In travels around the state of Georgia, you find some mighty interesting, historical or just bizarre things, and NOT has been along to witness many of these. Not just the purported Fort Sumter cannonball, but lots of other interesting things.
In downtown Atlanta is a statue of a German Shepherd standing at alert, looking for something.
The statue is to commemorate a project by the American Kennel Club to raise monies for support of search and rescue dogs. Set up in the wake of 9/11, the fund seeks to support these dogs and their handlers.
In Cartersville, the wall of Young's Pharmacy is painted bright red with the Coke logo. This is a restoration of what was the nation's first outdoor Coca-Cola advertisement, painted in 1894.
Rome, Georgia has been famous for it's metalwork, machines and plow heads. In front of city hall is another famous item: in 1929 a reproduction of the famous Capitoline Wolf. The statue depicts a she-wolf suckling the legendary founders of Rome - Romulus and Remus.
Now naked boys suckling at the teat of a wolf would be enough to fluster southern sensibilities. But there is more.
The statue was a gift of the Roman Governor at the order of Italian Leader Benito Mussolini.
Over the years, the statue has been covered up with a cloth, threatened with dynamiting during World War II (and subsequently removed and stored away for the duration), and has had one of the twins "kidnapped" and a new casting obtained from Italy to replace him.
The plaque reads:
"This statue of the Capitoline Wolf, as a forecast of prosperity and glory, has been sent from ancient Rome to New Rome, during the counsulship of Benito Mussolini, in the year 1929."
Everyone knows of the story of Charles Lindbergh's triumphant solo flight across the Atlantic.
Apparently the great Lucky Lindy first soloed in Americus, GA in 1923, four years before his New York to Paris flight of 1927.
There is no denying that peanuts are a major crop for Georgia, and as such various areas have tried to produce monuments to attest this importance. Jimmy Carter was famous as the peanut farmer turned president.
Several large peanuts vie for the title of the Largest Goober Pea in Georgia. Generally it seems that this peanut in Ashburn, erected in 1975 is the title holder.
Ashburn is also the home of the world's largest peanut shelling plant.
The only other real peanut worth mentioning is the Jimmy Carter peanut in Plains.
Or as Jimmy might say "A duck in hand is worth two of what????"
More to come as it is discovered.