Breakfast is over on the Grande Caribe cruise ship. Picking up her Mac laptop computer from her cabin, Lillian Herzberg heads to the ship’s lounge where her husband Ernie sets up a card table. While the Cumberland River flows peacefully outside the lobby windows, Lillian starts working on her newest book – “Escape From Girona.” “I’ve got it all written,” the 85-year-old author said. “I’m just editing it now and then I will turn it in to …
WEST POINT, Miss. – When Melanie Snow was seven years old, her parents bought a deserted Southern mansion that might have sent other youngsters screaming in fright. But for Melanie and her family, it was love at first sight. “I think it was meant for Mom and Dad to have this house,” Snow said, standing on the porch of her beloved home. “Whoever took this house would either have to have a lot of money or a …
COLUMBUS, Miss. – Behind a glass frame on the wall of the Tennessee Williams Home is a treasure that was almost tossed in the trash. Faded with time, the laurel wreath once lay on the famed playwright’s body at his 1983 funeral. “It was saved and given to us by Tennessee Williams’ assistant,” a tour guide said. It seems only right that the funeral wreath is displayed in the home where Williams spent the first three years …
ABOARD THE WILDERNESS EXPLORER — My cabin has a new flat screen TV. The Wilderness Explorer has a big library of DVDs. But I never turned on that TV. No way could it compete with the glorious show that Mother Nature is playing outside the huge windows in my room. Gigantic humpback whales breach not far from my window. Cavorting and cartwheeling, they snort huge sprays of air and seawater as their bodies slap down on the …
Seems like the Blounts of Rhode Island had always been in the oyster business. The family oyster beds flourished. Workers were busy. Eager buyers lined up for the quality shellfish. Life was good. Then came the 1938 hurricane. By the time the winds quit roaring and the seas stopped churning, E.B. Blount & Sons Oyster Company was devastated. Studying at Wentworth College in Boston, son Luther Blount suddenly had no family business to return to. Instead, Luther …
When David Sylvaria graduated from high school, he decided to take a summer job and save money for college that fall. Asking around, the teen found a job at a local ship-building company near his home in Warren, R.I. Sixteen years later, he is still with that company. Only now, that young man is a fleet captain for the business – Blount Small Ship Adventures. “I never did go to college,” Capt. David said with a grin. …
Taken by passenger James Ingle, the photograph shows a quintessential New Orleans scene. A wrought iron balcony, strolling French Quarter visitors and passing motorists combine for a lively photo. But with one click of a button, Joe Restuccia III makes the photograph brighter, more colorful and more concentrated on the balcony. “That’s much better,” James agrees. On our 12-day cruise aboard the Grande Caribe, an extra benefit is a resident photographer. Joe is giving three classes on …
SHILOH, Tenn. – On this lovely spring afternoon, it is hard to believe such a beautiful pastoral place was once a bloody battlefield. Even the name doesn’t suit it. Shiloh means “place of peace” in Hebrew. What happened here was anything but peaceful. On a shore excursion from the Grande Caribe to Shiloh National Military Park, the horrors of war were brought home. “It was the first great battle of the Civil War,” said Shiloh tour …
I’ve been on cruises where they had classes in napkin folding. I learned how to turn a simple dinner napkin into a candle, a fan, a tuxedo or some other fancy shape. I’ve also learned towel art on cruise ships. Cruise directors and cabin attendants would demonstrate how to create an elephant, swan, monkey or numerous other critters out of white bath towels. But a scarf folding class on the Grande Caribe was a first for me. …
The handwritten notes on cheap lined paper gave me chills. Dated Jan. 26, 1947, they are the words scrawled by Hank Williams for his classic, “I Saw the Light.” Then there’s the more-than-half-century-old suit — the one decorated with musical notes on the sleeves — that I’ve seen in so many photographs of the legendary Hank. At the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, visitors come face to face with the greatest names in county music. …
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