Southern Gun Show

Over the weekend I visited "the biggest gun show in the southeast" according to my husband. The southeast of what, I have no idea. This was my second trip to a gun show and let me tell you it isn't just guns on display. There are all sorts of things on display at southern gun shows~especially Confederate Memorabilia. I made my first trip to a gun show the second year of our marriage right before we moved to North Carolina. We had come to Alabama for a visit in between moves. We went to the gun show and boy did I learn a lot. I was entertained by the crowd alone and could have cared less about the guns on display and for sale. The coolest thing I saw the first trip was actual Confederate money from the Civil War era that someone had on display. This second trip to the gun show I was not disappointed with what I saw. I told Dave I should have brought a notebook to sit in the corner and record my observations. I was saved by the Army recruiter though as he gave me a plastic "shopping" bag and in it were some nice "join the Army" fliers/brochures that I wrote on instead. *Best thing of the day was the free pen and pencil that came in this bag too.*

I'll just give you a description of the sights I took in at the gun show. (Cameras were not allowed, otherwise I would have had pictures to go along with my blog.) First sighting: "I support Confederate history month" stickers on some of the displays. I have no idea which month is Confederate history month, I was under the impression that most Confederates celebrated their history everyday and it wasn't reserved to just one month of the year. .oO(Why yes I am a "damn Yankee".)

Second Sighting: An aged man, my guess would be 50 or so, who was wearing jeans, black biker style boots, and a brightly colored tie-dye t-shirt with the sleeves cut off which listed "10 Reasons to go to Curry HS" on the back of it. The printing was too small to read the actual reasons, especially on a tie-dyed shirt, but I couldn't help wondering where he found the shirt. I'm hoping it wasn't because he has recently graduated from Curry HS. .oO(Again, yes I am a Yankee.)

Third Sighting: Children barely old enough to walk, some not even that old, at the gun show with dad or grandpa. There was one boy who was fast asleep in his stroller at the gun show. Apparently, this gun thing starts at a young age in Alabama. There are gun cases, nylon type ones, that were embroidered with "my first rifle". .oO(The only people I know who use guns in the north are police men and hunters -- and even some hunters use bows and arrows instead...)

Fourth Sighting: The Alabama State flag...is a big white rectangle with a red "x" across it. Upon seeing it for the first time my statement was "That's it?!" and I started giggling. Compared to Ohio's flag it is pretty simplistic. Dave's comment was "Keep making fun of my people, they're liable to shoot you if you keep it up." .oO(Guess I am a "damn Yankee" ...who better learn how to shut up once in awhile.)

Fifth Sighting: Not "Obama for President" stickers. I saw two different stickers that were of the opinion that Obama should not be President. The most popular one at the show said "Obama-Oshit" and was for sale at every other booth it seemed like. The second one was "No Obama Nation." Well, I guess some southerners just don't like him. I hadn't seen those stickers before so I thought they were interesting. By the way, he is not a Muslim...some people still don't realize that.

Sixth Sighting: Here comes the sheriff and his deputy. I mentioned that there is a lot of Confederate memorabilia on display at the gun shows. Well, there is a lot of old west type memorabilia as well. There were several booths that had a lot of historical gun styles on display and there was one booth that the gentleman operating the booth had dressed up as a sheriff and a deputy. I didn't take too much notice of it until we were walking down one of the aisles and here comes this old west style sheriff and his deputy. The sheriff was at least 6 ft tall, probably taller, so he made a much bigger impression when he was up walking than he did when he was seated at his booth.

Ok, I think that's all I have to share about my gun show experiences this time around. Dave said that when there is a gun show it is the only time you can walk around downtown Birmingham with a rifle and not get stared at. I'm not too sure about that because I sure did a lot of staring, then again I am a Yankee.

Extra Note: This should have been included in an earlier posting about Katie's trip to AL, but I simply forgot. We were in an elevator in a downtown Birmingham parking garage during our visits to various law schools. There were four gentleman, presumably headed to work, in the elevator along with Katie and I. We reach the street level and the door opens, no one moves until Katie and I get off. Katie looks at me and says "You know you're in the South when four men wait for you to get off an elevator." You sure are!