The fairy godmother's and I took a little tour with my Momma while in Memphis. It was hilarious. I seriously could NOT stop back seat driving. Looking back it's funny annoying to see how much I tried to control EVERYTHING. When I get stressed or sad I lash out with over planning, over pointing, over suggesting, over annoying, over wineing, over whining and just not taking enough time to breath. I'm a planner. I think I need to plan for everyone. I don't. Thank the Lord. Let me repeat it for myself, I don't have to plan for everyone. Wish I had said that BEFORE this trip. Lordy. Thank goodness my people still love me. We had a wee bit of trouble sleeping. The first night the sound of the train, comin down the tracks, was charming as all get out. By night three none of us slept and it was pure, ever living torture. Seriously. Like a bad drip in a faucet. There were too many of us to stay at family homes, and we all wanted to be together, but lord love a duck. I'm glad the not sleeping part our our visit is long gone.
During the tour of Memphi Momma drove us past the Tayloe Paper Co. It's kind of our tradition.
This time there was a new fire escape on the south wall. I wish I could find photos of me pointing up to the sign. I know there are a few. What the hell did I do with all of my old photos? They are stored in a bunch of different places. Does anyone have a photo storage solution for this picture junkie? What is your favorite way to store photos? This blog has been my photo album of sorts. God forbid something were to happen to Blogger or Google starts charging more to store. Knock on keyboard! Eeeck. I digress.
We took our classic photo outside of the building...looking like an LSU float...we are Ole Miss fans for heavens sake. Immediately afterwards, a resident of these new condos rolled into the parking lot. If you can imagine, I asked the woman if she lived in the building...and then geeked out telling her that my mother's grandfather started the paper company that was originally in the building. She asked if we wanted to see the lobby and opened the door for us.
Once inside the lobby we met the nicest woman named Kelly. Kelly, if you read this for some strange and wonderful twist of social media fate, thank you so much! I geeked out and told Kelly about the family connection and she geeked out right back and gave us a full tour of the building. I just love strangers! She had even done research and knew that Grandfather Tayloe's sister was the first woman governor of Wyoming.
I'm convinced my love of paper comes from my great grandfather owning this paper company. Momma said he would be flipping in his grave from the amount of paper that we used at my wedding. Her own father, who also worked there, used every side of every piece of paper in his home. The process in which to make paper is so precious that he knew it and respected it in every piece.
Sleep deprived and still laughing are godmother Candy, Momma and godmother Mary T.
Kelly took us to the basement, with her precious dog, to show us where the ramp to move the paper is still intact.
She even gave us a tour of her apartment and apologized for it being messy. What a champ! It looked great to me.
Then she showed us the door to the roof deck and was off to walk her dog.
I've been to Memphis a zillion times but this was the first time I'd ever seen it from this perspective.
I've always loved this rusted out bridge over the Mississippi River.
Memphis was named for the city in Egypt and the pyramid was added to the skyline in 1991. It was the best tour of the city I'd ever been on.
Thank you so much Kelly! You made this very sad trip so special.
