Murals of Red Bay

Thursday, 21 February (part II)
On the road to Maxwell AFB Famcamp — Montgomery, Alabama

The Phaeton gulped down 46.5 gallons of diesel for lunch; and we gulped down two PB&J sandwiches at the Pilot/Flying J on the outskirts of Birmingham.  You can bet that at $4.03/gallon (that’s 12¢ off the regular price with our RV Plus Card) Phae’s meal was far more expensive than ours.  Still, this being our only fill-up for February, it’s not bad.

Even better, we won’t be filling up again until mid-March since our move after Montgomery won’t be taking us far.  If we’re lucky, the prices will start dropping again by then … yeah, I know — a pipe dream.  (By the way, for those who track such things, the price we paid today was up from $3.81 when we filled up on January 31.)

I meant to write this in the previous post, but forgot to do so.  The Phaeton is driving like a dream.  Mui says there is a noticeable difference in the way she handles.  So good to see results from the maintenance work that put a dent in our wallet ;-)

We have an easy drive for the rest of the way to Maxwell AFB, so I am going to write a quick post about the murals of Red Bay.

I put off writing this because I had little information about the murals.  I had hoped that a visit to the Red Bay Museum would shed some light on them, but the timing didn’t work.  (The museum is open only Tuesdays and Thursday, and only from 1:30p to 4:00p.)

Some of them are true murals.  That is, they are painted directly on walls.  From the dates on them, I deduced that they were done to celebrate the centennial of the town in 2007.  Both murals were painted by Shawn and Dora Wallace.

The Tiffin Mural highlights the company’s history in this small Northern Alabama town.
Note how the mural goes from Sepia to color with the passage of time.
There are further small details … such as

… the rail tracks that change to …

… paved roads with the advent of motor vehicles.

Even the young man carrying supplies is partially in color to denote modernization.

I had hoped that the museum staff could shed some light on the various scenes that portray the history of Red Bay in the next mural.  If anyone has info, do share.

100 Years in Red Bay

One of the smaller details in the mural needs no explanation.

Other paintings I found in Red Bay are not murals in the strictest sense of the word.  They are not painted directly on a permanent structure, but rather they are hung on the sides of buildings.

Some were not in the greatest shape.  Nonetheless, they were interesting to me because they depicted some of Red Bay’s old stores and shops. Each one had information affixed to the front of the painting; too much to share in this post, but if you want to read the information, click here to go to my online gallery.

I shared the one to the left in an earlier post, but wanted to include it in this one as well.  It was on the side of a bank building and I would have missed it had I not stopped to photograph the Tiffin mural.  It’s one of my favorites.  I like the added detail of the young boy sitting on the barrel, making me wonder what mischief he might get into given the opportunity to do so.

I’m not going to share all of the murals/paintings we found during our meandering walk in town, but here are some of them.

The two narrow ones that are not featured in the collage below:
TD Jackson’s Meat Market and Red Bay Café, Bus Station, and Taxi Stand (next to the bench).

Clockwise from top left: The Style Shop, Red Bay School, White's Five & Ten, Wilson's Ready to Wear.
only the school remains; it burned down in 1967 and was reopened in 1969.

This wall has paintings of the Bay Theater, A.M. Nix Barbeque/Dairy Queen, Red Bay Ice &
Gin Company, and Yarber Grist Mill.  None of these establishments are around today.

Built in 1927, before Red Bay had electricity; some of the first “talking” movies
were shown here.  The building burned down in 2004.

The Yarber Grist Mill opened for business in 1933; located in a tin building in
downtown Red Bay, the mill closed in 1952.

And that’s a wrap for Red Bay.  Just in time, too.  We’ll be in Montgomery in about ½-hour.  We’re debating what, if anything, we will do while we’re at the Maxwell AFB FamCamp this time.  On the one hand, we want to go out and explore all the interesting things the area has to offer.  On the other hand, the whirlwind schedule of Red Bay is catching up to us and doing nothing seems very attractive right now.  I guess time will tell.