John goes to a book signing at The Grey Parrot.

Johntheplantman takes “Requiem for a Redneck” to Grey Parrot Gallery.

I call it “taking the redneck.”  This is my usual reference to attending book signings as an author.  I really enjoy the book signings because I get to go to some delightful places and meet interesting people.  We were looking forward to the event which included five authors for an evening titled “Meet the Author.”  I took my trusty HP camera to record parts of the event, but I got carried away with taking pictures of the magnificent collection offered by the Grey Parrot. We knew something was different when we saw the aluminum “Eiffel Tower” in front of the elegant building.

The collection of authors was diverse—in keeping with the other gallery collections—Sheila Moses with several books, Raymond Atkins (Front Porch Prophet, Sorrow Wood), Tony Grooms (Bombingham), Joe Gatins (We Were Walking on a Volcano), and yours truly, John P. Schulz (Requiem for a Redneck).

The book signing was fun and interesting. The authors and visitors were interesting and enjoyable.  And the collection of antiques: rare literature, unique artwork, maps, rare books, Audubon prints and the like was totally impressive.  I took a short tour of the gallery.  It would take  weeks to see it all, but I thought I would share some of what I saw.

When I walked in the gallery, I noticed a unique table off to my right with a bowl of cherries on it.  I thought, “ooooh, Bing cherries, just for me.”  Before reaching for a cherry, though, I thought I’d straighten out the wrinkled tablecloth.  It was carved of wood!  I never saw anything like it.  Next, I reached for a cherry only to find that they, too, were carved wood.  I liked the table so well that I sat down in the nearby Biedermeier chair and I called Dekie to have our picture made together

We were greeted by the beautiful and delightful Sheila Moses who is the chief administrator of the gallery, working closely with Ken Holsey, the curator. The gallery is owned by Alex Branch, who has put this collection together with an intimidating knowledge of rarities and through extensive travels.  Ken complimented me by saying, “After I read your book, I realized that you would truly appreciate some of the furniture and artistic carvings.”  Ken took me on a tour, explaining that Biedermeier furniture was first made after the process for cutting large pieces of veneer was developed.  I later found a really good discussion of Biedermeier furniture HERE

And there were maps.  Lots and lots of maps.  I had never thought of the allure of old maps until I started looking at some of these.

Dekie enjoyed looking at a pre Civil War map of Georgia that showed the percentages of whites and slaves for each county.

I was impressed with the detail and color of one of the maps

And I got a close up of the inscription

Next, I saw a very nice display for the fiftieth anniversary of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” with several autographed copies.

I held an autographed copy of “Gone With the Wind” in my hand for a moment before realizing that if I sneezed, I had just lost a year’s salary. I guess it would have been all right, though, because there were several copies.

There were shelves of old children’s books.  I remembered a number of them from my own childhood.

Then I fell in love with the Audubon Pelican.  Ken explained to me that these prints were made before the color printing process was perfected and each one was hand colored.

One of the first Audubon Turkeys was rather nice.  I couldn’t get just the right lighting but this is my best effort:

Dekie enjoyed the smaller maps.  This map from the early 17^th century shows the area which later became the southeastern United States.

I noticed something funny sitting on one of the shelves—a hand carved book worm working its way through a mahogany book.  This reminded me that there was a book signing event going on.

Moving back to the event, I was able to get a candid shot of the true southern humorist, Raymond Atkins who asked, “What would it take to get me a copy of that?” You may view Ray’s website HERE

That’s the tour.  Do you want to know the funny thing?  The redneck fit right in.

From the Grey Parrot website: (click here)

The Grey Parrot is named after owner Alex Branch’s pet and our mascot, Tiki. Tiki is an African Grey, a species of Parrot known for their intelligence and loquaciousness. We think this is fitting, because the Grey Parrot is dedicated to knowledge and learning, and we do enjoy talking about our rare or unique finds.

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If you live in or around the northwest Georgia area and would like to have a consultation with johntheplantman, you may contact John Schulz by email at wherdepony@bellsouth.net .  Do not send pictures or attachments as they will be deleted.

As usual, I would just love for you click here to go to Amazon and purchase the ebook edition of my wonderful book, Requiem for a Redneck to go on your Kindle. I have also noticed that Amazon now has a free Kindle app for iphones and tablets. Is that cool or what?