 Hear this… here: EXIT 361 I-95S To I-10w and Highway 17w, in Jacksonville FL "Upcoming is an EXIT to Interstate 10 which if you drove 365 miles west you would come to The Pensacola Navy Base. You can bet that a lot of young ambitious officer candidates from all different backgrounds exit here, drive the 6 hours to the aviator school and become different people. In many ways they become one. By that, I mean their shared experience in the Navy Flight School creates a seminal bonding experience. And you can bet on one other thing too. They wish they were NOT driving to Pensacola. They wish they were flying-- already.  Back in the last years of World War Two, a couple of guys went to Pensacola hoping to be fighter pilots in that war. But they were late so by the time they graduated, the Big Show was over. One was an upwardly mobile middle class Irish guy from near Boston.  His parents wanted the best for him, so they had sent him to Phillips Academy Andover, an elite Prep School that had graduated the likes of both President Bushes, and many titans of industry and politics. The other was the first African American graduate of Navy Flight training school. His parents were penniless Mississippi sharecroppers. They too wanted the best for their brilliant son.  Despite being raised in a cabin with no plumbing or electricity, he had graduated as salutatorian of his segregated Hattiesburg high school, where he met his future wife, Daisy Pearl Nix. After, he got his degree from The Ohio State University, he signed up for Reserve Officer Training and joined the Navy. Both Ohio State and The Navy were largely segregated at the time. That meant Jesse LeRoy Brown was only one of 2 African Americans enlisted in ROTC and only one of seven blacks to graduate that year from Ohio State. It was 1946. After Ohio, Jesse continued flight training at Pensacola US Naval Air Station. The only African American in the program, Jesse anticipated antagonism. But he was pleasantly surprised. White cadets were welcoming.  Ironically, he found it was the black janitors and mess hall staff who were hostile to him. Because naval cadets were not allowed to marry, Jesse Brown and Daisy Nix married in secret. If caught it would mean immediate dismissal. But Daisy moved discreetly to Pensacola.  She found a job and lived off-base discreetly with Jesse rushing to her on his free weekends. In October 1948, Jessie became the first Black to graduate from Navy Flight School which means he became the first African American to earn the Navy’s coveted Wings Of Gold.   Fast Forward to a freezing December day in 1950 over snowbound Korea. Approximately 100,000 Chinese troops had surrounded 15,000 U.S. Marines beside the Chosin Reservoir.  Jessie Brown was now wingman to the Andover grad whose name was Tommy Hudner. The two pilots flew dozens of close support missions. They rolled in and strafed the Red Army to prevent them from overrunning the vastly outnumbered Americans. At some point, Tommy Hudner noticed that Jesse Brown’s plane was trailing fuel. He had been hit. Jessie was going down. Jessie survived the crash. Still to Tommy’s perspective, Jesse was in deep trouble. Jesse’s aircraft started to burn and Tommy could see that Jesse was trapped in the cockpit. Worse, the Chinese Troops were rushing through the woods.  So what does Tommy do? He radios for helicopter help and then crash-lands his own plane.  Desperately he tries to extract Jesse from the cockpit before the fire can consume them both. But it is too late. Jesse cannot extract Jessie and Jesse is losing consciousness.The Helicopter lands and before Jesse dies he says one thing: “Tell Daisy I love her.”  Lieutenant Tom Hudner got out that day and Jesse became the first Naval Officer to die in the Korean War. As for Tommy Hudner, he won the Medal Of Honor for his bravery and received it in a ceremony attended by Jessie’s wife, Daisy Nix.  However Tommy’s bold but dangerous effort to save his wingman received official attention: it was thereafter prohibited to crash your own aircraft in an attempt to save your comrade. Turns out Tommy did not need to do that again. He lived long enough to speak at the commissioning of the first Navy Ship named for an African American Sailor. It was a frigate named for his wingman, The Jesse L. Brown. With no doubt Koreans as well as African Americans in mind, said Tom Hudner of his friend, “Jesse willingly gave his life to tear down barriers to freedom of others.” To this day, Jesse LeRoy Brown’s remains have never been recovered from the North Koreans. #KoreanWar #JesseLeroyBrown #Pensacola #NavalAirStation #Cadets #WingsofGold #ChosinReservoir #ChineseTroops #PensacolaNavalAirStation Jesse Leroy Brown Family 
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 Hear this HERE... along I-95 EXIT 56 southbound; I-95 South, Waterbury Connecticut. Mile 57. "OK Road Crew, now it is time for a Road Test. The Road Test is brought to you by Walmart which yu can see just off the next exit, Exit 56. If you stop into Walmart any time in the next 30 days we will give you a free coffee at the instore Dunkin Donuts.   "Isn't that a DEAL?... Not like the prices in Walmart are not low enough already, right? So tap your Deal Radar icon now!  "Ok. Time for the Road Test. So here now are the Fast Facts. Back in 1945, a former J. C. Penney employee opened his first store in north west Arkansas. Sam Walton’s focus was to sell products at lower prices to get high volume sales, portraying it as a crusade for the consumer. He was able to find lower-cost suppliers than other stores. Sales increased 45 percent in his first year of ownership to $105,000. The lease then expired so Sam opened up a new store on North Main Street in Bentonville, naming it "Walton's Five and Dime”.  By offering always low prices, always, within its first five years, the company expanded to 24 stores in Arkansas. Sam did not expand outside of Arkansas till 1968 -- some 23 years later. Bad Business? Well consider this...  Today, Walmart is the world’s Largest Retailer with 11,000 stores in 27 countries and Growing! It is also the largest employer in the world with over 2 million employees and growing. Each week, over 275 million customers shop at Walmart or its other outlets like Sam’s Clubs. Other superlatives include many environmental initiatives like using wind turbines, biofuel boilers, and solar panels. In fact, it is the biggest commercial producer of solar power in the United States. It is also the biggest seller of organic milk and the biggest buyer of organic cotton in the world. In so doing, it demands that Walmart suppliers cut back on harmful fertilizers. What does it mean to you? Well, the Average American saves nearly $1,000 annually by shopping at Walmart. Plus it has the widest selection of goods and produce, so who does not shop there? Finally, while a lot of Walmart’s inexpensive merchandise is produced in low wage places like China, the management insists over $10 Billion a year goes to US manufacturers and another $250 Billion in purchasing comes strictly from United States based corporations. It even has started societal initiatives to impact its customers in good ways. For instance, in 2011 Walmart announced a program to improve the nutritional value of its store brands, reducing the amount of salt and sugar and completely eliminating trans fat altogether. Oh and Walmart is still a Family Store. The Walton kids and grandkids still own over 50% of the stock.  So what happened to that first Walton Five and Dime in Bentonville? Well, That store is now the Walmart Museum. Now for the Road Test: where did Sam Walton work before he started his own company? You have 3 seconds. Three… and two… and one. If you said JC Penney, you would be correct. #Walmart #SamWalton #Walmart Trucks #Bentonville #JCPenney #LargestRetailer #LargestEmployer #BetterTogether #Alwayslowpricesalways          MILESTONE: Today, we just crossed 246,000 page views for our SINGLE post about Jimi Hendrix and Woodstock. Will RoadSpoke pass a quarter million Views? Stay Tuned! Question: What does Mark Zuckerberg and Latino hip hop group "Cypress Hill" have in common? You choose: Answer #1: Both came from Scarsdale, New York and were the children of dentists? Answer #2: Both headlined at Woodstock 94 — the 25th Anniversary of Woodstock? Answer #3: Both are advocates of the legalization of weed? Answer #4: Both joined over space and time to reach nearly a quarter million viewers on RoadSpoke’ Facebook Page? If you selected Answer 4, you would be correct. Mark Zuckerberg and Cypress Hill both provided generous service for RoadSpoke to reach so many thousands of people without RoadSpoke paying a nickel! While Zuckerberg provided the platform, Cypress Hill no doubt shared the RoadSpoke’s Post and as of today we have … …reached 246,260 people! WOW! Thank you CYPRESS HILL! Thanks Marky Mark!  Hear this…> Here! On Ramp to EXIT 18-8 I-95s: Road 13, To: Switzerland Beaufort, Hilton Head Island, Hardeeville, South Carolina “Believe it or not, America’s first Trade War with China happened almost 400 years ago. It was headquartered in a little obscure river settlement of Purrysburg, South Carolina as well as in world famous Jamestown, Virginia. In the early 1600's, Jamestown the first settlement in Virginia, was originally financed by London investors to start a silk farm. Here too in southern South Carolina, silk worms were the original reason for starting early settlements. Unlike in Jamestown, the experiment nearby worked — albeit briefly.  Once landed near the upcoming Savannah River, Swiss Immigrants were tasked with meticulously planting and tending to the mulberry bushes that their British overlords imported with them. Mulberry leaves are the sole form of sustenance for silkworms. The silkworms -- which are larva to adult silk moths -- spin fuzzy white cocoons which when painstakingly unravelled, become silk.  Silk was originally cultured in China where the silkworm comes from. But in the 1500’s and 1600’s silk was all the rage in Europe. No self respecting lord, lady or aspirational merchant would be caught naked without their silk skivvies, silk pantaloons and sexy silk jerseys. So obviously breaking the Chinese monopoly was forefront in the colonial era investors’ minds.  The investors felt that South Carolina would be the proper climate for cultivating mulberry bushes. But what they did not anticipate here were the snake infested swamps and malaria mosquitos. While this experiment -- as opposed to Jamestown -- did manage to export about a 150 pounds of silk in 1772, the indentured Swiss laborers died by the score. After many stressful seasons, the Swiss abandoned the river farms near Purrysburg and created their new village on high dry ground. A bastion of health and clean living high now on a hill, obviously, it would come to be called Switzerland! Upcoming is the Exit.  What became of the low country the Swiss left behind? Well sadly that became the nexus of a far more successful slave based agrarian commodity. Also no surprise it may have echoes of Chinese culture as well. The Low Country of South Carolina was riven with creeks, black water rivers, and swamps. The semi-tropical environment with seasonal flood plains was ideal for the wholesale cultivation of rice.  To wring out a profit, rice requires Big investment. Vast industrial plantations sprung up. And of course, slaves could not complain about the heat, humidity, disease, and death. Slaves were, after all, expendable. We discuss the hard short life of a slave in the rice plantations at upcoming exits.  Incidentally, if you want to take a back road tour of South Carolina’s Low Country, in addition to Switzerland you can visit communities named Denmark, Norway, and Finland. Linked by roads draped over by ancient Spanish Moss covered Cypress trees, these European-named locales are very easy to visit with a short drive from the upcoming Exit. The Exit leads visitors through the swamps and forests and past the ghosts of the storied Low Country. Meanwhile, Purrysburg too survives... hard along the swamp of the fast approaching Savannah River. But at least today the residents enjoy air-conditioning not to mention mosquito spray… lots and lots of Mosquito spray.” #Jamestown #SwitzerlandSouthCarolina #Silk #Silkroad #ChinaTradeWar    EXIT of the DAY. Hear this… Here! I-95 Northbound. Exit 2, Arch Street, Greenwich CT Like you today, recently we took a little drive. We drove an hour up I-95 from Greenwich, Connecticut, to Westerly, Rhode Island. As RoadSpoke's slogan says: “There’s million stories behind every milepost.” Man, ain’t that the truth! In addition to about 12 opportunities to get discounts on everything from Fast Food to Ferrari's we even offered the opportunity to buy Mel Gibson's Greenwich mansion which is asking $17 million... but we mostly explored a lot of fascinating science, history, and fast facts -- all in bite size Bytes. Between stamford and the Rhode Island border, right where it happened, we explored Taylor Swift’s summer home, hedge funds, frisbees, Nathan Hale at Yale College, super diva Diana Ross, American Impressionist Childe Hassam, Long Tooth the mastodon, blue fish, blue sharks... ...Black Panthers, The Knights of Columbus, AmeriCares, Save the Children, The Coast Guard Academy, Sybil Ludington and her horse Star, author and slave Venture Smith, Yale University, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Hilary Clinton, Bill Clinton, both George Bush’s, Boy Scouts... Pez Candies, Subway Sandwiches, The Connecticut River, Connecticut College, Benedict Arnold, Mark Twain, U.Conn’s Lady Huskies, PT Barnum, Tom Thumb, World Wrestling, whaling, sealing, biking, harbor seals, aquaculture, culturing marijuana, growing tobacco, McDonald’s… … Jewish War Veterans, Catholic Charities, Puritan Bigots, Mohegans, coywolves, submarines, Eugene O'Neill, Pilgrims, Pequots, Puerto Ricans...    and the biggest Movie Star Katharine Hepburn who lived in the littlest town, Fenwick, Connecticut.  And that was just 60 miles in Connecticut.  Now…Imagine what you would discover if we drove ALL the way to Rhode Island! #Connecticut #StillRevolutionary #Yale #TheCoastGuardAcademy #Pequots #FenwickConnecticut #KnightsofColumbus #WaltonFamilyFoundationSCALEChallenge          EXIT OF THE DAY: EXIT 8A on NJ Tpke n; To Jamesburg, New Jersey, Cranbury, NJ Listen up kids! It is now time for a Road Test. But first the FAST FACTS... You are now near Jamesburg, New Jersey. Jamesburg’s signature contribution to human history is that world famous fella, the father of commercial canning, Harrison Woodhull Crosby himself. Gives you shivers does it not? Harrison, or Harry to his pals, was born right here. Back in 1847, Harrison Woodhull Crosby became the first person to put tomatoes in tin cans on a commercial scale. Yup. He is THAT guy.  Harry worked across the Delaware River as the chief gardener at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. It was there that they commercialized the canned tomato. It is probably no coincidence that Campbell's Soup started not far away and that tomato soup was one of their first products.    The history of canning food is not corny. Legend has it, around 1800, Napoleon sought an invention to feed his fast moving troops. This led to sealed jars.  Around 1858, a gent with the last name Mason came up with industrialized sealed bottles and you guessed it, they became Mason Jars.   All such products had to be heat treated first then sealed in cans or jars. Interestingly, they knew that this method kept food safe far longer, but not knowing about microbes and germs, they simply had no knowledge why it worked. Canning became a boon during the upcoming Civil War where canned goods could be shipped and stored anywhere without spoilage. In fact, Powdered Milk was first created to feed the Union Army. In Westchester, New York a man by the name of Gail Borden created powdered milk. Borden’s Dairy still exists to this day. But I digress. We are speaking about no small tomatoes here. Fast Fact, the Jamesburg native James Woodhull Crosby was not only famous as the first to can Tomatoes, but he is also famous for coining the term, "Hey! How 'bout them tomatoes?" I kid you not. Something that does not commercialize well by being canned is a bobcat. More and more people are seeing bobcats. Many of the sightings are from passengers in cars in wooded areas like right here.  The bobcat is about two feet tall —larger than a house-cat but much smaller than a mountain lion. Adult females in New Jersey generally weigh between 18 and 25 pounds while adult males can weigh as much as 35 pounds. While they typically hunt rodents, rabbits and birds, they are strong enough to take down a deer. Or unfortunately, Fido or Puss. So bring your pets inside before dusk and only let them out long after dawn. That’s because most hunting takes place at dawn and dusk. They are extremely shy animals that are seldom seen by humans. With suburbs spreading out, hunting has diminished, and numbers have increased. But it was not a natural population boom. The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife conducted a restoration project where 24 bobcats captured in Maine were released in northern New Jersey from 1978-1982. By the 1990’s reports of bobcat sightings began to increase. So are the numbers of bobcats killed by automobiles on our highways. During a one year period between 2008 and 2009 fourteen bobcats were observed from New Jersey roads. Sadly, ten of these were hit by cars. Now for the Road Test. Did Harrison Woodhull Crosby can tomatoes or bobcats? #CannedTomatoes #AndyWarhol #Napoleon #CivilWar #CampbellSoup #NewJerseyBobcats #Bobcats #LafayetteCollege #NJTurnpike #HarrisonWoodhullCrosby #Canning #masonjars  EXIT of the Day: Hear this here… I-4, EXIT 108s onramp I-4S: To Valdez, Deltona FL “Ok Road Trippers, as we approach Deltona, it is time for a Road Test. So you, the one with the hair, get off Tik Tok and listen up! You might learn something just as worthless. This Road Test is brought to you by Joe’s Gas and Convenience Store 1 minute off upcoming Exit 108. If you get the answer correct, you can get a Buy 1 Get 1 free deal of any Pepsi or Dorito Product with a fill up of fuel above $15. So get right to exit. Now listen to the Fast Facts!  There are some ridiculous laws on the books in the state of Florida. We did some research and found some of the silliest. Many of these laws are only in effect in certain cities. So for example, selling fruit in one city is all right but you could spend hard time if you cross the county line. Up in Destin, Florida please don't set off any torpedoes. It's illegal there. Not sure about the rest of the state, but they have a problem with torpedoes in Destin. Must be a lot of large alligators or something. Also Good to know: in all of Florida, men are not allowed in public wearing a strapless dress. As long as you've got straps of some sort, you're cool.  Also, in Destin, it is illegal for an ice-cream man to sell ice cream in a cemetery. But what’s really weird, in Hialeah, strolling or ambling is a misdemeanor. Still all that’s nothing compared to selling certain fruits in Miami. In Miami, you could face up to 30 days in jail for selling oranges on the sidewalk. And don't even think about showering naked! It's an actionable offense. Maybe the cops perp walk you with your handcuffs in front.... Raincoats must be popular round here. And as if people do not have enough outdoor activities to entertain them, in Daytona Beach, you're banned from molesting trash cans. In Key West, don't molest the chickens. They're a protected species. But they need to hear that in Key West… Finally, here is one that does make sense. In the state of Florida, it's illegal to have physical relations with a porcupine. Ouch! But maybe you can have relations with a chicken outside of Key West. The State Law is not clear on that issue  And finally, in case you are riding down the interstate on Jumbo, know this: When you tie it to a parking meter, your elephant gets charged just the same as your car would.  Now for the Road Test. How many days do you get in jail for selling Grapefruits in Miami? You have three seconds. 3…2…and 1. The answer is no time. You get no time in jail. That’s because it is only illegal to sell Oranges. Now go park your elephant and feed the meter. And when you visit upcoming Deltona, no romancing porcupines. Pervert! Oh and go get your Buy 1 Get 1 Free Deal of Pepsi or Doritos at Joe’s. Just tell em RoadSpoke’s Silly Laws sent you!” #sillyFloridalaws #Roadtrippers #FastFacts #Jumbo #ParkingElephants #Florida #Snowbirds   Exit 193 I-95n in SC To: SC 9, SC 57, to N Myrtle Beach, Dillon near Floyd, Dale, SC Welcome to South Carolina! Land of palmetto palms and shag dancing to Beach Music — and we don’t mean Surf Music either. But more about that later… Now turn on your headlights. It's the law down here. If you’ve had your eyes open in either direction, you’ve seen the famous “South of the Border” billboards. The corny billboards will lead you along I-95 here to Dillon.   In Dillon you will find Pedro, the mustachioed, 97-foot-tall “Patron Saint of Travelers In Need of a Pit Stop”. No Baloney. That’s what Pedro is the patron saint for. Visitors can drive through his legs and find a parking place. Then it’s time to stretch, hit the bathroom, grab a hot dog (or a banana), see some gators and buy a few fireworks to detonate later on the beach.    South of the Border is a roadside mash-up of tacky souvenir shops and wacky attractions. For over forty years, these billboards have delighted children and quite honestly, annoyed parents. After years of disapproval by the forces of political correctness, Pedro will no longer be able to entice with his corny epithets and awful broken English puns.  Not surprisingly, Locals refer to the site as SOB. Speaking of SOBs, what you have not seen as you approach the border between two Carolinas is the Carolina Pararkeet. SOB's are responsible for that loss no doubt. 2018 marked the sad centennial for the extinction of the only Parrot in The United States. The last known bird died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918. This was the male specimen, called "Incas", who died within a year of his mate, "Lady Jane". Coincidentally, Incas died in the same cage in which the last Passenger Pigeon, "Martha", had died nearly 4 years earlier.  It was not until 1939, however, that it was determined that the Carolina Parakeet had become extinct. However, reports still come in of fleeting sightings and false yet hopeful re-discoveries. So maybe they are out there. According to the Audubon Society, at some point about sixty years ago, three parakeets resembling the beautiful Carolina Parakeet were filmed in the Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia. However, the American Ornithologists' Union analyzed the film and concluded that they had probably filmed feral parakeets. The small gregarious parakeets once lived in flocks and inhabited river bottoms from Nebraska to Louisiana to Florida and north to Southern New York. The Carolina Parakeet is believed to have died out because of a number of different threats. Large areas of forest were cut down, reducing its habitat. The bird's colorful feathers (a green body, yellow head, and red around the bill) were in demand as decorations in ladies' hats. It has also been hypothesized that the introduced honeybee helped contribute to its extinction by occupying the bird's hollow tree nesting sites. Finally, they were killed in large numbers because farmers considered them a pest. Sadly, the most egregious factor that contributed to their extinction may have been loyalty or compassion. Family members would return immediately to a location where flock members had been shot. This led to even more being shot by hunters as the parrots gathered about the wounded and dead members of their flock.  From Pedro to compassionate parrots, South Carolina itself is a proud mashup of conflicting and complementing inspirations marked by beauty, soulful loss, and great commercial promise. Welcome once again to the Palmetto State. #PalmettoState #SouthCarolina #NorthCarolina #DillonSouthCarolina #CarolinaParakeet #SouthoftheBorder #Pedro #Patronsaintoftravelerswhoneedapitstop #Billboards   Hear this audio right... wait for it... right... HERE! EXIT 31b to Oakland Park Blvd. To Wilton Manors, Florida "The upcoming EXIT is to Oakland Park Boulevard. The city of Oakland in California is known for its diversity. Oakland is across the San Francisco Bay from the number one gay city in America, that being, of course, San Francisco itself. Alright I know this analogy is a stretch, but bear with me. I'm getting to the point. Perhaps then it should be no surprise that the city here in Florida abutting Oakland Park Boulevard is Wilton Manors. Wilton Manors is home to a majority LGBT population.  Like in many resort towns around Florida, while many are year round residents, most are in fact winter snowbirds. If you cruise down Wilton Drive, the so-called main drag, you will see these residents frequenting its many restaurants, bars and other gay-owned businesses. The scene is very colorful and frankly inclusive. Between cruising, drag and birds, my commentary is rife with bad puns. But do not hold it against Wilton Manors; this winter nest is a hot-bed of creativity and culture. Interestingly, like the majority of snow birds elsewhere in Florida, most of the LGBT community here live in family households. The 2010 U.S. Census reported that Wilton Manors is second only to Provincetown, Massachusetts in the proportion of couples relative to the total population. The city is very progressive and boasts a lot of well, pride. The art scene spills out onto streets that are well manicured and spotlessly clean. It should be no surprise of course that this brazenly flamboyant community contains a large Pride Center, the World AIDS Museum and Educational Center, and a branch of the Stonewall National Museum & Archives. The Stonewall Museum commemorates a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village which was the birthplace of the Gay Pride movement. No wilting flowers, the community wants the world to know they have created a welcoming, successful, and diverse community. In fact, the mayor, Gary Resnick, refers in the Town’s official biography that he has a male partner. The city’s web page highlights LGBT life stating that "the City of Wilton Manors Police Department conducts police training that is geared toward working with the City’s LGBT population and has gay and lesbian officers amongst its ranks.” You would not be surprised about any of this, once you see a Wilton Manors Police Car. The vehicles are themselves open statements about the proclivities of the city's residents. That’s because no black and whites are these vehicles. Here smokey drives a police car draped in rainbows! Happy Pride Week! #WiltonManors #PrideCenter #StonewallNationalMuseum #WorldAIDSMuseum #Florida #Provincetown    Hear this right... here: EXIT 150- 154 I-95s To: Whitakers, NC  "Ok Road Crew, now we play a game called "Name that recording artist." The winner gets to claim a free month of Pandora app.  But you got to "Claim" the deal by either saying , "Deal Radar, save that deal" or by tapping the Deal Radar button on this smart device during this narration. Tap it now, go ahead. It's blinking!  Ok. Good tap. We got the message and you get the Pandora deal should you want it. So Now....Today's recording artist is a soft spoken sweet balladeer who has recently been honored by Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez. In his youth, this Carolina tar heal was supported by no less than the late great Beatle, George Harrison. In fact George and Paul McCartney sang un-credited back up vocals on one of his first hits about growing up in North Carolina. But this adoptive Southerner was born up north. He was born at Mass General in Boston on March 12 1948, where his father worked as a resident physician.  His father came from a wealthy Scottish family from the South. His mom studied singing at the New England Conservatory of Music and was an aspiring opera singer. In 1951, the family moved back south to Chapel Hill, where Dad took a job as an assistant professor of medicine at the UNC School of Medicine. Years later our artist would recall, “Chapel Hill, the Piedmont, the outlying hills, were tranquil, rural, beautiful, but quiet. Thinking of the red soil, the seasons, the way things smelled down there, I feel as though my experience of coming of age there was more a matter of landscape and climate than people.” His Dad later rose to become dean of the School of Medicine and...  ...having summers off, beginning in 1953, the family spent summers on Martha's Vineyard. Regardless of his privileged upbringing, our hero suffered from depression so much so that between his prep school and college year, he committed himself to a psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts. Between the meds and the organized schedule he started to achieve structure which he credits for saving his life and influencing his music. Still he lived chaotically and despite getting signed by the Beatles Apple Records he wound up becoming addicted to heroin. However he continued to be productive. He wrote songs, including "Carolina on My Mind”. Paul McCartney and an uncredited George Harrison guest sang on "Carolina on My Mind", whose lyric "holy host of others standing around me" referred to the anonymous Beatle pals. Once he recovered, our hero moved to California, and there he produced his second album. Titled "Sweet Baby James", and featuring the participation of Carole King, the album was a triumph. Memorably, it included the single "Fire and Rain," a song about experiences in rehab and the suicide of his friend, Suzanne Schnerr. In 1970, the album and the single reached #3 on the Billboard charts, with Sweet Baby James selling more than 3 million in the United States alone. The entire album was received as a folk-rock masterpiece, marking a direction he would take in following years. In following years there were many more triumphs than personal slips including a ten year marriage to singer Carly Simon. Quick aside: Carly Simon likely appreciated her husband's literary chops because her dad was the founder of Book Publisher "Simon & Schuster." So now can you name that artist? You have 3 seconds to guess. Three, two... and one.  This recording artist is a once and forever native of upcoming Chapel Hill. And I think you know by now, his name is none other than sweet baby James Taylor. And you can get a free month of Freemium ad free Pandora since you tapped the Deal Radar icon. Like James Taylor's song says, "How Sweet it is" to be using the RoadSpoke app! Ok. I know it was a stretch. Now I'll leave you alone." #HappyBirthdayJamesTaylor #SweetbabyJames #JamesTaylor #FireandRain #CarlySimon #Beatles #GeorgeHarrison #PaulMcCartney #UNC #CarolinaonmyMind #ChapelHill UNCMedicalSchool #CarolKing  EXIT OF THE DAY: I-95 Exit 90 in SC To: US 176, to Cameron, Holly Hill, South Carolina. Hear the here! "In upcoming Cheraw, South Carolina, famed jazz trumpet player "Dizzy" Gillespie was born in 1917. Before he found music Dizzy was a tough kid with a stick on his shoulder. But then Dizzy picked up a trumpet -- and a new Faith.  As for the trumpet… in the 1940s Dizzy Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He mentored many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Arturo Sandoval, and Chuck Mangione. Apart from cheeks that blew up like balloons he is most famous for adding layers of rhythm and complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of skill, showmanship, and wit made him a leading evangelist of modern jazz just as his beret, his scat singing, his bent horn, his pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality provided the soulful stereotype for the Beat Generation's jazz intelligensia. Along with other musicians and Beat Writers, like friends Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, Dizzy haunted all the smoke filled hipster bars in New York’s Greenwich Village long before it was trendy.   In other words, Dizzy was Cool, man. Super cool. So Cool, other than possibly Charlie Bird, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, no one was more famous in the 50’s bebop movement. What is not as well known was that Dizzy was a member of the Baha'is of the United States Faith. Dizzy was a Bahá'í since about 1970. He was one of the most famous followers of the religion. Baha’i helped him make sense of his position in life, his great success, as well as turning his life from knife-carrying gangsta to a global citizen and from alcohol to "soul force". Bebop and Bahai. Up from Cheraw, South Carolina. Now that is BEYOND cool. #DizzyGillespie #Bahai #DizzywasBahai #MilesDavis #CharlieParker #Bebop #CherawSouthCarolina #BirthofCool #Baha'i  Hear this... right here: EXIT 26 onramp off I-478: Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, in Brooklyn NY "Kashif Chaudhry, age 37, is a heart rhythm specialist in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Naila Shereen, age 34, is a chief internal medicine resident at a hospital in Brooklyn..."  "...They met through a charitable doctors' organization; Kashif has volunteered in Bolivia, implanting pacemakers, while Naila worked in Guatemala. It was love at first sight for the couple, who decided to marry, despite living more than 1,000 miles apart." They were initially due to wed in London in a lavish multi-day ceremony, and then honeymoon in Dubai and the Maldives. Kashif and Naila canceled their plans in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, they married in a low-key ceremony in New Jersey. The Honeymoon did not last long however. Their patients needed them. The 2 young doctors separated less than 12 hours after tying the knot, in order to return to work. Both were fighting COVID in their hometowns separated by the country they love. America. America is responsible for separating another doctor from his love. Says Mohamed Khalif, “I love working in healthcare.” But he is very frustrated. Mohamed Khalif has been a doctor for six years. Living now in Seattle Washington, the 30-year-old is ready and willing to join the front line of the coronavirus fight in the United States. But like thousands of healthcare professionals who received their medical degrees abroad, he is simply not allowed. "They're all sitting at home, and we're bringing retired doctors and retired healthcare providers who are at higher risk of COVID-19 to care for these patients," Khalif said shaking his head. (Mohamed Khalif is on the right below.)  Many immigrant doctors in the US, despite having years of experience, are left on the sidelines of the COVID-19 fight. FAST FACT: Muslims in Healthcare is hardly unusual. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), more than 10% of American physicians are Muslim, while Muslims make up less than 3% of the total U.S. population. “Thus, its safe to say there is number of Muslim physicians is above average,” says Dr. Salim Aziz, a prominent heart surgeon with offices in Maryland and Washington DC.  Khalif was born in Somalia. His family came to the US as a child. Growing up, he travelled the world with his father and learned the languages of the places he lived - ranging from Somali to Hindi and Mandarin. After graduating from a medical college in China, he worked as a primary care doctor in Somalia. He returned to the US five years ago in hopes of doing the same here. Despite passing his board exams and having broad experience, he did not land a residency this year, the final and highly competitive step before becoming accredited to practise medicine in the US. Khalif hopes states will allow foreign medical graduates to work, even if in rudimentary roles. This could range from working as a scribe in emergency rooms to conducting nasal swab tests for COVID-19 to simply cleaning contaminated areas.. As the death toll rises across the USA, Khalif said the most frustrating part is not being able to practice, even after having passed all the necessary exams. He described it as watching his house being attacked while being tied up and left defenseless. "All of us are just itching to get out there and help our fellow colleagues," he said. And what about the newly weds, Naila in Brooklyn and Kashif in Iowa? Although Kashif admits he is worried about his new bride as Nalia continues to work in Brooklyn, the epicenter of the pandemic, he says he is 'even more proud' of her. Happy Ramadan. #Ramamdan #RamadanMubarak #MuslimsinHealthcare #MuslimDoctors #Allah #MohamedKhalif #Coronavirus #MuslimsworkingthroughRamadan  Macon Offramp. Many Music Stars Exit here.EXIT of the DAY: Exit 58 in GA I-95s To: Townsend Rd, Eulonia near Townsend, Georgia. If you drove by this EXIT and had RoadSpoke, you would hear this: "Up the next Exit many music superstars have driven. This unassuming EXIT was an onramp for success for rock stars like Little Richard, The Allman Brothers, Bill Berry of R.E.M, Otis Redding, and Country Star Jason Aldean. No surprise the Macon sound is a mix of influences and the musicians have no problem mixing with others in the broader industry. In July 2018, like many Country Stars, Jason Aldean drove up this Exit to his home town, Macon. He had just played a benefit concert to a sold out Atlanta crowd. But Jason is a new breed of country star.  Jason’s songs liberally include rocker licks. On top of that, he rubs shoulders with hip hop stars. In fact, his pal Georgia born rapper Ludacris joined him on stage for a set.   So while Jason sells out stadiums with country and western audiences, he is not afraid to think different. And he draws in a more mixed bag of fans. It’s a mix that allows for diversity and inclusion. Jason loves to use his celebrity to do performances that are about something bigger than himself. For the man whose hits “Any Old Barstool”, “Tonight Looks Good on You,” and “Fly Over States”, this was the third year he has done a concert benefiting sick kids cared for at the @Beverly Knight Olson Children’s Hospital. Says Jason: “There are a lot of reasons I love doing what I do, but being able to give back to these kids and their families is definitely really important to me.” Obviously he is moved by having a large raucous family. Even on the road he tries to get home as often as he can to his 4 kids and wife, Britney. Jason’s roots run deep in Macon. He was raised by his Mom in Macon. He first performed on stage at the Macon VFW Hall when he was 15. But before that, during summer break, he would spend time with his Dad in @Homestead,Florida. Before his father went to work he would instruct Jason where to place his fingers to play chords. Then while his dad was at work, young Jason practiced all day. When his dad got home, they got out their guitars and played together. Moving home to Mom was no bad thing for Jason though. Jason loves Georgia deeply. In fact except for watching @Bulldogs Football every Saturday you could find Jason in the Georgia woods since he is an avid outdoorsman. He even owns a Hunting Company called Buck Commander.  But guns and concerts created a grand tragedy in Las Vegas Nevada when a mad man began shooting in October 2017. Jason had just begun performing when the shooter began firing into the crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort. 58 people were killed and 851 people were injured. Until recently, Jason stayed out of the debate that's going on over gun control. Then in a new interview, he reveals there should at least be a more thorough vetting process. After the shooting Jason visited survivors in the hospital. He admits to serious guilt over the fans who got shot. They were present to see him. He also feels a connection to the survivors from the high school mass murder in @Parkland,Florida. Many of those students have become gun control activists. Says Jason,”Unless anybody has witnessed anything like that, it’s really hard for people to really understand where you’re coming from on that stuff," he reflects. "It’s like the kids from the school in Florida, that shooting. I get it, man. I understand how they are feeling.” But no doubt, Jason Aldean wishes he did not need to address the raging gun law debate. In fact, he would have been far more comfortable raising donations with rapper friends at that benefit concert to build a kids’ wing in Macon. " #JasonAldean #Flyovercountry #Georgia #Macon #Parkland #HarvestFestival #Massshootings #GeorgiaBulldogs #BuckCommander   Hear this here! EXIT 188n off I-95 to Patrick AFB, Satellite Beach in Brevard County Florida No doubt it’s good to get where you are going in good time. But sometimes a detour is well worth the circuitous route since you encounter people and things that make a voyage even better. The next exit offers that kind of detour.   As Rick Neale wrote in the magazine Florida Today: “On Dec. 7, 1941, armor-piercing bullets from Japanese Zero fighter aircraft tore holes into the Battleship Arizona at Pearl Harbor. About 15 minutes into the surprise Pearl Harbor attack, a Japanese bomber dropped a specially converted 1,700-pound projectile onto the Arizona — igniting powder magazines and triggering an immense explosion powerful enough to lift the 33,000-ton vessel out of the water. That day 1,177 sailors and Marines lost their lives aboard the battleship.  Two generations later, those bullet holes remain visible amid rust-red corrosion on a 4-by-5-foot steel section of the doomed warship's superstructure that has arrived on the Space Coast. Brevard Veterans Memorial Center officials publicly unveiled the World War II relic and accompanying museum exhibit during a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony.  Around the grounds and throughout the museum, various decommissioned jets, jeeps, canons and other war mementoes stand testament to the Vets who used them. Other than sunny skies, a tropical disposition, and this bullet ridden hunk of battleship infrastructure what does the Space Coast of Florida have in common with Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, Hawaii? Well most relevant was that not far away several veterans from the surprise attack lived out their days as normal senior citizens. No one would identify one of these heroes from the other elderly folks who pass us every day. And even though they experienced the horrors of that day that lives in infamy, they may be said to be the lucky ones. After all, these Vets were there at the beginning of the most destructive war in history and they managed to retire in sunny Florida. Florida resident Joseph Iscovitz was 103-year-old when he died in 2020. Young Joseph Iscovitz was a supply sergeant that sunny Sunday morning in 1941 in Pearl Harbor. He oversaw a weapons depot.  Speaking to the Associated press on the occasion of his father’s passing, Doug Iscovitz said his father could see the faces of the Japanese pilots as they dropped bombs around the naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1941. His son says they were woefully unprepared for the attack and feared an amphibious assault later that day. He said his father helped string barbed wire along Waikiki Beach in anticipation of the invasion than thankfully never came.  Sergeant Iscovitz also fought in the Korean War. Like so many others, Sergeant Iscovitz was to be laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery outside the nation’s capital. His wife died in 2000 after 56 years of marriage. Joseph Iscovitz is survived by his four sons. “With all the turmoil going on in our nation, it will be an honor to have my dad buried at Arlington among the many heroes in our nation's history,” his son Doug said.  If you want to see the bullet ridden relic from the Arizona and other museum displays, like Huey Attack Helicopters from Vietnam or even a Marine Harrier Jump Jet or just things brought back by our veterans from their tours of duty, get right to exit off upcoming Exit 188. Since the museum is located in an active Veteran’s Post, aside from museum pieces, no doubt you will meet the real thing —some real heroes. Now that’s worth a little detour isn’t it? After all, it can be said that America’s Veterans made a little detour in life for their fellow Americans. Now did’t they? That’s right, nice and slow, now get over… and don’t forget your blinker…. #PealrHarborDay #PearlHarbor #Vets #Arizona #BattleshipArizona #MelbourneFlorida #MerritIsland #BrevardVeteransMemorialCenter  EXIT OF THE DAY Hear this right …. here! EXIT 15 I-95n to: US 7, Norwalk and Danbury, CT  New York Times Best Selling Author and Emmy Award-winning Historian, Rick Shenkman, is on the Board of Advisors of RoadSpoke. Mister Shenkman can be seen regularly on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. A historical pundit and author of 7 books including Political Animals, as well as Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of American History, Mister Shenkman recently retired as publisher of George Washington University's History News Network. The HNN website attracts 1.55 Million Page Views and 300,000 Unique Visitors per month. The majority of HNN’s audience is composed of students, college professors, and media writers. No doubt Mr Shenkman will appreciate this bit of trivia which is relevant to Norwalk Connecticut’s next Exit.    In October 1801, Mister Nehemiah Dodge, a Norwalk resident wrote a letter to President Thomas Jefferson expressing concern that — as a Baptist — he and his congregation in Danbury may not be able to express full religious liberty in Connecticut whose constitution was adopted before the establishment of the Baptist church. At that time in America, Baptists were a fringe religious group. The majority of Americans were one of three religions. Like the second president, John Adams, they were either Congregationalists, , who were the spiritual descendants of Pilgrims... Or they were Deists who believed in Christian morals but rejected that Christ was the only Son of God. Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were members of this faith. Most Americans were Episcopalians. Episcopalians were former Church of England members. But since the Church of England requires its followers to believe the king or queen of England was their spiritual leader, and the United States had just fought England for its freedom, all those Anglicans in the United States could not rightly worship a British tyrant as their leader. After the Revolution, those former Anglicans had formed a new religious sect which had no single leader. Their leaders were an Episcopate of bishops. Episcopate of Bishops is a fancy way of saying “a group of bishops.” That protestant sect was now called Episcopalians.  Episcopalians today are a small minority in America and Baptists are a far larger group. Today of America’s roughly 360,000,000 citizens, just a little over 1% or 3 million citizens identify as Episcopalians. That’s one in a hundred.  Conversely, Baptists have 50 million members in America. One in seven Americans identifies as a Baptist.  But back then, Episcopalians were the vast majority. Many so-called Founding Fathers, like George Washington, were Episcopalians.  Given the Founding Fathers’ recent rebellion against dictators of religion and law, it is not surprising that the First Amendment in the United States Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” In 1801, President Jefferson replied to that Baptist’s letter with his own epistle. It is famously known as the “Danbury Letter”. President Jefferson wrote that there was "a wall of separation between church and State" that protected a person's right to worship whatever he wanted wherever he wanted. This well-known phrase, “a wall between church and state” occurs in Jefferson's letter and not in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as is commonly believed. #FirstAmendment #Constitution #Religion #Episcopal #Baptist #Congregationalist #Deist #DanburyLetter #Dodge   EXIT 161 I-95n to: Fort Belvoir, Mt Vernon, Virginia Are you tired of driving? Might you want to give your hardworking automobile some chill time? Do you feel like turning around and heading south for some Florida sunshine. But you do not want to drive? But you want your car? What do you do? How about training your vehicle to the Sunshine State? The Lorton station is a railroad terminal in Lorton, Virginia. It is the northern terminal for Amtrak's Auto Train which operates between this station and sunny Sanford, Florida. Although there are similar services around the world, the Auto Train is the only one of its kind in the United States. The Auto Train is the only north–south Amtrak train in the east to use Superliner cars. The train is notable, especially within the Amtrak system, for the high quality of its equipment and of its customer service. The train operates every day. At 11:30 am, the station gates are opened to allow the passengers for the next trip into the vehicle staging area where vehicles are assigned their number, which is affixed to the driver's door magnetically. The vehicle is then video surveyed to document any pre existing dents and other damage. The passengers leave their vehicles here and take their carry-on bags with them into the station to await boarding. Passengers do have a choice between either coach seats or private sleeping car rooms while their cars, vans, sport utility vehicles or even boats are carried in enclosed automobile-carrying freight cars, called autoracks. The vehicles are themselves staged near the autorack ramps by size and length for optimal loading order, and are then loaded onto the autoracks. In the case of motorcycles, the owner assists with tying their bikes down. Passengers do not have access to their vehicles during the trip. But with sleeping berths and dining cars, they do not lack for amenities. Unfortunately for RoadSpoke fans, since The Auto Train avoids driving Interstate 95 in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida you will get no auto tour and will miss out on hearing about Civil War Battles, homespun heroes, sports stars, Scarlett O'hara, and other southern wonders. And you better want to go to Florida and no place in between. The train is non-stop. All Aboard! #Autotrain #Superliner #Amtrak #LortonStation #autotracks   |
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