Alabama on 2 Cents Worth a Day!!: Old Alabama Town

This week I went time traveling. I didn't quite make it to the times of dinosaurs or the Roman empire, but to Montgomery, 100 years ago. Now, before you start saying I should get that machine checked, let me tell you, that Old Alabama Town was actually quite fascinating.

Let me introduce to you the cotton gin, which actually has nothing to do with gin and everything with cotton:

And here is the first ever bale of cotton produced in the United States:

Moving on to the printing press:

Closely followed by the old schoolhouse:

Just in case you forgot what not to do in or near a schoolhouse:

The potter is not always in her studio, but she arrived just as we were going to move on. That would have been a shame, because her work is very beautiful & she gave us a demonstration! You should visit Lisa Lenox in person or on Etsy. Her shop is called Bottletree Pottery.

We also learned the story behind the bottle tree. The bottles serve to trap evil spirits inside, and if you hear the wind whistling on the neck, it is actually a spirit trying to escape. As an added bonus, it looks really beautiful!