEKS! She has no idea, in two weeks the backyard will be mowed, the kitchen will be clean and the mountain of paperwork will be reduced to a mole hill.
Ugh.
I didn't come this far to leave empty handed, so I went back and took some pictures.
This is a real German cattle car, and was used in the transport of Jews to concentration, labor and death camps. (The story of how this railcar found it's way to Tennessee is here)
These butterfly mosaics line the walkway to the rail car. The butterfly was chosen to represent the Hebrew word for "life".
Paperclips were collected by the students of Whitwell Middle School to represent the victims of the Holocaust. The railcar houses 11 million paperclips, one for each victim. The paperclip was chosen because it had been worn by citizens in Norway as a symbol of solidarity when the Jews were forced to wear the Star of David. Over 30 million paperclips were donated to the project.
Posted by Anna at May 26, 2008 6:22 PM
Comments
Love the adventure--even if it wasn't what you thought it would be :)
Posted by: Kellie at May 31, 2008 4:20 PM