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Loving - The Movie. A beautiful portrayal of a forgotten civil rights story

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Ruth Negga (2 nd from right) stars as Mildred and Joel Edgerton (right) stars as Richard in Jeff Nichols LOVING, a Focus Features release. Credit : Ben Rothstein / Focus Features   Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving grew up in the rural unincorporated town of Central Point, Virginia. They met in high school, spent time together, and eventually, when Mildred became pregnant, decided to marry. But this was the 1950’s and Mildred was African American and Richard was white. Virginia had anti-miscegenation laws which made their marriage illegal. How did these two young people get beyond Jim Crow and fall in love? Well that had a lot to with Central Point VA. Central Point was and is still a very rural area. At a distance of about 90 miles south east from Washington DC it was community with a history of poor farmers, black and white, ignoring the rules of segregation, living together. According to a 2012 article in the Washington Post , Central Point and Caroline Count...
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Visit the towns that inspired Hitchcock's movie The Birds

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Bodega, CA   For any fan of Alfred Hitchcock, a trip to Sonoma County, California, requires a special day trip. Hitchcock filmed his masterpiece “Birds” in the towns of Bodega and Bodega Bay. So I headed to these two towns on a recent trip.   Bodega Harbor The towns of Bodega and Bodega Bay are named after Spanish explorer Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, who was the first European to sail into its protected harbor in 1775. At the time there were villages Coast Miwok Native Americans. The first Europeans to live in the area, in 1809, were Russians, who settled most of the Pacific coast in the early 1800’s. The Russians left California in 1841, as the profits from traders were declining, and the cost of maintaining the colonies was growing. In 1843 a saw mill was established on the site that would become the town of Bodega. John A. Sutter bought the land in that area from the Russians at around the same time.   Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra by Unknown  The...
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Location: Bodega Bay, CA, USA
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Sonoma Botanical Gardens. Glen Ellen, California

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    I am usually a very open-minded traveler. I enjoy new experiences. I rarely am judgmental about the ways in which different places present themselves. But there are times when the biases I have from living my life in the northeastern United States come through. My visit to the Sonoma Botanical Gardens was one such time.   When I imagine a botanical gardens, I see lush vegetation. Lots of trees, flowers, and manicured lawns. But Sonoma has a Mediterranean climate. It is hot in the summer, and averages less than one inch of rain per month from April through October. Because they are dedicated to bringing the native flora to the forefront, and because they are in California, which is constantly short of rain and ground water, these gardens are just not what I expected. My walk started through open fields that, in August, were mostly brown grass. I walked along the main path, and followed it up hill, toward a stream, with two ponds. Here the plant life changed to trees w...
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Location: 12841 Sonoma Hwy, Glen Ellen, CA 95442, USA
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A Walk Through Historic South Troy, New York

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    The Hudson River Valley is filled with old industrial cities. New York City, Yonkers, Poughkeepsie, and Hudson all have served as manufacturing centers starting in the 18th century. But much of their architectural histories have been taken away by the urban renewal movement that started in the 1960’s. Even Albany has lost a lot of its historical buildings. But there is a city that still holds on to that past - Troy, New York . I first visited Troy when I was still a teacher, as we took several students to visit Russell Sage college in the city. It really grabbed my interest when I visited the Burden iron Works Museum in 2017 (you can read my blog about it here). During a drive through the Troy in 2023, I was struck by how much of the city, especially in the South Troy neighborhood, still had its older buildings, both industrial and residential.Some are in better shape than others, but walking through South Troy can take you back one hundred years or more. My exploration of...
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Location: South Troy, Troy, NY 12180, USA
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