Dandelions and Daydreams

Every little town across the United States has its own unique, and often surprising, history. The little town I called home as a kid never seemed like much of a happening place, but quiet little Toccoa, Georgia was the birthplace of Paul Anderson (an Olympic powerlifter during the 1950’s), the home to James Brown the King of Soul (He was actually a janitor at the local high school before he was the King of Soul), the residence of Doc Tommy Scott owner of the last old-timey medicine show and the last living member of the original Grand Ole’ Opry.

I think the greatest contribution that Toccoa made to American history came from a place under the unassuming name, Camp Toccoa. It was at Camp Toccoa, in World War II, that the very first Army paratroopers learned how to jump out of airplanes and go fight for freedom.

The funny thing is that this huge piece of history was ignored until a guy named Tom Hanks decided to make an HBO movie series called Band of Brothers.

Surprising history goes beyond just a town. Most families have some sort of surprising history. I’ll even say that most lives have some sort of surprising history when you learned that you have more strength than you ever thought you could have.

What’s the surprising history in your town? What’s the surprising history in your family? What’s the surprising history in your life?

Backyard Clean up

Creed by Steve Turner

Periwinkle Farm

Carnival of Christian Women–February 1, 2008

Tags: Band of Brothers, Camp Toccoa, Paul Anderson, Toccoa Georgia, World War II

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 8:56 am and is filed under Travel & Adventure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.