A Visit to Unclaimed Baggage

In August 2019 my brother Richard and I made a trip to Scottsboro and visited among other places Unclaimed Baggage. Their web site will tell you the store's history and how the business works. You can read my two-part report of that visit to Scottsboro here and here. This past December 26, Dianne, my son Amos and daughter-in-law Kim made the trip to the popular attraction. Amos had also visited long ago, but the ladies had never been. So on a gray, drizzly day we traveled north from Pelham. 

By the time we arrived everybody was hungry, so the first thing we did was find a place to eat. Payne's Soda Fountain and Sandwich Shop on the courthouse square was open, and we stopped in there. The popular place was busy, but we were seated quickly. We all enjoyed our meals; Kim and I had their BLTs and some fruit. Strangely, they don't do fries. Dianne and I had some delicious ice cream, too!

Unclaimed Baggage was next, and we stayed for maybe 90 minutes. Kim and Amos found a few t-shirts, and Amos bought a book. Dianne purchased a couple of small pieces of jewelry; she said most of what they had was overpriced. I bought three books. All-in-all the visit was a disappointment. Naturally the place was packed the day after Christmas, and I had no interest in the clothes, hats, jewelry, sunglasses, electronic geegaws, etc. 

However, since the time Richard and I visited an Unclaimed Baggage Museum has been opened within the store, and that was pretty interesting. Comments are below some of the photos.

We parked at the side entrance, which is not far from the museum gallery. 

The "oddities and treasures" range from shrunken heads to a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. On the cover of the pamphlet is Hoggle, a life-size Jim Henson puppet that appeared with David Bowie in the 1986 film Labyrinth.

Even medieval armor has found its way to Scottsboro.

The Gucci suitcase carried Egyptian artifacts dating back to 1500 BC that included a burial mask and ancient coins. Who leaves this kind of stuff unclaimed?

That violin dates to 1770.

I had to laugh when I came across this 2008 novel by Lawrence Block featuring Keller, his lonely hit man character. Someone shelving this book must have assumed it was about baseball.

The courthouse gazebo was decorated for Christmas and holiday music played all over the square. The building was the scene of various trials of the nine Scottsboro Boys in the early 1930s. I wrote about that and the Scottsboro Boys Museum in the previous posts linked in the first paragraph of this one.

Payne's Soda Fountain and Cafe celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019. The business has been located on the courthouse square since February 1891.

Here's a totally random photo I took on the way home as we drove from Scottsboro to I-59. I have a fond memory of  Attalla. When we were young sprouts, my brother and I used to separately visit our grandparents in Gadsden in the summer for a week at a time. On one of those visits my grandmother Rosa Mae Wright took me to a theater in Attalla to see Sink the Bismarck!, a 1960 British film. We saw the movie in the afternoon, before picking up my grandfather Amos J. Wright, Sr., at his job as yard foreman for the L&N railroad.