Bert Kaempfert was a little known orchestra leader, a songwriter and arranger during the “big band” era of the 1950’s. His recordings enjoyed only moderate success until he recorded “Red Roses for a Blue Lady,” a song that had been around for two decades without hitting the charts. German born Kaempfert’s rendition of this tune, [...]
Filed under: Bob W., Culture, Music | No Comments »
Bettina Byrd-Giles gets you thinking. She gets you thinking about the origin of your family’s name, about your heritage and about the variety of backgrounds represented in Alabama yesterday and today. In her Road Scholars Speakers Bureau presentation “The Cultural Evolution of Alabama,” Mrs. Byrd-Giles shows us that the 22nd state is not monocultural.
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After reading the article about industrial baseball leagues in Alabama and Vulcan Park and Museum’s “From Factory to Field” exhibition in the Winter/Spring 2010 issue of Mosaic, Doug Purcell, executive director of the Historic Chattahoochee Commission, sent us this photo and message:
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Habari gani, or “What is the news?” This welcoming greeting is Swahili, a non-tribal language spoken throughout most of East Africa. It is the primary greeting for each day of Kwanzaa (Swahili for First Fruits), an African-American secular celebration that was created by Maulana Karenga, Ph.D., in 1966.
Filed under: Culture, Language, Malík B., Nationwide | 2 Comments »
I stow my carry-on and settle into a window seat just in time to hear the flight attendant announce, “Has anyone on this flight lost a wallet?” The 200 passengers, including myself, discreetly check through our belongings for our cash and credit cards. Momentarily she breaks the silence, “Now that I have your attention, we [...]
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I was personally delighted when the grants committee of the Alabama Humanities Foundation recently provided funding for a baseball program developed by Vulcan Park and Museum. “From Factory to Field” is an exhibition, opening April 1, 2010, that celebrates the 100th anniversary of Rickwood Field and the history of baseball as a reflection of the [...]
Filed under: Alabamians, Culture, History, Paul L. | No Comments »
When it comes to change, we humans are persnickety. Visits with my father to his old neighborhood on Staten Island, New York, invariably raised his bitter lament about a deli that had become a high-rise apartment complex. I felt obliged to comfort him by repeating what he said earlier in our trip. “Isn’t that the [...]
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We have officially entered into the holiday season! At my house, the holiday decorations are up and the holiday music is playing around the clock. Now that my husband and I have a family of our own, we had to take the traditions from both sides of the family and decide which ones we want [...]
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I’m a huge fan of the fair. When I was young, my parents took my sister and me to the Queen City Fair (Meridian, Miss.) every year. I’m well familiar with the Scrambler, which weaves you in and out of other screaming riders at high speeds; the so-called “carnies” and the various foods on a [...]
Filed under: Culture, Katie C., Language | No Comments »
Imagine driving 20 minutes outside of Birmingham into the quiet rural hills and discovering St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church with a traditional onion-shaped steeple. How did Slovak immigrants settle in Brookside?
Filed under: Alabamians, Culture, History, Hometown, Susan P. | No Comments »
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