Highly Illogical!

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Dang it, here we go again! There’s a Vulcan and he doesn’t look anything like Mr. Spock on Star Trek! This morning was a little on the dreary side, complete with some fog and drizzle. But it was still good enough so I could toss my jacket into the back seat and meander through the grounds of Vulcan Park in Birmingham. Not “the Vulcan.” Just plain ol’ Vulcan. The statue of the Roman god of, among other things, forging and iron, Vulcan was created in 1904 for the St. Louis World’s Fair. (I mentioned that the ice cream cone was also invented at that World’s Fair…don’t know if that was because Vulcan wanted a big scoop of rocky road or something…) The statue was built in commemoration of the incredible manufacturing gifts that Birmingham gave to the country and the world. You don’t normally think of the south when you think of iron and metal works. No, that’s stereotypically the “Rust Belt” in northern Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Thanks to the iron and steel made in the city (Sloss Furnaces’ old plant is a national historic landmark now) the statue of Vulcan became the world’s largest iron statue, a record it still holds today, nearly 120 years later. The history of Birmingham the industrial town is on display at the history museum at the park. Along with it, sadly, is the history of the discrimination (I took a photo, which I may show later, of a laundry service truck that said on its side that it cleaned laundry for white people only ) and the civil rights movement. Birmingham is about 100 miles away from the state capital, Montgomery, where governor George Wallace infamously proclaimed, “Segregation now, segregation forever” in one of his inauguration speeches, so the area was a hotbed of civil rights work. After the trip through the museum, which included me putting my size 7 sneaker next to Vulcan’s toe for comparison (top right), it was over to the tower and up the elevator to the observation deck below Vulcan. As you can see (top left) there was only one place to get a good “up” shot at the statue, and that was from the back side. (No, he’s not mooning you, that’s the only way you can see a majority of the statue.) I want to return to this lovely park and get a better view of Birmingham in good, clear weather or in the fall. Even on the overcast day, it was amazing. PHOTOS: *Vulcan’s butt the only way you can see a good portion of the statue while on the observation deck *Vulcan’s foot, with my foot showing a comparison of size *A shot from the ground *The map of the Birmingham area in the walkway, taken from the observation deck on Vulcan tower.