Redstate

...I'm staying out of this conversation because I don't want to influence this particular discussion one bit.

the Met...the museum is a complete hodge-podge, the visitors are from all over the map, and if the place wasn't interesting enough, you can always just wonder outside and stroll through the park to encounter an entirely different variety of humanity....

been to a gunshow?

They are unique, but I hardly think the represent our nation.

And I don't think they have them in any other country, do they?

I was going to say the Superbowl spectacle, but that example wasn't quite uniquely American enough, as there are (I presume) soccer matches that approach the ceremony.

...4th of July?  Anybody can blow up some fireworks...

...You'll find almost nothing but hard-working, law-abiding uniquely American persons at gun shows.  Lots of veterans, lots of sportsmen.

Perhaps I'm not familiar enough with the work cited to answer properly.

would be that gun shows are not exactly representative gatherings...as I said before..they are unique.

I think High School Football games and Central Park might be more representative.

on Snelling and St. Clair (though I think the name has changed, the people are the same).

That place is American.  There's a real soda fountain where old people hang out and the high school kid gets them coffee for a quarter.  The pharmacists know everyone and people hang out there--and it's a wide cross-section.  Everyone goes out of their way to help each other out.  I love that place.

I moved way out of the neighborhood after college, but I kept schlepping all the way across the Twin Cities to get my prescriptions filled there.  One day, I was laid up with a blinding migraine and they drove my medicine to my house and told me to worry about paying them the next time I came in.

This strikes me as such an appropriate topic to spend a minute thinking about today.  Great diary.

...about the "non-representational" issue after I posted...

...but is "America" just a melting pot?  I don't know about the Met or Central Park ... most major cities have eclectic populations and gathering places...

Now, maybe not high school, but a college football game ... I can see that, except that that's just a sporting event when you boil it down... everywhere has sports stadiums...  Are you saying that because the sport is uniquely American that a football game is representitively American?  Or have I misinterpreted?

game because there really is a different feel there.  It isn't just the game...that is unique in how it is played at that level, but also the crowds, the bands.  

I occasionally go to local games.  The players and students are all hope and possibility, while we old guys just enjoy the environment.  College games are a bit too elite for my taste....too clean, too structured.

The Met is just interesting...one minute you are looking at Egyptian treasures next to punk rocker, and the next you are looking at a piece of armor from the 16th century next to a little old lady from Des Moines.

America to me is-

Wichita Falls, TX

Jacksonville, AR

Mount Ida, AR

Grand Forks, ND

Aurora, NE,

Chandler, AZ

Altus, OK

Charleston, SC

O'Fallon, IL

Prattville, AL

Gig Harbor, WA

Sulphur Springs, AR

Merkel, TX

All these places hold something uniquely American for me.  Whether I lived there for a time or left a piece of my heart there, it's all American.  And when I travel abroad, I long to come back to all of it.

Traveling with my family this summer, we left the Puget Sound, crossed over the Cascades, drove under the Big Sky of Montana, across the Dakota prairie to the once raging waters of the Red River.  Then we came back through the Badlands, gazed in awe at the wonder that is Mount Rushmore, traversed Wyoming to enter Teddy Roosevelt's beloved Yellowstone and made our final stop along the banks of the west fork of the Bitterroot river.  Everyday left me thinking there could be nothing more beautiful than what I had just seen.  But the morning always provided a new piece of the fabric that is America in all her splendor.

To be sure, the cities of Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, New Orleans, DC, Denver, St. Louis, and Philadelphia have all left their own mark of America on me as well.  As has the emerald coast of Florida, the beaches of the Carolina lowcountry, the Poconos in the fall, the Appalachians in the spring, and the cliffs along California Highway 1.

But the one thing that will always be America to me, no matter where I roam, is a collection of 50 stars and 13 stripes woven in the colors of red, white, and blue.  It has draped the coffins of more than one I love and it always stands as a beacon of hope no matter how dark the time.

Old Glory is America to me, above all else.  

"Wall Drug is not culturally, spiritually nor intellectually enriching, but hey... it's kinda fun and you'll never forget it."

I've gone to nearly every one for 40 years and nowadays I get tears in my eyes a dozen times a day.

It's like a mini reunion of old friends who knew you when...  The VFW, ball teams, Old Ladies' Club, churches, boy scouts, etc. all make up simple floats with what they have (we're not talking roses, here).  Everyone with a good looking tractor drives it (except my husband, who won't bring his out of the hayfield, sigh).  There are hundreds of horseback riders, horses and buggies, mules, antique cars, little kids on bicycles, kids leading their fair entries, "you know what kind of men" on hopped up lawn mowers (there is a just for fun tractor pull that includes lawn mowers in it, no kidding), young girls twirling batons, all the fire trucks we own, and anything else someone wants to show up in and walk (or ride) down Main Street.  The whole thing is led by 4 servicemen carrying the flags (actually, they follow the lead police car.)

The town claims about 2,000 people inside the city limits, but on that day, we swell to around 30,000.  Everyone for miles around comes, watches the parade, eats hot dogs and snow cones from the fundraising stands all over town, plays in the pancake races, watches the turtle races (we start looking for a good fast turtle several days in advance), tours the old school house, etc.  We have a committee that works up about 10 different activities for the day, which is capped by a beautiful fireworks show in a field outside town at dark.  It wouldn't be any show at all by NYC standards, but we love it and thousands and thousands of us drive 20 or 30 miles to join in the fun.  And many others come home from hundreds of miles away, as it's a good day to have family get togethers as well.

Small towns are not growing, thriving places very much anymore, but on that day, all the stops come out, and the joy of being an American, in a free country, is on full display.   Everyone is wearing red, white, and blue, there are lawn chairs and picnics everywhere, and the parks are full.

I just wish I could post you some pictures.

Home.

For anyone who has lived in one place in America for a long time, long enough to consider that place home, America and home can become interchangeable.

Other than the several years I have spent abroad, I have lived my life within a radius of 25 miles of my original home.  Each time I have come home, I have felt a surge of patriotism and an appreciation for America and all that she stands for.

America is my home and returning to her feels like being wrapped in a warm blanket on a wintry day.

in no particular order

The Amish living peacefully in their way

A smoke filled dinner on busy street filled with calloused hands

A tractor trailer passing a VW beetle at 75 in the middle of the night along 95

A USO bus in a hot Florida city windows open

A bicycle all decked out in red white and blue on the fourth with a girl's large smile

A bum helped in from cold by a child who noticed

Volunteers signing up to help

The patience of visitors to our national treasures hot with child hanging on them in awe of it all

the salvation army taking a family lost for a moment and helping them along

A tall church steeple on a dirt road with little sign of anything else

A V8 engine with four barrel and no muffler filled with a bunch of kids looking cool going too fast

A worker staying late to tutor another

Stuckey's surprise packages promised to the kids to keep them quiet till the next destination

A big MAC, KFC, Dunkin donuts, drive throughs

Cruising a Big Boys

Friday dances where you only stood and the girls danced

Revving the engine and racing off the line as the light changes

April 15th lines

let me stop...

One more, drinking water in Wall Drug or South of the Border lol

Ohio.

The entire state.

No question about it.

I think it has something to do with when Ohio was first settled in earnest  -- in the late 1700s and early 1800s, in large part by veterans of our War of Independence. There is something simple and honest and earnest about Ohio's patriotism, just a goodwill towards one's countrymen that comes from living that original line -- we must hang together, or surely we shall hang separately.

It is here, in the first state wholly beyond the Appalachians, the first new frontier, that the stamp of what is 'American' is purest.

It is an America that is generous -- giving and forgiving. It is an America that is strong -- enduring and steadfast. It is an America that is one -- many threads woven into one strong canvas. It is an America that is humble -- before God and before Man alike. It is an America that prevails -- in any endeavor where it has chosen to do so.

And much of those virtues can be seen in things like the Wright Brothers' conquest of the skies, the conscience and courage of individual Ohioans along the Underground Railroad and more presidents and generals than you can shake a stick at.

These are nice accomplishments, nuggets from the gold mine of Ohio history. But what makes Ohio special are the people, who in my experience have been genial and forthright, helpful and hardworking, respectful of others and reverent to God.

It's a mint-condition America you'll find in Ohio.

NASCAR.

It is a sport that truly was fully developed in the US-didn't pull from some other sport-it didn't even start out as a sport, it started out as a way for the moonshiners and bootleggers to get away from the cops.

I have been to a few races, and while you would think everyone there is all about rednecks, the reality is that some of the hardest tickets to get in NASCAR are in places that aren't the South, and aren't typically populated by rednecks.

There really is a huge variety of people who love NASCAR, and unlike other sports, NASCAR is very much about God and Country in a way you don't often see at other sporting events.

In no particular order, both past and present,

Camp Bonifas

Camp Casey

Camp Hovey

Camp Liberty Bell

Patton Barracks

McNair Barracks

Observation Post Ouelette

Hof Barracks

Forward Operating Base Anaconda

Forward Operating Base Liberty

Forward Operating Base Danger

Forward Operating Base Warrior

Forward Operating Base Salerno

Forward Operating Base Rhino

And dozens of other installations that are uniquely American in presence, people (the American soldier), and purpose (defending the freedom of others without desire for territorial gain

Man, that so chaps my hide that people think of racing as an entertainment for hicks.

My dad was a racecar mechanic. He owned a shop that specialized in working on cars of serious amateur and semipro racers. He even had a a souped-up Dodge Challenger that he'd take out on the GT1 circuit. I spent more weekends than I can count and more of my hearing than I care to think about growing up at the racetrack.

Oh, and there was what else my dad was -- he used to be a real estate developer before deciding to go with his first true love -- fixin' and racin' cars.

Running for supplies, swapping parts with other teams, just hanging out chewing the fat, checking out the styles and capabilities of the cars (when young) and the girls (when young, but old enough to appreciate their engineering). Oh, those were the days. :)

I am from the South, one would hardly label me or my family rednecks (my dad was an optometrist, hardly a redneck proffession).

Many of the drivers and race team members are from all across the country, and they all do the job, because they love the sport.

And now I get to spend the next ten weeks hoping Mark Martin might finally get his cup championship (but that is slightly off topic).

Cars are the one thing that is truly American, it is for most boys their first love as my 55 Chevy was for me. And my Nascar brothers live and die the races each week - all Philly born. Anyone who has not filed and adjusted breaker points has not lived.  

Ultimately, I'm a Rusty fan. :)

I had to look that up -- that's old school.

Oldest car I ever had was a '79. :)

Just off the top of my head, in no particular order:

1. Inside the Statue of Liberty, ascending the narrow spiral staircase as part of a throng of people from every point of the compass in  Americana and beyond, in the 98-degree summer heat.  I took the long climb to the crown up those winding stairs inside the hollow statue in order to peer out at the New York harbor and skyline, wearing my Cub Scout uniform  -- pausing every few feet to tug at my dad's belt loop for extra security and to pepper him with questions.  I was seven years old, and to this day remember almost every step, every sound, the bewildering variety of people and languages, from Japanese tourists with Nikons to Puerto-Rican immigrants and everything in between.  And, of course, the stunning vista of the New York City skyline with the World Trade Center buildings towering over the southern tip of Manhattan, like two colossal exclamation points to the Spirit of America.
   
2. Race day after a big rainstorm, in the mud, at Big Berm motocross track, with my entire family and my uncle's family, as part of a race sponsored by the Middle Atlantic Motocross Association.  Scores of trailers and hundreds of families camped out around the track, everyone barbecuing and getting ready for their motos, the smell of two-stroke oil in the air and the sound of MX bikes slogging through the knee-deep mud like drowning hornets.  Stripping to your underwear and hosing off the mud after your moto, and everyone offering to lend each other supplies, shairng potluck suppers, tools, parts, etc.  Sleeping in the trailers to the firelight and smell of citronella after spraying deep-woods Off! from head to toe to keep out the mosquitos while the parents lounge outside in lawn chairs, talking late into the night over beers and hors d'oeuvres and fresh Maryland crab.

There are many others, of course, but those are two of my personal favorites.

Are you an advertisement?

If not, you might consider it. That was pretty good.

I'm glad I could do the stair, while it was still possible.

Likewise the observation platform of the WTC.

This is a very good question.  Every answer given will be an expression of what each of us most loves about the US, and every answer will be correct.

In terms of coming closest to the culture, nature, and ideals of the beginnings of this country, I'd say Vermont is the most purely American place around these days.

In terms of unabashed and unaffected patriotism and love of country, the town I live in now is, in my personal experience, the hands down winner.  Pure democracy here, too, the town's been run by annual town meeting since 1648.  That, and the excellent deli around the corner, are my favorite things about the town.

Ellis Island and the immigrant neighborhoods in NYC capture, for me, the American tradition of offering a generous welcome to those who want to come here, make their way, and become participants in our way of life.  My grandmother's name is recorded on a placque at Ellis.

The places that hold the greatest resonance for me in terms of regular, down to earth folks living their lives -- happily, blessedly quotidian America -- are the area around Statesboro GA where my father grew up, and rural Monroe county in southern IN, where a good friend of mine lives.  

Statesboro's actually gotten kind of big, but when I was kid it was still a place where you could buy some sweet cane for a few cents.  Split it and suck the sugar out.  Who needs candy?  And, if you ever have a chance to hang in Monroe County when the morels are in season, you're in for some good eating if you know where to look.  Not a lot of work around there, but there's always lots to do.

Cheers -

nuff said

Insurance. :)

At least that's what I think of when someone says "I love America"... especially when that someone is me.

The thing is, this country is just so big that I don't think any place can really be the most American. Even, uh, gun shows. ;)

But for me, the most "American" place in the country is the Castro in San Francisco. It's the place I feel proudest to be an American, anyway: you have a previously oppressed people who came to the city to live freely and openly, without anyone telling them what to do. You have an extensive, neighborly social infrastructure of people helping each other out. You have people who are profoundly proud of their stake in the American dream and have turned a dodgy neighborhood into a beautifully maintained and restored series of homes.

...at the top of the WTC freaked me out. It was like you were on the edge of the building. And once you started circumnavigating it, they wouldn't let you go back, so you had a lot of scared people clinging to the interior wall.

It was windy.

And cold.

It was a fast lap. :)

You gave nearly an identical response to what I would have given.  

Americanism is that pursuit of happiness within the safety of freedom She provides.  It is the almost limitless collective of 'little things' that makes America so great.  Americanism is a flourishing life, an almost un-spoken kinship of her people, the freedom to work hard and to prosper.  She is compassionate to those in need. She is the remembrance of those who fought and spilled their blood for her.

America to me is a dusty dirt road in Oklahoma and a homestead carved and cultivated from the Great Plains.  My grandfather remembered this road as he fought to survive in a Nazi concentration camp for nearly a year.  And it is the same road I travelled after returning from the Navy. It is the road that lead back to family and neighbor, opportunity and apple pie.

Got completely freaked out on the escalator that ran along the exterior wall up to the enclosed obs. deck (the one with all the exhibits.)  You were about a foot from the windows, and she's always had a biiiiiig problem with escalators (esp. "Up" escalators -- she tells me she feels like there's a "big spring" attached to her back that's going to yank her off the escalator), and after the elevator ride wasn't in much of a mood to ride that thing.  The big central elevators of the WTC now evoke the Space Elevator, at least to me.  Ditto those in the Sears Tower -- they MOVE.

The first thing that came to my mind is what it means to be an American city. Is it a city that has American sports or some other American institutions?

Just having a historical landmark doesn't seem to cut it. Places like Washington D.C. aren't very special when you ignore all the government infrastructure. This also eliminates places like Mount Rushmore. Even though you will not find busts of American Fathers carved in the side of a mountain anywhere else in the world, that doesn't say much about the character of the place.

Is this most American city a place that you cannot visit except for  in America? That includes almost every city though. Or is it a place that needed to be in America for it to ever exist -- that the American experience and character was necessary for its formation?

I've got two answers for you, each for a different perspective.

Odessa, Texas, (some of you probably alredy know where this is going) was first a camp formed by young railway workers, mostly Irish and Chinese immigrants, who were attracted by sky high wages. The railway was being built by infamous railroad investor Jay Gould. Nobody would ever accused Gould of not having enough faith in himself. Gould and his partner took on Vanderbuilt in a takeover of the Ernie Railroad, which they proceded to raid and canibalize. Grould was later found to have manipulated Ernie's stock price. Gould was also close with Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall which earned him a spot in famous political catoons of Thomas Nast, and Nast himself is an essential part of Americana. Gould appears a number of time in American history, and rarely in a good way. Odessa's big population boom came when oil as discovered in the Permian basin. This moved the city from a cattle shipping center to one in which oil was the main commodity. Most recently however, Odessa has become famous for its dedication to high school football. Permian high school was immortalized in the book and later film "Friday Night Lights." And there isn't much more American than high school football played under the lights of the 20,000 capacity Ratliff Stadium. The entire city of Odessa only has a population of 90,000. If Ratliff were ranked among division I-AA college football stadiums it would be in the top 30 of 108. Even the name is American in its own way: Odessa is borrowed from a city by the same name in the Ukraine. From robber barons to oil to high school football, its hard to find a city that could not be more tied to America than Odessa.

San Francisco seems a very American city in a modern sense. While it had a similar start to Odessa in the gold rush and had its share of American icons too, such as Mark Twain, today San Francisco comes to represent the blend of American and non-American than is the one of the best parts of this country. You can find about any ethnic group in the Bay Area, some integrated some not. You can find about any type of food, music, or porn you want. Plus you will find professional football, two baseball teams, and now even college football mania with Cal. Even San Francisco isn't immune to American compulsion of sports. And right next to that you can find an Anarchists versus Communists soccer game in the socialist soccer league (no joke). Sure SF looks like many different cities around the world, but thay aren't all in the same place.

Part of America is diversity, and it is obviously hard to pick a representative of diversity. The dKos answers all seem to suck, and there is the usual group that use any opportunity to create political attacks and condemn America.

For better and for worse.

of little league, on a cool Saturday afternoon in Spring in upstate New York with the flags waving amidst the cornfields, hot dogs on the grill, the volunteer umpire putting on his mask, and a gang of 7 year olds running out onto a tiny field getting ready to play America's game for the first time.

Today's heartland of America.

People move from the city to the frontier, the wide open spaces, to start new and to make a better life for their families. They leave the crime, the city politics, and everything about the city behind to move out. A new start. A new beginning.

The ties with the city are cut - except for the Sports teams. High school football is a big event, and draws thousands each week.

The opening day of Deer season is still a big day in the exurbs. It is a conservative area, although there are tensions here between old timers and the newcomers.

Eventually the old exurbs become suburbs, become more liberal....and the whole process starts over again when there is more expansion to get away from the new surburbs.

in my old 74 Datsun.  The distributor was a little off and about every month or so, it would start running so doggy that I knew it was time to set the points.

The first 20 or 30 times, I used feeler gauges, but then figured out that I could get close enough for several weeks running just with my eyes, and it was lots faster.

As long as I'm on it, I don't believe anyone ought to learn to drive on an automatic.  It's tough to get really good with a stick unless you start on one.  Fortunately, I got enough tractor experience that I passed my drivers test in a stick shift, having never driven on public roads before.  Ahhhh, the glory of that day.

(no Alaska or Hawaii yet) and there are many quintessential American places: the small towns of New England with their bright white church steeples and maple syrup shops; Manhattan and its skyscapers and high energy crowds of people everywhere; the endless corn fields in the Midwest and its dour but practical people; the charming towns of the South, a little run down often, but with a spirit of hospitality and patriotism that is warms the heart; the rugged landscapes and raw individualism of the West; the redwoods and even the new age weirdness of California and the Northwest. It's all America and I love all of it.

Most of the people from the Midwest that I know (myself included) are neither ;)

Walking barefoot down that dusty backroad near my grandma's house as a boy.  Rivulets of sweat creasing our dusty faces as the summer Texas sun beat down upon us.  Coming inside, where the twirling blade of the fan stirred the air, as the window unit fought a losing battle to the outside temperature.  Drinking sun-brewed iced tea from mason jars.

Driving down farm to market roads as tractor combines harvest the snow white cotton, the fields of which span as far as my eyes could see.

Standing in the rotunda of the state capitol building, being dwarfed by the larger than life statues of Stephen Austin and other men who cast giant shadows that caught the imagination of a young boy more than a few years ago.

Slipping out of the pew, with some pretext of the restroom, in my effort to stay awake during the ponderous sermon, and sneaking out to the playground, where old tractor tires and wooden platforms became our forts and battleships.

The most American place I can recall are those places where I was safe and secure, where my idealism was unbridled by the concerns of the world.

in:  

London, England

Paris, France

Munich, Germany

Barcelona, Spain

...

The "MacDo" in Paris has all kinds of weird stuff...Mediterranean wraps and ice-less soda. I went once and never came back.

The one I went to in Beijing had a spicy chicken sandwich that I literally couldn't eat.

Is all these comments are relevent. As cliche as it is, consider that there is no one thing that makes us unique. No other country can really say that. The French can be charcterized. So can the British. While specific African nations aren't well known enough here, they too can be characterized. Same with Asian and South American countries. Here, though, you get all sorts of answers. For example, I could answer your question with Colorado. Downtown Denver is a great example of the melting pot characteristic that isn't seen in any other nation. Office buildings, stores, and malls demonstate our economy and provide a variety of consumer goods, from gorgeous hand-made crafts (other countries have these) to high-tech consumer goods (other nations don't have these). And when I say consumer goods, I mean things WE can take home with us; other nations are too poor for that. Then we move out further to the suburbs - 3-6 bedroom houses complete with yards and cars for everyone. Even in developed Europe, people live in run-down flats or farmhouses. Even further outside of Denver, we can see tourist attractions such as the Rocky Mountains and her ski slopes (along with huge mansions), and small town America, which is pretty well described in previous comments. The best part is, ANY STATE CAN BE USED AS AN EXAMPLE. I can travel anywhere in the US (which is larger than Europe I think) and I will still be in America, not just in name, but also in the whole emotional feel aspect of the term. Sure Colorado expresses a different part America than say New England, but travel between the two and you will still feel like you're home, much more so at least than if the British and French traversed their countries. So I think your question holds the answer: There is no one American place that characterizes us. We are America. If someone else thinks we're primative for who we are then that's fine, let them feel that way if it makes them feel better as a French person.

We had friends living in Bangledesh for two years, about every quarter the family would go to a meeting in (I think it was Thailand, but if not another Asian country in the area).

They said that their kids looked forward to those meetings, because there was a McDonald's in the city, and it reminded them of home.

So McDonald's whether it is in the US or some other country, probably is a little piece of Americana.

I think the most American place I can think of is my local polling place, East Lake Elementary School, an intown school in Southeast Atlanta, on an election day.  

In November 2004, I stood in line with Americans of all different colors, political beliefs, backgrounds, religions, and ages.  We were all there to cast our votes, and we all waited in line patiently on a crisp Autumn morning to do so.  There was a pleasant tension in the air, and people seemed to talk about anything other than politics (although many were wearing stickers that gave made their political leanings apparent).

The school's PTA was having a fund-raiser and selling coffee and breakfast pastries to those waiting in line.  Because voter turnout was higher than expected, and lines were longer as a result, they were doing bang-up business.  School was out for the day, but the classrooms sported patriotic democracy-related school work.  The flag was flying on the flagpole outside.  Despite the wait, there were no complaints.

It was a proud moment for me to be an American.  East Lake is a very racially mixed neighborhood, and it was good to see white and black together, unified in the purpose of selecting our elected leaders.  I realized that I was casting only one vote out of millions, but I felt fortunate to be able to do so.  Although most of the people I voted for lost, I still felt fortunate to be able to vote for the people who would be held accountable for the leadership of our nation for the next four years.

Q - I saw from one concept drawing that the elevator originates from the eastern United States.

Was that an artistic "oops", or have the Liftport guys figured out a way around a basic challenge of the space elevator approach?

At least in the pre-Liftport world, the elevator acts as a geosynchronous satellite that just happens to touch the ground; if it's not right over the equator, it's not going to stay over the same place, or, if it's tied down, it's going to rip to shreds and take out a lot of real estate when it comes down.

But if this outfit's got a way to may Anytown, Anywhere, USA into a spaceport, well, hey. I'm down with that. :)

Although I'm sure it will bring some catcalls, I have to nominate DC.

Sure, the government is a mess.  Don't go to the Capitol or the White House.

Go to the Museum of National History and find the display of items left at the Vietnam Memorial.

You'll find letters from children who never met their fathers, boxes of Marlboros and cans of Milwaukee's Best from survivors, flags from veterans of other wars.

And you'll find one pink triangle that a homosexual group placed at the wall with a caption that tries to turn a place for rememberance into support for a political cause.

Then try standing in front of President Lincoln as he sits in his monument overlooking the reflecting pool.

Try gazing into the eerie faces of the soldiers at the Korean War Memorial at night.

Try reading Thomas Jefferson's words on the walls of his memorial.

followed by:

College Football game at Clemson's Death valley (yes, the gamecock admits this)

In the presence of a jury announcing a not guilty verdict in a Spartanburg, SC courtroom

The Battery in Charleston, SC looking out at Fort Sumter

A Baptist Church in Athens, AL

The Blue Ridge Parkway from Ashville, NC to Knoxville, TN

The Cafe Dumond in New Orleans