Sculpture from Manhattan now on display in Brundidge, Alabama

The "Strider from Chernobyl" in Brundidge, Ala.

My wife and I enjoy riding around on Saturdays and visiting antique stores. It’s one of our favorite things to do, and we’re always on the look out for “junk stores” that we’ve never been to. We rarely buy anything, but we do a lot of looking.

The other day, we stopped at a place called Jinright’s Hillside Antiques and Collectibles. It’s located between Troy and Brundidge in the Antioch community. It’s inside of an old gas station building on the south side of Highway 231 South.

While there, the proprietor told me that the old gas station was built in 1945 from a Sears & Roebuck kit that was delivered by train. I’d heard of Sears & Roebuck house kits, but I’d never heard that they sold commercial building kits. The store owner noted that the original building has been added to over the years, but the original structure dates back to the end of World War II.

From there, we set off for a place called City Antiques, just down the road in Brundidge. We found this store with no problem, but unfortunately it was closed for the day. After peaking through the windows, we promised each other to return some day.

On the way out of town, we pulled over at a small park across the street from the Brundidge Piggly Wiggly. It’s here at this small park that you’ll find one of Alabama’s most unusual sculptures, a “world-renowned” work of art known as the “Strider from Chernobyl” by folk artist Ronald Godwin. A few feet away, you’ll see a lesser-known sculpture known as the “Scorpion from Fukushima.”

Sources say that Godwin built the “Strider from Chernobyl” – a metal sculpture of a strangely deformed fish – after the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl in 1986. Godwin, who was working as a sculptor in New York City, was outraged over the disaster and created the “Strider” in protest. Godwin originally wanted to display the “Strider” on a sidewalk in Manhattan, but city officials wouldn’t allow it.

Sources say that Godwin and some of his buddies, at the risk of arrest, managed to get the sculpture onto the sidewalk, where it drew the attention of more than a few newspapers and TV stations. City officials decided to cut Godwin some slack and allowed him to display the “Strider” for a couple of weeks. Eventually, it made its way down to Godwin’s hometown of Brundidge.

Godwin built the “Scorpion from Fukushima” after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused a nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. Described as a “disjointed arthropod on the loose,” Godwin created the “Scorpion” to express his reaction to the way civilization affects life on Earth. Today, you’ll find the “Scorpion” just a few feet from the “Strider.”

In the end, if you’re ever in Brundidge, take a few minutes to stop for a closer look at Godwin’s sculptures. Visitors from around the world come to Brundidge for a first-hand look at these sculptures, so don’t miss the opportunity to do so yourself if you ever find yourself in that neck of the woods. Maybe best of all, there’s no charge to visit Godwin’s “sculpture park,” which is open around the clock, seven days a week.