Unexpected Gems

One of my meanderings took me into the South end of Memphis, a very cool and generally unimproved neighborhood full of authentic feeling Memphisians (Memphins? Memphisers?). I rounded a corner and saw a building and thought Wow. Where do I recognize that from? (Yes I think in improper grammer) So I walked over that way. The closer I got the more I felt I KNEW that building. The Lorraine Motel. Only when the whole motel front became visible did the memory banks successfully retrieve WHY I knew it. This is the spot where MLK was assassinated in April 1968. How could I have forgotten that took place in Memphis? It looks exactly the same as the photos I have seen of that day. Except those are b/w and this is in glaring turquoise and tangerine color. A simple wreath marks the spot where King fell. The building was converted in the 80's to a Civil Rights Museum. I spent a moment talking to Jacqueline Smith - the last resident of the motel who was evicted. She sits in protest as she has for 20+ years over her eviction from the motel claiming King would not have wanted anyone evicted nor would he have wanted this shrine to him. She told me that despite what I thought as I traversed the neighborhood, that it had undergone significant gentrification and that the poor mostly black residents had been forced out in the intervening years. Kinda sad that creating something that should bring us together only serves to drive a bigger wedge between the haves and havenots.

It is unexpected meetings like that that make me love traveling alone. If I had been with someone else, I would not have been in that neighborhood, might not have been on foot, might not have spied the motel in the distance, probably wouldn't have felt free to just haul off and see what it was and would not have talked to Ms Smith. My life would have remained small.