Memphis: The Lorraine Motel

Memphis National Civil Rights Museum - May 25, 2012

Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior was assassinated here on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in early 1968.

They've turned the motel into something called the "National Civil Rights Museum". There is a big crowd. I'm a little surprised that about half the crowd is white. Times change. When I moved to Tampa in 1953,  every grocery store had four bathrooms (white men, black men, white women black women) and two water fountains (white and black). That was 60 years ago and a plumber's dream.

I suspect that Mrs. Phred might be the only real Civil Rights veteran at the museum today. Not many people had the balls to put their life on the line back then for social fairness. Mrs. Phred belonged to the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and agreed to lead a demonstration at the Florida pavilion of the New York Worlds Fair in 1964. Her sign said, "we don't want a World's Fair, we want a fair world ".

When you read the whole New York Times article, you get a sense that about 70 Pinkerton agents, ten paddy wagons, and several tanks surrounded Carol before they dared to make the arrest. The cops all had the white or black "Stetsons" and other odd hat styles that prevailed back then. So Carol went to off to jail in New York as well as in Tallahassee.

At the time of Carol's arrest, there were only three channels on TV and no remotes. You had to click the channels with a mechanical dial. LBJ and Elvis had three TV sets so they could watch all the news at the same time. Mrs. Phred's arrest was covered at 7 PM on NBC, ABC, and CBS. Mrs. Phred's Mom, Frieda, saw the arrest on CBS and blew her Jack Daniels and coke all over her MuMu.

I admit my admiration for Mrs. Phred's accomplishments as a 19-year-old..The New York Supreme Court threw out her trespassing conviction on the grounds that she had every right to demonstrate on what was essentially public property.

Mrs. Phred and I were in Tacoma when King was killed. I was a First Lieutenant. They briefed me on operation "Garden Plot" which involved the potential of flying in massive forces of regular Army and Marine troops to American cities to put down the "insurrection".

Now we have a black President. Think of that.

A Day in Seattle

We drove south from Port Townsend about 50 miles to Bainbridge Island and walked onto the ferry to Seattle. From Seattle, Mount Rainier is very ghostly and prominent and only about 60 miles away.

The first hotel in Seattle was opened in 1856 by Madame Damnable. She ran a high-class hotel of ill repute but earned her nickname, not from that, but from her ability to swear proficiently in Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Her name was Mary Ann Conklin. Prior to moving to Seattle, she was abandoned in Port Townsend by her hubby, "Bull" Conklin, who was a whaling ship Captain.

The last time we saw Seattle was 1968. We had a favorite Italian restaurant called Ferlinghetti's. It always took about two hours to get though the many dinner courses. Sometimes we even missed our theater ticket showtimes. We discussed the restaurant on the bus yesterday with some long time Seattle residents. They told us Ferlinghetti's. had gone out of business decades back.

The Space Needle and monorail were built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. Both of these and the old Food Court were still there, but several other attractions have been built since we were last here to supplement an area now called the "Seattle Center". There is a Science Fiction Museum and a Music Appreciation center currently featuring "Nirvana" to name two new enhancements to the sleazy old World's Fair location. At a top speed of 45 MPH the Seattle monorail is thought to be the  fastest monorail in the world. Each of the trains has logged over a million miles on the one mile track. Back in the 60s we all thought monorails were the tits.

We went to a really run down area of the city in 1967 to see three short plays by Leroy Jones. All of the actors and the audience were black except for me and Mrs. Phred. One scene required anger and frustration from a black man wearing a hard hat. He took it off and threw it really hard and hit me in the chest with it. I was really impressed with his aim and it left me with a cool indelible memory. Did I tell you Mrs. Phred was thrown in jail in 1964 for protesting the Florida pavilion at the New York World's Fair and Florida's racial policies?

Sometimes the things you see in city store windows are as interesting as what you can see in a big city art museum.

We had lunch at a micro brewery on the waterfront and then spent a couple of hours in SAM (Seattle Art Museum).

I took a few pictures. Works in glass are always appealing.

It's interesting to go around to art museums in different big cities and see how much the directors are willing to put on the line in the way of unconventional modern art vs. the tried and true. Seattle's SAM  was packed with stolid stuff.

Interesting Choices

Northern Thailand

Mrs. Phred lost a tennis shoe when she was washed overboard on a raft trip with me. She lost the right shoe. She showed me the left shoe and asked if I thought she should keep it. I told her that I thought she should keep it in case a future foot amputation, but that she should hope that they did not cut off her left foot because then the shoe would be obviously worthless.

 We have been together since I met her at a 1965 cast party in Tallahassee. The play was "A Man For All Seasons". This was about Sir Thomas More and his silence with regard to the legitimacy of Henry the VIII's plan to divorce his wife in the hope of siring a male heir.

We left the party together and walked the streets until sunrise telling each other stories. She told me about being thrown in jail in Tallahassee for sitting at a table with a black man in the Dobb's House restaurant earlier that year....interesting!...I thought...

Then she told me the story about disrupting the New York World's fair in 1964. She was thrown in jail (The Tombs) again after leading a peaceful demonstration. Her arrest was covered by the New York Times and all three National networks.

She's been a good dive buddy and tennis partner. An interesting choice.