Uncle Bubba's

How’s everybody doing? We hope this entry finds you all happy and blessed. We are still rolling along, although things have slowed down a lot. It seems as though most of the concerts, shows, et cetera are through for a while. So we’ve had to find other activities. By the way, we don’t subscribe to cable TV so we only get a couple of broadcast stations (until June 17^th); but we really don’t miss it that much. We still have our portable stereo and some CDs to listen to. No problem.

Sunday, April 14 we attended church at St. Philips (for the second time). They were celebrating the 45th anniversary of their women's auxiliary, The Celestine Guild, during their morning worship service. They remembered some of their members who have passed and honored some sisters in the community. The preacher for the day was a minister from from a local Missionary Baptist Church. It seems that there is no "friction" inviting other denominations into the pulpit. That is very refreshing since we are all children of the same God. The sisters looked real sharp in their black suits/dresses with a great big pink flower corsage. That fternoon we attended a “Literary Café” at Savannah State University. It was sponsored by the local chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority as a thank you to the community for its support. There was poetry and spoken word, members of the SSU Chorale (who will be performing at Carnegie Hall in June) sang some beautiful spirituals, a couple of dance numbers, one of which was Alvin Ailey’s “Wade in the Water,” and a silent auction of a pencil drawing of President Obama – and refreshments. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

On Wednesday, we went downtown to a local farmers’ (and crafts) market. Jo has been making decorative light switch plates, so we took them down there to see what would sell. To our surprise, we sold enough to cover expenses, which is not bad for a first try. The customers and other craft vendors were very encouraging. We’ll see where this leads us. Maybe to the Amherst Common!

Thursday, we had a reunion of sorts with John and Julia Davis from Ohio. Jo hadn’t seen Julia in over 40 years. Julia is the sister of Jo’s freshman college roommate, Sherry Robinson. The Davis’ have a time-share on Hilton Head Island and came down to Savannah for the afternoon. Although they have been to Savannah several times, there were places we showed them that they hadn’t seen before. First, we went to the Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum. Now, that’s an interesting place. They have three floors of displays and powerful interactive displays documenting the harsh segregation in Savannah and the civil rights activities of the Savannians engaged in the struggle for justice. We left there with a renewed respect for the courage and sacrifices made by so many people. It also left us with more than a little bit of indignation and anger. It was hard not to have such a reaction after visiting the museum.

While at the Civil Rights Museum, we somehow got on the subject of slave burial places, and Julia, a former history teacher, inquired about local black cemeteries. So, off we went to the Laurel Grove Cemetery South, which was/is a cemetery for African Americans. Even in death, there is segregation. We found a number of interesting headstones, some of free people, and some of slaves. From there we went to lunch at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House. Uncle Bubba is the brother of Paula Deen (of The Lady and Sons and the Food Channel). Actually we got there just as lunch hours were ending, but we “rapped” to them and they served us a delicious, but nothing fancy, lunch. (What would you expect from a place named Uncle Bubba?) Jesse recommends the gumbo. Almost as good as his:-). After a brief stop at Fort Pulaski, we went on to the beach at Tybee Island for a while to wrap up a good day.

Other than planting some flowers to add some color to the place, we didn’t do too much else. We missed the sidewalk (chalk) art show at Forsyth Park, but it was just as well. We heard that it was very crowded. Jo went over to see the art work on Sunday though. We understand there were hundreds of people doing art. So here is just a sample of their work.

It is still well with us and we’ll keep on rolling along. We leave you all with a good vibe, and we’ll see you in 2 short months.

Peace and love.

JoAnn and Jesse

P.S. Our door is still open. We're waiting for YOU. Just give us a call at 912-925-3074 to make reservations.