I am a Christmas person. You know the kind—the obnoxious, “only 20 weeks left,” Christmas shop year round, own more Christmas decorations than a Santa meet and greet at the mall type. With the holidays right around the corner, I find myself getting more excited (than usual) with every passing day.
Now, if you ask any Christmas fanatic what their favorite thing about Christmas is, you’ll inevitably hear a myriad of answers that inevitably sound like American consumerism on special holiday edition steroids. I’m not here to condemn those things—I have a 4’ x 3’ gold framed portrait of Santa Claus packed away nice and neat under my bed, just waiting for December 1st to resurface and take its place of honor on my mantel (I told you I was that kind). That said, there is one special part about the holidays that I most look forward to every year, and that is being able to play the legendary Nat King Cole’s Christmas albums. These make up only a fraction of his sweeping musical career, and certainly, no one sings “L is for the way you look at me…” like Cole does. But when I hear “The Christmas Song” (aptly named, because it really is) for the first time each winter, I am transported to every single Christmas season of my childhood where his warm voice floated nonstop around my house.
Many believe Nat King Cole was from Chicago, but he was actually born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1919. He lived there with his parents and four siblings until 1923, when the family did then relocate to Chicago in hopes of escaping the racism of the South. The Cole family home in Montgomery was relocated to the campus of Alabama State University in 2000. This past summer, on July 31st, the home received a historic marker from the Alabama Historical Commission to honor and recognize Cole’s enormous contributions not only to the musical community, but also his steadfast dedication and role in the Civil Rights movement. The inside of the house in currently being renovated with the goal of opening as a museum in 2017, so that Cole’s legacy will truly be “Unforgettable.”
References:
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2015/07/31/childhood-home-nat-king-cole-receives-historic-marker/30971641/
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1552
http://www.wsfa.com/story/29684110/montgomery-birthplace-of-jazz-legend-nat-king-cole-gets-historic-marker
Many believe Nat King Cole was from Chicago, but he was actually born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1919. He lived there with his parents and four siblings until 1923, when the family did then relocate to Chicago in hopes of escaping the racism of the South. The Cole family home in Montgomery was relocated to the campus of Alabama State University in 2000. This past summer, on July 31st, the home received a historic marker from the Alabama Historical Commission to honor and recognize Cole’s enormous contributions not only to the musical community, but also his steadfast dedication and role in the Civil Rights movement. The inside of the house in currently being renovated with the goal of opening as a museum in 2017, so that Cole’s legacy will truly be “Unforgettable.”
References:
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2015/07/31/childhood-home-nat-king-cole-receives-historic-marker/30971641/
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1552
http://www.wsfa.com/story/29684110/montgomery-birthplace-of-jazz-legend-nat-king-cole-gets-historic-marker
Caroline Morrison (Mill Valley, California)
Caroline Morrison is a senior at the University of Alabama, majoring in English and minoring in creative writing. She was born and raised across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco in Marin County, and despite having maternal roots in the Heart of Dixie still feels ambivalent about her attempts at properly pulling off a well-placed “bless her heart.” She is usually an excellent baker and a mostly terrible cook, and above all else a writer who believes in middle of the night great ideas and the power of storytelling strong enough to make even her generation look up from their phones.
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