And Georgia Gazette is there, with live sound from the scene: http://www.gpb.org/georgiagazette
(All photos: Orlando Montoya)
As bagpipers and shamrock-plastered floats passed the crowd, Nancy Cox raised a Bloody Mary and clicked the heels of her emerald slippers -- one of the head-to-toe green accessories of her "Wizard of Oz" costume.
(All photos: Orlando Montoya)
Each time her sparkling shoes touched, Cox repeated: "There's no place like Savannah."
Especially not on St. Patrick's Day. Thousands of gaudy green revelers lined the cobblestone streets and magnolia-shaded sidewalks of the downtown historic district today to join the
coastal city's 185-year-old Irish celebration.
Economic gloom may have thinned the throngs slightly, but thirsty tourists started hitting the bars as early as 7:30 a.m. and bar owners anticipated healthy profits by last call at 3 a.m.
tomorrow.
Started in 1824 by Savannah's early wave of Irish immigrants, the St. Patrick's Day parade is the biggest tourist attraction of the year in Georgia's oldest city.
(All photos: Orlando Montoya)
Savannah touts itself as having the nation's second-largest parade, based on the hours-long procession of marching bands, and elaborate floats, Civil War re-enactors and convertibles
chauffeuring local dignitaries. On peak years, the celebration draws up to 400,000 party goers to the city of 150,000.
(All photos: Orlando Montoya)
The turnout today wasn't nearly as smothering as Savannah can be when March 17th falls on a weekend. People stood shoulder-to-shoulder two to three deep on the sidewalks, but many spots had enough elbow room to walk unimpeded.
(All photos: Orlando Montoya)
Oak-shaded Chippewa Square, normally one of the busiest parade-watching spots, still had ample space for party tents by the time the parade began.
(AP)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Crowds Pack Savannah for St. Patrick's Day (Photo Series)
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Officials: Plains State Visitor To Remain Open
In Georgia Public Broadcasting Radio’s occasional “MoneyCrunch” series, which airs on Georgia Gazette news magazine weekday evenings at 6 P.M., we explore the effects of proposed budget cuts on communities and constituents around the state.
Duck pond in front of the Georgia Visitor Information Center at Plains. (Photo: Dave Bender)
Last week, an obscure state law saved a state welcome center in Plains from the chopping block, to help cover a $2.2 billion shortfall in the 2010 budget.
Entrance to visitor center. (Photo: Dave Bender)
But, on Monday, officials at the Georgia Department of Economic Development said The Georgia Visitor Information Center will remain open, despite a pending recommendation to slash its $186,000 budget.
Democratic State Sen. George Hooks at the Capitol. (Photo: Dave Bender)
Americus state Senator, George Hooks cites a 1977 statute that says Georgia, by law, must have a visitor center in any town whose resident becomes a president:
“'...and it shall be,' - not 'may be,' but 'shall be,' - maintained and supplied with materials," Hooks told legislators.Those materials feature the state’s charms in hundreds of glossy tourism magazines, colorful photos and souvenirs.
A visitor’s center at Sylvania was also facing closure. The two centers are among eleven similar facilities around the state.
The GDEcD’s Alison Tyrer, however, says her office would like to keep both the Sylvania and Plains centers open:
”We are looking at all possible options for both centers. However, it’s very early in the legislative process so we would prefer not to speculate on what those options might be at this time,” Tyrer said in a written comment on the issue.The Plains center is a replica of a rustic wooden farmhouse, surrounded by fields and piney woods. A pastoral two-lane road out front links the town to nearby Americus. The road, and the parking lot of the 31-year-old building are both empty on this Monday afternoon.
Map, pins and and "Post-its" left by guests who have visited the site. Penny Smith, who manages the facility, is behind the desk. (Photo: Dave Bender)
Manager Penny Smith sits inside and waits for tourists:
“…you don’t get bored, because it’s God’s nature… and that’s why the visitors love it so much, because you’re in another world, and when you’re here you don’t think about the outside; what’s going on outside this area - it’s just peace and harmony and such a wonderful feeling…”
She's worked here for eight years, and says the visitor center is her whole world. Smith shared her patch of
"Our visitors are 'destination visitors;' they're not just stopping to go to the restroom or get a roadmap. They're here to spend time and money and see what there is to see in the state."
Sign of town's pride. (Photo: Dave Bender)
The biggest local attraction is former President Jimmy Carter, who lives in Plains with former First Lady Rosalynn.
While a National Park Service visitors center closer to Carter’s home focuses on the 39th president, Smith says her facility offers a lot more:
"When we have the visitors captured here, we use that time to tell them about other places in Americus, down the road; make motel, hotel reservations – just service the visitor overall. They don’t do that at the park service.”
Their money's part of more than thirty-four billion tourism dollars that Georgia raked in last year. Those dollars paid for almost 250,000 jobs – among them, Smith’s and two assistants.
Plains peanut processing facility and road sign on the way to the visitor center. (Photo: Dave Bender)
Plains Mayor Boze Godwin says the 700 residents of his struggling rural town – and the vicinity - need every tourist dollar that comes through the center:
“I think it’s important not only for Plains, but for the whole county because they do refer people to businesses here. In the past we had a tog shop here, and that closed – but they would send people to that to buy clothes – so they helped the whole area, not just Plains … and they do a great job.”Hooks, Godwin and Smith hope that statute will be enough to keep the visitor center open to greet the next busload of tourists.
Click here for more GPB news coverage of the state budget.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Army Corps pumping sand to renourish Tybee beach
Tybee Island beach and pier. (US Army Corps of Engineers)
The Army Corps of Engineers is giving Tybee Island's beach a fresh layer of sand - $11 million worth.
It's the first time since 2000 that Georgia's largest public beach has been renourished with new sand to repair erosion. Tybee Island needs it badly. Portions of the beach had eroded so much
that they vanished underwater at high tide.
The Army Corps began pumping sand from the ocean floor last week and spreading it onto the beach. About 120,000 dump truck loads of sand are needed overall. The work is scheduled to continue into January.
Officials waited to start the project until after the summer tourist season was over and rare sea turtles had finished nesting on Tybee Island.
(The Associated Press)
Click here for more GPB News coverage about Tybee Island.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Laurel & Hardy 'in another fine mess' in Harlem
(Courtesy LaurelandHardyMuseum.org)
Harlem is the kind of blink-and-you'll-miss-it town in rural east Georgia that's the last place you'd expect to find the country's only museum dedicated to the classic comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
But anyone driving along Interstate 20 near the South Carolina state line can't miss the big brown sign pointing to the museum, nestled in a sleepy hamlet of 1,800 founded 140 years ago along the now-defunct Georgia Railroad line.
Hardy's mustachioed face is everywhere, from the water tower looming overhead to the sign welcoming visitors on the outskirts of town. Ollie's Laundry stands in place of the two-story house where the rotund comedian was born in 1892 just off the town's main drag.
The annual Oliver Hardy Festival was created two decades ago to raise money for the community. When the festival began in 1988, just a handful of booths were set up in Harlem's small downtown. But now the event draws 350 vendors and turns away dozens of others because there just isn't room.
The festival - with its Laurel and Hardy look-alike contests, hourlong parade and rows of country fair-style tents - brings in about $20,000 annually. Most of that goes back to help the museum operate, said city councilwoman Robin Root.
The event headquarters is the two-room museum housed in the town's old post office, which opened in 2002. The museum has quickly outgrown its small space, packed to the brim with hundreds of dolls, comic books, socks and posters donated by fans worldwide.
On one wall hangs a framed menu donated by a fan who had it signed by Laurel and Hardy during a 1942 train trip. On another is a collection of Laurel and Hardy movie posters in several languages.
The museum even has two hats worn by Laurel and Hardy in movies - a pith helmet from 1935's "Bonnie Scotland" and a fez from 1933's "Sons of the Desert."
The silent film actors were paired up in 1927, beginning a career that spanned three decades. They are still considered one of the greatest comedy teams in film history and were one of just a few acts that made the transition from silent films to "talkies."
Children drop by after school and join tourists in the museum's back room, munching on homemade cookies as they watch one of Laurel and Hardy's 106 movies often shown there.
"All these kids have grown up on Laurel and Hardy," longtime museum volunteer Linda Caldwell said. "If there's a rainy day and they're walking home, they pop in and know which movies they want to watch."
The town is preparing to raise money to double the size of the museum - where admission is free - and empty out the storage room full of pictures, coffee mugs and other collectibles that won't fit on the crowded shelves.
The guest book bears witness to the museum's international popularity - an average of 500 visitors stop in each month from places like Austria, Peru, Scotland, England and Switzerland, as well as a handful of U.S. states. Laurel and Hardy movies are still shown in European movie houses, making the museum a global destination.
Northern Ireland residents Eric Stewart and his wife, Yvonne, recently dropped by as they toured the South that included Helen Keller's Alabama home and Shiloh National Military Park near the Tennessee-Mississippi state line.
"Our children had enjoyed their comedy," Eric Stewart said. "Over the years we got different movies of them."
Museum workers often collaborate with the world's other Laurel and Hardy museum in Ulverston, England, where Laurel was born in 1890. Both strive to preserve memorabilia of the duo.
"Their movies are nothing but fun, slapstick comedy that the whole family can sit down and enjoy. They're nothing political, nothing satirical," Caldwell said. "Ninety-five percent of movies made today are not family oriented. They are mainly blood and guts, which you can't take your family to."
(The Associated Press)
Click here for more GPB News coverage of Georgia tourism.