Cabbage Patch Kids celebrate 35 years in Georgia

Forty years ago, art student Xavier Roberts began experimenting with clay sculpture, “needle molding” and quilting techniques taught to him by his mother to produce a soft doll that resembled a baby. He called them “The Little People” and sold them at regional craft fairs, where he explained to buyers that he found them in a Cabbage Patch. He passed on instructions when he sold the Little People that those who “adopted” them had to be good parents.

The Little People were later sold in retail shops, each coming with a birth certificate and adoption papers. Then Roberts granted a licensing agreement to Coleco Industries of Hartford, Connecticut, in which Coleco would use the trademark “Cabbage Patch Kids.” In 1983, Coleco’s toy version of the Cabbage Patch Kids was introduced to the public.

To say these adoptive dolls took off would be a grave understatement. The Cabbage Patch Kids became the best-selling baby doll of all time, causing chaos during the holidays as parents stormed retail stores trying to buy the last one. Over the years, more than 140 million “adoptions” of Cabbage Patch Kids have been made worldwide.

If you think the Cabbage Patch Kids craze has lessen over time, here’s something to ponder. About 250,000 visitors come to Cleveland, Georgia, every year where at the BabyLand General Hospital new Cabbage Patch Kids are born. Visitors can visit the hospital for free and enjoy the store and this Saturday, Sept. 8, Original Appalachian Artworks (Roberts original company) and Wicked Cool Toys (the current licensee) are celebrating the birthday of the Cabbage Patch Kids. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., there will be free activities for children and free cupcakes and ice cream while they last. Prizes will be awarded all day and the grand prize will be a one-of-a-kind soft sculpture Little Person signed by Xavier Roberts, commemorating 40 years of delivering babies.

Want to experience the World of Cabbage Patch Kids and BabyLand General? Check out this video.

Weird, Wacky and WIld South is written by travel and food writer Chere Dastugue Coen.

Cool off in Cave Spring, Georgia — and enjoy the history, food and shops of this quaint town

Cedar Creek in Rolater Park

There’s a reason for the name Cave Spring, Georgia. In this tiny hamlet 16 miles south of Rome lies a cave with — you guessed it — a lovely spring pouring forth. The Creek and Cherokee tribes were attracted to Cave Spring for its delicious waters, which later lured in European settlement (much to the detriment of the tribes). Today, the quaint town tempts tourists with its boutiques, antique shops, bed and breakfasts and restaurants.

If the weather’s hot, you can slip into one of the largest swimming holes in the state. Spring-fed waters pour into a stream that feeds a 1.5-acre swimming lake that's available for visitors and residents alike. And you can bring jugs to the spring-fed Cedar Creek and fill them up with that pure water or visit the cave the gave the town its name. The spring offers 2 million gallons of mineral water a day.

 

Home of Avery Vann

Historic buildings abound, including the 1838 Hearn Academy, the Hearn Inn and the 1851 Cave Springs Baptist Church, all situated in Rolater Park (where the cave is located as well). There’s also the old Georgia School for the Deaf and the two-story log cabin that belonged to Cherokee Avery Vann.

For those who love a little scare, some of these structures are reported to be haunted, including the School for the Deaf and the Cave Spring General Store, the latter of which has a very strange story. Even the cave is said to still be occupied by invisible entities. For a story about ghostly experiences in Cave Spring, plus some eerie photos, visit the Haunted Deep South blog.

This weekend (June 9-10, 2018) is the Cave Spring Arts Festival, with artwork for sale in Rolater Park. While you're there, be sure and visit Linda Marie's Steakhouse on the square, a delightful restaurant that serves up delicious food — it's popular with the locals so you know it's good — in an historic building.

Linda Marie at Linda Marie's Steakhouse

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by food and travel writer Chere Dastugue Coen who loves caves, good Southern food and a lively ghost story. Cave Spring had it all.

Bury me with a spirit jug: viewing African American art, culture and history at the Tubman Museum in Macon, Georgia

Spirit jugs were used by African Americans to honor members of the family after they passed. The jug was plastered and then crusted with items belonging to the deceased person or persons. This jug (left) was created in the 1920s in South Georgia and is on display at the Tubman Museum in Macon. Once decorated, spirit jugs were used at gravesites or kept in the house to remember loved ones. It's believed the custom of spirit jugs is rooted in West African charm traditions.

The Tubman Museum in Macon is the Southeast's largest museum dedicated to the art, history and culture of African Americans. It has more than 7000 items, many on display, including items from the Jim Crow area, Macon's African American leaders, a quilt display and an exhibit on Harriett Tubman, for whom the museum is named.

Other exhibits include "King of Soul: Otis Redding in Photographs," "Untold Stories: Macon's African American History," "The World of Mr. Imagination," "From Africa to America," "From the Minds of African Americans" and "Black Artists of Georgia."

One of my favorite pieces in the of Georgia African American artist exhibit was this mixed media artwork, below, created by Amalia Amaki, titled "I'd Rather Two-Step Than Waltz." Her work often starts with stereotypical images of African Americans but Amaki uses "buttons and other found objects to transform these images into objects of power," according to the artist's note. This piece includes buttons, postcards, photographs and images of flowers.

The Tubman Museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is $10 adults, $6 children ages 3-17 and $8 for AAA and AARP members, seniors, military personnel and educators.

Below are more photographs from the Tubman Museum.

I'd Rather Two-Step Than Waltz

Little Richard's piano

Harriett Tubman

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by travel writer Chere Dastugue Coen.

Cheering for beer this month in Roswell, Georgia

Photo courtesy of Visit Roswell GA CVB

We love craft breweries, especially ones sporting creative names. Here are a few we discovered in Roswell, Georgia, with some fun events coming up this month:

Abbey of the Holy Goats

Kathy Davis owns this small craft brewery, a product that resulted after years of pondering whether to own a goat farm or brew beers. Guess which won? Davis and her beers with names such as The Lazy Goat and Ghost of the First Order have nabbed accolades at brewing competitions, including second place in Georgia State University’s Business Plan Competition.

Abbey of the Holy Goats will celebrate its first anniversary from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Feb. 14 with a beer and chocolate pairing. Taproom Only releases include a Coffee & Chocolate Chevre Noir, a Cherry Chocolate Red Strong and a Licorice Brown Ale.

Gate City Brewing Company

Another brewery with a birthday is Gate City, which will celebrate its third anniversary with a “Birthday Weekend” Feb 9-11 with nightly bands, food on-site, special release packaged beers and anniversary tees and glassware. Entry is free.

Other upcoming events at Gate City include:

Mardi Gras (Tuesday, Feb. 13), a New Orleans-style 7-piece jazz band performs and Big Easy dishes will be served.

Valentines Dinner on Feb. 14 featuring a four-course dinner with your choice of beer or wine pairings. Call to book reservations at (770) 910-9799.

From the Earth Brewing Company 

This craft establishment is the baby on the block, opening in November, 2017. But they haven’t wasted time. Beer Guys Radio voted From the Earth Brewing 2017’s Best New Brewpub in Georgia. And they offer live music every Thursday in February.

Variant Brewing Company 

This craft brewery was also recognized by Beer Guys Radio with five awards, including third place for Best Overall Brewery. Variant also took the People’s Choice Award for their Midmorning Imperial Stout at the Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting. Variant will host a Super Bowl party starting at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4. Visit the website for additional details.

And if that’s not enough to make you want to haul off to Roswell, the Sixth Annual Roswell Beer Festival will be Saturday, March 24, in the Historic Town Square. All proceeds help the STAR House Foundation, providing after-school tutoring and mentoring programs for at-risk children throughout North Fulton County. 

The Roswell Beer Festival begins at 2 p.m. and ends at 6 p.m. and there will be more than 300 varieties of beer as well as food and music.

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by award-winning travel and food writer Chere Dastugue Coen, who loves every kind of Southern spirit. 

Berry College: 14 acres to every student

Who would imagine that a college with 2100 students would exist on the world’s largest campus. That’s 14 acres to every student.

Berry College outside of Rome, Georgia, sits upon 27,000 acres — that’s two times larger than Manhattan. The Christian school also contains the largest mill wheel (circa 1930) at 42 feet in diameter and still used to grind corn on special occasions. There’s also 88 miles of trails, including the three-mile Viking Trail that’s popular with hikers and bikers. The campus includes several beautiful chapels, the Gunby Equine College, a working farm, the WinShape Retreat Centre and the Roosevelt Cabin named for Pres. Theodore Roosevelt who dined there in 1910. Travel + Leisure named it one of America’s Most Beautiful College Campuses and on the day we visited, we spotted a bald eagle in the tree canopy. The natural landscape is the reason why “Remember the Titans” and “Sweet Home Alabama” were filmed here.

The liberal arts school was founded by Martha McChesney Berry in 1902 to educate children in the rural South who might not otherwise get an education. She enlisted the support of American celebrities of her time: Henry and Clara Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Charles Dana and Thomas Edison. Visitors can tour the Martha Berry Museum and gardens, also located on campus.

Chere Coen is a travel and food writer who loves strange and unique Southern locations and traditions.

For a child happiness once came in a small metal box — the Lunchbox Museum of Columbus, Georgia

Who can forget those metal containers we hauled off to school, each containing something scrumptious — we hoped, at least — inside? And no matter that it was our lunch we were bringing, filled with nutrients to get us through the school day, it was the outside of those boxes that mattered most.

Those metal lunchboxes are a thing of the past, surpassed by plastic, then soft, safer materials. After all, swinging a metal lunchbox at the schoolyard bully could result in a broken nose and a suspension.

Still, don’t you miss them?

You can relieve your childhood memories at the Lunchbox Museum in Columbus, Georgia, where Allen Woodall has assembled on display around 1,000 lunchboxes of all shapes and sizes and each sporting popular culture icons, among other artwork. There’s the 1935 Mickey Mouse lunchbox, Marvel superheroes, TV shows like Charlie Angels, Scooby Doo and Laugh-In and so much more! 

Nancy Giles (one of my favorite on-air reporters) recently spotlighted the museum on CBS Sunday Morning and explains how the fad began in the 1950s and continued until 1985 when Rambo sealed its fate after some Florida moms felt the metal boxes were weapons of destruction during kid fights.

Click here for the Sunday Morning video.

The Lunchbox Museum, featuring the largest collection of lunchboxes in the world, is located inside the Rivermarket Antique Mall in Columbus.

Check out more photos (courtesy of Visit Columbus) below.

Weird South is written by travel and food writer Chere Dastugue Coen who always loves a weird and unusual place. 

The buried leg of John Bell Hood

Gen. John Bell Hood

Alongside the road in the woods of northwest Georgia lies a grave containing only a leg.

  

It’s a limb left behind by Confederate General John Bell Hood, a Kentucky resident known as a brave but sometimes reckless soldier. He served with Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet in the Civil War, but his left arm was badly wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. He moved south with his troops and was injured again at the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia, this time with a leg wound that needed to be amputated.

The wound was so severe that after the amputation four inches below the hip the surgeon placed his leg in the ambulance so that leg and man would be buried together in the likely event they did not survive.

But Hood did survive and returned to active duty, fighting in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864 and other skirmishes until he was defeated at the Battle of Nashville. Legless and with a useless arm, the general spent the rest of his life working as a cotton broker in Louisiana until he, along with his wife and oldest child, died of yellow fever in New Orleans.

His leg, however, was buried on Sept. 20, 1863, near the Western and Atlantic Railroad Tunnel in what is known as Tunnel Hill, Georgia, just outside the city of Dalton.

If you visit the leg of the Gallant Hood, be sure and walk through the old train tunnel, completed in 1850 and the site of the Great Locomotive Chase. In 1862, several Union Civil War spies stole a locomotive known as the General and headed toward Chattanooga with the aim of damaging the railroad and telegraph lines, therefore cutting off Confederate lines with Atlanta. The Confederates, however, chased them with everything they could get their hands on and stopped the spies before their destination. You can watch the 1956 movie starring Fess Parker to get a more dramatic idea of what went down in Georgia.

The train tunnel, by the way, is rumored to be haunted. Maybe it’s the ghost of John Bell Hood’s leg.

Chere Coen is a travel and food writer who loves weird Southern stories, not to mention a ghost or two.