through a film guy's eyes

Let me tell you all a story
'bout a man named Jim,
a guy here in Savannah who
had a yarn to spin,
his tale grew longer
as the day grew dim,
and for three and a half hours
we walked along with him.
(smile!)
In case you're wondering,
that poem was composed with
"The Ballad of Jed Clampett"
playing on my mental jukebox.
Why? Who knows!

And just who is this Jim?
Well, he's the almost-50 man
in the glasses, creating his
first-ever walking tour, with
the gracious help of Bonnie Blue,
a superb tour guide for years.
Titled "Savannah Confidential",
the tour primarily covers Jim's
first impressions to his new life,
in his late teens and early 20's,
as a young film student at SCAD,
a new transplant to this seaport,
and an aspiring musician in the
downtown clubs of the mid 1980's
to early 1990's.

The tour began in Monterey Square,
the first square on Bull Street,
north of Forsyth Park.
That was especially nice as this
was Pulaski Day and the square
has the Pulaski Monument!
Was that because Jim is Polish?
No, that wasn't it at all.
It was because he had an unusual
encounter there, on his first day
in town, and had a story to relate
involving a finger and a request.
That's all I'm sayin' 'bout that!

Let's take a tack back to Casimir
Pulaski, shall we?
He was a Polish nobleman who fought here in the famous Siege
of Savannah during the American Revolutionary War.
He died during that battle, but his name has lived on with the monument, the fort in the marshes, a local elementary school, and also here, with Pulaski Square.
Why isn't the monument in the square of the same name?
Who knows? Anyone? Bueller?

Hey, my guess is that he would know that as much as anyone else!
So, is this yet another statue dedicated to the memory of the Pole of Savannah?
Not quite, but as we were making the rounds of houses Jim had inhabited, we came to Wright Square and I snapped this photo.
That's the Gordon Monument, installed over the original gravesite for Tomo-Chi-Chi, whose aura adds
a bit of extra illumination.
How beautiful!

Right place, right time, with my odometer at 204994 back home again.
Thanks, Jim and Bonnie, for the free tour!
Thanks, Brenda and John Mattingly, Jay Sinclair, Joe and Lois Buttner, and others for joining me on this walk down not only Jim's memory lane, but my own as well.
Perhaps next time, Pulaski Day will be a good deal warmer.
(smile)