WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

November 7, 2011 Dateline: Seacliff, AL USA

Today was a day of rest for me.  Rich washed me and got most of the dirt off that I accumulated while passing through the last dozen locks. (Personally I don’t think that he can ever get it all off.)  He cleaned the soot from the Caterpillars off my transom.  It sure felt good after a long day’s work to get a nice bath, notice I did not say a hot bath, mine was cold but felt good never-the-less.

The Loop can be done in almost any size boat, although there are some restrictions on the water and air draft a boat can have.  (I learned about the water draft the hard way in the Trent Severn Canal.)  The young gentleman who is doing the Loop in the boat pictured has to worry about neither, but I bet there are a lot of other things he has to worry about---what do you think?  Of course on the positive side he likely did not make a wake going down the Tenn-Tom so didn’t have to be concerned about the wake patrol, I wrote about yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon, Rich, Carol, Wayne and Francine along with Skipper went to the town of Fairhope, AL.  Of course they didn’t take either MY WAY or me with them, so I can only tell you what I heard when they got back.  Coming down the river there is a lot of poverty, in Fairhope there is affluence.  Big expensive newer cars, beautiful well maintained large homes, manicured parks (including a rose garden), classy stores with high price tags and many children getting off of school buses from private schools and wearing their school’s uniform.  The people were all well dressed and there were no heavy southern accents. (See footnote below)

The Single Tax Corporation still owns property today and carries out a real estate business in the downtown.

Like much of this section of the US there was a strong French influence.  The town had a French Quarter and many of the stores had second floor balconies like one would see in New Orleans.

The town got its name when it was formed over 100 years ago because there was a “fair hope of success that it would make it”. 

Footnote:
According to Wikipedia:

“Fairhope was founded in November, 1894 on the site of a former Alabama City as a utopian single tax colony by the "Fairhope Industrial Association": a group of 28 followers of economist Henry George who had incorporated earlier that year in Des Moines, Iowa. Their corporate constitution explained their purpose in founding a new colony:

"to establish and conduct a model community or colony, free from all forms of private monopoly, and to secure to its members therein equality of opportunity, the full reward of individual efforts, and the benefits of co-operation in matters of general concern”

In forming their demonstration project, they pooled their funds to purchase land at "Stapleton's pasture" on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay and then divided it into a number of long-term leaseholds. The corporation paid all governmental taxes from rents paid by the lessees, thus simulating a single-tax. The purpose of the single-tax colony was to eliminate disincentives for productive use of land and thereby retain the value of land for the community.