Discover St. Clair October & November 2014

Blair Farm • Greatest Archer • ‘Peanut’ Bill Day Singing With Elvis • Paranormal Investigations • Processor’s Choice

October & November 2014

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Features and Articles Discover

The Essence of St. Clair

Pumpkin Paradise Another uniquely Chandler Mountain agriculture business Blair Farm: Odenville landmark Page 8

Page 40 World’s Greatest Archer Page 14

‘Peanut’ Bill Seales Day The Class of ‘39

Page 24 Page 30

Dairy Queen Memories

Page 34

Big Boyz Barbecue

Singing with Elvis and others Page 46 Paranormal investigating in St. Clair Page 58

Page 54

Tough Man Triathlon

Page 64

Sailboat Artisan

Page 68

Business Review Return of DQ

Page 72 Processor’s Choice coming Page 74 Three restaurants, one roof Page 75 Big happenings in Steele Page 80 Business News Page 82

October & November 2014

www.discoverstclair.com

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Writers AND Photographers Carol Pappas Carol Pappas is editor and publisher of Discover St. Clair Magazine. A retired newspaper executive, she served as editor and publisher of several newspapers and magazines during her career. She won dozens of writing awards in features, news and commentary and was named Distinguished Alabama Community Journalist at Auburn University. After retiring, she launched her own multimedia company, Partners by Design Inc. In addition to marketing, design and web services for companies and nonprofits, Partners publishes Discover, various community magazines for chambers of commerce and Mosaic Magazine, a biannual publication of Alabama Humanities Foundation.

Graham Hadley Graham Hadley is the managing editor and designer for Discover The Essence of St. Clair Magazine and also manages the magazine website. He has won more than 20 awards for reporting, editorial writing and graphic design. Along with Carol Pappas, he left The Daily Home as managing editor to become vice president of the Creative Division of Partners by Design multimedia company. An Auburn journalism graduate, Hadley also served as the news editor for The Rome News Tribune in Rome,Ga., and has worked as an adjunct professor of journalism at Talladega College. He currently serves on the Auburn University Journalism Advisory Council.

Jim Smothers

Leigh Pritchett

For almost 30 years, Leigh Pritchett has been involved in the publishing industry.

She was employed for 11 years by The Gadsden Times, ultimately becoming Lifestyle editor. Since 1994, she has been a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in online and print venues. She holds the Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Montevallo.

Jerry C. Smith Jerry C. Smith’s interest in photography and writing go back to his teen years. He has produced numerous articles, stories and photographs for local websites and regional newspapers and magazines, including the St. Clair County News, Sand Mountain Living, and Old Tennessee Valley. His photos have appeared in books, on national public television, in local art displays and have captured prizes in various contests. A retired business machine technician and Birmingham native, Jerry now lives near Pell City. He recently published two books: Uniquely St. Clair and Growing Up In The Magic City.

Jim Smothers had his first work published in The Gadsden Times in the late 1960s when his father, sports editor Jimmy Smothers, had him take games called in from youth sports coaches and put a camera in his hands at Jacksonville State basketball games. For more than 40 years he has been a writer, photographer, graphic artist and editor at publications in central Alabama for which he has won dozens of Associated Press awards. He has degrees from Jacksonville State University and the University of Montevallo and also studied at the Winona School of Professional Photography.

Mike Callahan Mike Callahan is a freelance photographer who resides on Logan Martin Lake in Pell City. He specializes in commercial, nature and family photography. Mike’s work has been published in Outdoor Alabama Magazine, Alabama Trucking Association and Alabama Concrete Industries magazines. Publishing his work to the internet frequently, he has won many honors for pictures of the day and week.

Wallace Bromberg Jr. Wally was born in Birmingham. He graduated from Mountain Brook High School in 1973, and went on to Auburn University where he graduated in 1976 with his BA in History and minors in German and Education. Wally’s skills in photography blossomed during college. Upon graduation, he entered his father’s business, National Woodworks, Inc. After a 30-year career, he decided to dust off his camera skills and pursue photography full time.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

From the Editor

One of the best jobs ...

This has to be one of the best jobs in the world. I actually get to do what I like best — write — and I get to write about what I like best — interesting people, places and things.

It’s all about telling stories, and like Rick Bragg once wrote, “People tell me things.” But not just me. They tell our writers and photographers and even our advertising sales executives things. And that gives us the opportunity to tell you things — all of which we hope you find interesting, too.

You probably already noticed the cover. At first glance, you might just think it’s a seasonal photo of multi-colored pumpkins. But truth is, they are heirloom pumpkins grown atop Chandler Mountain by a gifted, self-described “pumpkin lady,” whose crop shares time with the mountain’s local favorite — tomatoes.

Then there’s the World’s Greatest Archer, Howard Hill, who was laid to rest in Ashville. In this issue, you’ll find out why and how he rose to stardom with the likes of motion pictures’ Errol Flynn.

We pay a return visit to the Pell City man affectionately known as “Peanut Bill.” His life’s story is a testament to courage, determination and inspiration. It’s a story we shared with you in February, the most read story in print and online in our three-year history.

This is the sequel — how his true-life story earned him a key to the city, a proclamation, a TV appearance and a special day celebrated in his honor.

St. Clair County has plenty of claims to fame and in this month’s issue, we’ll kick off a series of stories on the county’s ties to stardom. What better way for the curtain to go up on our series than with a couple of sisters who sang back-up to Elvis and a star-studded list of entertainers?

If you’ve ridden down US 231 in Pell City lately, you no

doubt have seen the cars circling Dairy Queen again. Only, this isn’t the Dairy Queen of years gone by — another story of reminiscences we’re pleased to be able to tell. It’s the new DQ Chill and Grill, which has burst onto the business scene in a huge way, and we’ll tell that story, too.

We will share stories about the history of Blair Farm in Odenville complete with its non-traditional way of hauling a pony. And we’ll tell you about some new detectives in town, checking out paranormal activity in and around these parts.

It’s all here and more in this month’s issue of Discover. Turn the page and discover it all along with us.

Carol Pappas Editor and Publisher

Discover The Essence of St. Clair

October & November 2014 • Vol. 20 • www.discoverstclair.com

Carol Pappas • Editor and Publisher Graham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer Brandon Wynn • Director of Online Services Mike Callahan • Photography Wallace Bromberg Jr. • Photography Arthur Phillips • Advertising Dale Halpin • Advertising

A product of Partners by Design www.partnersmultimedia.com 6204 Skippers Cove Pell City, AL 35128 205-335-0281

Printed at Russell Printing, Alexander City, AL 7

BLAIR FARM

An Odenville landmark 8

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Story by Carol Pappas Photography by Wallace Bromberg Jr. A weathered, vintage sign points the way from US 411 in Odenville. Tarnished by age, it’s hard to tell where its burgundy background ends and the rust begins. As you get a little closer, the white letters and arrow come into view, whimsically giving more specific directions: “Over Yonder.”

Follow the arrow’s path, and it leads you down Blair Farm Road to where else? Blair Farm.

In its 1950s heyday, its 240 acres hosted cattle, horses, ponies, a Clydesdale named Blue Boy Snow and a family by the name of Blair.

Dwight Blair Jr., known as “Jobby,” bought the farm in 1952 and moved there with his wife, Margaret Drennen Blair, and their 2-year-old son, Dwight Blair III. Little sisters Dana and Carol would follow in the years to come.

It was the beginning of a new story for a World War II hero turned stock broker turned horse trader — or better yet, trader of all sorts — said his son Dwight III, now a prominent Pell City attorney. “He was a real wheeler dealer.”

His father would advertise horses and ponies for sale in the Birmingham News, and families would usually arrive on a Sunday to look them over. “Kids would become enamored with the ponies,” Dwight said. “They would say, ‘Dad, please let us have this pony!,’ and the father would say they would come back.” The thinly veiled excuse was they didn’t have a truck with them.

But Dwight says his father was not to be deterred from the sale. “He was a master at removing the back seat of a four-door car” to show kids and father alike just how those children’s dream actually could come true.

“Many a pony went from here with their head stuck out of the back window,” he said. Before they drove away, the wheeler dealer always added: “If it doesn’t work out, I’ll give you half of what you paid.”

The stories of his father aren’t always as lighthearted. In 1943, he was a bombardier in the Army Air Corps and was shot down in North Africa. He was in his turret, firing at a German plane and killed the fighter pilot.

The German plane started a nosedive and then quickly reversed direction, clipping the nose of the American plane. It spiraled to the ground, killing seven of his father’s crewmates.

Only he and one other survived but were captured. He was wounded in his left leg, and 15 pieces of shrapnel remained. Reported missing in action, he spent more than two years in a German prison camp, escaping one time by jumping off a train. But he discovered he could not get far because of his leg injury, and he was recaptured.

1951 view of homeplace before fire and when Blair Farm Road was dirt

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

9

BLAIR FARM Austin Blair

A nearby barn believed to be the same age as the original house — late 1800s

Square nail dates barn

10

In 1945, although presumed dead since his capture, he was released in a wounded prisoner exchange and headed back home to a hero’s welcome reported on the front page of the Age Herald, which later became Birmingham Post-Herald.

He went back to school at The University of Alabama and after graduation, he did post-graduate work at Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia and became a stock broker in Birmingham.

In 1946, he married Margaret Drennen, who was from a prominent Birmingham family. “Her father asked her, ‘Are you sure you want to live out in Odenville, where you will have nothing but chickens and horse manure?’ And she said, yes,” her son recounted the story his mother told him.

In 1952, they bought a small farm where Moody High School is today, but sold it and quickly bought the 240 acres on both sides of what is now Blair Farm Road.

He remained a stockbroker until 1958 when he decided to leave the big city working life behind for good and sell horses, ponies and cattle full time along with running a tractor and car lot in Leeds called Traders Inc. He had about 50 head of cattle and 20 to 30 horses and ponies along with the farm’s familiar fixture — Blue Boy Snow — on the sprawling open pastures.

“They were everywhere,” Dwight recalled as he motioned around the property. A monument to the Clydesdale, a Blair Farm resident from 1959 to 1991 who weighed more than 2,000 pounds, still stands in the shade of a towering oak tree in one of those pastures.

Today’s Blair Farm looks a bit different than those early days of wide-open pastures and a homeplace probably built in the 1890s. It was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. It was replaced in 1953 with

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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Dwight turns the handle of winch in barn loft.

Today’s Blair Farm

A wall is dedicated to Dwight Jr.’s wartime service Dwight III on the tractor

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

BLAIR FARM

FALL BLOWOUT E V E N T

ATV’S

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Hansel enjoys life on the farm

the house passersby see now. A barn, believed to be built in that same turn-of-thecentury time, still remains. Its square nails rather than round ones hint at its age. “It’s amazing it has weathered time like it has,” he said, noting that its only change has been adding a metal roof.

Other weathered barns and sheds are scattered around the property.

Austin Dwight Blair, the fourth Dwight in the lineage, now helps his own father with upkeep of the land. It helps to have Sheriff Terry Surles and Probate Judge Mike Bowling cut hay from it for their cattle. And friends and family come there to relax, skeet shoot or hunt. “It’s a place where everybody comes and feels comfortable,” Austin said.

Now a broker in commercial real estate for LAH in Birmingham, Austin likes returning to the place he rode horses as a child and had his very own pony, Freddy Boy. For Dwight, it’s full circle. Up to about age 13, he thought it was a wondrous place. But teenagers tend to gravitate toward more action, and he took advantage of every opportunity to spend time away from the farm with friends in Leeds and Birmingham.

Then it was off to college, a scholarship to play running back at Vanderbilt University and later, law school at Cumberland School of Law. In the midst of a successful and understandably busy career, Dwight likes coming back to the quiet of what has become a “weekend place” now. He raises pheasant and quail, and a couple of German Short Haired Pointers named Hansel and Gretel seem as content to call it home as his father did.

It is a story not unlike countless family farms in and around St. Clair County. They, too, have weathered time with their own tales to tell. l To see more images from Blair Farm check out the story online at discoverstclair.com

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Howard at the Howard Hill Archery Shoot, 1957 Photo courtesy of Craig Ekin

The final resting place of the

World’s Greatest Archer Story by Jerry C. Smith Photography by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Submitted photos Schoolboys often dream of marrying a favorite teacher, but Howard Hill of Shelby County actually pulled it off and, with her help and support, became a true legend in his own time, the World’s Greatest Archer.

Ashville’s Elizabeth Hodges had taught high school English in Wilsonville, Alabama, where Howard attended. Apparently their attraction was mutual, as he married her a few years later. They had a long, storybook life together, and now lie in final rest beside each other in Ashville’s New Cemetery.

Born in 1899 on a cotton plantation in Shelby County, Howard’s father made archery equipment for him and his four brothers and taught the boys how to use them.

Howard grew up using weapons of all kinds, but his bow was always his favorite.

According to Craig Ekin in his book, Howard Hill, The Man And The Legend, Howard killed his first rabbit at age five and, in his excitement to show his folks the game he’d brought home for supper, left his bow in a cotton field. It took three days to find it.

Howard entered Auburn’s veterinary school at age 19, but did so well in sports that animal medicine was soon sidelined. A tall, powerful young man who excelled at anything athletic, he lettered in baseball, basketball and football, earning the nickname of Wild Cat. Howard didn’t neglect his archery interests while at school, often slipping away on weekends for long target practice sessions which, according to Ekin, usually involved shooting some 700 to 800 arrows. Howard was so appreciative of his years at Auburn that he created a college archery program at the school after his retirement. Many of his artifacts are now displayed on campus.

In 1922, Howard moved into Southern League semipro baseball, often playing pro golf in off-season. It was about this time that he married Elizabeth, which Ekin describes as the best move Howard ever made. “Libba,” as he called her, realized from the start that archery was Howard’s destiny, and she encouraged him at every opportunity.

Niece Margaret Hodges McLain describes her Aunt Elizabeth as a perfect southern belle whose petite stature only made Uncle Howard seem that much larger. Mrs. McLain recalls the Hills visiting Ashville during breaks from movie work.

Howard with actor Errol Flynn, on Flynn’s yacht, Sirocco.

Autographed to Ashville’s Ellen Crow Photo courtesy of Ellen Crow Smith

Howard instructs child actress Shirley Temple

Photo courtesy of Martha Hodges McLain

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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Howard and me

World’s Greatest Archer Planning an African safari with actor Rory Calhoun

By Jerry C. Smith Christmas Day of 1953 brought many nice gifts, but none appealed to me more than my brand new fiberglass recurve bow, which boasted a staggering draw weight of 20 pounds!

Some days later, I found an archery book in East Lake Library featuring Howard Hill, and a bond was quickly made between the World’s Greatest Archer and an 11-year-old wannabe. I checked it out a total of four times over the next few years and studied it from cover to cover, trying my best to emulate his uncanny expertise in everything from draw, aim and release to walking silently through the woods and reading trail signs.

In every sense, Howard Hill was a childhood hero, along with Hopalong Cassidy and Superman. In the dense forests near our home (some almost a halfacre in breadth), I was prepared to follow my mentor’s writings to the letter as I stalked unseen beasts, ready to dispatch any rogue mountain lion or rabid dog that might attack helpless children in our neighborhood.

Naturally, these interests waned as I entered my teen years and went away almost entirely as my own family grew, but I will never forget how a still-living legend from Shelby County had pushed my youthful imagination to new heights.

Not long ago, while exploring New Ashville Cemetery for a history story, I came across a large stone in the Hodges family plot marked simply HILL. At first it didn’t register, until I noticed two drawn bows bracketing his surname, then a footstone with Howard Hill engraved upon it. Incredibly, one of my childhood heroes was at rest just beneath my feet, right here in St Clair County.

For a nostalgic old man now in his 70s, it was a truly magical moment!

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Photo courtesy of Craig Ekin

Howard often cooked meat entrees for family gatherings by the same method used on safari in Africa. He would dig a pit in the ground, build a big fire in it, then place meat wrapped in wet cheesecloth among the coals, cover it up, and let it cook all day, a process similar to Hawaii’s imu pits used at luaus.

While waiting for dinner, Howard would set up hay bales for targets, and demonstrated his many archery skills and trick shots. Margaret recalls seeing him shoot tossed dimes from the air, as well as helping the youngsters learn archery. Howard was well-respected in Elizabeth’s home town, where the local theater showed many of his films and short subjects.

Three years after their marriage, the Hills moved to Opa Locka, Florida, where Howard worked as a machinist at Hughes Tool Company, founded by the father of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. While there, he read a book called The Witchery Of Archery, by Maurice Thompson, that inspired Howard to set forth on a path that would bring him worldwide fame and set new records, many of them unbroken to this day.

Howard made his first bow while working at Hughes. It wasn’t a very good one, but it signaled the start of a new career direction in archery. He continued making bows and arrows and working in the machine shop until 1932, when their California experience actually began.

Ekin relates that Howard was approached by famed newspaper editorial writer Arthur Brisbane, who wanted the Hills to move to his desert ranch near Barstow, California.

Howard was to coach his sons in physical sports, while Elizabeth would tutor them in academics.

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World’s Greatest Archer After Howard’s one-year contract ended on the Brisbane ranch, he went to Hollywood, intent on making a documentary film he had written, called The Last Wilderness. It emphasized hunting America’s big game rather than spending fortunes on jungle safaris.

The film was a quick success, made entirely outdoors without using a single studio set. Howard’s amazing archery skills were featured as he brought down every kind of large game animal in the American wild country. For the next year or so, he tirelessly promoted this movie by making personal appearances at each showing, dazzling his audiences during intermissions with incredible demonstrations of pinpoint accuracy.

Among Howard’s amazing feats were shooting dozens of arrows, rapid fire, into the exact center of a target from 45 feet, not only from a standing stance, but also lying on his back, side, belly, and from between his legs. His arrows often got damaged in these stunts because they were grouped so tightly there was scarcely room for them all in the target’s tiny center spot.

Howard also appealed physically to his audiences.

At more than 6 feet tall, his muscular build and dashing good looks would have easily qualified him for leading roles in movies. He was immensely strong, able to pull any bow with ease. In fact, some of his bows were so powerful they took two men to string them unless he did it himself.

One of Howard’s first major records was a long arrow flight of more than 391 yards, set in 1928 using a bow with a draw weight of 172 pounds that he built for the feat. He could keep seven arrows in the air at one time, and split a falling arrow with another.

Some favorite stunts were shooting at small objects in midair such as coins, rings, wasps, etc, shooting cigarettes out of some brave soul’s mouth, rolling a barrel down a hill and firing an arrow into its bunghole, splitting narrow sticks with arrows, shooting birds from high in the air, striking a match with one arrow, then extinguishing it with the next, shooting two arrows at once to burst two separate balloons, ricocheting arrows off wooden boards to hit a target, and breaking several balloons consecutively that had been blown up inside each other.

When asked how he hit moving targets so easily, Howard replied, “You have to train your eye to look at a single spot. If it’s a man, you look at a shirt button; if it’s a Coca Cola sign, you look at the center of an O. You have to look at infinite spots.”

Ekin remarks that when Howard was “looking at a spot,” his eye would appear as if it were literally going to pop right out of its socket. One thing that caught your writer’s notice in Hill documentaries was the way he laughed and joked with bystanders, but the minute his bow came into full draw, a deadserious look would suddenly appear on his face.

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Howard and Elizabeth

Photo courtesy of Ellen Crow Smith

Howard instructs actor Basil Rathbone during filming of Robin Hood

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Photo courtesy of Craig Ekin

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World’s Greatest Archer

Howard loved to teach youngsters Photo courtesy of Craig Ekin

As soon as the arrow was loosed, however, he immediately became jovial again. It’s like he was two different people.

Howard’s hunting skills were legendary. He killed more than 2,000 large-game animals with his bow, including a rogue bull elephant. Taught to hunt by a Seminole Indian, he could track any kind of creature, often dispatching it with one arrow from a distance that would have challenged a gun hunter. Elizabeth often accompanied him on safaris and other big game hunts.

But despite his predatory skills, the man was not without a sense of humor. According to Ekin, on one western hunting trip he fooled his comrades into thinking they were eating veal brought from home when it was actually a wild burro he had shot the previous day and cooked in his signature fire pit.

Another time, Howard slipped a fox into a huge kettle of rabbit stew. On yet another trip, Howard and his companions were perturbed by a fellow hunter’s thunderous snoring, which continued despite all attempts to gently waken him. Finally, Howard simply rolled him, sleeping bag and all, into an icy creek.

His skills and uncanny accuracy soon caught the eye of Hollywood producers in 1937, when Warner Brothers was shooting The Adventures of Robin Hood. This high-dollar movie starred Basil Rathbone and Errol Flynn (for our younger readers, Flynn was sort of like today’s Kevin Costner, but far more macho). Facing a select group of some 50 accomplished archers who tested for the movie’s arrow shots, Howard easily topped them all in accuracy.

According to Ekin, director William Keighley told Howard, “You’re hired. Tell the head property man what equipment you want and report Monday to teach 22 actors and six principals how to shoot.”

Howard made many shots with the camera looking over his shoulder from behind, substituting himself for an actor who had just been filmed from the front while pulling the same bow. He performed many dangerous precision shots, such as knocking a war club from Basil Rathbone’s hand and shooting at running spear throwers.

By his own estimate, Howard “killed” 11 men while shooting Robin Hood. Some were shot while on galloping horses, falling to the ground with an arrow sticking out of their backs or chests. In reality, his blunted arrows had imbedded

20

Photo courtesy of Craig Ekin

themselves into a thick block of balsa wood backed up by a steel plate, worn under their tunics. Had Howard’s aim been off by just a few inches, it could have been fatal.

Actors complained that a powerful bow he used to insure accuracy packed such an impact force that they didn’t have to fake falling from their horses; he literally knocked them off.

He did all the bow shots for Errol Flynn, as well as numerous Indian battle scenes for movies like They Died With Their Boots On, Buffalo Bill, and several other films involving archery.

In a foreword to Howard’s book, Wild Adventure, Errol Flynn said, “When you meet Howard Hill you know darn well you’ve met him before, but you can’t remember where or when.“ The two became friends while on the Robin Hood set and spent many pleasant days afterward hunting, partying and fishing from Flynn’s yacht, the Sirocco, where he made one of the most incredible shots of his career.

He dropped a wooden barrel over the side, then threw the barrel’s cork after it. Quoting Ekin’s 1982 book: “While the boat and barrel were bobbing up and down on the waves, Howard proceeded to shoot the cork with an arrow that had

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Howard Hill, World’s Greatest Archer

Photo courtesy of Craig Ekin

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Howard and Elizabeth at St Clair Historical Society banquet, 1973

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Photo courtesy of St. Clair Observer

a line attached to it. After retrieving the cork, he then shot the arrow again (with the cork still on the end of it), perfectly plugging the hole with the cork! This was made into a movie short, and can still be seen today.”

In 1940, Howard set up an archery shop in Hollywood, where he turned out some of the world’s finest bows and arrows. He made them for superstars like Gary Cooper, Roy Rogers, Iron Eyes Cody, Errol Flynn and Shirley Temple — complete with archery lessons.

By 1945, Howard had mostly given up on competitive shooting, since no one could beat him. In fact, he won 196 Field Archery tournaments in a row. His attention turned to hunting and exhibition work. He and Elizabeth built a fine, Southern-style colonial home in the middle of 10 acres in Pacoima, California, using marble imported from Sylacauga.

By the 1950s, Howard was making his own hunting movies, such as Tembo, released by RKO in 1952, which is still a film classic. In all, he produced 23 short subject films for Warner Brothers. He wrote several authoritative books on archery and big-game hunting, like Wild Adventure and Hunting The Hard Way, and has been featured in several other archery books.

In 1971, Howard was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. Birmingham sports editor Zipp Newman wrote, “Never has one man so completely dominated his sport as Howard Hill.”

His signature bows and arrows are still being manufactured and sold at Howard Hill Archery in Hamilton, Montana, operated by longtime friends Craig & Evie Ekin. For those interested in watching Howard’s demo films, Youtube offers more than a dozen, mostly filmed in the quaint, genderpatronizing style of the 1940-50s.

After an unparalleled lifetime of making bows, movies, and unbroken records, Howard and Elizabeth retired to a large, colonial style home they built in Vincent, which still stands today. Howard passed away in 1975 after a bout with cancer, and Elizabeth, always at his side, joined him in eternal peace less than a year later.

They now lie in repose in the Hodges’ family plot at the New Ashville Cemetery, just inside the fork of its service road. Their headstone is framed with two drawn bows, but nothing else at the site commemorates his world fame. Always the dedicated wife, Elizabeth’s marker does not show her birth date, only a final one, so as to not draw attention to the difference in their ages.

Margaret McLain describes Howard and Elizabeth’s life together as “a very long love story. She was his greatest fan.” l

Whether you have a health question, need a physician, or want to register for a health class, St. Vincent’s Dial-A-Nurse is just a phone call away. Dial-A-Nurse, a free ministry of St. Vincent’s Health System, is staffed by registered nurses who can direct you to the answer you need.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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‘Peanut’ Bill Seales shows off the Key to the City given to him by Pell City Mayor Joe Funderburg.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Key to the City

Story by Leigh Pritchett Photography by Michael Callahan

Aug. 11, 2014, was a run-of-the-mill Monday for probably most people in St. Clair County.

But that was not the case for Bill Seales.

The man lovingly known as “Peanut Bill” had been summoned to the City Council meeting that was to take place that morning.

After the opening prayer and Pledge of Allegiance, Seales was called to the front of the Council chambers, where Mayor Joe Funderburg read a proclamation to “hereby honor a most gallant, courageous son.”

The proclamation calls Seales “a glowing example of determination” and “a model of courage for many Pell Citians.” It notes that he “has demonstrated a strength and desire to overcome many physical restrictions that did not prohibit his willingness and determination to be an independent, productive citizen. … (He) is, and shall always be a respected part of the Pell City family.”

The proclamation further declares Aug. 11, 2014, as “Bill Seales Day” in Pell City.

As Funderburg finished reading the proclamation, thunderous applause and a shout of “We love you, Bill!” erupted, quickly giving way to a standing ovation.

Then, Funderburg presented Seales with a golden key to the city.

Seales flashed his familiar, broad smile and there was another standing ovation.

Though speechless for a moment, Seales graciously responded, “Thank you. Thank you all.”

Cameras from two Birmingham television stations caught the action as an entourage of relatives, friends and well-wishers gathered around Seales outside the Council chambers.

Tina Ailor, who is manager of Food Outlet and Seales’ special friend, held his hand.

“We were very honored that Pell City went to this length to recognize him,” said Alice Kennedy, Seales’ cousin.

Through the years, the citizens “were very excited to see Bill” whenever he was selling peanuts “and he was always welcomed with open arms,” Kennedy said.

Seales, who is 66, peddled peanuts around

Community pays tribute to ‘Peanut’Bill DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

25

Key to the City

The festivities continued when Bill returned home to Golden Living Center in Pell City,

Pell City for nearly 50 years. He started at 17 years of age.

He became part of Pell City’s fabric as he logged thousands of miles on foot or on his three-wheeled cycle, selling his signature items about town. He also had a peanut stand, first at Food World until it permanently closed and then at Food Outlet.

When TV news anchor Mike Royer issued an open forum for anyone to speak, Kathy Phillips of Southside came from the back of the gathering and said she could be silent no longer.

She wiped tears from her eyes as she clipped on a microphone.

Phillips, a cousin, said she and Seales lived in the same house when she was a child.

“Bill has always been an inspiration to me and my family,” Phillips said. “He is one of my lifelong heroes.”

Daily, Seales would go five miles from where they lived on Florida Road into town, walk all around Pell City selling his peanuts and then return home. “That’s how he supported himself,” Phillips said.

Each day, he would bring Phillips a box of Cracker Jacks.

Seales’ independent spirit gave him determination to support himself and his wife, Karen (now deceased). Generously, he has given to his family, the community and the city, Phillips said.

The way Seales has lived is proof that anyone can

26

Bill and the proclamation making it his day.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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27

Key to the City Friends, family and supporters turned out to support Bill at City Hall.

do anything if the individual tries hard enough, regardless of the adversity he faces, Phillips said.

Shortly after Seales’ birth, a medical situation left him with physical challenges.

Yet, Seales resolved as a child not to allow the challenges to hold him back.

In an article in the February & March 2014 issue of Discover magazine, Seales says he decided early in life to work and support himself.

“I’m going to go forward, if it kills me,” Seales is quoted as saying. “I’ve always wanted to work. The Bible says, ‘Work.’ It never hurt me! … If I hadn’t been peddling peanuts and going and doing, I’d be dead. If you don’t get busy doing something, you won’t make it.”

Seales’ aunt, Geneva Bannister of Pell City, said she could not talk about him without crying. “I love him more than anybody else in the world.”

Funderburg described Seales as “one of the most popular citizens in Pell City” and “an example of courage to a lot of

28

people.”

Because of Seales’ exemplary life, there had been much public support for him to be formally recognized, Funderburg explained. “I felt like (recognition) was something that was overdue.”

When the Council meeting adjourned that morning, the accolades did not end, however.

That afternoon, there was quite a shindig at Golden Living Center in Pell City, which is Seales’ current residence.

The music of Elvis, Bobby Darrin and Chubby Checker created such an upbeat atmosphere that Seales and Gerry Stallworth, the center’s director of rehabilitation, danced together.

After Jamie Lancaster, executive director of Golden Living Center, announced the honor the city had bestowed on Seales, the residents and staff members who filled the dining area applauded heartily.

When Seales got a glimpse of the peanut-shaped cake that awaited him and the bowls of peanuts surrounding it, his big, broad smile flashed once more. l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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29

Telling the Story CFO-turned-writer pens his first World War II novel Mike Brennan has finished the first in his series of books on World War II.

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Story by Jim Smothers Photos by Michael Callahan Mike Brennan of Cropwell fulfilled the first part of a decades-old ambition this summer when he published his first book. The Class of ’39 is a novel about the years leading up to World War II and the men and women whose contributions to the air war helped the Allies achieve victory.

For about 30 years, he has been processing ideas about how to tell the story he wanted to share, and he thinks it will take at least four books to complete the story. He’s already hard at work on the second one.

Mike and Judy Brennan have met a lot of people during the years they’ve lived on Logan Martin Lake. They came south to retire, but Mike kept up his CPA practice from a home office, and about three years ago became the chief financial officer for Northside Medical Associates.

There was a joke going around for a while that his family was taking over the River Oaks subdivision. The Brennan’s were introduced to the area by his brother-in-law, who had discovered Logan Martin during his trips to watch NASCAR races at Talladega. He also enjoyed fishing. He and his wife bought a house here, and the Brennan’s followed suit. Two more sets of relatives did likewise, so for several years there were four related families enjoying the lake life together.

A native of California, Brennan was born not long after the war had begun. His family lived in Riverside, home of March Air Force Base, where mid-level and advanced aviation training were conducted. The number of troops swelled to some 80,000 after the war started, overwhelming housing in the area. Many families, including the Brennans, took in trainee pilots as boarders.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

S T . S I M O N P E T E R E P I S C O PA L C H U RC H

2014 Pumpkin Palooza Pumpkin Palooza is St. Simon Peter Episcopal Church's annual fall fund raiser to raise money for church projects which include outreach programs for our community.

We welcome your visit and know you will enjoy it!

S T. SIMON P ETER E P I S C O PA L C H U RC H We are located at the intersection of Alabama 34 and Mays Bend Road 3702 Mays Bend Road Pell City Phone: 205-884-0877

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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Just a few of the planes from World War II. Aviation plays a big part in the book and its author’s life.

The illustrator is Terry Brennan, Mike’s cousin.

He is a lifelong pilot who at one time led an aerobatic team of T34s. He is currently the curator of the San Diego Aerospace Museum.

“I remember being bounced on the knees of aviators and tossed back and forth,” he said. “This was the environment in which we were immersed.”

He also recalls the local air raid warden banging on their door to complain that light could be seen outside their home. The fear of air raids was very real, and a serious effort was made to keep city lights from being seen so that enemy night raiders — if they ever came — would have a tougher time locating cities.

Brennan also recalls seeing automobile headlights with the top halves covered with black tape, another wartime practice adopted to defend against air raids.

The youngest by far of the Brennan children, Mike had a sister 21 years his senior, and a brother 19 years older. His brother was in the Navy, and Mike didn’t meet him until 1946, well after the war was over. His sister had married a pilot who became a career air force officer. He served in the Pacific, participating in bombing raids over Japan until he was shot down. He was treated harshly by his Japanese captors, Mike said.

After the war, Mike lived with his sister, her husband, and

32

The Spartan was one of the most advanced civilian aircraft of the late 30s-early 40s and features prominently in the story.

their son who was six months older than Mike — more like a brother than a nephew.

“It seemed all of the adult conversations were about the Depression or the War,” Brennan said. He took it all in. He also learned to fly as a teenager, a passion he has never lost, and something that seemed perfectly natural, given his family and community circumstances.

Brennan had a very successful career as a CPA in California.

He counted a number of successful professionals and noted entertainers and authors among his clients. He worked with the legendary rock band Steppenwolf, the hilarious and controversial Smothers Brothers, comedian Dom De Luise, singer and actress Julie Andrews and others. But the client who perhaps had the most impact on Brennan was Ernest Kellogg Gann, arguably the most successful and influential aviation writer ever. Brennan told Gann he wanted to be a writer, and Gann’s advice was coarse and to the point.

“You want to write? Well, ___ ____ it, write!”

The Brennan’s also owned and operated a Cessna Aircraft dealership with a flight school and other aviation services as

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Telling the Story part of the business. They did a good business in both new and previously owned aircraft, with a bit of a specialty in WW II era planes.

The Book The Class of ’39 follows the lives of four young men as they choose paths that lead them to roles in aviation in the national defense, but not only the young men. Their families and girlfriends become part of the story. So does a rare civilian aircraft, a 1939 Spartan, one of the most advanced and powerful single engine airplanes built before the war. The book covers the period from 1931-1941, and details how unprepared the United States was militarily.

A work of fiction, the book is also filled with history, and as a CPA, he is detailoriented.

“I’m finding it takes three or four hours of research to do one hour of writing,” he said. “It’s fiction, but where I mention facts, I want them to be accurate. The events are the canvas upon which I’m painting my story. The story I’m telling is as much about the people at home as those in combat.”

The role of women in aviation, and their support of the war effort is part of the story Brennan wants to tell. Their service at home freed up their male counterparts for duty in foreign theaters.

“A lot of people will be surprised to learn we had 23-24-25 year-old women flying planes like the B-17. That plane normally had a crew of nine, but we would have two women flying those planes across the country, just as capably as the men. One of the things I hope to accomplish: I wrote the story in a manner I hoped would be appealing to women. I worked very hard at that. I wanted to explain flight in a family way.

“The pilots’ wives and girlfriends, by having the Spartan available, it created a platform by which these women could be introduced to aviation and the friends could remain close. One aspect of the story that is very important to me is teaching about flight.”

Brennan also pays homage to his adopted state of Alabama through characters and action in the story. One character is a descendant of Creek Indians driven out of the state on Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears. Many years later, they found that the land to which they were exiled in Oklahoma was right on top of one of the richest oil fields in the world.

“I like that irony,” Brennan said. He also notes Alabama’s legacy in the defense of our nation, both in the number of bases in the state and the number of men and women who served.

“The contributions Alabama made to the military, especially during WWII, were just incredible. Alabama was better represented than probably any other state in the union with people willing to serve and who served with distinction,” he said.

Brennan’s background as a CPA also brought him to the business side of being a writer with both eyes open.

It’s a tough business for a new writer to get noticed. Brennan said there are about 1,200 new books published every day.

“Being an author today is a tremendous challenge,” he said.

That’s especially true for a first-time author who has to figure out how to promote his work.

Brennan is planning several book signings in the area where the book can be purchased. It’s also available online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Books-AMillion. Brennan makes autographed hard cover editions available on his website, www.theclassof39.com. He also returned to California for a radio interview to be played on MoneyRadio.com through connections from his time as a CPA there.

So far, the feedback has been very positive and very strong.

“The hardest thing to do is to get someone to take the time to read your work,” he said.

“The Class of ’39 is about a nation working together, and what we can accomplish if we pull together. It’s my hope than anyone who reads my story will gain an understanding of what it took to save the world from the Imperial Japanese and the Nazis.

“I would stand on my head if my grandchildren would read it and gain a better understanding of how our victory in WW II changed the world for the better.” l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

33

MEMORIES

Much more than a restaurant in Pell City Richard Ely spent years learning about all the different kinds of cars that would stop by the restaurant.

34

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Story by Graham Hadley Contributed photos For decades, Dairy Queen was a cornerstone of both the Pell City business and social communities.

It was much more than a restaurant. It was one of those unofficial city centers where friends and family would gather just to meet, discuss local events and spend time together — not to mention eat lots of Dairy Queen’s hallmark foods.

It has been some years since Pell City residents last enjoyed a meal and camaraderie at a Dairy Queen there, but all that recently changed as a new store, with new owners, opened its doors.

Residents have been looking forward to the new business, but for many people, it is more than just a restaurant opening its doors and generating jobs and revenue for the city, it sparks memories of days gone by at the previous establishments.

Richard Ely was the owner of the old DQ, and those memories are very much alive for the Pell City businessman.

Ely, originally from Texas, moved to Pell City with his family in 1945 at the end of World War II. His stepfather, Sam Dycus, with the encouragement and support of Jack DeGaris, soon opened a drive-in and restaurant, Sam’s.

“I started work there when I was 11 years old,” first as a dishwasher, then as a curb-hop, Ely said.

A few years later, they sold the old business to Skad and Alma Skelton — and Sam’s became Skad’s — so they could purchase the Dairy Queen located on US 78 near Henderson’s Builders Supply Co. from Mr. Mims in 1956.

That purchase started what would become almost half a century of Dairy Queen ownership by his family in Pell City.

“I was a curb-hop. Some of the sweethearts that came there then, I know six generations now. They met and courted there, and now have great-greatgrandchildren,” Ely said. “Tootie Hare, a football standout for coach Will Glover, said I, Gerald Ensley and Bobby Burnham were the fastest curbhops in the business.”

The restaurant was a huge hangout for young and old alike.

Like the nearby Rexall Drugs, the original drive-in had a round table where local residents would gather to discuss everything from Auburn and Alabama football to the news. That tradition carried over to the Dairy Queen.

“There was Doodie Lowery and Sam Cornett, James Bucacek, James Obie Rowe, W.D. Jackson, just to name a few,” Ely said.

“I remember Alabama lost to Auburn three years in a row in the 1950s, and they downgraded Alabama so badly at the Round Table, that that was the year I became an Alabama fan.”

Dairy Queen was equally popular with local teenagers. They would congregate in the parking lot and around nearby businesses and cruise

Richard Ely said he was always proud of the work ethic they saw in their employees.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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MEMORIES around to “see and be seen,” Ely said.

That suited him just fine. Ely has always been an avid car enthusiast, and everyone driving through the parking lot gave him a chance to see all the customized and hot-rod cars up close.

“I used to enjoy looking over all the cars. I know each make and year, what model and brand. It was kind of a hobby. I know the cars and motorcycles,” he said. “That was a big thing, getting old cars, hotrodding them. There were not many police cars in Pell City, and they would drag race.

“I see those kids now, and they have kids, and their kids have kids,” he said.

In later years, when they added a reader-board to the restaurant sign, some of the local youths would sneak out and rearrange the letters to spell out something different.

“I have no idea how they got up there, that sign was tall, but they sure did,” Ely said.

Some of Dairy Queen’s busiest times were after football games, when it seemed like most of the city would crowd around the restaurant.

“It was very exciting after football games to have everyone rush you like that. It kept you hopping.

You knew you were part of the community.”

Ely says franchise restaurants back then were run very differently from the way they are run today.

“We had a lot of older women who worked there just to get out of the house. They knew how to prepare food fresh. We would cut our chicken fingers fresh and had our own sauce and way of cooking them,” he said. “When people think of the Pell City Dairy Queen, they are usually thinking of our chicken fingers.”

First among those women was his mother, Hazel, who everyone called Ma Dycus.

“People trusted her so much, they would stop by and drop off their kids to hang around for the day, knowing she would keep an eye on them.”

Others who helped out — women who Ely credits with teaching him the business, especially after he came back to manage it — included Aerila Morrison, Fanny Wyatt, Louise Graham and Maxine Abbott.

They made sure the restaurant was kept clean and all the food was prepared to exacting specifications.

“We had a milkshake called a wing-dinger that was very popular, and our cheese sandwiches with RC Cola were popular, too. … People would sometimes get peanuts and put them in their RC Cola,” Ely said. “You could also get a Tuttle burger.

Mr. Tuttle made some fantastic burgers.” He also remembers Rochester Root Beer, the huge barrel in which it was housed and popular root beer floats.

Ely worked at the restaurant through his school years but left Pell City to join the Air Force in 1960.

It was during that time abroad he met his wife,

36

Lynne and Richard Ely in the early years

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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Over its last few years, the final DQ building on US 231 changed little.

Richard Ely said their business drew much of its success from its employees of all ages.

38

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

MEMORIES Lynne, originally from Hollywood, Calif.

While he was away, his stepfather got wind — “just rumors” — the interstate would be coming through town, and he relocated the Dairy Queen to US 231.

Ely was living in California with his wife and had not expected to return to the restaurant business, but in 1971, that is exactly what he did.

“My mother was in failing health, my stepfather had passed away, and she asked me to come and take over the Dairy Queen, and I came back,” he said.

“When I took over the Dairy Queen, it was more complicated than working in the Air Force. I had to know management, operations, accounting, how to be a psychologist for employees, and an engineer to keep the equipment running. I worked long hours. It was difficult, but enjoyable.”

That difficulty peaked when in 1972, not long after he took over the operation, the Dairy Queen burned to the ground. Ely knew he desperately needed to get the business up and running again, quickly. Every day they were closed, they were losing money.

“Charles N. Robinson Construction rebuilt the restaurant after the fire. They did it in four months and 22 days. He knew we needed to get back in business, and he jumped on it,” Ely said.

Regardless of the location, the Dairy Queen was a core part of Pell City life, and many local professionals and business leaders got their start working there.

“I am proud that I have had a lot of boys and girls come up to me and tell me they have had successful careers because when they worked for me they learned quality service, how to work with other employees, how to do quality work. We relied on them like we would adults. They have gone on to have jobs like bankers and accountants,” Ely said.

“We did not limit them to one activity — they learned the whole store.”

One of the biggest challenges for the Dairy Queen management and staff was meeting the requirements of the franchise chain and keeping up what their local loyal customers expected.

“Dairy Queen was a franchise operation, and they would make changes. If people did not like it, you would have to put it back the way it was. As business went on, it got harder to balance that,” Ely said.

Though the restaurant remained successful, in 2000, Ely’s health got to the point where he needed to retire, and the Pell City Dairy Queen closed its doors.

To this day, Ely said he still misses working there.

“I miss the excitement and the adrenaline of the job. I would not be able to do it today. We had land and were going to build a new, modern Dairy Queen there, but my health would not allow it,” he said.

He is glad a new Dairy Queen is once again a part of the Pell City community, but Ely can’t help expressing regret that it is not he or his family who is making it happen.

“I am sad that it is not us. I wish it could have been me. It is very emotional. But it does my heart good to see the Dairy Queen coming back after all these years,” he said. l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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PParadise umpkin Story by Carol Pappas Photography by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

She jokingly refers to herself with the moniker, “the pumpkin lady.” If someone gets lost atop Chandler Mountain and can’t find her house, just tell the neighbors you’re looking for the pumpkin lady, she said.

That’s the easiest way to reach your destination point.

It’s not difficult to get the connection. From the front gate to the house’s wraparound porch to outside structures, they are filled with pumpkin displays — a collage of colors, sizes and varieties.

41

PParadise umpkin

Melinda Smith showing off one of her Chandler Mountain pumpkins still on the vine.

Tiny pumpkins, long stems add to variety.

42

Out back and down the hill a bit, you’ll find the origin of them all —13 rows — at least 50 yards long — of more than 40 kinds of pumpkins. Cinderella (pumpkin, that is) hides beneath massive green leaves and vines. So does Fairy Tale. After all, those two started it all for Melinda Smith. But there’s plenty more, and the varying colors, sizes and looks are nothing short of amazing.

This is her 14th year of growing pumpkins, a tradition that started because a friend picked up some unusual heirloom pumpkins in Georgia — Cinderella and Fairy Tale — and gave her the seeds. Cinderella gets her name from the uncanny resemblance to Cinderella’s carriage, a similarity you immediately recognize. “It’s fun to watch them grow,” Smith said.

She could grow some to 50 pounds or more, but she likes to pick them from the field herself, so she opts for smaller versions during her growing season from the end of June to late August. “I save seeds every year,” and she orders more.

Husband Phillip is a third generation commercial tomato grower, and she shares some of the land for his crop to grow hers. She started small but the harvest seems to grow bigger each year.

Take a stroll around her yard, and you’ll find a cornucopia of color. An open air shed displays all kinds of pumpkins — large and small and in between — on shelves fashioned from old wooden tomato crates of her husband’s family business. They have names like Goosebumps Super Freak because of their bumpy exterior or Peanut Pumpkins, whose bumps resemble peanut shells.

An iron chandelier hangs from the center of the shed’s ceiling, each prong supporting a tiny orange pumpkin to give the illusion of lights. Just outside, you’ll find a display of all white pumpkins, a cotton plant acting as perfect complement.

On the other side, a shelf of pumpkins are set beneath the letters f-a-l-l, spelled out in twigs against an orange block background. It all overlooks a pond and tomato fields just beyond.

A storage building nearby isn’t your typical construction either. It looks more like a miniature home, and it, too, is filled with pumpkin displays. Its features, like the semirusted, corrugated metal rear wall, a fireplace mantel and the wood it took to build it are items she has saved over the years. “I’m into reusing stuff. I save old wood. I might use it one day.”

When told it’s called ‘repurposing’ these days, she laughs and says, “Of course, my husband has another name for it.”

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

43

PParadise umpkin

Pumpkins all in white

No matter what you call it, it’s a paradise of pumpkins cleverly displayed and hinting at the discriminating, designing eye of the harvester.

And each year in the fall, she shares it all — her bounty and her talent. She holds a pumpkin patch party where people can come and buy pumpkins, enjoy the outdoors, have a few refreshments and bring the kids to play among the fruits of their parents’ finds.

“We have smaller pumpkins for the kids to decorate,” she said. They even have their own table.

The party seems to have grown with the pace of her crop. Her mailing list has topped the 200-mark, and she has had more than 150 attend in years past. This year is her first weekend event, which is planned for Oct. 3-4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Oct. 5 from noon to 2.

She is expecting a big crowd to peruse the grounds for just the right color, texture and size for seasonal decorating. And if not decorating, all the pumpkins she grows are edible, she added.

“I tell them to bring a friend,” she said.

And they apparently do. Once they find the pumpkin lady, word spreads. l

Sign of the season

A pumpkin chandelier 44

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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Claims to Fame Ginger and Mary Holladay sit at a piano with one of their gold records hanging on the wall in the background.

Stars in their own right Story by Leigh Pritchett Photography by Wallace Bromberg Jr. 46

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

“We’re caught in a trap.” (ooooooooooo) “I can’t walk out” (ooooooooooo) “Because I love you too much baby.” (aaaaaaaaah) The rich, baritone voice in the song “Suspicious Minds” is unmistakably Elvis Presley.

But the oo’s and ah’s and other background vocals ring out from St. Clair County, Ala. Two of the backup singers on that song were sisters Mary and Ginger Holladay, who grew up in Pell City.

In January 1969, Elvis was recording a comeback project after 10 years of concentrating on a movie career, said Ginger and Mary.

At that time, Mary was already a seasoned studio singer, with projects like the Box Tops’ “Cry Like a Baby” and Joe Simon’s “Nine Pound Steel” to her credit.

Ginger, on the other hand, was a senior at Pell City High School, with no studio experience.

That January weekend, Ginger went to a studio in Memphis, Tenn.

— at Mary’s beckoning — to fill in for a backup singer who had laryngitis.

When Ginger returned to school the next week, she and Mary had done backup vocals for Elvis on “Suspicious Minds” (“Back in Memphis” album) and “In the Ghetto” (“From Elvis in Memphis” album).

Both songs would become hits.

In the career that ensued, the sisters lent their backup vocals to a who’s-who list of celebrities.

Such selections as “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (Joan Baez), “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” (Jerry Reed), “Take a Message, Maria” and “Always Something There to Remind Me” (both by R.B. Greaves), “Holly Holy” (Neil Diamond), “You Were Always on My Mind” (Willie Nelson), “I Can Help” (Billy Swan) and “Please Come to Boston” (Dave Loggins) feature the voices of one or both sisters. Nell Riser Word, another sessions singer with St. Clair County roots, can be heard on some of them as well.

Mary and Ginger — either together or individually — would provide backup vocals for Roosevelt Grier, Ben E. King, Carl

Perkins, Emmylou Harris, Guy Clark, Waylon Jennings, Reba McEntire, Conway Twitty, Delbert McClinton, Barbara Mandrell, Jim Reeves, Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gayle, Marty Robbins, B.J. Thomas, Bobby Womack, Dionne Warwick, Arthur Alexander, Ella Washington, Percy Sledge, Clarence Carter, Merrilee Rush, James and Bobby Purify, Etta James, Ferlin Husky, Boz Scaggs, Donna Fargo, Joe Tex, Jimmy Buffett, Dolly Parton, Brenda Lee, Roy

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

47

The sisters are still performing today.

Holladays on the stars What Mary said about: • Ray Stevens – “He was probably my favorite. He is a good person.”

• Billy Swan – “He was sweet enough to recognize the backup singers” on his records.

• Elvis – “He was always good to us.” He was friendly and just a normal person, who experienced joy and pain like everyone else. Once when he came into the studio, Mary sensed that his marriage was struggling. She felt that she should pray for him.

• Ronnie Milsap – “I loved him. He’s probably the sweetest guy in the world.”

• Chet Atkins – “Chet Atkins got us a lot of sessions.

We hardly knew him and he was getting us work.”

In fact, he introduced the sisters to Jerry Reed.

• Dionne Warwick – “We didn’t see her. We did

48

• • •

overdub” on “I’m Your Puppet.”

Jerry Reed – “We had a good time with Jerry Reed. He was fun to talk to.”

Roger Miller – “We also had a good time with Roger Miller. I liked him a lot. He was a good person.”

Linda Ronstadt – “We liked her a lot. We sounded great with her.”

What Ginger said about: • Dolly Parton – She was “thrilling to work with.”

• Janie Fricke –“I was around a lot of people who became stars.” Fricke and Ginger sang backup together after Mary moved to Germany. Later, Fricke had a solo career.

• Neil Diamond – “He kissed me on the cheek.”

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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Orbison, John Conlee, Steve Young and Janie Fricke, among many others.

They would sing with Linda Ronstadt while she opened for Neil Young and they would tour with Roger Miller, Ronnie Milsap and Ray Stevens. They even performed with Stevens at the inauguration of President Richard M. Nixon. The sisters would also appear on the “Jim Ed Brown Show” more than a year.

“I got to sing with Cher at Muscle Shoals,” said Mary. “We did the last album Elvis did. In 1974, we were on three No. 1 songs.”

Those three gold records — “I Can Help” (Billy Swan); “The Streak” (Ray Stevens) and “I Love My Friend” (Charlie Rich) — and a white Wurlitzer piano grace Mary’s music room.

As children, Mary and Ginger took piano lessons, just like their siblings Jerry, Nancy and Roy. From seventh- through 12th-grades, Mary and some friends had a quartet called “Sweethearts,” which performed at school functions and on the Birmingham-based “Country Boy Eddie Show.”

“We thought we were stars,” Mary said of the foursome being on that show.

After high school, she studied music at Auburn University. Around 1967, she and fellow St. Clair Countian Susan Coleman Pilkington were recruited to sing backup in Muscle Shoals studios. Occasionally they worked in Memphis.

Ginger, as well, had been in a girl quartet that a teacher formed at Iola Roberts Elementary School.

Nonetheless, her vocal talent developed before then. She and Mary grew up harmonizing around the piano with their siblings and parents — Hilda and J.T. Holladay (both deceased).

As teens, the sisters sang in the youth choir at First Baptist Church in Pell City.

“Late at night, we used to get WLS from Chicago,” Ginger said. Singing along with rhythm-and-blues songs on the radio helped her and Mary to perfect their technique that would later become known in the music industry as the “Holladay sound.”

“People liked our sound,” Ginger said. “We were emotional. We put a lot of feeling into it.”

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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Mary Holladay is far left; Elvis in middle and Ginger Holladay at far right.

Mary Holladay is at bottom right; this was taken in between recording sessions with Cher in Muscle Shoals.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Mary shows off a gold record for one of the singles they worked on.

Claims to Fame The first time Ginger heard Mary on the radio — which was in the song “Nine Pound Steel” — Ginger was “thrilled.”

“It was so exciting to hear your sister on the radio,” Ginger said. “I wanted to do that too.”

The chance came quickly and in an almost statistically impossible way. Ginger went straight from never having done studio work to singing backup for Elvis.

“I was like 17 years old,” Ginger said. “My sister dressed me up to look older.”

The two did not dare tell the record producer that Ginger was a novice. After the fact, when he did find out, he was none too happy about it, Mary said.

When Ginger heard her own voice on the radio in “Suspicious Minds,” “it was like a dream come true.”

After finishing high school, Ginger moved to Memphis to be with Mary and attend Memphis State University. Their first audition was for Ray Stevens.

“He hired us to go to Las Vegas with him, to the Riviera,” Mary recalled. “We thought this was big. We got to rehearse with him in somebody’s garage.”

The “we” to whom Mary referred not only included her and Ginger, but also Word.

Though the sisters have many interesting stories about the artists with whom they worked, Mary said people most often want to hear about Elvis.

Mary describes their first encounter with Elvis as if it happened only yesterday. The sisters speak of the energy that was about him which announced his presence in a building. People did not have to be told he was there because they could feel it.

When Elvis and his entourage arrived that first day, he personally introduced himself to the studio singers. “Boy, were we nervous,” Mary said. “We could not say anything.”

Once that subsided, though, “we could talk to him just like we’re talking now,” Mary said to her Discover magazine visitors.

Elvis was even kind enough to sign a Christmas card for Mary and Ginger’s mother.

“It’s hardly believable that we got to do this,” Mary said about singing with Elvis. For two small-town girls from Alabama to sing with the man known all over the world was amazing, Mary said.

For the Holladays, studio work eventually led to singing jingles for commercials. Mary’s voice advertised Mountain Dew, United Airlines and Nestle Crunch. Ginger, too, sang jingles for United Airlines and Nestle Crunch, as well as 7-Up, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s (“Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, …”) and Kellogg’s.

Mary married Air Force pilot Steven Pederson and, in 1975, the military sent them to Germany.

“I got to do some shows in Europe during that time,” Mary said.

She continued to do occasional sessions in Nashville.

After 1978, she took a hiatus to rear children. The Pedersons have three daughters — Molly Gilbert, Meghan Galanti and Amy Pederson — and three grandchildren.

In 1990, Mary and Ginger started teaming with Elvis tribute artists and have appeared on several tours in Europe. In fact, the sisters performed in September during a cruise on the North Sea. Not only

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51

Claims to Fame did they back up others performers, but they also sang several selections together.

For Elvis Week 2008 in Memphis, Mary and Ginger were asked to participate and to recount for visitors their stories of working with him.

In the late 1970s, Ginger moved to Chicago, where she recorded radio and television commercials. Then, in the late 1980s, she relocated to San Francisco. She sang with bands and did commercials until the 1990s.

She met and married Dean Marson and settled in the Bavarian-themed village of Leavenworth, Washington. “It’s quite beautiful, maybe 5,000 people,” Ginger said.

Ginger gardens, hikes at the nearby Cascade Mountains and teaches yoga. She writes songs and has a recording studio in her home. She also is an artist.

One of her pieces is a mural as big as the side of her barn.

Actually, it is the side of her barn and has become somewhat of a tourist attraction.

“People drive by and take pictures of my barn,” Ginger said.

As for Mary, she and Steven live in Cropwell, where Mary enjoys singing, growing day lilies and spending time with her immediate and extended family. She is the praise and worship leader at Grace Chapel of Eden.

Mary said she and Ginger did not plan their career; “it just happened.” Each step they took seemed to carry them to the next level. Nonetheless, they felt like their journey was “guided.”

One example is how the two came to sing backup for Elvis.

Mary said the group of studio singers with whom she was working happened to be doing sessions with Neil Diamond at American Sound Studio in Memphis at the time Elvis was set to record his comeback album. A series of events got her group noticed by the record producer and subsequently selected to do Elvis’s backup vocals. Then, of course, Ginger was brought into the group quickly to fill a vacancy.

“We were really blessed to have been singing at that studio,” Mary said. “God works things together.”

Ginger added, “I was in the right place at the right time. I feel really blessed that I got the opportunity.”

Mary said the experience of singing the first time with Elvis led to more projects with him — such as “Burning Love” and “The Wonder of You” — and to work with other artists. In fact, the sisters continued to provide backup vocals on Elvis songs until 1977.

Ginger’s one regret about her years as a backup singer is that she did not purchase a copy of every recording on which her voice is heard.

Remarking about her career, Ginger pointed out “how unusual (it was) to start in the music business at the very top.

That just blows my mind. Looking back at it, I think, ‘Wow!’ and ‘Why didn’t I collect the records?’” l

The Holladay sisters in the studio

At the MGM Grand in Vegas.

52

(Additional assistance with this article was provided by Cathy Holladay.)

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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From sauce king to barbecue baron Crews partners on new — still tasty — venture

Barbecue grilling in the South is an art. Josh Seawright is a master.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Marty Crews outside his latest venture.

Story by Elaine Miller Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Marty Crews has always dreamed of opening a barbecue place. And what better day for his dream to come true than on July 4, when he started smoking butts and pulling pork at the Shell Station on the square in downtown Ashville. He set up a smoker, two tents and two picnic tables, and Big Boyz Barbecue was born.

“We didn’t have any overhead at the Shell Station,” Crews says. “We had no waitresses or utilities to pay, no building to rent.”

In just a few weeks, however, business was so good that his customers were clogging the parking lot, and he had to move. His new home is across the street from the jail at 165 Sixth Ave. N., in the former B&R Grocery building.

“I wanted to stay in Ashville,” he says. “I had lots of offers from places like Leeds and Gadsden, but I believe in Ashville.”

This isn’t Crews’ first business venture, but it is his first with a partner. He has been bottling and selling his Punk*s Gourmet Pepper Sauce for five years and owns Alabama Mailbox Company, specializing in matching mailboxes and street signs for subdivisions. But he figured he had lost enough sleep on ventures of his own, so he decided to take a partner for the barbecue stand. That’s where his buddy, Josh Seawright, comes in. The offensive line coach at Ashville High School, Josh also raises chickens for Koch Foods and has a family lumber company, J&R Lumber.

Crews figured his business acumen would be an asset to Big Boyz.

During the summer, the pair usually cooked 16-18 pork butts and 12 racks of ribs on a weekend. They sold about 600 pounds of pork between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, often selling out early. “Lots of times we would sell out by 4 p.m.,” Crews says.

They get a lot of repeat customers for their sandwiches, ribs, pork butts and Big Chubby Potatoes, which weigh almost a pound after they’re loaded with barbecue and sauce. Their set-up at the Shell Station was almost like a drive-through, because many customers never got out of their cars to place and receive their orders.

The Big Chubby sells for $7, while sandwiches, including chicken and turkey, sell for $5 each. They also do roasted corn-on-the-cob basted in pork butt grease and sell Punk*s Sauce and Big Boyz t-shirts.

Since moving to Sixth Avenue in August, they’ve started opening a day during the week, changed their hours and added items to their menu. Open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., they’ve extended Friday closings until midnight on nights that Ashville High School plays football on its home turf.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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Barbecue baron “We now have wings, barbecue salad and barbecue nachos,” Crews says. “On Fridays when AHS has a home game, we replay it on a big-screen television under an awning outside.”

Business has picked up, too, due in part to their standing in the al.com “Best Barbecue in Alabama” contest. In early September, they were in second place and pulling customers from all over Birmingham.

Crews and Seawright use Punk*s sauce as the basis for their barbecue sauce, making both mild and spicy forms. The sweeter version consists of two parts Punk*s and one part honey. Their Chubby Sauce consists of two parts Punk*s and one part ranch dressing. “I like the Chubby Sauce on my salads,” Crews says.

“I also use it for grilled salmon, putting it on as soon as I put the salmon on the grill.

The fish cooks so quickly that the sauce doesn’t have time to burn. Josh makes his own rub for our ribs, though.”

Now, Crews has another dream. He wants to get out of the mailbox business and sell barbecue full time. “I had a fiveyear plan to do that, but the economy tanked, so now it’s a 10-year plan,” he says. l

A Big Chubby ready to go

Marty and partner Josh Seawright and the rest of the Big Boyz crew work to keep the customers happy.

56

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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Central Alabama Society for Paranormal Investigation and Research Working to explain the unexplainable

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photography by Michael Callahan

58

“From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night Good Lord, deliver us!”

— Traditional Scottish prayer A 4-year-old Moody boy sees a stranger in his house during the wee hours of the morning. A grown man hears footsteps from above when he’s in the basement of his Pell City business and noises from below when he’s upstairs alone.

Who do you call when you think you’ve encountered visitors from the spirit world? Priest?

Psychiatrist? Ghost Hunters? How about the St. Clair County-based Central Alabama Society for Paranormal Investigation and Research (C.A.S.P.I.R.)?

“The Moody boy’s mother called me at 3 a.m. in a panic,” says Frank Lee, former Army National Guard military logistics technician and the founder and lead investigator for C.A.S.P.I.R. “The boy’s sighting wasn’t the only paranormal activity going on at their house. Cabinet doors were opening, they were hearing voices from empty rooms, and they saw a little girl.”

Lee didn’t rush over in the middle of the night.

“They were Christians, so I worked with them through some prayers and scriptures, and things settled down.”

When he did investigate, he found quite a lot of residual and intelligent activity. “A lot of paranormal activity that people encounter is residual energy,” Lee continues. “The popular explanation of this is the Stone Tape Theory, which says that certain materials like stone can hold energies, like an emotional or psychic imprint, whether happy, sad or whatever. A perfect example is churches, which tend to be one of the most reported haunted places we’ve encountered.

Those are not evil hauntings, but emotional imprints.”

Intelligent activity, Lee says, is where the spirit answers the questions that people proffer. “In the case of the Moody home, they were sitting on the perfect storm, because they lived next door to a church, where emotions often run high.”

As for the Pell City businessman who hears footsteps, the investigation continues. On a warm Friday night in August, the C.A.S.P.I.R. team set up its instruments on the main floor of his business.

The shop is in an old, one-story house, with a main level used as offices and a basement used for storage.

With its piles of boxes, stud framing for rooms that no longer exist, and dark corners, the basement has the atmosphere of a Hammer Studios horror flick.

The man has seen shadows and odd lights on the main level, and one day, a mist abruptly formed in an office, then just as abruptly disappeared. Most of these incidents have occurred during broad daylight.

A motley crew consisting of two blue-jeaned, 30-something men, two teenagers, a pink-haired and a punk-haired woman and a third with long blonde hair, the C.A.S.P.I.R. team looks like it would be more at home in a hard-rock band than at a paranormal

59

C.A.S.P.I.R.

The C.A.S.P.I.R. team ready for work. investigation. Lee opened a cache of scientific and quasiscientific instruments that included a motion-activated infrared camera, a camcorder, night-vision and infrared lights, a lasergrid projector, and something called an SB-7, or Spirit Box, that scans radio frequencies every quarter of a second. The SB-7 generates white noise, which investigators believe spirits can use to communicate with this world.

They also set out a thermobarometer to measure atmospheric conditions, because they believe that when ghosts are trying to manifest themselves, they draw energy that can create temperature fluctuations. Their EMF meter, normally used to find leaks in electrical wiring, measures any electro-magnetic field generated by spirits that might be present.

The Law of Conservation of Energy states: “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.” That would explain the presence of spirits in our world, says Lee. It also explains the theory behind the use of most of these instruments. The cameras sometimes pick up images that can’t be seen by the naked eye and simple voice recorders pick up electronic voice phenomena (EVP) from frequencies outside the range of the human ear.

Lee and his team came prepared with more than instruments, though. They had researched the building’s history and the geological properties of the land on which it sits. When they left, they would spend many hours poring over the data they had gathered, examining the photos closely and listening with practiced ears for any hint of other-worldly sounds.

“There are many aspects to properly handling a paranormal case, and the investigation is just the diagnostic part,” says Lee, an admitted science geek who sees himself as a serious researcher helping people rather than as a ghost hunter. “We follow up after the investigation, too, because the person involved may need counseling or to get back into church.”

This was Lee’s first trip to the Pell City business, but Donald

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The investigators use a laser grid and other technology to closely monitor conditions.

Davis had been there several times. He says the house is inhabited by the spirit of an elderly woman named Anna, the former owner. He says her husband died in the basement, and that same man may have shot Anna’s brother to death in the back yard.

On previous trips, Donald had captured small moans, a voice saying, “Hey, I’m here,” and one complete sentence, “Do you want to go?” The latter, he says, was in response to his statement that if Anna didn’t want the team present, she should say so. He keeps going back, hoping to hear more.

Three other team members, Pink Floyd (real name), Dee Harper and Christine Grace, were present because they are mediums. Sometimes, Pink sees images or hears voices of entities inside her head, which caused her parents to send her to a psychiatrist when she was 5 years old. “I get memories of entities, like snapshots or watching a short film,” Pink says.

“Some things trigger it, like certain smells that no one else can smell.”

Harper says she has always been able to see, hear and talk to spirits. “I saw a ‘real’ person in my mom’s closet as a child, but I was told it was my imagination. So I would block them (the spirit images) out. Last year, someone came into my life who helped me not to fear them, so now I tune in.”

Grace says names and numbers sometimes come to her, and she can see things others in the group can’t, like shadows, footprints or a face. “I can feel their touches, too,” she says.

While the team was setting up, their flashlight and camera batteries kept going dead, despite replenishing them with new ones. Lee had to run the instruments straight from the AC adapters, which can be common in haunted locations, he says.

Once the instruments were in place, the lights went off, and the chatter slowly faded as the team watched and listened.

Donald turned on a digital recorder. The group eyed the green net light pattern on the wall, made by the laser grid projector.

Street noises filtered in from outside and appliances hummed in the kitchen.

“Anna, are you still here?” Donald asked. He paused briefly, waiting for a response. “Is your husband here?” (pause) “Your brother?” (pause) “Can you tell us his name?” (pause) “Do you want us here?”

Suddenly, the laser lights flickered and dimmed. “Is that you tampering with our laser?” Lee asked. The grid stopped moving and came back to full brightness. “That was quite phenomenal, because we rarely see tampering with equipment to that level,” Lee says.

“Anna, do you know that you’ve passed away?” Donald continued. “Can you tell us how?” (pause) “Pink is here with us, do you have something to say to her?” (pause) “You said her name one time.”

Something touched Christine on the leg, causing her to jump. “I don’t know why they (spirits) like to touch me,” she says.

Later in the evening, after a curious reporter and skeptical photographer left, Brittany, Lee’s 13-year-old daughter, complained of a burning sensation on her back during an EVP session in the front office. When Lee checked her, he saw a large scratch mark that couldn’t be explained.

“She was sitting right in front of us when it happened, and there was nothing she could have leaned against in the chair to scratch her,” he says. Moments later, Brittany heard her name coming from the Echo Box, an instrument that takes random audio samples, then echoes and amplifies them, thus enabling the spirits to form words.

Other manifestations went on while the team was there,

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Popular misconceptions about paranormal investigations Frank Lee says people have a lot of misconceptions about paranormal investigations and research. Here are five that he believes are the most popular, and the facts behind them.

1. Paranormal research causes a person to participate in things that interfere with religious practices and beliefs.

Unlike fortune tellers, psychics, shamans, etc., our methods are based on scientific principles and are completely separate from religion or superstition.

The biggest goal of paranormal research is to find scientific explanations for paranormal phenomena to bring this knowledge into mainstream science.

However, we emphasize to our clients that their faith is their strongest defense should they encounter a dark or malevolent entity. A part of many of our investigations includes referring the client to properly ordained clergy and helping them find a church or parish if they are not currently a attending one. Simply put, one should never doubt the power of faith, meditation, and prayer.

2. Paranormal activity only happens at night.

Many people report having their most profound paranormal experiences or capturing their most compelling paranormal evidence during broad daylight.

The actual reason for nighttime investigations is convenience, because most people work during the day. There also tends to be less activity and noise in the immediate area at night (traffic, people out, etc.) to contaminate audio and video data recorded. The infrared cameras and other equipment used during investigations are very sensitive to light and perform better in darker conditions, and most people’s perception and awareness of their surroundings seems to be heightened at night.

3. Old or abandoned buildings are almost always haunted.

Just because a place is old or abandoned, and maybe even has a very creepy look and feel about it, doesn’t necessarily mean it is haunted. On the opposite end of the spectrum, just because it is a new home or building doesn’t mean it isn’t haunted. There are plenty of very old places you can visit and not detect any paranormal activity at all. We have also investigated cases in which a homeowner started experiencing paranormal phenomena immediately after moving into a new house. If paranormal activity is tied to a piece of property and you build a house in that location, you have probably just built yourself a fine, new haunted house.

4. I have a ghost in my home because there are “orbs” in my photos.

Many people have photos that contain those unexplained round or ellipticalshaped light anomalies often referred to as “orbs” and assume they have caught a ghost or spirit in the photograph. Simply put, 99 percent of orbs are caused by light reflecting off of dust particles, moisture droplets, airborne particles or insects and being captured in the photo. When a flash is used it will intensify this effect.

5. Paranormal television shows are a great source of training to be a paranormal investigator.

The most reliable information you can expect to get out of a paranormal television show is a determination of whether or not you’re interested in the paranormal. Aside from that and possibly learning about a few new gadgets that the teams are paid to use and endorse on their shows, don’t expect much else. A real paranormal investigation entails many nights of going to a location and seeing no activity at all and countless hours of reviewing audio, video and photos following an investigation. There are hours of researching a property’s history, interviewing the clients, etc., prior to the investigation. We also have to take into consideration physical hazards such as black mold, trip and fall hazards, asbestos, radiation, wildlife, and insects.

If you think you are experiencing paranormal activity, you can contact the C.A.S.P.I.R. office at 205-201-1171 or via email at caspir.paranormal@ gmail.com. Its new website can be seen at www.caspirparanormal.com. You can follow Lee’s new blog: metaphysicalmindset.blogspot.com.

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C.A.S.P.I.R. according to Lee. With everyone gathered in the same room, footsteps echoed from other parts of the house that were unoccupied. They felt knocking on the floor beneath them, as if someone were in the basement trying to make contact. Lee heard his name and Pink’s name from the Echo Box. “When we asked, ‘How did you die?’ we heard a female voice come through the speaker that said, ‘Cancer,’” Lee claims. “We asked, ‘Who is in the basement?’ and the same female voice said, ‘My brother.’ We asked, ‘Is your brother angry?’ and received a ‘yes’ response over the system.

When we asked, ‘How did your brother die?’ we received a response that said, ‘He was shot,’ which is historically accurate. We asked for names of the brother and others related to the case and the correct names came through as well. It was very compelling!”

This isn’t the scariest place Lee has encountered, however. That dubious distinction goes to a 17thcentury Virginia home with a very dark past. “Me and three other investigators from a previous team were scratched and shoved there by something we couldn’t see,” he says. “We also had a case a few months ago here in Alabama where we saw a 25-pound end table thrown across the room. The people who live there had been clawed, pushed down the steps and held down and nearly suffocated.

That type of activity is rare, but if you do encounter that degree of negativity and violence, you could be dealing with something demonic.”

Like the Pell City business, the end-table case remains open. “We’re working with a demonologist and the Catholic church to arrange a house blessing there,” Lee says. “If necessary, we’ll escalate the case to a full exorcism, which is also rare.”

Some investigations reveal normal causes to what people perceive as paranormal. While with a former team, Lee investigated a woman in Michigan who was having headaches, hallucinations and sleepless nights. The team found black mold and faulty electrical wiring in her rental house. When the landlord fixed those problems, the woman’s life returned to normal.

“There was no paranormal activity involved,” Lee says.

Contrary to popular opinion, paranormal activity doesn’t heighten around Halloween, according to Davis. “We see more activity in winter than summer, though, because the air is so dry and there is more static electricity,” he says. “Spirits use our energy and the energy that’s in the air to communicate with us.”

He believes that when people die tragically, they don’t always “depart” this world. “Some don’t know they’re dead and will deny it when asked,” he says.

So, where are these spirits, and why haven’t they passed on to heaven, hell or whatever Great Beyond awaits them?

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” he says. l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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PELL CITY’S TOUGH MAN

TRIATHLON

Event a huge win for community Story by Carol Pappas Photos by Michael Callahan At daybreak, hundreds of athletes lined the beach at Pell City Lakeside Park in mid-August, donned swim caps and readied for the first leg of Team Magic’s Tough Man Triathlon. More than 350 three-sport athletes representing 16 states got unique views of the city — on a swim, on a bike and on foot.

The triathlon involved a 1.2-mile swim in Logan Martin Lake that began at the beach and came out at the sports complex. A 56-mile bike ride took them from the Civic Center to US 231 South to Easonville Road and Highway 55 and back again. Then they ran for 13 miles down Airport Road to Hamilton Road and returned to the starting point.

It was more than a race and a grueling competition. It was an economic shot in the arm that has promoters excited about their prospects for next year, according to Race Chairman Ofes Forman. “It was awesome,” he said.

Planners speculated that every hotel room would be filled in Pell City, but Forman confirmed it. On Friday before the event, they were 100 percent full. On Saturday, each were between 80 percent and 100 percent full.

He visited restaurants, service stations and grocery stores and heard the testimonials of booming business for himself.

The race was three years in the making with research, planning and garnering support. It was believed to be a way to showcase Pell City and the lake. And when competitors finished the race and told organizers, “‘We’ll be back next year, and we’re going to tell people about it,’” they knew the city had a winner on

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PELL CITY’S TOUGH MAN

TRIATHLON its hands, Forman said.

There is discussion of next year’s date taking place now. And there is talk of a possible children’s triathlon, too.

Thanks to a hard-working committee — Jerrett Jacobs and Michael Murphy as co-chairs, and Erica Grieve, Holly Murphy, Elsie McGowan and Estelle Forman — Forman called the event great exposure for the city and the lake. “It drew in new money … like a holiday,” he said. For their support, he thanked the mayor, city manager and the Council, especially Council President James McGowan and Councilman Terry Templin. It took entities coming together in partnership to make it a reality.

And it offered an opportunity to boost tourism. “I really believe Pell City can become a tourist attraction,” Forman said.

“It may not be on a big scale, but it can be on a small scale. We have a lake.” To attract people to the area, “we don’t have to build anything.”

What they have apparently built is a strong foundation to bring the event back next year - bigger and better than ever. l

To see more images from Tough Man Triathlon check out the story online at discoverstclair.com

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‘Painter, piddler’ enjoys new career as

Sailboat Artisan Dick Davis working on one of his signature boats.

Story by Leigh Pritchett Photography by Michael Callahan Susan Wall knew that her neighbor, Dick Davis, was creative.

In the eight years Wall has lived across the street from him, Davis had given her and other neighbors some of his handcrafted items.

Recently, though, Wall had an opportunity to see ships and sailboats Davis has made from scratch.

“They just blew me away. I said, ‘Somebody’s got to see this!’ I love ships and I just thought they were gorgeous.”

Then and there, Wall decided that she and business owner Renee Lilly would sell them in the store — Design Resource and City Market in downtown Pell City.

Now, the store — with a mission of highlighting local artisans — is the exclusive seller of Davis’ ships and sailboats and “his biggest promoter,” Wall said.

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Setting sail on new adventure One day about four or five years ago, Davis just decided he wanted to craft a sailboat.

“He builds them for fun,” said his wife, Gay. In their home is an extensive collection of ships and sailboats that Davis has fashioned by hand since then. There are small ones, medium-sized ones and large ones.

Some have full sails; some have furled sails.

The crafts sail under the American flag or the Alabama flag or a pirate flag, among others.

Davis estimated that he has made 100 or more.

“I love every minute of it,” he said. “It is so enjoyable.”

Each vessel sports many finishing touches, such as anchors and name painted on the side.

In his collection, one finds the HMS Bounty, the USS America and the Barbara Gay, which he named for his wife.

The CSS Alabama features a smoke stack and cannons.

Lilly — who is also owner of Lilly Designs — was “impressed with such detail.” She said the attention to specifics

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Gay Davis carefully dusts part of the collection.

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Sailboat Artisan

Davis has creative talents that go far beyond crafting detailed boats.

is so much more than what is normally seen on similar items.

Lilly believes Davis’ ships and sailboats are ideal for decorating projects, especially in a water resort area such as Pell City.

At City Market and in the Davis’ home, each vessel is displayed on an individual stand and shelf also made by Davis.

Wall said customers who see Davis’ creations at City Market are surprised to learn that the artisan lives in the area.

The price for the ships and sailboats ranges from $50 to $100, depending on size. Two of the units that have been sold have found their way out of state — one going to San Francisco, Calif., and one to Charleston, S.C., said Lilly and Wall.

Each vessel got its start the very same way — as a chunk of scrap wood.

“All of them are made out of cedar,” said Davis.

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Susan Wall and Renee Lilly

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Using a hatchet, band saw, belt sander, scroll saw, router, router table and handsaw, Davis cuts and chisels until the hull reaches the desired length, shape and smoothness.

For whittling the amenities, such as cannons, he uses a Boker Tree brand knife that belonged to his grandfather, William Emmett Davis. Dick Davis uses that particular knife because it holds an edge well.

To make the full sails, Davis sprays copy paper with coffee to achieve the right shade or paints them a certain color. The furled sails, on the other hand, are polystyrene foam cut thin by a meat slicer. When he needs a particular color of rigging, he strings the yarn across his backyard to dye it.

Davis’ work area for assembling and painting is in the living room so that he can talk with his wife while he creates.

“I don’t have any patterns or anything,” Davis said.

Instead, he builds what comes to mind.

On weekdays, he works on his sailboats from 9 a.m. until about 3 p.m.

“I don’t look at it as a chore,” Davis said. “I look forward to it every day.”

From start to finish, it takes about a week to craft a sailboat.

Generally, “I do one or two at a time,” said the 74 year old, who is a father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

The project includes many delicate tasks, such as painting and striping the hull and positioning the mast, boom, sail, rigging and flags.

Painting comes naturally for Davis. He was a paint contractor from 1970 to 1999. There is “no telling” how many houses and businesses he painted from one end of Alabama to the other, as well as in Georgia, Florida and Mississippi.

“I always liked painting and piddling,” Davis said. “Most people hate painting houses. I loved it. People hate painting windows. I loved it. Isn’t that crazy?

“I always tried to do pretty work,” he continued. “And you’ve got to enjoy it to do the good work.”

In addition, he hung wallpaper — particularly along the Gulf Coast — and was sometimes asked to select décor color schemes for projects on which he worked.

“He’s got a good eye for decorating,” Mrs. Davis said.

Davis built two houses in which the family has lived and remodeled the current one.

While his sailboats and ships are garnering attention, they are not the only products of his creativity.

He has done several paintings, crafted walking sticks and a tomahawk, turned a coconut into a gorilla and fashioned two gourds into a dinosaur baby. Two other gourds became art pieces — one that is painted in a floral motif and another as a cozy cottage.

A bean bowl and pitcher show his folk art capabilities. In his hands, old metal objects — an iron skillet or a postal scale, for instance — become canvases for artwork.

“One thing about it, he’s not bored,” Mrs. Davis said. “He’s very artistic. I’m very proud of everything he does.”

Outside his home are more examples of how he can look at discarded objects and see their potential.

A trampoline frame got a new life as a Quonset hut; tossed or unneeded items from construction projects on which he worked became a playhouse; metal scraps grew to be a workshop. He also constructed a barn and wishing well and rebuilt a boat.

Davis even goes out looking for old axe or pick heads so he can restore them with new handles.

“It’s fun doing all this stuff,” Davis said. “I just enjoy life.

That’s just all there is to it.” l

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St. Clair Alabama

Business Review Louis

Just like in days gone by, cars line up around the new Dairy Queen Grill and Chill in Pell City.

72 • DISCOVER The EssenceDISCOVER Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2013 of St. Clair •The Business Review

The return of DQ Amazing opening for Pell City tradition Story by Graham Hadley Photo by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Once again, a Dairy Queen restaurant is part of the Pell City business landscape.

Owners Natalie Coppock and her brother, BJ Burcham, opened the doors to their new DQ Grill and Chill, Sept. 2, to an already enthusiastic customer base.

“The DQ Grill and Chill is the latest Dairy Queen Concept. It is different from the older Dairy Queen Brazier restaurants,” he said.

According to the DQ website, the new stores “are larger than older-style DQ Brazier locations and feature a completely new store design. In most cases, they offer an expanded menu including breakfast, GrillBurgers, and grilled sandwiches, as well as limited table service (customers still place orders at the counter). They also contain self-serve soft drink fountains.”

Dairy Queen had been a fixture in the Pell City community for decades before closing, and possibly the only people more excited about the new restaurant opening than its owners are local residents.

Though their first day was supposed to ease the new restaurant and its staff into the business — they did not start with breakfast or advertised, just “opened the doors,” customer traffic was already off to a brisk pace, Burcham said.

“The opening went great,” he said. “We served just under 1,000 people our opening day. Here is a community that was ready for our business to be open. The actual sales that we did are almost double the sales for other Dairy Queen restaurants on a normal day.”

Business has remained brisk since then, with many days topping the $10,000 sales mark. “Through lunch today, nine days after opening, we have served more than 10,000 customers,” Burcham said.

“Business is exceeding our expectations. There is no way to estimate how successful a new business opening will be, especially in a place like Pell City where there was a Dairy Queen for years, but we have blown our projections out of the water,” he said. “We have $10,000, $11,000 and $12,000 days. Things are starting to level off, but we are still well over the DQ Grill and Chill national average.”

Developer Bill Ellison, who Coppock had earlier credited with playing a big role in their decision to locate in Pell City, said he thinks the new restaurant is a perfect fit for its location in front of the Publix grocery store.

“I am really glad to have them there. They really complement the shopping complex. I think they have found the perfect location to do business,” he said.

Burcham said the new restaurant is a full-time endeavor for him and his sister, but it is also a labor of love, one that they hope will last for decades to come.

“We have received a lot of compliments, especially on social media. It has been a great experience. You can tell Pell City really wants us here, and we really want to give a big thank you to the community. We hope to be here for the next 30 or 40 years — or longer.”

The new Dairy Queen — DQ Grill and Chill to be specific — is open seven days a week, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.

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Business Review

News

Processor’s Choice

One company helps bring another to Moody

The future site of Processors Choice, next to JM Exotic Foods in Moody.

Story by Graham Hadley Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. In business, one good thing can often lead to another.

For Moody, that is exactly what is happening with Processor’s Choice.

The industrial food ingredient distributor is building a $10 million facility next to JM Exotic Foods Inc. in the Moody Office Park near the Brompton Exit off Interstate 20.

JM Exotic Foods has already been a big part of the financial success story in Moody, and it was due in part to that company’s experience in the quickly growing community and its pre-existing relationship with Processor’s Choice that brought the new company to town, said Don Smith, St. Clair Economic Development Council executive director.

“This goes right with our philosophy of having a great working relationship with our existing businesses,” he said.

“They are your best ambassadors.”

Processor’s Choice was looking to expand and talked to JM Foods about their experience in Moody.

“The Feedback JM gave to them was better than anything we

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could have put in a marketing brochure. I think it helped make the decision easy for Processor’s Choice,” Smith said.

The official groundbreaking for the building was Sept. 9, and construction is already under way.

“It’s close to a $10 million investment and will create between 20 and 25 new jobs,” Smith said.

In addition to the help from JM Foods, several other factors played an important role in bringing Processor’s Choice to Moody.

“I am grateful we had room in the Moody Office Park to accommodate the new investment.

“Plus, Moody was just ranked the fourth safest city in Alabama, … and that makes an absolute difference when it comes to recruiting companies.

“People want to locate their companies where they ultimately want to live and they want to locate where their company is going to flourish,” Smith said.

Smith said that philosophy of high standards for the city is carried over in how Moody treats companies.

“Mayor Joe Lee and the other leadership in Moody have been outstanding as they have grown that community in leaps and bounds each year,” he said.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

This building will eventually be home to three different restaurant models.

Three restaurants, one roof Story by Graham Hadley Photo by Wallace Bromberg Jr. At one location in town, you will be able to get Little Caesar’s Pizza, Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins ice cream all at the same place.

Bravo Food Systems, a company with restaurants located throughout the Southeast, has already opened its new Little Caesar’s Pizza shop in Pell City. The other half of the building houses a combination Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins ice cream shop, which is slated to open in early October, according to Matthew Arias, vice president for Bravo Food Systems and in charge of their Birmingham area operations.

“This is our first one we have built where we have all three concepts under one roof,” he said.

And, at least with the side of the operation that is already open, business has been good.

“Our new business has been up and running now for the past couple of weeks and business has been good,” Arias said.

Bravo Food Systems, which is locally owned by the Arias family, had been watching the Pell City market for some time and decided to move ahead with plans to locate there.

“This is a good fit for Pell City, and the design is a good fit for what kind of space we had to work with,” Arias said. “It just made logical sense to locate in Pell City.”

When both sides of the business are open they will employ about 60 people.

If the past two weeks have been any indication, Arias expects the business to be nothing but a big success.

“Our customers have been great. The crew, the people we hired, have been some really, good positive people.

“The community has been very receptive as well. We are very pleased with our decision to build in Pell City,” Arias said.

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Business Directory

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Business Review

News

Big happenings in Steele

Rain Bird expanding operations and more Work is already well underway for the expansion at Rain Bird in Steele.

Story by Graham Hadley Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. There are not many communities out there that have as many jobs as they have working-age people.

But according to St. Clair County Economic Development Council Executive Director Don Smith, that is exactly the situation Steele is in.

Irrigation manufacturing giant Rain Bird originally located an operation in Steele with the task of meeting all of its customers’ needs in the Southeast. As demand grew, so has Rain Bird’s investment in the plant here.

Most recently, Rain Bird announced plans for an $11.8 million expansion that will bring in between 40 and 45 new jobs to the area.

“They have had to expand several times to keep up with market demands. This latest one, they are expanding the building to accommodate additional warehouse and distribution space,” Smith said.

The Rain Bird project is one of many things on the business horizon in Steele.

Auto manufacturing supplier Yachiyo Industries has been sold to UNIPRES, another Japanese company. That deal is expected to close in October and will mean some changes at the facility.

Plans are for all Yachiyo employees to become UNIPRES employees and the facility to shift over to stamped parts. The

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current Yachiyo plant also has a plastics division, which will move to Carrollton, Ga., after the sale is complete.

Eventually, that move will make room for the company to possibly expand the stamping industry here.

“All of the employees working at Yachiyo will convert to UNIPRESS employees. … Our long-term projection is this will eventually allow for more employees,” Smith said.

All of this points to a bright economic future for Steele — a community that has done everything right to attract new businesses.

“We have been very busy this year in Steele,” Smith said.

“There have been a number of new businesses, like Dollar General, opening there.

“For a city their size, a little over 1,000 people who live there, they have absolutely embraced the economic building model — you bring in the jobs first, then the retailers, then the funding comes in for quality of life,” he said.

“Because of that activity and the great leadership in Steele, Love’s Travel Center came. The additional traffic counts that spurred that then also allowed the mayor to locate a Dollar General in this city.”

Smith said that, because Steele has, from the start, taken such a long-term proactive approach to building its economic base, the city has enjoyed an unusually stable financial footing for years. “Even during the recession, the Town of Steele had a very robust revenue stream for a community its size. Now they have a brand new senior center and other projects they are planning,” he said.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

Business Directory

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

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Business Review

News

Stories by Carol Pappas Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Tuscaloosa to the west, south of Sand Mountain to the north and Talladega to the south. “This was a natural fit,” he said of Pell City.

While ERA King maintains a thriving office in Lincoln that has served Logan Martin Lake, it seemed natural to have a presence on both sides of the lake, King said.

The opening of the Pell City office brings ERA King’s offices to five with 100 to 110 agents and 24 full time supporting staff.

Amanda Mickens in Chantel Beauty Supply Owner-broker Everett King in the new ERA King office in Pell City

KING OPENS REAL ESTATE ‘CAFÉ’ OFFICE IN PELL CITY ERA King has opened a state-of-the-art real estate office in downtown Pell City, expanding its footprint in the region with the aim of setting the standard in real estate marketing.

The office is a café style concept with big screen televisions, a high top island centering the hardwood floor look, surrounded by open work stations for Realtors and support staff. Private offices have given way to the more open feel, although conference rooms are available.

The large screen digital displays can be used for viewing marketing presentations, real estate listings or the latest news.

It is a more open, comfortable concept in real estate marketing.

“We are embracing change,” said owner-broker Everett King. “We are keeping our eyes forward.”

He noted that the company has invested in giving every listing an online photo gallery and a virtual tour video, and search engine optimization ratings are high to get the most effective marketing of properties. Technology drives the operation, and Realtors have support staff to help them focus on marketing rather than clerical responsibilities.

King said he chose Pell City because it is a “growing, active market.” With offices in Birmingham, Anniston, Gadsden and Lincoln, King realized that Pell City was right in the middle of its footprint without an office presence. “We need to be here,” he said. “It gives us a footprint no one can match.”

ERA King is strategically positioned in a 60-mile radius to serve real estate needs from the state line to the east to near

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CHANTEL BEAUTY SUPPLY OPEN IN PELL CITY When Amanda Mickens saw a need in the community, she also saw the need for a business. So she started one.

Chantel Beauty Supply opened its doors at 315 Martin Street North in Pell City July 16, offering wigs and weaves or hair extensions, relaxers, colors, jewelry and jewelry sets, chemical products and more. Before, customers needing those items had to travel to Anniston, Talladega or Birmingham.

If she doesn’t have a particular style or color, she can take customized orders, giving the customer a selection in just a couple of days.

“It’s going great,” she said. “Sales are picking up every day.”

The most rewarding part, she said, is to see a cancer patient who lost their hair or others suffering a similar fate for different reasons come into the store. “A lot walk out with wigs on. It put a smile on somebody’s face.”

The store is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • October & November 2014

The

Bain Team...

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YOUR Real Estate Needs OUR Specialty

Karen Bain 205-473-4613

karenbain@ymail.com

Adam Bain 205-369-2704

adambainfgre@gmail.com

www.loganmartinlaketeam.com