Mobile Bay Magazine - April 2021

Mobile Bay April 2021

THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE FOR MOBILE AND BALDWIN COUNTIES

HELLO SWEET

THE ENTERTAINING ISSUE

SPRING

DISHING ABOUT A CHILDHOOD IN CUBA

GOOD FRIENDS, SUNSHINE & PRETTY TABLES MAKE FOR A WELCOME TREAT

TALKING TURKEY WITH TOM KELLY A FRESH SEASON OF WINE PAIRINGS

THREE

OVER THE TOP TABLES HOW TO GET THE LOOK

plus

ELEVEN INSPIRED WEDDINGS

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CONTENTS | VOLUME XXXVII / ISSUE 4

APRIL 2021 36

Keeping up with Toms Legendary hunter, author and Mobilian Tom Kelly reflects on eight decades in the pursuit of turkey

46

Setting the Table with New Friends A growing community of hostesses finds fellowship and inspiration in the art of setting a table

55 JILL AND COOPER WEILAND. PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

Mobile Bay Bride Join in on the celebration with the nuptial announcements of 11 Bay-area newlyweds

 A first edition, second printing copy of Tom Kelly’s debut turkey hunting book, “Tenth Legion,” is available on eBay for $1,261.

To read more about the 94-year-old Mobilian’s leap from hunter to writer, turn to page 36.

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CONTENTS | VOLUME XXXVII / ISSUE 4

APRIL 2021

18 16

ON OUR COVER VEGAN TREATS BECOME WORKS OF ART (EDIBLE BUTTERFLIES INCLUDED!) IN THE HANDS OF LINDSEY BERGMANN OF LINDSEY BAKES. PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

22 TIPS FOR SERVING INDIVIDUAL PORTIONS MARIA MENDEZ’S TUNA EMPANADAS A SAISON AND AMBER FROM OLD MAJESTIC / PHOTOS BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

9 EDITOR’S NOTE 10 REACTION 12 ODDS & ENDS 15 THE DISH 16 TASTINGS Saddle up to the bar for a tasting with the owners of Old Majestic Brewing Company 18 ENTERTAINING Safe and stylish tips for food portioning

22 BAY TABLES Cuban refugee Maria Mendez’s life story, as told through food 30

BITE-SIZED Get the lowdown on loquats from writer Dooley Berry

32

COLLECTIONS Christina Quick of Fairhope’s Provision market pairs wine with entrees

42 SPOTLIGHT Behind the scenes at Visitation Monastery

78 LITERATURE According to writer Audrey McDonald Atkins, hometraining doesn’t stop with the dogs

70 APRIL CALENDAR

80 ASK MCGEHEE 74 ARCHIVES Is it true that one of John LeFlore’s typewriter NASA’s first astronauts is a symbol of Mobile’s was from Mobile? civil rights era 76 HISTORY Historian John Sledge presents a true tale of piracy in the Gulf

82 BACK STORY Take a look back at the historic Arlington Fairgounds through the lens of a 1925 photograph

 Pair your Old Majestic brews, on page 16, with a dish from the updated menu of their next-door neighbors at the Cheese Cottage, including their expansive new cheese and charcuterie board, The Experience (pictured above).

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Mobile Bay VOLUME XXXVII

No4

APRIL 2021

PUBLISHER T. J. Potts Stephen Potts Judy Culbreth

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Maggie Lacey MANAGING EDITOR/WEB Abby Parrott

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Amanda Hartin

ART DIRECTOR Laurie Kilpatrick EDITORIAL INTERN Maddy Jones EDITORIAL INTERN Anna Pellerin

ASSISTANT PUBLISHER

EDITORIAL CONSULTANT

ADVERTISING S R. ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Joseph A. Hyland Anna Pavao ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jennifer Ray

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

ADMINISTRATION CIRCULATION Anita Miller ACCOUNTING Keith Crabtree

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Audrey McDonald Atkins, Dooley Berry, Frye Gaillard, Jill Clair Gentry, Tom McGehee, Breck Pappas, John Sledge CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Lacey Summerlin Bosarge, Perri and Jesse Farlow, Elizabeth Gelineau, Dwight Ladd, Taylor Patrick, Miranda Stallings, Jennie Tewell ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES

3729 Cottage Hill Road, Suite H Mobile, AL 36609-6500 251-473-6269 Subscription inquiries and all remittances should be sent to: Mobile Bay P.O. Box 43 Congers, NY 10920-9922 1-833-454-5060 MOVING? Please note: U.S. Postal Service will not forward magazines mailed through their bulk mail unit.

Please send old label along with your new address four to six weeks prior to moving.

Mobile Bay is published 12 times per year for the Gulf Coast area. All contents © 2021 by PMT Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of the contents without written permission is prohibited. Comments written in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the ownership or the management of Mobile Bay. This magazine accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photography or artwork. All submissions will be edited for length, clarity and style.

PUBLISHED BY PMT PUBLISHING INC .

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EXTRAS | EDITOR’S NOTE SET THE TABLE WHILE I STILL LOVE MY WEDDING CHINA (HAVILAND’S ILLUSION IN MINT GREEN), I’M EYEING THESE ROYAL CROWN DERBY SALAD PLATES THAT WILL ADD A PUNCH OF COLOR TO MY TABLE SETTINGS — IF AND WHEN WE GET BACK TO THAT KIND OF GATHERING! BOTH FROM ZUNDEL’S JEWELRY

I’ll Save a Seat for You

M

y, how entertaining changed over the past year. Once upon a time, before coronavirus, I would gather a large group of friends for Sunday afternoon cookouts at my house, complete with self-serve platters of food and communal snack bowls where sweaty kids constantly dipped their hands in the offerings, fishing for the cracker they liked best.

Last spring and summer, however, as people started Cloroxing their groceries and leaving Amazon packages on the doorstep for two days to quarantine, my style of entertaining took a major nosedive. It began to include just immediate family, always outdoors, visiting as best we could from a distance. No more bowls of crabmeat and crackers that everyone passed around, and grandparents had their own swing that no one touched.

We only used throw-away plates and forks so Mom didn’t have to wash anyone’s dishes, but we managed to have some really good times watching the sun set over the Bay. I didn’t have anywhere more important to be, and it was wonderful. We felt lucky to have one another and some good wine.

Thanksgiving and Christmas looked pretty much the same, and Mardi Gras was certainly nothing to write home about. But here we sit, in the first days of spring, with a new optimism and a few more options. More people are vaccinated every day, and I am beginning to ease back into entertaining. I am not planning anything large or extravagant, obviously, but this weekend I have two other couples coming over for a real sit-down dinner. And I can’t be more excited. We first tried to go out to eat — for some of us it would have been the first time indoors in a restaurant in almost a year — but alas, no one has babysitters anymore since we haven’t been going anywhere. All of the adults will be vaccinated, and we plan to sit next to one another (gasp!) at the same table (gah!) and drink wine and linger. I’m still setting my table up outside, and everyone will get individually portioned appetizers and snacks, but I feel like I have been set free.

Sure, we may not touch one another’s food ever again or sip out of the same glass. (Really, why was that ever OK?) We might be bumping elbows for years to come, instead of the old-fashioned handshake, but I relish the thought of gathering over a meal at the same table with friends we hold dear. And we will never take that for granted again.

Bon appétit to you and yours.

Maggie Lacey EXECUTIVE EDITOR

maggie@pmtpublishing.com

LOVE THIS ISSUE

DEFINITIVE GUIDE EVERY CUBAN BRIDE IS GIVEN A COPY OF “COCINA CRIOLLA” UPON HER MARRIAGE, FILLED WITH ALL THE TRADITIONAL DISHES. MARIA MENDEZ, EXPAT AND COOK EXTRAORDINAIRE, SHARED HER COPY WITH US THIS MONTH. BAY TABLES, PAGE 22

BEAR FRUIT I PLANTED A LOQUAT TREE IN MY YARD LAST SEASON, BUT AFTER THIS HARSH WINTER, I AM NOT EXPECTING ANY FRUIT THIS YEAR. FINGERS CROSSED FOR A BETTER BOUNTY IN 2022. LOQUATS, PAGE 30

WINE DOWN I HOPE TO TRY ALL THE FRESH WINES SUGGESTED BY PROVISION THIS MONTH, BUT MOST ESPECIALLY THE SIBLINGS SAUVIGNON BLANC. A CHILLED GLASS ON A WARM SPRING DAY SOUNDS JUST RIGHT! WINE PAIRINGS, PAGE 32

QUITE THE SPREAD AS PANDEMIC RESTRICTIONS EASED, THE CHEESE COTTAGE AND OLD MAJESTIC WERE THE FIRST PLACES I DINED OUTSIDE MY HOME. THIS SENSATIONAL CHEESE BOARD, A GOOD BEER AND AN OUTDOOR PICNIC TABLE WERE THE PERFECT PICK-ME-UP AFTER ISOLATION. TASTINGS, PAGE 16

THE HANDBOOK MOBILIAN TOM KELLY, KNOWN TO MANY AS THE BEST TURKEY HUNTER IN AMERICA, WROTE THE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT. HE ALSO WROTE THIS “LITTLE GREEN BOOK,” A HANDY GUIDE TO RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL ORGANIZATION. IT’S FULL OF USEFUL, COMMON SENSE PRACTICES. I GOT THIS COPY FROM MY DAD YEARS AGO AND CHERISH IT. KEEPING UP WITH TOMS, PAGE 36

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EXTRAS | REACTION

Tell us how you really feel ...

GOT YOU COVERED

NIFTY FIFTY

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

On MB’s Instagram post showing a sampling of our covers from the past, including the image to the right, from June 1994

On February’s 50th anniversary issue

On February’s feature, “Mobilians Across America,” highlighting 51 Bay-area natives now scattered across the United States

Someone needs to bring back the “Mo-Better” shirt ASAP.

We enjoyed reading the MB “50 Years of Delicious Stories” issue cover to cover. Camille Brewster’s Vidalia onion cornbread will now be a family treat for us. In fact, we cooked it for dinner but ate most of it as an hors d’oeuvre with a drink before dinner.

- Anne and Champ Meyercord

- Maggie Ferguson

Thank you, Breck Pappas, for asking me to be a part of this story and to reflect on what Fairhope and Mobile Bay mean to me. There’s no denying my absolute adoration and love for Fairhope; this story solidified it even more.

- Caroline Heeren, Beaufort, S.C.

I remember working on the “Mo-Better Mo-Fun” June issue and the “Gays: Mobile’s True Secret Society” issue. What a great time and wonderful experience it was to work at PMT. - Angie Baldwin My mom was North Dakota’s Junior Miss in 1983! So cool to see the magazine cover from the summer she came to Mobile and never left.

- Brittany Rickert Callaway

I love reading Mobile Bay Magazine every month. In particular, as a history teacher, I thoroughly enjoy the latter pages and the focus on Mobile history.

I would like to add one thing to the “By the Numbers” portion of February’s issue. In the gridiron perspective segment there was one player missing from the 2021 local players in the NFL. Jimmy Ward, who played at Davidson High School, is a current teammate of Jaquiski Tartt. Both currently play for the San Francisco 49ers. Since I coached them both, I can only imagine the ribbing that Tartt would give Jimmy if he knew he had been left off. 😀 - Christopher Agee

LOST TREASURE On February’s Spotlight of Mobile’s novelist and poet, Eugene Walter Beautifully written, particularly the final paragraph. I regret not moving to Mobile when he was alive.

- Stephanie Poe McCook We all want people like Eugene in our lives.

- Becky Bolling

RULE OF THE CITY Reader reactions on MB’s Instagram video, featuring the class of 2020’s “40 Under 40” winners’ responses to the question, “If I were mayor, I would...”

I would clean up the litter lining our streets. Out-of-towners always notice that, and it deters them from returning.

Whatever happened to #keepmobilebeautiful?

I have some of his artwork that he gave us when we had the restaurant Downtown. What a character. He’d come in with a whirl, and what an exciting time we’d all have. He had a regular table. Oh, how we all loved him!

- Matthew Morris

- Georgia Roussos

- Diana Newman

Mayor Stimpson has done an INCREDIBLE job so far for the city! Not many cities still have a working port and such a unique aspect of the waterfront.

I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s in Mobile.

I’ve lived in Huntsville, Ala., for the past 40 years, and for most of that time, I have had a subscription to MB. What a surprise to see in “Mobilians Across America,” the honoree from the state of Alabama, Beverly Johnson, my next-door neighbor here in Huntsville. You couldn’t have selected a better representative for Mobile natives in Alabama.

Cheers to you, Beverly!

- Mary McDaniel

ROYAL FASHION On February’s End Piece, a photograph of MAMGA’s 1975 King Elixis I, Walker “Champ” Beck LeFlore Jr., and Queen Winifred Lucy, seen at right It looks like Queen Lucy just stepped out of a magazine.

- Amanda Beach I was Queen Winifred’s crown bearer.

- David Thomas PHOTO COURTESY MOBILE PRESS-REGISTER COLLECTION, THE DOY LEALE MCCALL RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA

 Want to share your thoughts and reactions to this issue? Email maggie@pmtpublishing.com.

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[MORE ONLINE]

Find additional local stories on mobilebaymag.com.

Here’s what’s new on the website!

Backyard Paradise

It’s time to spruce up your outdoor space! Need inspiration? Take a look at some of our favorite porches, pools, gardens and outdoor living spaces featured over the years.

Let’s Eat

Take advantage of this gorgeous spring weather while it lasts! We’ve rounded up some of our favorite recipes for dining alfresco: light spring salads, fun cocktails, easy appetizers, fresh seafood and more.

Work of Art

Maria Mendez’s Spanish Fort kitchen is full of bold flavors and bright colors (page 22). Go online to see a gallery of her impressive art collection.

Cast your Vote

The votes have been pouring in for our March Madness online bracket, and we’re getting down to the final local restaurant dishes. Go online today to cast your votes. Voting ends April 5, and the winner of the tournament will be announced online on April 6!

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EXTRAS | ODDS & ENDS

Stop and Smell the Lilies text by MB EDITORIAL STAFF

“A guest is really good or bad because of the host or hostess who makes being a guest an easy or a difficult task.”

- Eleanor Roosevelt

1.5

BILLION THE AMOUNT OF PEEPS EATEN EVERY EASTER

701

The number of people who “like” the Facebook page “I Hate Marshmallow Peeps”

$18 TO FILL UP YOUR BEER GROWLER CURBSIDE AT OLD MAJESTIC BREWING CO.

EASTER LILY

LILIUM LONGIFLORUM So called for its typical flowering season, the Easter lily is a trumpetshaped, fragrant treat that will be on full display in Lower Alabama yards this month.

1878 Although the first White House Easter Egg Roll was held by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878, it wasn’t until 1981 that wooden eggs became the official souvenirs of the Easter Monday tradition.

RURAL MYTH Although it’s a good story, male turkeys are not called “toms” after Thomas Jefferson. The popular myth asserts that Jefferson favored the bald eagle as the national bird, while Benjamin Franklin favored the turkey. After the eagle was selected, Franklin allegedly took to calling turkeys “toms” after Jefferson. However, there is no evidence the term was ever used during their lifetimes. april 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 13

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FOOD | THE DISH

Bite of the Bay MB’s contributing food fanatics share their go-to local dishes.

PEANUT BUTTER ENERGY BALLS AT FOY SUPERFOODS / PHOTO COURTESY PROLYTIC PRODUCTIONS

MARISSA THETFORD, Owner, Marissa Thetford Marketing

CRANBERRY & WALNUT FETA CHEESE SPREAD AT THE INTERNATIONAL GOAT “The Mediterranean deli inside Fairhope’s Piggly Wiggly features everything from tabouli to freshly baked baklava. My current obsession is the cranberry and walnut feta cheese spread. Made with Asiago cheese and fresh lemon juice, its hummus-like texture is outstanding on fresh bread or stuffed inside grilled pork chops or chicken.”

THE INTERNATIONAL GOAT • 100 PLANTATION POINTE ROAD, FAIRHOPE • 928-0239

E. LEE WEBB III, Commercial Relationship Manager, Trustmark National Bank

A FEAST AT THE GRAND HOTEL “Starting with a handcrafted libation at 1847 Bar, I was impressed to learn they invent a new cocktail each day. Ours was a gin concoction that tasted like licorice. We moved to Southern Roots, a true upscale dining experience. We started with the crab cakes, garnished with a spicy butter and peppers, then dined on the bone-in pork chop, recommended by the chef who visited our table. The meal was capped off by a decadent chocolate layered cake.”

THE GRAND HOTEL • ONE GRAND BOULEVARD, POINT CLEAR • 928-9201 • GRAND1847.COM

DANIEL HUGGINS, Chief Operating Officer, Children’s Medical Group, P.A.

PATTY MELT AT CALLAGHAN’S “My visit to Callaghan’s was truly an amazing experience. The staff provided great customer service, from the kitchen to the front of the building. It was recommended I try the patty melt with provolone cheese, and, needless to say, I was not disappointed. It was savory, grilled to perfection and made me feel as if I was grilling in my own backyard. Also, the spinach artichoke dip with grilled chicken — YES. You’ll thank me later.”

MICHELLE PARVINROUH, Executive Director, Innovation Portal

PEANUT BUTTER ENERGY BALLS AT FOY SUPERFOODS “The peanut butter energy balls are delightful, not-so-bad-for-you treats that I eat to hold me over between meals and for a little pick-me-up. These guilt-free snacks are hearty and satisfying. Each ball has a couple of chocolate chips to give them a bit of bite and extra delight. They are a great dessert add-on to one of the wholesome super bowls and smoothies.”

FOY SUPERFOODS • 119 DAUPHIN ST.,

CALLAGHAN’S • 916 CHARLESTON ST. • 433-9374

307-8997 • 6345 AIRPORT BLVD., 586-8995

CALLAGHANSIRISHSOCIALCLUB.COM

FOYSUPERFOODS.COM

 What dishes made you drool and left you hungry for more? Share them on our Facebook page! april 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 15

FOOD | TASTINGS

Old Majestic Brewing Co. text by BRECK PAPPAS • photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

P

utting a name to a brewery isn’t as easy as it might seem.

At least, that was the case for Chad Marchand, left, and John Minton, right, co-owners of Old Majestic Brewing Company. After eight months of head-scratching, Minton, who also serves as head brewer, found the answer overhead.

“Oak trees are about as sturdy and as long-lasting as anything around here,” he says from behind the bar. “They symbolize strength, endurance and have weathered all kinds of storms: economic, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods. And we’re going through a pandemic now, so it’s weathering that storm, too.”

Though Old Majestic’s doors didn’t open until December 2019, the business partners first met one night in 2016 at the urging of a mutual friend. Marchand, a local attorney, and Minton, an aerospace engineer (he still works for Airbus), bonded over their love for homebrewing. “And by the time the night was over, and the beer was gone, we had decided we were going to do this,” Marchand remembers.

The two men set out to find a building, eventually teaming up with Lafayette Land Company to relocate a cotton warehouse

from Greenwood, Mississippi, to an empty lot beside The Cheese Cottage on St. Louis Street. In this large indoor space, featuring original trusses and 1920s brick, visitors can sip from a wide selection of beers, brewed in the tanks visible through a glass wall.

“I think we have a vibe of being kind of revolutionary because we are out front as far as beer recipes,” Minton says. Marchand adds, “What John has done is make beers that are well-balanced, not too hoppy, not too sweet — just really easy-drinking beers.

That’s our goal with every single one.”

Aside from the entertainment provided by four TVs (ideal for fall football), darts, cornhole, giant Jenga and Connect Four, customers can kick back with their own food or have local meals delivered — a prospect made extremely convenient by next-door neighbor, The Cheese Cottage. “We certainly feed off each other,” Marchand says, noting that the restaurant routinely delivers meals to the brewery’s customers.

“We just say, ‘Come see it,’” Marchand says, glancing up at the soaring ceiling of the one-time cotton warehouse. “There’s really no other place like it in Mobile.” MB

 Old Majestic Brewing Co. • 656 St Louis St. • 283-3132 • oldmajesticbrewing.com 4 - 8:30 p.m. Tu - Th; 4 - 10 p.m. F; 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m. Sa; 12 - 8 p.m. Su

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FOOD | TASTINGS

[ON THE MENU]

MAJESTIC BLONDE

AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN

REFLECTIONS IPA

FOUR FATHERS’ STOUT

This “honest to goodness Belgian strong ale” contains notes of coriander and orange with a honey-like malt sweetness.

An American amber ale, this brew has a sweet profile and is pleasantly malty with a slightly spicy aftertaste and floral aroma.

A moderately strong American pale ale, this beer showcases Pacific Northwest hop varieties with a hoppy finish of pineapple and mango.

This nod to the Founding Fathers is a bold coffeeand-chocolate-flavored stout with a well-balanced hop aroma and a unique blackcurrant undertone.

FOUR FATHERS’ STOUT

MOZZARELLA AND BRUSCHETTA FROM THE CHEESE COTTAGE

MAJESTIC BLONDE

REFLECTIONS IPA

SERVE IT IN STYLE text by MAGGIE LACEY photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

WITH PANDEMIC RESTRICTIONS EASING AND EVERYONE EAGER TO GATHER WITH FRIENDS, HOSTESS BEVERLY SMITH SHARES CREATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR SAFE SERVING.

FOOD | ENTERTAINING

MEET OUR HOST Beverly Smith, known as Jingles to the grandkids for her endless array of bangle bracelets and big earrings, has a flair for entertaining. While she can certainly set a magnificent table, some of her most memorable fetes involved simple food (think takeout pizza or bowls of candy) presented in a magnificent way.

With COVID-19 restricting our options for entertaining, Beverly wows us again with ideas for keeping it safe.

1

“I’M STARTING BACK WITH SMALL GATHERINGS — SPRINGTIME ON THE PORCH!” – Beverly Smith

2

PERSONAL PICNIC Have tiny boxes or baskets prepared for each guest with everything they need for a scrumptious lunch. Sandwich, chips, fruit, cookies and coleslaw (in a tiny Chinese takeout box) complete with utensils make everyone feel safe and welcome.

BEVERLY BUYS CUTE KITCHEN TOWELS AND TIES THEM ON TOP OF EACH PICNIC BASKET FOR A NAPKIN THE GUESTS CAN KEEP!

PORTION IT UP

With beautiful springtime weather upon us and more people vaccinated every day, folks along the Gulf Coast are feeling the itch to gather on the porch or patio for some non-computerized face time. The key to safely entertaining in a post-pandemic era is to limit touch, and portioning out food before guests arrive is not only safer but can be incredibly chic, too! Tiny paper cups hold the perfect serving of pasta salad, personal chips and dip, or red beans and rice. The goal is to keep guests from sharing serving spoons, so get creative with the contents!

BEVERLY SWEARS BY HER WIDEMOUTH FUNNEL, MADE FOR CANNING, TO FILL INDIVIDUAL CONTAINERS WITH NO MESS!

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3

BOTTLE SERVICE AT THE BAR Set your bar with individual bottles so guests can grab and go. No pouring from the same wine bottle, no communal stirring spoon. Just mini Champagnes, tiny wines and bottled beer on this bar cart with minimal touch.

COCKTAIL FOR ONE If only beer and wine on the bar just doesn’t suit, pre-mix your cocktails and offer in single-serve bottles!

Gin and tonics, old fashioneds or margaritas can be bottled and ready on ice.

WRAP IT UP BEVERLY BUYS LITTLE TOWELETTES IN LUSCIOUS ESSENTIAL OIL FRAGRANCES FOR A QUICK HAND WIPE BETWEEN BITES. HERBAN ESSENTIALS TOWELETTE • CHAPEL FARM COLLECTION, FAIRHOPE

4

Tiny bags make the perfect presentation for luncheons or even alfresco dinner parties. Fill cellophane bags with bar mix, slide shrimp rolls into little brown bags or wrap brownies in parchment paper. Then add a colorful string closure, a cute label or some washi tape so the casual offering has plenty of panache.

HOPING TO LIMIT THE SINGLE-USE ITEMS IN YOUR LIFE? US, TOO. OPT FOR PAPER, BAMBOO OR RECYCLABLE CUPS, SILVERWARE AND BOXES.

“RESPECT THE COMFORT LEVEL OF EVERY GUEST. THIS PANDEMIC IS A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME, LIKE NOTHING WE’VE EVER BEEN THROUGH BEFORE. LET PEOPLE KNOW IF THEY FEEL THEY HAVE TO DECLINE, IT WON’T BE THE LAST TIME THEY GET INVITED.” – Beverly Smith

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“WE ARE SLOWLY BUT SURELY COMING BACK. I’M PLANNING SOME SMALL DINNER PARTIES FOR TWO OTHER COUPLES AS SOON AS MOST OF MY FRIENDS GET THEIR SECOND VACCINE. AND I’M HOPING BY CHRISTMAS WE CAN HAVE A BIG PARTY!” – Beverly Smith

6

LABEL EVERYTHING. LETTING GUESTS KNOW WHAT IS IN EACH LITTLE BAG MAKES SURE THEY FEEL COMFORTABLE AND WELCOME. A SIMPLE SHARPIE OR PAPER TAG WILL DO THE TRICK NICELY.

5

SETTING THE SPREAD While paper cups and to-go boxes might sound sterile, it can truly make for an enticing spread. Give your guests options, add some pops of color and a few decadent sweets, and your no-touch buffet will feel more like a treat than a pandemic must-do.

MINI CHARCUTERIE Elegant entertaining can still be safe with these precious individual charcuterie boards. Guests can grab and munch as they sip and visit at a safe social distance.

A LITTLE HELP Not sure you can pull it off?

Lots of local restaurants and retailers will make your charcuterie mix for you. Beverly picked up this spread in a togo container and replated it on individual wooden boards.

CHARCUTERIE SELECTIONS • BATTLES WHARF MINI MART, FAIRHOPE INDIVIDUAL CHARCUTERIE BOARDS • WILDFLOWERS, FAIRHOPE

FIND A CUTE TRASH CAN AND SET IT NEAR THE FOOD SO GUESTS CAN TOSS THEIR OWN GARBAGE. THIS LIMITS THE AMOUNT OF CONTACT WITH THROW-AWAY PLATES OR DIRTY NAPKINS. THE SAME GOES FOR A STYLISH BUS BIN THAT SHOULD BE AT THE READY TO CATCH GLASSWARE, FORKS OR PLATES. BONUS FOR THE HOSTESS — CLEANUP IS A BREEZE!

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HIJA DEL AZUCAR text by MAGGIE LACEY • photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

One Cuban exile never forgot her childhood as the daughter of a prosperous sugar miller, spending most of her life yearning for that homeland and sharing its culture with all who would listen.

(Translation: Daughter of Sugar)

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FOOD | BAY TABLES

O

n August 1, 1961, late in the evening, the track of Maria Mendez’s life changed forever. Up until that point, she had enjoyed a privileged upbringing as a self-described “spoiled rotten” little girl at the largest sugar mill on the island of Cuba. Even at a young age, she could tell tensions were high across the country; her parents had begun listening to the shortwave radio in the evenings and speaking in whispers so the children wouldn’t hear.

When things got really tense, they switched to English to make sure their conversations were confidential.

Maria might have felt something was coming but never imagined what.

From the darkness, there was a frantic knock at the door. Dr. Venegas, the family physician and a close friend, was there, out of breath and agitated. He asked to speak to Maria’s father and told him that the family must leave Cuba immediately.

Earlier that day, he explained, he had tended to a revolutionary agent who was in a fatal car accident on the main highway, and inside the man’s jacket was an arrest warrant for Maria’s father.

“That evening will always be engraved in my mind,” Maria says (in her 2008 memoir entitled “Cuba, It Matters”), remembering the moment that turned her family into fugitives.

Although all their relatives had fled post-revolutionary Cuba for America earlier that year, Maria’s parents were determined to stay until it was no longer possible. That moment had arrived.

“My parents loaded the car in silence, their eyes revealing tremen-

dous sadness. Dad told us that if by any chance we were pulled over, we were to keep still and very quiet. He tenderly laid us on the floor of the car and covered us with a blanket.

My father was 36 years old, and my mom was 32. Later in life, I could visualize how hard it must have been to leave behind the world they knew, all their possessions, the home they loved, and depart for a foreign country with mom pregnant and four young children. I, the oldest, was only 9. I have asked myself numerous times if I would have had the courage to turn my back on everything and walk away.”

In those last days, as her family made preparations to leave Cuba, she remembers sitting in the dark-

ened window of one of her relative’s abandoned houses in Havana, trying to absorb everything around her — cementing her memories. “A powerful force overcame me as I sat by the window trying to capture every image. Mi Cuba.” My Cuba.

Just one week after that fateful knock on the door of their home, her father left Havana on a jet plane bound for Florida without his wife and children. “My dad departed for Miami with the Panamanian ambassador, who was a dear friend of the family, posing as her lover.”

The following day, Maria, her pregnant mother and three siblings Above Cuban folk art adorns the colorful walls of Maria Mendez’s Spanish Fort home, reminding of her homeland.

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made their way to Havana’s José Martí International Airport. Officials were waiting to take them to a small interrogation room, and the children had been instructed to say their parents were getting a divorce.

“I hardly knew what that meant,” she remembers. “They checked our luggage, and it seemed an eternity until the authorities let us go, and we heard the intercom announcement of a Pan Am flight bound for Miami. That day I left my beloved Cuba.” Her father was waiting for them at the arrivals in Miami, where the family was reunited in freedom. Forty-two years would go by before she would return to her home country.

American Journey Today, Maria pours a cup of Cuban coffee in the kitchen of a comfortable suburban home in Spanish Fort.

Over empanadas and two fingers of Havana Club rum, she shares her story of exile, forgiveness and success.

Assimilating into American culture, she remembers, was no easy feat. As a child, she struggled with the language, the schools and the friends. But getting accustomed to life raising a large family with little money and no help in cramped quarters was downright shocking to her parents — her mother especially.

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TUNA EMPANADAS MAKES 24

DOUGH

3 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 stick butter, diced 1 egg 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup water or milk, as needed

1. Mix flour and salt in a food processor.

Add butter and pulse. Add egg and water or milk (in small increments) and continue pulsing until a clumpy dough forms.

2. Split the dough into 2 large balls and flatten slightly into the shape of disks. The dough can be used immediately or refrigerated until ready to use (1 - 2 days, max).

3. Roll out the dough into a thin sheet and cut out 5-inch round disc. (Use a small plate and sharp paring knife if you do not have a cutter that size.)

FILLING

2 tablespoons olive oil 1 small yellow onion, sliced 2 bell peppers (red and green), sliced 2 - 3 garlic cloves, crushed 1 tablespoon paprika 3 small cans tuna fish in water 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1/2 cup sliced olives 1 - 2 tablespoons capers 1 tablespoon lemon juice salt and pepper, to taste 1 egg, lightly whisked for egg wash sugar, for dusting lime wedges, for garnish

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion, peppers, garlic and paprika. Cook until onion and peppers are soft and start to brown, about 15 - 20 minutes.

2. Add tuna fish and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir as needed.

3. Add oregano, sliced olives, capers and lemon juice. Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for a few minutes more, then remove from heat and let the tuna fish mix cool down before filling the empanadas.

4. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside. Fill a small bowl with water and set aside. Lay one empanada shell on a plate.

Scoop about 1/3 cup filling mixture into center of dough. Wet a finger in the bowl of water and use to dampen 1/2 inch of dough around the edges. Fold the dough in half to close. Lightly crimp all the way around with your fingers to seal, and then fold the edges up towards the center from end to another, overlapping as you go. Set the empanada on baking tray and repeat until all of the filling has been used.

5. Brush the tops of the empanada with egg wash and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Bake for 10 minutes, or until a light, golden brown. Serve with a lime wedge.

Local grocery stores sell frozen empanada dough, already rolled out and ready to go. Look for it in the frozen ethnic foods section.

Maria sprinkles a touch of sugar on top of her empanadas before baking, using the sweetness to contrast the savory filling for a perfectly balanced bite.

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Maria garnishes her arroz con pollo the Spanish way — with canned asparagus spears, diced roasted red peppers and extra cooked green peas, all making a decorative pattern.

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ARROZ CON POLLO A LA CHORRERA SERVES 8 8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 4 large pieces 1/2 cup mojo marinade, like La Lechonera or Goya 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided 1 large yellow onion, chopped 2 tablespoons garlic, minced 1 large green bell pepper, chopped 4 cups beer or chicken stock 1 cup dry white wine 1 4-ounce can tomato sauce 2 tablespoons anatto powder 3 bay leaves 3 tablespoons granulated bouillon 1 teaspoon oregano 1/2 teaspoon cumin salt and pepper, to taste 2 cups uncooked Valencia rice 1 cup frozen peas vegetables for garnish, optional (see photo at left)

1. In a large bowl, marinate the chicken with the mojo marinade for 30 minutes or up to overnight in the fridge.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken and brown on both sides, then transfer partially cooked chicken to a plate.

3. Add another 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté onion, garlic and green peppers, stirring frequently, until the onion is translucent and the garlic is fragrant. Add beer or chicken stock, wine, tomato sauce and seasonings. Bring to a boil.

Add the chicken back into the pot.

Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir in the rice and frozen peas. Cook in oven, covered, for another 20 - 25 minutes or until the liquid is almost completely absorbed.

SOFRITO Sofrito is the base of any hearty meal in Cuba.

Garlic, onion, bell peppers and tomatoes are pureed in the blender or food processor and then stirfried (“sofrir” means to fry in Spanish) in olive oil.

Sofrito is to Cuban dishes, such as arroz con pollo, picadillo and ropa vieja, what mirepoix is to French cooking or the Holy Trinity is to Cajun cuisine. Maria bottles her mix and keeps it in the fridge for up to a week, making meal prep a cinch.

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Luckily, with her father’s background as an agronomist and chemist with an expertise in sugar, he found employment quickly, and the family began to prosper before long.

While they moved around the Americas throughout the 1960s and ’70s, Maria was always searching for a way to connect with her homeland. She would knock on the door of every Cuban Embassy she came across, from Panama to Mexico to the Bahamas, hoping for a chance to talk with anyone who shared her history. That willingness to form connections blossomed into a career as the Latin America Manager for the Port of Jacksonville, Florida, where Maria organized the first shipment of goods to travel between the U.S. and Cuba since the revolution. “Chickens,” she says bluntly, of the groundbreaking cargo she brokered, bringing much-needed food to the starving people of her homeland.

Then, at the age of 51, Maria decided

it was time to go back. At the invitation of the Cuban government, she became the first member of her family in more than 40 years to travel the short distance to Cuba, and she remains the only one of her family who has done so to this day. “Not all Cuban-Americans will understand my willingness to visit,” she admits, “but I just want to share this culture with everyone, to celebrate it. And to help the people there. The embargo hurts everyone.”

On her first trip, she was invited to dinner with Fidel Castro himself, but when the appointed hour came, she was overcome with panic, felt sick to her stomach and cancelled the event. “The next day, I was told he was waiting for me, so I had no choice but to go. And the first thing he said to me was ‘I am not as bad as they say I am. Let’s talk.’

And that’s what we did.”

As Castro tried to convince the trade manager that Cuba had two main things that Americans wanted — rum and cigars — she cut him short.

“You are wrong, Comandante,” she remembers telling him. “Cuba has so much more to offer the world than that.” Castro remarked that it was the first time he had been corrected like that, and by a beautiful Cuban lady, and the two developed a good working

Left The Mendezes’ extensive bar is full of Cuban and Caribbean rums, as well as shot glasses, muddlers and a cow’s hoof cup for Argentinian Mate.

Above A Cuban folk painting that Maria picked up on a recent trip now hangs in her kitchen.

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rapport from then on. She was a welcomed guest in Havana many times after that but always with the goal of furthering talks, developing trade and helping the Cuban people.

Crossing Cultures Standing in front of her bar, she shows off a bottle of Cuban rum aged 18 years. She doesn’t drink that one. In fact, she says she doesn’t drink much at all, despite her extensive collection of Caribbean rums and quirky glassware.

“I come from a long line of people in the sugar — and therefore alcohol — business,” she shrugs.

She recently retired from an accomplished career at the Port of Mobile as Director of Latin American Trade Development, and she and husband Jesus have bought a new home. A landscape crew is hard at work installing a pergola and patio overlooking the neighborhood lake. Her kitchen might be gleaming white new construction, but her walls are covered with bold Caribbean paintings, textiles and masks. If you have the impression that Maria is rocking her years away, however, and gathering dust, you’re sorely mistaken. In this home, where her new life melds with her old, she has found a way to combine her love for her Cuban roots with her savvy mind for business. She has launched a new venture: cooking up empanadas, Cuban pastries and sofrito to sell at local farmers markets. She confesses she even has a patent in the works.

After a lifetime of extending a hand and making connections, Maria continues the trend into retirement. Although she left Cuba long ago, it is clear it never left her heart. Her goal now is to keep sharing the culture of the tiny island nation with everyone she meets, even if it’s only one delicious bite at a time. MB

Custards can be intimidating, but this rich caramel custard with its simple list of ingredients always works!

FLAN SERVES 8 1 1/2 cups brown sugar 1/2 cup rum 1 tablespoon lime juice 4 eggs 1 can condensed milk 1 can evaporated milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 dash of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt sugar with rum and lime juice until liquefied and golden in color.

Carefully pour this hot syrup into a 9-inch round glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in remaining ingredients until smooth.

Pour egg mixture into the baking dish over the caramel. Cover with aluminum foil and place inside a larger baking dish. Add hot water to the larger baking dish until it comes 2/3 of the way up the sides, creating a hot water bath for the custard. Bake for 60 minutes.

3. Remove from oven and let cool completely. To serve, carefully invert on serving plate that has edges (to catch sauce).

Maria’s family has had a long association with the rum industry — going back to their days in pre-Castro Cuba — and she promises the alcohol in this recipe magnifies the flavors.

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FOOD | BITE-SIZED

Jewels of the South With spring’s arrival comes the loquat, bursting with tropical fragrance and flavor. text by DOOLEY BERRY

W

THE LOWDOWN ON LOQUATS WHERE TO PLANT Choose a sunny location away from other trees, structures and power lines. Loquats can tolerate partial shade but flowers and fruits will be reduced.

WHAT TO EXPECT Loquats grow rapidly and can reach up to 30 feet. Prune to 15 feet to make harvesting fruit easier. They have a lifespan between 20 - 30 years.

HOW TO CARE Loquat thrive on good nutrition, water management and weed control.

Fertilize the tree a couple of times a year with a lawn fertilizer that contains no weed killers.

Water the loquat tree when the blossoms begin to swell in the spring. Apply water slowly to allow to sink into the soil.

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A layer of mulch will help keep pesky weeds away.

MAKING FRUIT Look for a selfpollinating variety to ensure a good crop.

WHEN TO PICK The fruit is ready to pick when it turns a golden apricot color.

Don’t let the birds beat you to the fruit in early spring — you will surely have a fight on your hands!

hen my husband and I retired to coastal Alabama some years ago, we marveled at an attractively shaped, deep green tree we found growing here. With its whirls of glossy foliage and a naturally pleasing shape and its small round or pear-shaped fruits in hues of yellow and orange, it was a mysterious beauty to behold. Enough folks had them growing in their gardens that we soon found out that what we were admiring was the luscious loquat tree (Eriobotrya japonica), a native of China.

Loquats arrived in America by way of Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1850s and were sold at nurseries across the Southeast, from North Carolina to Texas. The versatile, but often underutilized, fruit has attracted the attention of Southern chefs in recent years who feature it in everything from loquat liqueur to flavorful ice creams and in sauces accompanying savory dishes.

Loquats are members of the rose family, along with apples, strawberries and pears. The tree’s charming silhouette makes it an excellent ornamental lawn specimen. It produces small round or pear-shaped fruits, rarely more than two inches long. The yellow or orange flesh of the loquat can be sweet or slightly acidic in flavor, but when peeled and eaten fresh off the tree, they are quite tasty — somewhat like the combina-

GET COOKING The loquat’s small, golden fruit can be used in many creative culinary ways.

• High pectin levels and a natural sweetness make for excellent jams and chutneys.

• Blend with yogurt and milk for a lassi or other fruits and juice for a smoothie.

• Combine with ginger and soy for a honey-sweet glaze on chicken.

• Poach fruit and serve on a shortcake biscuit with a dollop of homemade whipped cream to wake up a sleepy palate.

tion of a peach and mango. They make for excellent jams, jellies, preserves, cobblers or pies. Just one self-pollinating variety can provide an ample yield.

Loquats are well adapted to subtropical and mild temperatures, making it a darling in our Southern coastal climate. With its impressive, tropical-looking foliage, the tree can be grown primarily as an ornamental, with sweetscented flowers. But why overlook the deliciousness of the fruit? Loquats dangle in fragrant clusters from the tree to announce spring all across the South. MB

Cheryl Albin “Dooley” Berry writes for Gulf Coast News in Baldwin County and lives with husband Scott and English mastiff Happy in Spanish Fort.

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FOOD | COLLECTIONS

Refresher Course The changing season calls for a fresh selection of wines.

Christina Quick, wine director at Provision in Fairhope, takes the guesswork out of pairing and provides a little insight into wines you ought to try. text by AMANDA HARTIN photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

LA PANZANELLA MINI CROCCANTINI CRACKERS • $6

SCHOTT ZWIESEL PURE SAUVIGNON BLANC GLASS • $85/SET OF 6

LADY ONYX BOWL • $29

MATTE COPPER CHEESE KNIFE • $35/SET OF 3

FOREST MARBLE BOARD • $26

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“THE BITTERSWEET PART OF ENTERTAINING IS THIS IS THE ONLY TIME IN OUR LIVES THAT WE WILL BE WITH THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE, SIPPING WINE THAT IS NEVER AGAIN GOING TO TASTE THE WAY IT DOES AT THIS VERY MOMENT.” - Christina Quick

RECYCLED GLASS DECANTER • $32

BELLA MARIA MARCONA ALMONDS • $6

TEAK BOARD • $31

VINTAGE BRASS MINI DISH • $15

S

pring is here and backyards are calling our names, beckoning us to reemerge and tiptoe into entertaining. As we dust off our grills and favorite cookbooks, it’s a great time to take a fresh look at the vintages and varietals we are serving with our favorite fired-up foods. And whether we’re sopping sauce on meat for a backyard barbecue or slicing medium-well steak for a sit-down dinner-for-two, conversation is vital. Knowing a little bit about the wine you’re pouring is a great starting point — and it makes you sound like an expert, to boot. Christina Quick, wine director at Fairhope’s gourmet retailer Provision, is eager to help get our entertaining legs back under us, so to speak. The following are five must-try wines to pair with a variety of proteins.

GRILLED STEAK OR PASTA WITH MEAT SAUCE Wine to try: 2017 Appellation Cabernet Sauvignon, Upper Galilee, $21

GRILLED CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES Wine to try: 2019 COS Nero Di Lupo, Sicily, $26

Tasting Notes: Full-bodied, dark red fruit wine with a complex and long finish

Tasting Notes: Surprisingly complex medium-bodied wine with red fruits, herbal notes and a hint of saline to close out the elegant finish

The historic Carmel Winery was founded by the owner of the worldfamous Chateau Lafite Winery in Bordeaux, Baron Edmond de Rothschild. He and his team investigated the Israeli landscape and saw that its land was much like that of Bordeaux. Today, Carmel Winery is the largest winery in Israel and continues to produce rich and historic wines.

Made entirely of Nero D’Avola grapes, the most popular red grape grown on the volcanic island of Sicily, this wine boasts a fragrant aroma, thanks in part to the rich, dark soil in which the grapes are grown.

Located off the toe of Italy, Sicily has a long history of winemaking, dating back to the 8th century B.C., when the Greeks first planted grapes. Since wine producer COS’ inception in 1980, no synthetic or chemical additives have been used.

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GRILLED FISH OR SUSHI Wine to try: 2019 Leeuwin Siblings Sauvignon Blanc, Margaret River, $21 Tasting Notes: Medium to high acidity, grassy and citrus notes with a medium mouthfeel (texture) Margaret River in Australia has a storied history that is directly tied to California and the “Judgment of Paris” tasting in 1976. Robert Mondavi, led by the newfound global understanding that great wine can be made in places other than France, decided to travel to the Margaret River region to meet with the owner of prime real estate, Denis Horgan, in the Western Australia peninsula. He and Denis founded Leeuwin Estate Winery and the rest is history.

BARBECUE Wine to try: 2015 Domaine de Crampilh - Cuvee Madiran Tannat, Madiran, $21 Tasting Notes: Full-bodied and inky red wine with notes of smoky ripe red and black fruits, leather and baking spices on the finish Before Tannat was known as the star grape of Uruguay, its home and birthplace was in the quaint Madiran region of France. This wine comes from 30-plusyear-old vines in this historic region.

Tannat has been touted as one of the “healthiest” red wine grapes, thanks to much higher levels of antioxidants. Le Crampilh is the name of the estate, which dates from the late 1800s, located on top of a hill by the Larcis River in Aurions.

OYSTERS Wine to try: 2019 Domaine Des Cadastres Picpoul De Pinet, Languedoc, $18 Tasting Notes: Clean and crisp with floral and citrus notes, high acidity and balanced finish This unique wine made from the Picpoul grape is one of the oldest indigenous grape varieties from the Languedoc region in southern France.

Picpoul literally translates to “stings the lip” and is a reference to the grape’s mouthwateringly high acidity.

Languedoc-Roussillon is one of the oldest wine producing regions in France, dating back at least 6000 B.C.

WINE CLUB Provision offers an exclusive club for vino aficionados. “I love to help people try new things,” Quick says of the joy she gets from taking members on a “new journey” with nontraditional wines.

Three levels of membership are available, from $35 to $150 a month.

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interview by DANNY WHITE facilitated and edited by BRECK PAPPAS

KEEPING UP WITH TOMS

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Ninety-four years after his birth in Mobile, turkey hunting’s “poet laureate” Col. Tom Kelly still can’t find enough words to describe his passion for the elusive bird. Fellow hunter and Mobilian Danny White talks with Kelly to find out why.

T

here’s no telling what the residents of the Bethesda, Maryland, high-rise think of their neighbor Col. Tom Kelly. Since moving from Spanish Fort to be closer to his daughter and her family in 2017, the hunter and author has no doubt raised his fair share of eyebrows; the endangered old Mobile accent and occasional turkey call pulsing through the walls of his apartment tend to draw attention. Most wouldn’t guess that they share the building with the man who’s been called the “poet laureate” of turkey hunting — the writer who inspired the Washington Post to assert, “Kelly is to turkeys what Melville was to whales.”

Kelly wrote the book on turkey hunting (well, more than 20 of them).

His first effort, 1973’s “Tenth Legion,” has long been considered one of the greatest books on the subject, spawning a cult-like following of the man, his lore and his stories.

In something of a cosmic joke, Kelly shares a name with the birds he hunts; “tom” is the nickname for a male turkey. The coincidence isn’t lost on the easy-to-laugh Kelly who, at 94, is full of the one-liners and stories that have entertained readers for decades. Over a Zoom call, that trademark charisma was on full display as Kelly visited with his former Scott Paper Company co-worker and longtime friend Danny White to talk gobblers.

First of all, Tom, I’m honored that you would even think of me as a turkey hunter. I consider myself a rookie, so I’m really humbled that you’d allow me to do

this interview with you. What are some of your earliest hunting memories?

About 80 years ago I was with some people in Mississippi, including a friend named Pete Kennedy. I heard a turkey gobble for the first time. In fact, I thought it was an owl. Pete had to tell me what it was. And we fooled around with it and fooled around with it, and eventually we lucked up and killed it. And I realized then that [turkey hunting] was something that I would really like to do and do a hell of a lot of.

Around that time, I bet you there weren’t 1,000 turkey hunters in the United States, and every one of them thought that we were just about to lose turkeys — they were getting fewer and fewer. And they wouldn’t tell you shit. I mean,

Top Much of Tom Kelly’s life has revolved around his love and respect for wild turkeys. PHOTO COURTESY SCOTT CHILDRESS

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they’d lie to you, they’d give you advice like, “Son, you ain’t yelping enough, you ain’t moving around enough.” They’d deliberately lie to you because they thought, “Turkeys won’t be around for long, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him kill one that I could kill.”

“THE FIRST TURKEY

How has turkey hunting changed over the course of your life?

Turkey populations have boomed. At one time, there were only turkeys in 11 states.

While some states began putting in bag limits of four or five, states like South Carolina had a limit of 40, and there were guys who killed 40 turkeys a year.

A turkey baits pretty easy. Not only does he bait easy, but he comes to the bait about the same time every day. So if you get out there and scatter corn in a 10-foot-long trench and sit down at the end of the trench where you can look down it and wait until you got a whole row of turkeys out there, and that trench is full of feeding heads, and shoot both barrels down that trench, you’re going to pick up 12 or 14 turkeys. If you bait ‘em up, they’re easy to kill.

I SAT THERE WITH

That ain’t turkey hunting though, is it?

No, that’s right. It ain’t. It’s murder. If you’re going to do that, hell, you might as well…

THAT EVER CAME TO ME ON THE GROUND DID IT A LONG TIME AGO. MY HANDS SHAKING AND MY BREATH SHORT AND MY HEART HAMMERING SO HARD I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND WHY HE COULD NOT HEAR IT. THE LAST TURKEY THAT CAME TO ME LAST SPRING HAD EXACTLY THE SAME EFFECT, AND THE DAY THAT THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN TO ME IS THE DAY THAT I QUIT.”

Aside from better management practices, turkeys are very adaptable. A turkey is a weird thing; most other birds, from hummingbirds all the way up, (I don’t know about ostriches, I never hunted an ostrich) hatch a nest of eggs, then both parents go off and get stuff. Little crickets and stuff. And they bring it and feed the birds on the nest. A male turkey does none of that. Not a bit. He is interested in girls. And as soon as he gets as many girls as he can handle, he runs other male turkeys off. And when the babies come, the hell with ‘em, mama can handle ‘em, I’m busy, I got stuff I gotta do someplace else. He don’t help raise the family at all.

He’s not a nice person!

A lot of ladies now are taking up turkey hunting, and I think that’s because turkeys remind them of their husbands.

You can’t shoot your husband, but you can shoot turkey.

What was your first shotgun?

It was a Winchester Model 37 single-barrel 20 gauge. It cost $9.54 at Thoss Sporting Goods store in Mobile. It shot one round, but you could put another shell in between these two fingers. And then when you shot, (mimics reloading) you could do that and do that. And I was pretty good at getting a second shot.

How does that compare to the gun you use today?

– Tom Kelly, “Tenth Legion,” 1973 I moved up. I got an over/under. It’s a Winchester. The National Wild Turkey For every 100 deer hunters, only about Federation has got a Tom Kelly Room at one or two are turkey hunters. Why do its headquarters in South Carolina. And you think that is? they got pictures of me in there, they got clothes, they got ‘Cause turkey hunting’s hard work! Deer hunting, somebody else my gun, they got everything else. On occasion, when I’m does all the damn work! You draw a stand out of a hat. Somebody leading a hunt or when I’ve been invited to a hunt, I will ask drives you out to the stand and sits you down there. You sit in your them, “Can I borrow my gun back?” And they loan it to me chair with your legs crossed ... You don’t have any skill involved. and make me promise that I’ll bring it right back as soon as You got buckshot in your gun. You got three rounds in there. If a I get through. deer comes by, you kill it. If it don’t come by, you can’t leave the

stand ‘cause one of the standers would shoot you. You got to sit Can you explain a day in the life of a turkey? there until they pick you up. Hell, I’d rather work!

Well, in the spring, the minute he wakes up, he gobbles. And he gobbles to let the hens know where he is. And he sits in The number I hear today is that we’ve probably got 450,000 that tree until he sees a hen come walking on the ground. He turkeys in the state of Alabama. In your opinion, what’s been does that for two reasons. One: He’s lazy, and he knows if he the key cause for that turnaround?

Be a deer hunter.

That’s right. Deer hunting’s the same thing.

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does that she’ll come anyway. Two: He don’t get down on the ground in case there’s any predators down there, like a fox or anything. When the hen gets down on the ground, then he flies down to her and she comes to him. Gobblers don’t go to hens. Hens go to gobblers. The first thing you got to do before you’re ever going to start killing any is realize you got to make them come to you. They don’t want to go to you.

They want to sit there and call hens in. And you gotta play it that way all the time.

What’s the most common mistake a rookie hunter makes?

Talking too much. Yelping too much. You get wrapped up in the sounds, and you fall in love with the sounds that you are making. The only people who are interested in that are other turkey hunters.

Calling too much is stupid. If you call and he hears you and gobbles, he expects you to come there and he expects to see you within three or four minutes. If he don’t see you in three, four minutes, he might call again. If he don’t see you, then he thinks, “Geez, am I slipping? I mean, this don’t work.

Normally, all I have to do is say where I am, and then I got to have a stick to beat the girls off until I have the ones I want.”

So you can run one off by continually calling. You can be the best caller in the world. You can sit in one place, but if you sit there and keep calling, he ain’t coming. So he expects you to come to him. And when you don’t, he thinks, “Well, she’s probably ugly anyway. I’ll go hunt up a better-looking one and call to her.”

They’ve got all of the advantages, which is great. That’s why, with just a little bit of help ... we’re gonna have turkeys forever.

“I DO NOT HUNT TURKEYS BECAUSE I WANT TO, I HUNT THEM BECAUSE I HAVE TO.” – Tom Kelly, “Tenth Legion,” 1973

When has a turkey made you look silly?

Oh, boy. (laughs) They’ve made me look silly so many times — they will do things that are just absolutely unexplainable.

One time, a group came down and they wanted to get some shots of turkey. So I had a cameraman sitting behind me with the camera right over my shoulder and taking pictures all the time. The turkey gobbled, came up, and he got closer and closer and closer.

Top right Kelly is full of turkey tips. “The first thing you got to do before you’re ever going to start killing any is realize you got to make them come to you,” he says.

Bottom right Kelly and his grandson John pose after John’s first successful turkey hunt.

PHOTO COURTESY SCOTT CHILDRESS

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I asked the cameraman, “You got enough?” and he said, “Yeah, go ahead and kill him.” And I missed him. Right there in front of God and everybody. He wasn’t 40 yards away. I can’t tell you why I missed him, but I missed him.

And there ain’t no way to explain it away.

You ain’t on an equal footing with turkeys, and you never will be no matter how long you hunt and no matter how smart you think you are. They’re going to do something to you every year that makes you think, “Dammit, I didn’t know he could do that.”

You’re obviously an admitted turkey hunting addict, and you’ve written numerous books on the subject. What’s got you hooked so bad?

It’s just there. It’s just astonishing. And I’m not trying to encourage people to start. ‘Cause sometimes I wish everybody would quit but me. But everybody I know that does it — you’re a perfect example, Danny. When I first met you, I don’t think you’d ever killed a turkey. And now you’re pretty much one of the legion, and you’ve spent a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of trouble doing it.

What’s the success rate for the average hunter?

Somebody who is really good, and follows all the rules, might kill four or five a year ... there have been years when I killed whatever the limit was. There have been years when I killed one. There have been years when I spent a lot of time breathing fresh air and feeling the sunshine.

How much enjoyment do you get out of teaching somebody the basics of turkey hunting?

During the years when I was guiding a lot, if I could get somebody — a kid, a young fellow, a lady (ladies are getting to be more and more involved) — I would rather call one up for them and have them kill it than have me kill it. I like that, ‘cause I feel like I done made a convert now and we got another member of the lodge.

Tell me about that leap from turkey hunter to renowned writer. Did you always enjoy writing?

Danny, the person that started me on it was my wife. I don’t know where we were going one time, and she said, “Tom, why don’t you write down some of these damn stories that I hear you telling people? They might like to listen to them.”

And so I bought one of these recording machines. I was still in the National Guard at that time, and I lived near Atmore, and I went to drill. On the way to drill, I would dictate into that machine and bring them home, and Helen typed them up. The first [story] I sent — I think it was to Field and Stream — the first one I sent, they took. I have never had a rejection. I never wrote a story that I couldn’t sell somewhere.

Above Kelly has led his fair share of hunts, and these days he says he’d rather call a turkey in for somebody else to shoot than shoot one himself.

“I like that, ‘cause I feel like we done made a convert now,” he says.

How many books have you written now?

Twenty-two or 23, I think. Danny, I try to do something like 700 or 800 words a day. I don’t make myself do it every day, but I try to do it every day.

The only trouble is, sometimes I come in the next day and I read what I did the day before. Well, the cops don’t know this yet, but there’s this sneaky burglar at this end of the world that slips into my house at night and dictates into my dictating machine, ‘cause I got shit on there that I did not write. I don’t write that bad! So sometimes that means I got to throw all that junk away and start again.

If I could ever catch that guy and kill him, I would be infinitely better off.

 Visit mobilebaymag.com to watch clips from our fun and insightful Zoom interview with Tom Kelly.

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Seven hundred words a day is a lot. After all these years, how do you still have so much to say on the subject?

I’m writing about something that has got an infinite variety of situations that [the turkey] creates that I can talk about.

It’s a good thing you didn’t pick up deer hunting, because you probably would’ve only written one book. (laughs) I know.

“I’M WRITING ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAS GOT AN INFINITE VARIETY OF SITUATIONS THAT [THE TURKEY] CREATES THAT I CAN TALK ABOUT.”

I’ve got a lifetime supply of Christmas presents.” You know, I could send those off to people. Well, I ran through the first edition pretty quick, and I did another one. We’re now ... geez, I don’t know ... we must be into the 12th or 13th edition. Even now, upon occasion — every year we go to the National Wild Turkey Federation Convention — somebody comes up with an original edition. And I tell them how much it costs and they say, “Ooh.” In fact, one guy offered to sell me the book back. (shakes head) I said, “Now look, come on.”

When you published that first book, – Tom Kelly “Tenth Legion,” did you ever imagine it would have the lifespan that it has?

I didn’t. There’s a thing I call the “ego press;” if you write a Well, Tom, I just want to tell you how thankful I am book and you really believe it’s worth publishing, you can that you’ve been my friend and mentor. I thank you publish it yourself. You pay the printer and he sets it up and for introducing me to this challenging and thoroughly you pay him so much a copy and he sends you the copies. enjoyable sport of hunting, and I’m a better person for Well, I did that, and I had a few more than 1,000 copies. knowing you.

And I thought, “Well, I got these things. If nothing else, Thank you, Danny. Thank you very much. MB

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PHOTO COURTESY SISTERS OF THE VISITATION

PEOPLE | SPOTLIGHT

On Prayer and Chocolate The story of Mobile’s Visitation Monastery is one of devotion, resilience and sweet, sweet confection. text by AMANDA HARTIN

T

he bell on the front door tings, signaling my mid-afternoon arrival. I step shyly inside, joining a handful of people perusing the Visitation Shop, thoughtfully admiring artwork, christening gowns and home decor. A silver and pearl ring on display in the entryway catches my eye, momentarily distracting me of my original goal. I’ve come in search of a trifecta.

Of candy, that is, specifically the milk chocolate, marshmallow and pecan treat known as Heavenly Hash.

I make a mental note to return to the ring, and I press on in search of Colleen Blackwell, the store manager. She meets me in the hall and affirms they have what I’ve come for. But as it turns out, I’ll be leaving with far more than just confection.

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“A lot of people think they aren’t allowed to come back here,” Blackwell says of the store’s location, which is down a short gravel drive off Springhill Avenue, the entrance flanked by a gate and brick wall. “Or they think they have to be Catholic to come in,” says Joanie Zoghby, busy thumbing through old photographs. She looks up and smiles when I admit I had worried the same. Indeed, all denominations are welcome, and I settle in to listen to what the two women — who, combined, have 40 years’ experience at the shop — have to share about the monastery.

“There are a lot of hidden treasures over there,” Zoghby says, nodding her head to the right, as Blackwell leads me out into the spring air toward Sacred Heart Chapel, adja-

cent the store. Inside the silent sanctuary painted by sunlit stained glass, Blackwell points out a crucifix on the wall, whispering it’s the one Dr. Samuel Mordecai was able to save during the 1854 fire that destroyed the original chapel. From our side of the delicate mesh screen separating the cloistered nuns’ domain from the outside world, we see Sister Christiana enter the chapel, clothed in the traditional black habit. Unaware of us, she begins praying the Stations of the Cross.

Originally founded in 1833 as the Visitation Convent and Academy, the Visitation Monastery is home to about 20 Sisters, all devoted to a simple, contemplative life of prayer. Their daily schedule includes times for reflection, corporate and individual prayer, and work, such as laundry, gardening, caring for the infirm and cooking. Questions roll through my mind, such as, “Where is the candy made?” Instead, I ask how the monastery is financially sustained. Simply put, support is trifold: community donations, yearround retreats and gift shop proceeds.

Not unlike the rest of the world, the Visitation struggled in 2020, not only with the pandemic canceling retreats and closing the shop temporarily, but also with back-to-back hurricanes wiping out electricity. “I had to bring in generators to keep the Sisters’ refrigerated food from spoiling,” Blackwell says, now leading me into the retreat quarters.

In the peaceful solemnity of the parlor, my eyes lilt from one thing to another, finally landing on portraits of the McGill brothers, Felix and Arthur, two early benefactors.

On our stroll back to the shop, I ask about one nun in particular. Sister Theodosia, I’ve read, is the Polish octogenarian in charge of making Heavenly Hash, the candy many Mobilians call “addictive.” The Sister, along with the help of others, churns out about 3,000

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pounds of the handmade delicacy per year. It’s grueling work involving industrial-sized mixers, heavy mixtures and lots of cutting and weighing.

“Sister Theodosia weighs every box that leaves the kitchen,” Blackwell says of the half-pound and pound boxes they sell. “She’s confined to a wheelchair now, but she’s still very much involved in the three-day process.”

Around 1957, the Sisters began selling Heavenly Hash on a much smaller scale, but it wasn’t long before their chocolaty public relations entity exploded. Over 60 years later, and with mentions in Southern Living, Taste of the South and a Garden & Gun readers’ poll, demand is higher than ever.

“The nuns are aware of the candy’s popularity,” Blackwell explains, “but their focus is on prayer, not on production.” She goes on to say that making and giving candy is one way in which the Sisters say “thank you” to the community.

At this point, I begin to wonder if the “hidden treasures” Zoghby alluded to earlier are the religious relics found at every twist and turn or the nuns themselves.

Back in my car, I slip the new ring onto my finger before tearing into the plastic-wrapped white box encasing a half-pound of chocolate hash. “It is addictive,” I say to myself, reaching for a second piece, this time reflecting on the afternoon.

I think about the Sisters’ devotion to their calling. I think about the volunteers and staff I met — from office workers to groundskeepers — who keep the monastery running. And I think about Sister Theodosia, wheeling into the candy kitchen, meticulously packaging and metering box after box.

“I do it with a sense of love,” she once said of candy making during a Press-Register interview. And gratitude, of course. And for that, we are the thankful ones. MB

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SETTING THE TABLE WITH NEW FRIENDS

GINGER TAYLOR, POINT CLEAR, WEDGEWOOD KINGSBRIDGE

As some modern hostesses shift to more casual entertaining, many others have bonded over their love of inspired table settings. Whether inherited, sourced at antique stores or scavenged from flea markets, the building blocks of a beautiful table can set the stage for so much more than just dinner.

text by JILL CLAIR GENTRY • photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU table sourcing & styling by MAGGIE LACEY

I

In a year full of anxiety and unknowns surrounding in-person gatherings, many have put dinner parties, Sunday luncheons and holiday celebrations on hold. Fine china enthusiasts across the country have watched their tableware collect dust and have missed the social connections felt around a table.

Maybe that’s why a Facebook group that revolves around something so simple and pure has experienced exponential growth since its inception in September 2019. The “Beautiful Table Settings” Facebook group, founded by May Eason of Wetumpka, Alabama, serves as a happy place for 55,000 women from over 40 countries who gather online to share the stories of their collections and creative decor.

“Never Never Land” “We only have a few rules,” Eason says.

“We try to keep the outside world off our page. No politics, religion or pandemic discussion. We want to be Never Never Land, so you can just come and have fun and play.”

Eason, 67, is a semiretired interior decorator who spends a large portion of her time traveling to estate sales and antique shops. She owns over 100 different china patterns and also collects silver, crystal, Early American pattern glass, napkin rings, cloth napkins and water pitchers.

“My china alone fills up a buffet, a sideboard, a pair of china cabinets and a secretary chest of drawers,” she says. “I’m also always changing up my own table settings and posting them for the group. I have four tables of my own — one in the foyer, the dining room, my breakfast room and the sunroom. I change up one, if not two, every day.”

As the group has grown, Eason has added administrators to help monitor every post and comment to ensure the group stays true to its mission. She personally

spends eight to 10 hours per day posting, commenting or monitoring the group, although she says most people are overjoyed to adhere to the rules.

“This group is very positive,” says Gerry Lester of Magnolia Springs, who has been a member since September 2020. “Kindness seems to be the main value of this group.”

Real-life friendships In addition to sharing their beautiful tables, thrift store finds and family stories, Beautiful Table Settings sometimes even operates as a network for like-minded collectors to help one another find rare pieces. Online friendships have turned into real-life friendships as collectors connect over a shared passion.

Member Ann Walker tragically lost her grandmother’s china after a tree fell on her garage, and she found a set of the same pattern for a great price on Facebook Marketplace. The problem? Walker lives in Montgomery, and the china was in Decatur, Georgia. The seller needed it gone quickly. She asked if anyone in the group lived near Decatur and would mind picking up the china for her and holding onto it until she could make the three-hour drive.

Within minutes, a member who lives

GERRY LESTER, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS WEDGEWOOD RUNNYMEDE BLUE

“This has a shell pattern around the rim with a floral centerpiece. I chose it specifically because it didn’t have gold on it — way back in the day, you couldn’t put gold in the dishwasher. We now have 18 place settings and all the service pieces after my husband, who used to travel quite a bit, brought home boxes and boxes from a trip to Europe.”

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2.8 miles from the location of the china volunteered to pick it up. Turns out, the seller was a member of the group, too.

In another post, member Janet Stough Eldridge of Prattville posted an incredible Goodwill find — 64 pieces of Royal Albert Kentish Rockery for $49.99 — and asked for ideas to accessorize a table using the pattern, which features delicate, detailed garden scenes. She received 908 comments.

“I am a rural Alabama lady and live in an A-frame home,” Eldridge said in a follow-up post. “I feel these belong in a mansion after your responses. It is intimidating for me to even think about creating the tablescape to post on this site. I have no idea of the accessories, but found it very encouraging when one suggested to keep it simple and let the china speak for itself.”

Locals join in The Beautiful Table Settings group is worldwide, but over 2,000 of its members are Mobile and Baldwin county residents.

“I don’t even remember who invited me to the group, but I joined at the very beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 when there were just 8,000 members,” says Ginger Taylor of Point Clear. “This group has just been so uplifting. It’s such a happy thing — everyone’s dreaming of future dinner parties together.”

Ladylike Chinoiserie

Tammy Thompson of Mobile also joined Beautiful Table Settings in March 2020 and said it’s been cathartic for her as she continues to work from home a year later.

“I love entertaining and always have a big spread and invite a bunch of people over for Easter. I host Christmas parties, bridal showers and baby showers and always enjoy creating tablescapes for these events. Now, none of that is happening. My dining room table is currently my office. It looks like the tornado scene from the ‘Wizard of Oz.’ ” Thompson says she appreciates the diversity in the group — some people post incredibly elegant table decor, while others share paper plate place settings

LESLIE ANNE TARABELLA, FAIRHOPE | LIBERTY BLUE

“I have collected Liberty Blue piece by piece for years. It was originally given away in banks during the Bicentennial in 1976 when you opened a new bank account. Each piece depicts a different historical scene. Independence Hall is on the dinner plate. The luncheon plate is the saddest of the bunch—it feels a little wrong eating your chicken salad looking down at the starving soldiers at Valley Forge.”

The Liberty Blue plates from the collection of Fairhope’s Leslie Anne Tarabella inspired MB’s classic table with blue and white for days and touches of peach for a springtime kiss.

HOW WE GOT THE LOOK Blue and White

To Die-For Silver

Rounding it out

Ravishing Florals

Spode Blue Italian Dinner Plate - Zundel’s Jewelry Mottahedeh Indigo Wave Dessert Plate - Zundel’s Jewelry Herend Chinese Bouquet Mini Scalloped Dish Zundel’s Jewelry

Reed and Barton Francis I Sterling Silver Placesettings - Louise Doggett Antiques Reed and Barton Francis I Sterling Silver Footed Bowl - Louise Doggett Antiques Sterling Silver Water Goblet - Louise Doggett Antiques Sterling Silver Pin Dish Louise Doggett Antiques

Vietri Contessa Wine Glasses - The Ivy Cottage

A Baroque-inspired Design of Juliette Garden Roses, Anemone and Queen Annes Lace - The Shade Tree

Peachy Keen Bodrum Peach Linen Napkins - The Ivy Cottage Scalamandre Fabric Tablecloth - on loan

Sweet Treats Vegan Lemon Sponge “Baby Cake” with Vanilla Bean Swiss Meringue, Organic Blueberry Jam Filling, Topped with Fresh Fruits and Vegan Macarons. - Lindsey Bakes

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they put together for a casual event or cute plastic tableware they find at Dollar Tree.

“People aren’t embarrassed to show simple, comfortable things that just mean something to them. Either they have an emotional attachment or family connection to something, or maybe it just appeals to their aesthetic.

There is something very lovely about that. Everyone’s not just trying to re-create something they saw in Architectural Digest.”

Beautiful Table Settings, Thompson says, inspired her to get her mother’s china out of storage and find a way to display and use it.

“It’s not my favorite pattern, but it was my mother’s. I have just seen so many people sharing stories of how they got their china and how meaningful it is to them.”

Leslie Anne Tarabella, an author and humor columnist who lives in Fairhope, joined Beautiful Table Settings in October 2020. Tarabella writes about Southern culture and has written several stories on the art of entertaining.

Tarabella’s feature “It’s How We Love You” was inspired by a post in which a woman shared how her friends replaced her fine china with paper goods while she was out of the room to save her from “going to all that trouble.”

A Touch of Spring

For many Southern women, Tarabella says, setting an appealing table is an act of love and care.

“When times are tough, we need a hug, and a good meal is the way we hug you,” Tarabella writes in her column. “Not just the food, but the entire table, including the little pinecone turkeys, crystal goblets and glitter encrusted snowmen … Love is expressed in different ways, and it’s not up to the recipient to scold or shame the giver.

Appreciation and grace are the best thanks of all.” MB

ALLISON WOODHAM, LOXLEY CASTLETON TURQUOISE AND SPODE FLORENCE

“These patterns came from my grandmothers. I am only 30, but I love china. I don’t think of it as something old. It’s funny how both sets of china really remind me of my grandmothers and match their personalities.”

MB’s garden party look takes its cue from the Castleton Turquoise dinner plates of Loxley’s Allison Woodham, using wood and straw to balance the fussiness of flowers and butterflies.

HOW WE GOT THE LOOK Plucked from the Garden Anna Weatherly Green Charger - Zundel’s Jewelry Anna Weatherly Spring in Budapest Dinner Plates Zundel’s Jewelry Anna Weatherly Spring in Budapest Lace Dessert Plates - Zundel’s Jewelry Anna Weatherly Morning Glory Bread and Butter Plates - Zundel’s Jewelry Anna Weatherly Morning Glory Ruffle Cup and Saucer - Zundel’s Jewelry

Nautral Texture

Rounding it out

Sweet Treats

Baja Natural Placemat Wildflowers Vietri Oak-handled Silverware - The Ivy Cottage Michael Michaud Clover Napkin Rings - The Ivy Cottage Wicker-wrapped Water Glasses - Wildflowers

Stripe Ruffled-edge Napkin - The Ivy Cottage Sferra Green Cocktail Napkin - The Ivy Cottage Silver Candlesticks - Louise Doggett Antiques Green Taper Candles Wildflowers Seersucker Fabric - On Loan Antique Green Crystal Wine Glasses - Louise Doggett Antiques Reed and Barton Francis I Sterling Silver Footed Bowl - Louise Doggett Antiques

Vegan Vanilla Mini Cupcakes with White Chocolate Swiss Meringue and a White Chocolate Covered Cherry - Lindsey Bakes Vegan Caramel Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream Topped With Lemon Curd Macarons, White Chocolate Dipped Cherries, and Edible Butterflies - Lindsey Bakes Vegan Lavender Macarons- Lindsey Bakes

Botanicals A Fresh Breeze of Pink Roses, Ranunculus and Cabbage Rosettes - The Shade Tree

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Luxe Tropical Hot colors are just that!

Combining bold reds, like this Mikasa pattern from Mobile’s Tammy Thompson, with fuschia, orange and gold make a tablescape that feels like traveling to exotic destinations.

HOW WE GOT THE LOOK Bold Color Monogrammed Pink Linen Napkins Bobbins Hot Pink Taper Candles - Wildlfowers Antique Green Crystal Wine Glasses - Louise Doggett Antiques Caspari Peacock Blue Acrylic Tumblers Wildflowers Juliska Green Straw Placemat - The Ivy Cottage

Pop of Pattern

Tropical Managerie Plates - The Ivy Cottage

Plenty of Gold Royal Crown Derby Aves Gold Dinner Plate, Cup and Saucer - Zundel’s Jewelry Antique Brass Candle Sticks - Louise Doggett Antiques Square Glass Plate with Gold Trim Zundel’s Jewelry Small Gold Bowl Zundel’s Jewelry

TAMMY THOMPSON, MOBILE | MIKASA FRENCH EMBASSY RED

“I LOVE THIS PATTERN SO MUCH THAT I PAINTED MY DINING ROOM TO MATCH IT.”

RESOURCES Bobbins Designs bobbinsdesign.com

Lindsey Bakes Vegan Treats lindseybakesvegan@gmail.com Instagram at @lindseybakes_

Rounding it out

Whiting Lily of the Valley Sterling Silver Placesettings - Louise Doggett Antiques Vietri Contessa Wine Glasses - The Ivy Cottage Handmade Otomi Throw - On Loan Burgundy Silk Fabric On Loan

Sweet Treats

Vegan Vanilla Berry Floral “Baby Cake” with Vanilla Bean Buttercream, Filled with Raspberry Prosecco Jam - Lindsey Bakes

Ravishing Florals

A Jeweled Palette with a nod to the shops and markets of Morocco, featuring Roses, Scabiosa and Tulips.”

- The Shade Tree

Louise Doggett Antiques 93 North Sage Ave., Mobile 471-6700 louisedoggettantiques.com

ON LOCATION Our tabletop dreams came true at The Fort Condé Inn. Housed in a Southern manor dating back to 1829, it is surrounded by historic cottages and homes all restored to modern luxury and AAA FourDiamond status. If the inn makes a lasting impression, that’s because it’s been centuries in the making.

165 Saint Emanuel Steet, Mobile 405-5040 fortcondeinn.com

The Ivy Cottage 9 DuRhu Drive, Mobile 345-1731 ivycottageonline.com

The Shade Tree 455-7218 theshadetreefloralevents.com

Widlflowers 50 South Church St., Fairhope 928-6200 wildflowersfairhope.com

Zundel’s Jewelry 3670 Dauphin St., Mobile 241-5439 zundelsjewelry.com

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PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU • BOUQUET BY WILDFLOWERS

 Newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Cooper Weiland share a sweet moment at Henry George Park in Fairhope after their

October 2020 celebration. To see more of this wedding and all the weddings featured in this month’s Mobile Bay Bride, open your smartphone’s camera and hover over the QR code at the right. Tap the link that pops up to be taken directly to MB’s website, where you can browse photo galleries of all the stunning weddings! april 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 55

op MARY PATTERSON VERBECK & DAVID THOMAS WALLACE

JULY 11, 2020 ST. MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH, RECEPTION AT CROWN HALL

Mobile natives Mary Patterson and David attended college in Ohio, so when they returned to the Port City to get married in the middle of a global pandemic, they weren’t sure how many guests and out-of-state friends would be able to attend. Their worry was for naught, however, as people from as far as South Dakota and New York came to witness the couple’s joyous occasion. Trolley rides from Midtown to Downtown and back capped off the memorable celebration.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Mr. and Mrs. Michael Verbeck PARENTS OF THE GROOM Mr. and Mrs. David Wallace PHOTOGRAPHER Miranda Stallings WEDDING DRESS Luxe Redux Bridal Boutique, Pittsburgh FLORIST Ron Barrett HAIR & MAKEUP Nicole Skelton CATERER Bay Gourmet WEDDING CAKE Pollman’s Bake Shop VIDEOGRAPHER Michael O’Sullivan BAND Cooper Trent WEDDING PLANNER Melanie Zoghby Cummins

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op ELIZABETH ANNE WRIGHT & THOMAS ANTHONY REDD SR

DECEMBER 31, 2020 CEREMONY & RECEPTION AT BATTLE HOUSE HOTEL & SPA

Wearing a veil bearing her father’s name, Beth said “I do” to Thomas on New Year’s Eve, ushering in 2021 as husband and wife. The couple’s ceremony was held in the Crystal Ballroom, and then the celebration moved upstairs to the Moonlight Ballroom for the reception. The party concluded on the RSA Trustmark Building’s 34th floor with a surprise for guests.

Although the City of Mobile had canceled New Year’s festivities due to the pandemic, at the couple’s request, the city went ahead with the MoonPie Drop at midnight, making the day especially memorable.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Mr. and Mrs. Levi Wright Sr. PARENTS OF THE GROOM Mr. and Mrs. David Redd Jr. PHOTOGRAPHER Dwight Ladd WEDDING DRESS Ese’ Azenabor, Dallas FLORIST Curtis Allen, Ace Productions HAIR Jemeka Caulton MAKEUP Dymon Grace CATERER Battle House and Sinful Sweets Catering, Atlanta WEDDING CAKE Carol Monteith VIDEOGRAPHER Thomas Vision Films, Atlanta DJ DJ Tech WEDDING PLANNER The Lux Film Consulting Agency

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op KERRI ELIZABETH REED & JUSTIN TYLER ELLZEY JANUARY 16, 2021 CEREMONY & RECEPTION AT THE ORCHARD AT HAYES FARM

Family was incorporated into this special day from start to finish. The bride’s garter was sewn by her grandmother, while the groom used one of Kerri’s grandfather’s ties as a blindfold before the first look. Deemed the highlight of the night, the couple’s first dance song, “My Side of the Fence” by Dan and Shay, was sung by Kerri’s niece.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Mrs. Kathy Reed & Mr. Kenneth Reed PARENTS OF THE GROOM Mrs. Sandra Ellzey PHOTOGRAPHER Lacey Sumerlin Bosarge WEDDING DRESS David’s Bridal FLORIST Glen Jenkins, The Shade Tree HAIR Lavish Salon MAKEUP Meggin Johnston CATERER Ramona Savell, Full of Grace BARTENDER Bratton McGregor, Bottles UP WEDDING CAKE Cakes by Judi VIDEOGRAPHER RI Films DJ David Wilson WEDDING PLANNER Deborah Clark

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op MARY MARGARET BLEDSOE & JOSEPH LEE LEAVITT V

DECEMBER 5, 2020 ST. JOSEPH CHAPEL AT SPRING HILL COLLEGE, RECEPTION AT THE EZELL HOUSE

Sentimentality highlighted Mary Margaret and Lee’s wedding day.

In honor of her mother, the bride incorporated calla lilies into her bouquet. Also in her bouquet and in every other floral arrangement were Stephanotis flowers, chosen because they symbolize marital bliss. In addition to being significant to Spring Hill College alum Lee, St. Joseph Chapel felt especially sweet because it is also where the bride’s grandparents wed. The elegant evening ended with dancing under string lights strewn across the Ezell House’s courtyard.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Mr. and Mrs. John Bledsoe PARENTS OF THE GROOM Lee Leavitt IV and Betsy Leavitt PHOTOGRAPHER Jennie Tewell WEDDING DRESS Town and Country Bridal, New Orleans FLORIST Belle Bouquet HAIR & MAKEUP Jessica Price CATERER Naman’s Catering WEDDING CAKE Flour Girls Bakery BAND The Fuego Show Band RENTALS Port City Rentals INVITATIONS Soiree Signatures april 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 61

op MARGARET CLAIRE FREDRICKS & DANIEL KEVIN MATHIS JR. AUGUST 15, 2020 CEREMONY & RECEPTION AT FORT CONDE INN

Thoughtful details made Margaret and Daniel’s simple yet elegant wedding even more special: A close friend sang “Can’t Help Falling in Love;” Margaret’s brother performed the ceremony; stones from Margaret’s late mother’s anniversary band were used in her wedding band; and Daniel’s baby bonnet was pinned inside Margaret’s wedding gown.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Mr. John Fredricks and the late Rhonda Fredricks PARENTS OF THE GROOM Mr. and Mrs. Danny Mathis PHOTOGRAPHER Taylor Patrick WEDDING DRESS Bliss Bridal, Fairhope FLORIST Sarah Beth’s Florist HAIR Lori Grandquest, Cheveu Salon CATERER Naman’s Catering WEDDING CAKE Cakes by Vickie DJ Good Tyme Productions

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op SARAH SHEPHERD ANDERSON & CHARLES COOPER BRYANT JANUARY 25, 2020 CEREMONY & RECEPTION AT THE GULF SHORES WEDDING CHAPEL

The couple’s Christian faith was as integral to their wedding as the love on which they built their relationship. Opting for an intimate, romantic event on a smaller scale, the bride and groom exchanged personalized vows among friends and family, leaving many guests teary-eyed.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Mr. and Mrs. David Shepherd PARENTS OF THE GROOM Mr. and Mrs. Monty Bryant PHOTOGRAPHER Perri and Jesse Farlow WEDDING DRESS Bliss Bridal FLORIST Wildflowers Floral Design HAIR Shaina Baggins MAKEUP James Edwards CATERING & WEDDING CAKE Gulf Shores Wedding Chapel WEDDING PLANNER Elaine Harper

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op ASHLEY CHRISTINA GAY & BRIAN CHRISTOPHER CRISWELL

DECEMBER 5, 2020 ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, RECEPTION AT STEWARTFIELD

Though they’d initially planned for a spring wedding, the pandemic allowed the couple to realize the winter wedding of their dreams. The bride’s two veils, both cathedral and fingertip length, were decorated with lace and beading to commemorate the shift in wedding season. Ashley wore a custom pearl bracelet made from her grandmother’s heirloom strand. After dancing the night away at the reception, the newlyweds drove away in a blue vintage convertible.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Mr. and Mrs. Russell Brooks Gay PARENTS OF THE GROOM Mr. and Mrs. Marcus Emmitt Criswell PHOTOGRAPHER Brianna Hemphill and Jamie Woodruff, Jennie Tewell Photography WEDDING DRESS Bliss Bridal FLORIST Belle Bouquet HAIR Jennifer Freeman, Salon DMH MAKEUP Courtney Matthews WEDDING CAKE Pollman’s Bake Shop CATERER Chef Rob & Co. and Dew Drop Inn VIDEOGRAPHER RHR Media BAND Lucky Town WEDDING PLANNER Twyla P. Johnson

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op MARY EMMA ROCKWELL & HEATH CLAYTON PITMAN

NOVEMBER 14, 2020 SACRED HEART CHAPEL, RECEPTION AT JOY BIRD FARMS, LLC

Mary Emma married the love of her life during an autumn ceremony at Fairhope’s Sacred Heart Chapel. The groom’s proposal under an oak tree was so touching the couple thought it only right to celebrate their wedding surrounded by oak trees on a family friend’s property.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Dr. and Mrs. William Rucker Staggers; Mr. Lovic Eugene Rockwell III PARENTS OF THE GROOM Mr. and Mrs. Henry Clifton Pitman III PHOTOGRAPHER Elizabeth Gelineau WEDDING DRESS Bliss Bridal FLORIST Wildflowers Floral Design, Sundai Staggers HAIR Garilynn Smith Gillespie, Salon GLS MAKEUP Chasen Lipscomb CATERING Naman’s Catering WEDDING CAKE Pollman’s Bake Shop BAND Fountain City Players - Music Garden Bands WEDDING PLANNER Kayla Rigby

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op JILLIAN ANN STRACHAN & BENJAMIN COOPER WEILAND

OCTOBER 31, 2020 HENRY GEORGE BLUFF PARK, RECEPTION AT THE VENUE

Despite a pandemic and hurricane, Jill and Cooper were able to celebrate not once, but twice! The couple initially exchanged vows at Sacred Heart Church on April 18, 2020, with only their parents, brothers and priest in attendance. They pushed their celebration back to October so that all of their family and friends could be part of their joyous union. Although Hurricane Zeta hit the week of their outdoor fall wedding, the couple was not fazed, and everything went as smoothly as they had envisioned.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Mr. and Mrs. Greg Strachan PARENTS OF THE GROOM Dr. and Mrs. Peter Weiland PHOTOGRAPHER Elizabeth Gelineau WEDDING DRESS Town and Country Bridal, New Orleans FLORIST Wildflowers Floral Design HAIR & MAKEUP Chaney Smith CATERER Tamara’s Downtown WEDDING CAKE Couture Cakes VIDEOGRAPHER The Wild Soul Films + Photo BAND Five Star Funk Band WEDDING PLANNER Jenna Laine Weddings april 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 67

op HILLARY ANNE COLVIN & KENNETH MILTON GOINS III NOVEMBER 28, 2020 ST. FRANCIS AT THE POINT CHURCH, RECEPTION AT LITTLE POINT CLEAR

Though the pandemic postponed their April wedding until November, Hillary and Ken say the wait made the reward all the sweeter! The bride spent the day getting ready in her parents’ house in Fairhope, then walked down the aisle to meet her groom for an intimate, tear-jerking ceremony. Nestled amongst flowers in her bridal bouquet were pendants of Hillary’s grandmothers.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Mr. and Mrs. Ronnie Glenn Colvin PARENTS OF THE GROOM Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Milton Goins Jr. PHOTOGRAPHER Jennie Tewell WEDDING DRESS Elle James Bridal FLORIST Wildflowers Floral Design HAIR & MAKEUP Brushed and Blushed CATERER Classic City Kitchen WEDDING CAKE Couture Cakes BAND Emerald Empire Band WEDDING PLANNER Jenna Laine

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op ANNA ELISE ROGERS & SCOTT KENDALL GIBSON IV AUGUST 22, 2020 - ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, RECEPTION AT BATTLE HOUSE HOTEL & SPA

High school sweethearts, Anna and Kendall, were married in their alma mater’s church, surrounded by family and friends.

Due to Kendall’s career in the Navy, the couple endured a six-year, long-distance relationship, which made their wedding day all the more special. Although the wedding had been postponed from April and was downsized, the bride calls the occasion happy and joyful.

PARENTS OF THE BRIDE Dr. and Mrs. Bud Rogers PARENTS OF THE GROOM Col. and Mrs. Scott Kendall Gibson III PHOTOGRAPHER Jennie Tewell WEDDING DRESS The Something Blue Shoppe FLORIST Dennis Harris, Zimlich the Florist HAIR & MAKEUP Rachel Griffin and Halee McKenzie, BE-LOVED Beauty CATERER Battle House Hotel WEDDING CAKE Cakes by Judi and Pollman’s Bakery BAND City Heat Band WEDDING PLANNER Kat McCaghren, Lydia Noble Events

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EXTRAS | CALENDAR OF EVENTS

April Showers, Blooming Flowers APRIL 7 THE MAGIC OF BILL BLAGG LIVE! 7:30 p.m. Bill’s interactive magic and jawdropping illusions will have you rubbing your eyes in disbelief. Tickets: $24 - 36.

MOBILE SAENGER THEATRE MOBILESAENGER.COM

APRIL 8 - 10 BALDWIN COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS SPRING PLANT SALE 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Shop annuals, perennials, herbs, trees and shrubs.

ACROSS FROM WEEKS BAY RESERVE, HWY 98 WEST OF FISH RIVER BRIDGE BALDWINMASTERGARDENERS.COM

APRIL 8 - 11

MID TO LATE APRIL

APRIL 4

ROSE BLOOM OUT AT BELLINGRATH Tour the award-winning rose garden, which features more than 2,000 plants representing 75 varieties.

EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE 6:30 a.m. Held on the Great Lawn, the service is open to everyone in the community. Complimentary admission will be given to guests from 6 to 8 a.m. on Easter Sunday.

A limited number of chairs will be set up; guests are encouraged to bring their own.

A hot breakfast will be available for purchase after the service. In case of inclement weather, the services will be moved into the Magnolia Cafe.

BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOME BELLINGRATH.ORG

THROUGH APRIL 30 SPRING BIRD MIGRATION After traversing the Gulf, more than 400 species of birds make a pit stop on the island before heading north.

AUDUBON BIRD SANCTUARY, DAUPHIN ISLAND DAUPHINISLAND.ORG

APRIL 2 & 3 EASTER PHOTOS 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Young or old, everyone loves a photographic memento with fuzzy bunnies. Prices vary.

THE WHARF • ALWHARF.COM

BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOME BELLINGRATH.ORG

THE TEMPEST 7 p.m. Th. - Sa. 2 p.m. Su. Watch one of Shakespeare’s last written plays, centered around Prospero, a man living in exile who uses his newfound abilities to exert authority and influence events. In-person viewing and online streaming available for all four performances.

UNIVERSITY OF MOBILE, ACADEMIC PARK LAWN UMOBILE.EDU/PAS

APRIL 17 & 18 COSI FAN TUTTE (CHAMBER OPERA) 7 p.m. F, Sa. 2 p.m. Su. Called a wonderful farce of an opera, Cosi fan Tutte centers on a bet made among three men about the faithfulness of their girlfriends.

In-person viewing and online streaming available for all three performances.

MURPHY HIGH SCHOOL UMOBILE.EDU/PAS

APRIL 4 SUNRISE EASTER SERVICE 6:30 a.m. The service, conducted by Government Street Baptist Church, is free to attend and open to all denominations.

USS ALABAMA BATTLESHIP MEMORIAL PARK USSALABAMA.COM

APRIL 16 & 17 WHISKEY MYERS IN CONCERT 8 p.m. Groove to the sounds of the American Southern rock/country group.

THE PORT AT THE WHARF ALWHARF.COM

 To have your event included in the online or print edition of Mobile Bay Magazine, email calendar@pmtpublishing.com.

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APRIL 17 4TH ANNUAL MOBILE AZALEA TRAIL GOLF TOURNAMENT 1 p.m. An afternoon of golf, food and prizes. Proceeds benefit Azalea Trail Maids.

HERON LAKES COUNTRY CLUB MOBILEAZALEATRAILMAIDS.COM

APRIL 24 CLEAN OUT & RECYCLE DAY 8 a.m to Noon. Stations will be set up in the parking lot for recycling a variety of items, from tires to electronics.

BAY MINETTE CITY HALL CITYOFBAYMINETTE.ORG

APRIL 23 - 25 INTERSTATE MULLET TOSS & GULF COAST’S GREATEST BEACH PARTY 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Enjoy the sun, flying mullet and more at this annual event.

Cost: $15 per toss; includes a t-shirt.

FLORA-BAMA • FLORABAMA.COM

APRIL 25 6TH ANNUAL MUDBOTTOM REVIVAL MUSIC FESTIVAL 1 - 4 p.m. This year’s lineup includes Molly Thomas & The Rare Birds and Nashville recording artist Will Kimbrough. Space is limited. Tickets: $35, sold only to those attending by boat, motorized or not. Children under 10, free.

BENDER POINT, DOG RIVER • DOGRIVER.ORG

APRIL 27 AUTHOR EVENT: PEGGY CALLAHAN HENRY 6 p.m. Share an evening with the New York Time’s bestselling author as she discusses her most recent historical fiction, “Surviving Savannah.” Seating is limited. To reserve a spot, purchase the book by phone or in store.

PAGE & PALETTE, FAIRHOPE PAGEANDPALETTE.COM

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EXPLOREUM SCIENCE CENTER exploreum.com

THROUGH SEPTEMBER 2021 COSMOS 2021: ADVENTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN From the age of the Space Race and beyond, this experience will highlight the incredible journey of humans into the cosmos.

HISTORY MUSEUM OF MOBILE

historymuseumofmobile.com

THROUGH JUNE 2021 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES AND ETERNAL LIFE This exhibition evokes the mysterious landscape of Ancient Egypt.

THROUGH DECEMBER 2021 HISTORY OF MOBILE IN 22 OBJECTS The 300-year history of the Port City is represented in 22 objects.

MOBILE MUSEUM OF ART mobilemuseumofart.com

THROUGH SEPTEMBER 2021 GORDON PARKS: SEGREGATION STORY IN MOBILE, 1956 Photographs document the everyday activities and rituals of one extended Black family, the Thorntons, in Mobile during segregation.

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FOR KING & COUNTRY

[MAY HIGHLIGHTS]

MAY 1 2021 GARDEN WALK Tour Baldwin County gardens scattered throughout old Daphne, Lake Forest and Belforest. Rain or shine event.

VARIOUS LOCATIONS, BALDWIN COUNTY BALDWINMASTERGARDENERS.COM

MAY 1 & 2 MOBILE SYMPHONY PRESENTS RUSSIAN CLASSICS Five monumental Russian composers in concert: Tchaikovsky, Anton Arensky, Borodin, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev.

MOBILE SAENGER THEATRE MOBILESYMPHONY.ORG

MAY 26 FOR KING & COUNTRY The Christian pop duo takes the stage as part of their “Burn the Ships” world tour.

MOBILE CIVIC CENTER ARENA MOBILECIVICCTR.COM

MAY 27 HOPE CUP GOLF TOURNAMENT The tournament is a four-person scramble, featuring contests and prizes on every hole.

Proceeds will benefit the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Endowment at the USA Mitchell Cancer Institute.

COUNTRY CLUB OF MOBILE USAHEALTHSYSTEM.COM

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HISTORY | ARCHIVES

A History of Mobile in 22 Objects This month’s artifact from the History Museum of Mobile — the typewriter of civil rights activist John LeFlore — is the symbol of a quiet revolution.

JOHN LEFLORE’S TYPEWRITER text by FRYE GAILLARD • above photo courtesy HISTORY MUSEUM OF MOBILE

I

t was the kind of scene a cub reporter doesn’t soon forget, the front of the house caved in by a bomb and its owner standing calmly in the yard, a Band-Aid above one eye, speaking to one or two city officials who had come that morning to offer their condolences. John LeFlore (1903 - 1976), Mobile’s most prominent civil rights leader, had been working the night before, on June 27, 1967, at the manual typewriter he kept in the kitchen.

It was his weapon of choice in a crusade for justice going back at least to 1925.

Around midnight, he went to bed and was sleeping soundly at 1:33 a.m. when a powerful explosion ripped through the house. He thought at first it might be the air

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conditioner in the living room but realized immediately it was something much worse. This was neither the first nor last attempt on his life. In 1969, a bomb on his front porch failed to explode, and five years before that a gunman had fired shots into his home. This time it was close.

The night before the bombing, LeFlore had worked at his typewriter until two in the morning. If that had been the case on June 27, almost certainly LeFlore would have died.

As a young reporter covering the scene, I remember the eerie morning silence, a few hushed murmurs between LeFlore and a small group of well-wishers, and the horrifying damage to the five-room house at 1504 Chatague Avenue.

But the most unforgettable thing was the stoic composure

of LeFlore himself. He had seen a lot since 1925, when he began his personal quest for civil rights, and I was struck that morning by his quiet, almost matter-of-fact affirmation that there was still a lot of work to be done.

He had been inspired to take a stand sometime early in the 1920s, when he was riding one evening on a Mobile trolley — a Black teenager minding his own business — a nd a surly white man demanded his seat. The two of them argued, then began to scuffle.

When the police were called, LeFlore was arrested, and the white man went free. Affronted by the patent injustice, LeFlore vowed that he would be the one to set things right. In 1925, he set out to revitalize Mobile’s chapter of the NAACP. For the next 50 years, under the auspices of that organization and later that of Mobile’s NonPartisan Voters League, he worked every day for the cause of civil rights.

Armed with a typewriter, LeFlore documented lynchings, demanded equal access by African-Americans to the wartime industries springing up in Mobile, protested mistreatment of Blacks on city buses, and most importantly, crusaded for greater access to the ballot. He found a cautious white ally in Joseph Langan, who, as a state legislator in the 1940s, staunchly opposed a constitutional amendment to make it harder for African-Americans in Alabama to vote.

Later, as a city commissioner, Langan worked with LeFlore to address the most obvious examples of segregation — t he buses, the public library, the police — a nd Mobile developed a reputation in the South as a place of racial moderation. But by the 1960s, more militant AfricanAmericans were becoming impatient with what they saw as the slow rate of progress. Supporters of an organization called NOW (Neighborhood Organized Workers) blamed the gradualism on LeFlore and embarked on a path of boycotts and demonstrations. Some called LeFlore an Uncle Tom. There were even rumors that the perpetrator of the 1967 bombing may have been Black. No one, Black or white, was ever charged.

Despite the attempt on his life and continuing opposition from conservative whites — a nd now from more radicalized African-Americans — L eFlore kept pushing.

In 1975, only a few months before his death from a heart

attack, he worked with longtime activist ally Wiley Bolden on what became perhaps the most lasting legacy of the Mobile movement: a lawsuit demanding a more representative city government. Until then, Mobile’s three-person city commission, which was elected at large, had been all white. LeFlore and Bolden, who became lead plaintiffs in the case, argued that the exclusion of Blacks from the commission was both deliberate and inevitable in a city that was still majority white.

U.S. District Judge Virgil Pittman ruled in their favor, noting Mobile’s long history of racism and segregation, but city officials appealed and a bitter controversy ensued. Eventually, by 1982, the legal maneuvering had run its course, and Mobile adopted a new mayor-council system with districts assuring it would be an interracial government. In the new political environment, still contentious, but now more inclusive, not only has the council become an integrated body, but Mobile elected its first Black mayor, Sam Jones, who served two terms.

Some have argued that there is no better symbol of Mobile’s struggles — and its racial progress — than a well-worn typewriter owned by LeFlore. Nor is there a more powerful reminder of the work that remains to be done. MB Frye Gaillard is writer in residence at the University of South Alabama.

“A History of Mobile in 22 Objects” by various authors. Available for purchase at the History Museum of Mobile, $25 Released in conjunction with the History Museum of Mobile exhibit, this photo-heavy compendium delves into the city’s history through the analysis of 22 artifacts

by Mobile’s leading researchers.

Above In 1969, LeFlore was arrested at the America’s Junior Miss Pageant, though newspapers reported he took no part in demonstrations. PHOTO COURTESY THE DOY LEALE MCCALL RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA

 Stay tuned each month as we continue to delve into the history of objects from this fascinating exhibit. april 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 75

HISTORY | LEGENDS

“The Pirate bore down on us…”

Maritime historian John Sledge recounts the eventful maiden voyage of the revenue cutter Alabama. text by JOHN SLEDGE

S

he came off the New York ways with her sister ship on July 9, 1819, to great public acclaim. The revenue cutter Alabama, along with the Louisiana, was the federal government’s latest weapon in its efforts to establish order in the unruly Gulf of Mexico, the former assigned to the Mobile station and the latter to “the Teche,” or New Orleans.

The Revenue Service was something of an all-purpose maritime arm (precursor to the Coast Guard) founded during the 18th century to enforce tariffs, monitor trade, supply lighthouses, survey coastlines, save lives at sea and support the Navy in combat efforts. Even as these vessels settled into Gotham’s busy waters, their presence was urgently needed down south. Reports indicated that a pirate captain named Henry S. Neil was cruising between Dauphin Island and the Big Bend, and that the notorious Jean Laffite had reestablished himself at Galveston Island, where he claimed Mexican protection. Helpless civilians were being robbed on the high seas, and insurance rates were skyrocketing. Clutching their orders, Du Gomier Taylor of the Alabama and Jarius Loomis of the Louisiana knew what they had to do, namely make sail as fast as possible and start hunting scoundrels. The sweet prospect of prize money motivated them even further.

Their ships were beautifully designed for the task. Loomis, who was in over-

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all command of both vessels, declared that they were “as fine Sea boats as I was ever in, and sail well.” Nearly identical in measurement and build, each was a raked two-masted topsail schooner of 56 tons burthen, roughly 57 feet long and 18 feet in the beam. They drew less than six feet, making them ideal for brown water work, and had flush decks with a 12-pounder pivot gun apiece amidships. Additionally, the Alabama had a quartet of three-pound brass guns on her port side. This battery would have been laughable in a knock-down fight with a well-armed opponent but was more than adequate for intimidating “banditti,” who usually fled at the slightest show of force. Besides their officers, each ship carried about a dozen men, handsomely clad in loose white-duck trousers, white shirts, red vests, short blue jackets, black kerchiefs and floppy round black hats.

Sailing in tandem, the cutters passed through the Florida Straits and entered the Gulf proper by late August. On the 29th, 70 miles northwest of the Dry Tortugas and bearing north, they spotted three schooners close together. This was an unusual circumstance, and Loomis decided to investigate. According to a young officer on the Alabama, “The wind being very light we immediately set all sails and wet them.” That entailed sailors hauling buckets of salt water aloft and dousing the canvas to enable it to

Above Jean Lafitte, as depicted in an early 19th-century portrait. ARTIST UNKNOWN

better hold the wind. Still not satisfied with their progress, Loomis and Taylor ordered their men to put out the sweeps and pull hard. These were long, heavy ash oars that even with all hands straining only marginally improved headway.

By early afternoon the distance was closing, and the three target vessels separated. The Louisiana’s pivot gun sent a round shot whistling across the bow of the lead one, and Loomis ordered the Alabama to send a boat over to board her.

According to the Alabama’s officer, “We did so, and found her full of people who had been robbed of everything by the Pi-

HISTORY | LEGENDS

rates.” It turned out that the vessel was an American merchantman that had happened on the scene earlier. The other two schooners were Le Brave, commanded by Jean Desfarges, one of Laffite’s captains based out of Galveston, and the Filomena, a Spanish merchantman bound from Pensacola to Havana carrying beef, flour, lard, peas, raisins, and $3,000 worth of gold and silver coins. The pirates had overhauled the Filomena, boarded her and, according to the Alabama’s officer, treated the male and female passengers “in the most shameful manner.” The ruffians harassed these defenseless “ladies and gentlemen,” stole their clothes, and “when the ladies begged for something to cover them, the Pirates drew their swords upon them, using the most brutal language.” The buccaneers then placed the naked and terrified passengers on board the American merchantman. Otherwise, that passing vessel remained untouched, in keeping with Laffite’s dictate not to molest American shipping (never more than imperfectly obeyed).

The Alabama took on the Spanish passengers and then pulled hard for Le Brave. “The Pirate bore down on us,” the young officer later recalled, “at half-past two he hoisted the Patriot flag.” This was most likely the banner of one of the newly independent Latin American republics, which Le Brave was claiming as a sponsor; she was, in other words, a

privateer and not a pirate. Loomis was unimpressed and ordered Desfarges to “haul down his flag.” This was met by a volley of musketry from Le Brave’s deck. Louisiana returned fire “with interest,” and then the Alabama brought her pipsqueak battery to bear and loosed a broadside that sent the pirates scurrying below deck. Alabama and Louisiana both sent over boats and the boarding crews quickly subdued the freebooters. The cost of the whole affair was light — four Americans wounded, two pirates killed and several wounded. Eighteen pirates were captured, and their 12 prisoners, all Black, were released. This was clear evidence that Desfarges was a slave runner as well as a pirate.

Loomis and Taylor took the Filomena and Le Brave, with the pirates, the freed Black people, and the Spaniards, up to New Orleans for the courts to sort everything out. They let the American merchantman go on her way. To say that the revenue cutters had had an eventful maiden voyage would be an understatement.

The Alabama remained in New Orleans while the legal case proceeded against the malefactors. Thanks to strin-

A rendering of U.S. revenue cutter Louisiana (1819 - 1824) PRODUCED BY THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD

gent new laws, piracy was now a capital offence. The court forgave a few of Le Brave’s crewmen because of their tender years but condemned Desfarges and the others to death. When the judge pronounced the sentence, one of the pirates shouted, “Murder by God!” It did him no good, and despite Laffite’s efforts to obtain presidential pardons, Desfarges and most of his confederates soon swung.

The Louisiana enjoyed an active but short revenue service career. She was sold to private interests in early 1824.

The Alabama too had a distinguished record, clearing out pirate nests in the Mississippi Delta, nabbing slave ships and generally enforcing the laws from Dauphin Island down to the Yucatán.

She remained in service until sold at Key West in 1833. Subsequent United States vessels would bear her name, and each would proudly proclaim her sterling example and legacy. MB John S. Sledge is the author of “The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime History.”

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THE ARTS | LITERATURE

Hometraining Has Nothing to Do with Puppies Manners, ladies and gentlemen, are a clear indicator of hometraining, according to writer Audrey McDonald Atkins. excerpt from the book THEY CALL ME OR ANGE JUICE

by AUDREY MCDONALD ATKINS

D

own here, we call it “hometraining.” You know — manners, comportment, etiquette, social graces.

I know you all are saying, “Manners schmanners. I can remember which fork to use, please and thank you, ma’am and sir, and all that.” But hometraining is so much more than knowing the difference between a shrimp fork and a pickle fork or when to wear a dinner jacket.

Hometraining teaches one how to put all who are fortunate enough to be in your company at immediate ease. Hometraining allows one be gracious during difficult times, convivial when the occasion is celebratory, and savvy enough to know the difference. Hometraining prevents one from hollering, “Awkward!” when the situation is indeed so. Hometraining teaches one to use “one” as a pronoun.

And while it can be learned, should be learned, there are a certain few who sail through polite society with such poise and finesse that they have turned hometraining into societal artistry.

You’ve seen it — her. She glides into a room, and it seems as though every eye swiv-

els around to fix on her. Everything matches, every hair is in place, and she always knows the exact right thing to say at the exact right time. She can discuss the latest fashion or international affairs or the world record bass with equal aplomb. Her mama obviously devoted many an hour to her social development, but she also has that certain je ne sais quoi that just can’t be taught.

You’ve also heard it — them. “Bless her heart. She just has no hometraining.” It is an effort for the Southern lady to justify how someone can forget to send a thank-you note, not be able to balance a punch cup and a cake plate, neglect to make proper introductions, or say something coarse such as, “D’ya mind if I cop a squat?” There has to be, there must be, some reason to fall so far off the wagon of nicety. No one would consciously act so common, would they?

Why certainly not! It must be that she simply was never taught. Surely if she only knew better …

Or if he … Gentlemen, hometraining is not just for the ladies. You must have it, too. Forget those nouveau feminist protestations and open that door, help her with

her coat, pull out her chair, walk on the street side, and guide and protect her with a touch to her back or elbow. For Pete’s sake, carry a hanky.

Please don’t attack your plate as if your food may escape back off into the wilderness. Refrain from indelicate scratching and adjusting. Try not to spit too much.

Steer the conversation away from money, politics, or religion. Don’t wear flip-flops with your dress pants. Learn a clean joke and how to tell it. Don’t fight unless you have to.

My friends, hometraining consists of many, many things — some superficial, some not. Some things come naturally; some we must work really, really hard on.

But all of these admonitions are born from a common, inordinately important principle best stated by Mrs. Emily Post, who may not be a born Southerner but who gets right down to where the goats eat when it comes to etiquette. Take her words to heart.

“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” MB

 Born and raised in Citronelle, Atkins shares stories about growing up and living in the South in her book, “They Call Me Orange Juice,” and at her blog folkwaysnowadays.com.

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HISTORY | ASK MCGEHEE

Is it true that one of NASA’s first astronauts was from Mobile? text by TOM MCGEHEE

Mobile native Clifton C. Williams, known to friends as “C.C.,” was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1963, making him the first Alabamian scheduled to go into outer space.

After attending Murphy High School, Williams enrolled at Spring Hill College where he majored in pre-med. He changed courses, however, and graduated from Auburn University with a degree in mechanical engineering.

After joining the Marines, he graduated in 1961 from the Navy Test Pilot School.

The Great “Space Race”

of 14 astronauts. At the time, he was the only unmarried one in the group, and the newspapers enjoyed referring to him as the “bachelor astronaut.”

A little over a year later, he lost that title when he married Beth Lansche in North Carolina. The first of two daughters arrived in January 1967.

At some point that year, Williams’ father, still in Mobile, was diagnosed with cancer. On October 5, he decided to stop in Mobile, en route from Cape Canaveral to Houston, to see his dad. As his T-38 Talon approached Tallahassee, a mechanical failure caused the aircraft to roll uncontrollably.

Williams’ seat ejected, but because of the tremendous speed of the jet and relatively low altitude, it was too late.

Williams was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Sadly, he did not live to see the birth of his second daughter born the following May.

The year 1961 also marked the start of the great Space Race, which began with the Soviets successfully sending the first cosmonaut into Mobile native Clifton C. Williams was selected space. The West had been surprised Above

by NASA to be one of the first astronauts in 1963. when Russia launched the first satellite into space in 1957, but the United States had no idea the Eastern European country would soon have the technology to send a human there.

To the Moon In response, President John F. Kennedy boldly announced Williams’ position as an astronaut was taken by his previous that the U.S. would put a man on the moon by the end of commander, Alan Bean, who would ultimately be the fourth the decade, thereby starting the race. In 1962, NASA began man to walk on the moon. In tribute to the Mobile native, accepting applications for a group of astronauts to participate Bean placed Williams’ aviator pin on the moon’s surface. in flying missions. Applicant requirements included a height of Williams was not the only casualty among the group of six feet or less, an engineering degree, experience as a test pilot astronauts, however. Three more would die in T-38 crashes, and a recommendation from a commanding officer. Williams and a fourth died during the testing of the Apollo I spacecraft met them all. when the cabin caught fire.

While north Alabama is known for space programs, Mobile The Lone “Bachelor Astronaut” can still boast having one of the first astronauts chosen to In May 1963, NASA announced plans for no less than four help win the Space Race. And, in 1969, when Neil Armstrong manned Earth orbit missions to be launched by Saturn 1 stepped onto the moon’s surface, he made Kennedy’s prediction rockets. In October, Williams was selected to be in a group come true. MB

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END PIECE | BACKSTORY

Horsing Around Photo courtesy Erik Overbey Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama

“I bought him a horse and spring wagon. He was very proud of it and enjoyed driving out in the early morning.

But one evening he told of the horses having taken fright at the dummy engine on the street railway, and my mother refused to allow him to drive again.”

– Edward Bloch, son of musician and professor Joseph Bloch, writing in 1883 about his father’s early-morning ride to Spring Hill College. “Edward Bloch Memoirs: The Early Years,” Gulf Coast Historical Review, Fall 1991

ARLINGTON FAIRGROUNDS, which served as Mobile County’s fairgrounds since the 1870s, was located along Bay Shell Road, once named the “most famous of all Alabama driveways.” (The seven-mile stretch of shell-paved road was home to a myriad of recreation destinations, including Frascati Park, Crystal Pool and the original location of the Country Club of Mobile.) At the turn of the century, horse breeding and racing were popular pastimes, and in addition to hosting fairs and housing permanent exhibits, Arlington also had a race course.

Whether the unidentified man, pictured below in 1925 at Arlington, was taking a racehorse out for a spin is unknown. Mobile was also home to another racetrack, Bascombe Race Course, located about two and a half miles north of Arlington, which later became Hartwell Field, then ultimately turned over to horses again — Mobile’s Mounted Police Unit currently uses the property to train its equines. Fort Whiting Armory was built on the Arlington Fairgrounds in 1936, and the annual fair is now held at the 90-acre site on Cody Road, its home since 1975.

DID YOU KNOW?

Believe it or not, the City of Mobile has ordinances regarding horse-drawn carriages. Here are four of the more interesting ones: Sec. 7-135: Route limitations.

“No horse-drawn carriage may operate, except by express written consent of … the city traffic engineering director on the following streets within the city: Beauregard Street; Broad Street; Dauphin Street, west of Broad Street; Government Street; Springhill Avenue, west of Broad Street; and Water Street.”

Sec. 7-161: Drivers — Minimum qualifications. “… Be clean in dress and not addicted to drugs or intoxicating liquors. Be a person of good character …”

Sec. 7-168: Carriages not to be used in crimes.

“No horse-drawn carriage shall be used in order to perpetrate a crime.”

$2.75

Cost of a satin-lined hat called “The Railroad,” similar to the one shown above, as advertised by Montgomery Ward & Co. in 1895

33,000

Foot-pounds of work a horse can do in one minute, which equals one horsepower

1920s

Decade motorized truck usage exceeded horse-driven transportation

Sec. 7-184: Pace. “Horses shall be walked at a pace not faster than a slow trot, except when traveling through intersections.”

Do you have memories of Arlington Fairgrounds? Let us know! Email ahartin@pmtpublishing.com.

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