Atlanta's Best Kept Secret - Margaret Mitchell House

I have some of my most favorite people in town - Karen, Wendy and Hilary. We all just finished a scrumptious dinner of stuffed shells that Karen cooked me for my birthday dinner (a couple of days early). Hilary just cut my hair and is cycling her way through some of the MC gang now.

Yesterday, we were deciding what touristy thing we were going to do. I've been to the Coke Plant/Museum, the Aquarium and Stone Mountain a gazillion times, but was willing to take one for the team if they wanted to go there. Instead we hit the Margaret Mitchell House. For those who might be wondering who she was, she wrote Gone with the Wind. While an amazing book and movie, stuff she did behind the scenes were even more incredible. Here's some random cool facts:

1. After the book came out, her servant/friend came down sick. She thought she could cash in on some of her fame and get her treatment at Grady hospital. But because her friend/servant was black, they refused to treat her. So Margaret donated the necessary money to get an emergency clinic set up at the hospital to serve both the blacks and whites.
2. She also paid for 50 black young men to go through med school ... I think there are scholarships in her name yet today.
3. She helped raise 65 million for the Red Cross.
4. She never bought a house or nice new car with all her riches, but chose to live in apartments.
5. She did not enjoy being famous and was incredibly humble, but loved parties.
6. She wrote the book backwards (last chapter first).
7. The "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a da@#" was actually a line her first husband used on her when he left her ... except they added the "frankly."
8. As a young girl, her mom got her into the women's suffrage (right to vote) movement.
9. She tried to keep her book a secret. When a publisher first approached her on it, she denied she was writing one, but eventually gave him it.
10. A great quote, "In a moment of weakness, I wrote a book."

I think the Margaret Mitchell house is one of Atlanta's best kept secrets when it comes to tourist places to visit.