Late night blogging while watching the Braves; Saw two interesting stories in the paper Thursday. First, front page of New York Times on who has better tasting peaches, Georgia or South Carolina. Seriously. Georgia farmer said the key to a good peach is a hot night and that South Carolina is just not hot enough. While South Carolina does ship more peaches today than Georgia, California ships far more than both combined. But Georgia peaches taste best and that’s why we have peaches on our license plate and we are the Peach State.
Other story from the AJC focused on the post-slavery use of indentured servitude to build the city of Atlanta. According to the story, starting in 1868, just after the Civil War, “Georgia virtually handed over its criminal justice system to commercial, for-profit interests that wanted virtually free labor.” During this period, a black man in Atlanta could get arrested simply for being outside after sunset, talking loud or looking at a white woman in the “wrong way.” PBS is doing a 90-minute special on this dark chapter in Atlanta’s history. Interesting reading.
Tomorrow’s my birthday and Pirates just hit a two-run homer in top of the 9th, so might need to pack it in for the evening. Be well.