For those who don't know, we're spending the weekend down in Lower Alabama doing some things for my wife's mom. Since there's really not a lot that I can do I'm just along for moral support and strong arms when that's needed from time to time. This leaves me with ample time to spin through the country side. Today's ride was going to be from Enterprise to Elba down the Pea River Valley to Ino and then back. When I got to Elba I decide to explore new pavement and changed course to head out to Opp. Other than nearly being run down by a Wal-Mart truck it was a good ride though it was surprisingly hilly. You'd think being this close to the Gulf thing would be flat but the road from Enterprise to Elba was all up and down and so was the last section of the ride. My legs were pretty fried by the end but damn if it didn't feel good. Top that off with some Mellow Mushroom (yes, they have one of those down here) Pizza and it's been a fine day.
One thing I've noticed is that folks down here are, well, different. First, look at the town names. It's like there was a shortage of letters letter for town names after places like Tuscaloosa used them all so you get places like Opp and Elba and Ino. Who calls a town Opp? The second clue for me is the shrine. That's the picture you see here. In Enterprise there is a monument to, of all things, the Boll Weevil. For those who don't know, a boll weevel is a tiny little critter that eats cotton plants. Under a microscope it's a surprisingly ugly critter. Yet in downtown Enterprise there is a statue of a woman in the classical Greek style (Demeter maybe?) holding up a huge reproduction of this bug. The monument was erected to honor the bug for eating the cotton because in this calamity the local farmers discovered that peanuts would replenish the soil (via nitrogen fixing...gotta love those legumes) the cotton had been rapidly wearing out thus introducing them to the joys of crop rotation and an additional revenue stream.
What I've always wondered is what an alien civilization would think of they found the monument. I think they'd decide it was some sort of shrine to the bug who must actually rule the planet or be an object of great spiritual importance. I wonder if they'd leave gifts of some purely alien sort at the base of the pool of water that surrounds the statue of the woman thinking that we humans. or at least the variety of humans in the place named Alabama with either very short of very long town names, worship the bug. All bow down to the great and holy (and really, really ugly) Bug God Boll Weevel. I mean, look at the picture. What would you think if you were some sort of alien athropologist who stumbled across this thing or the image of it in the memory of some poor rural soul you happened to abduct on a county road on the way to Ino and are conducting memory tests on.
Anyways, I call it the bug shrine to the annoyance and, I think, secret bemusement of my wife and I think it stands as definitive proof that Alabamans (at least those in the lower portion of the red clay state) are just a leeeetttlllle different than a lot of folks.
Thanks for reading.
