Mobile Bay Magazine - July 2020

Mobile Bay THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE FOR MOBILE AND BALDWIN COUNTIES

July 2020

C R E AT E YOU R OW N

FINDING SUMMER FUN WITH FRUITY COCKTAILS, WILD ANIMALS, ELECTRIC BOATS, PORCH PARTIES & BAYFRONT BUNGALOWS

JACOPO PEDRIN

Kiteboards off Dauphin Island

+

SEARCHING FOR THE LAST STAUTER

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CONTENTS | VOLUME XXXVI / ISSUE 7

SIMBA, A “MANE” ATTRACTION AT THE ALABAMA GULF COAST ZOO. PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

JULY 2020

44

Catching the Wind Kiteboarding is taking flight in the Bay area, and it’s not just for the fitness fanatics among us.

50

Keeper of the Zoo As the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo begins a new chapter, it reflects on its obstacles, both past and current.

 The only difference between kiteboarding and kitesurfing is the board that’s used. Kiteboarding refers to using a “twin tip” board, which is similar to a wakeboard. Kitesurfing refers to using a surfboard, designed to handle larger waves. Read more about the sport on page 44.

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CONTENTS | VOLUME XXXVI / ISSUE 7

JULY 2020 19

23 ON OUR COVER

16

Kiteboarder Jacopo Pedrin makes the most of a windy day on the south side of Dauphin Island.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

OAKLEIGH PORCH ENTERTAINING WITH THE ASHBEES FOURTH OF JULY CRUISING ON THE DUFFY ELECTRIC BOAT SUMMER SCOOPS WITH CAMMIE’S OLD DUTCH / PHOTOS BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

9 EDITOR’S NOTE 10 REACTION 12 ODDS & ENDS 15 THE DISH 16 BITE-SIZED Six must-try flavors of summer from Cammie’s Old Dutch Ice Cream 19 WISH LIST Three things to love about the Duffy, a California electric cruising boat 20 TASTINGS The Wacked Out Weiner is nothing less than sum- mer on a bun

23 BAY TABLES Social distancing meets a wide front porch at the Ashbee family home 30 HOMES A before-and-after delight

34 MIXOLOGY POST cocktail bar whips up a flight of summer sips 38 SPOTLIGHT Craftsman paddleboards

by Dirk McCall

40 GUMBO A deep dive into the famous question: Who owns the last Stauter?

68 JULY CALENDAR 72 HISTORY A Revolutionary-era fight for Mobile Bay 76 LITERATURE To author Audrey McDonald Atkins, everything is peachy

78 ARCHIVES Life in the Port City before air-conditioning was far from a breeze 80 ASK MCGEHEE Has Mobile ever suffered a disaster similar to the recent multi-acre fire?

82 IN LIVING COLOR A colorized image of lower Dauphin Street in the aftermath of the Hurricane of 1916

 Cammie Wayne, owner of Old Dutch Ice Cream, sent an order of her No. 1 seller, Creole Praline, to a shop in Louisiana, but the owner called about a week later saying no one was buying it. “I told him to call it ‘Pralines and Cream,’ and he sold out in two days.

They thought that Creole meant it was Cajun hot and spicy!” Get more of Cammie’s favorite summer flavors on page 16.

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Mobile Bay VOLUME XXXVI

No7

JULY 2020

PUBLISHER T. J. Potts Stephen Potts Judy Culbreth

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Maggie Lacey MANAGING EDITOR/WEB Abby Parrott

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Amanda Hartin PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Virginia Mathers

ART DIRECTOR Laurie Kilpatrick

EDITORIAL INTERN Jaimie Mans

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, Jill Clair Gentry, Tom McGehee, Breck Pappas, John Sledge CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Summer Ennis Ansley, Matthew Coughlin, Elizabeth Gelineau, Ted Miles, Chad Riley, Matthew Wood 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 © 2020 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

Happy Camper

PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

H

ere we are in south Alabama, knee-deep in month 9 of the longest summer of our lives thanks to COVID-19. Who knew you didn’t have to travel the world with a surfboard on the roof to find that endless summer! I don’t know about you, but I am trying hard to figure out how to entertain children with nowhere to go, socialize safely with friends we sorely miss and navigate this ever-changing landscape with compassion and a positive spirit. Some days I succeed better than others.

With plenty of hot days ahead of us, though, there is still time to make the most of it. I want my kids to experience a care-free season of adventure, but I have begun to feel like I’ve already pulled out all the stops for hot weather entertainment. Baby pools, slack lines and slip ‘n’ slides? That was spring break 2020 at my house. Bicycling to get takeout ice cream? Friday afternoons for the last 6 weeks. Boating, paddling and swimming? Every Saturday that we didn’t have a tropical storm. We even hit the socially-distant Alan Jackson drive-in concert at Oak Hollow Farm. Now what?

I realize I am so very lucky because quarantine could have looked much worse, and we are privileged to live the life we do, but I have been feeling a lag in my “camp director” creativity and have been running out of ideas for these kids. Not anymore. MB’s annual summer fun issue is full of things to do, places to (safely) visit and water sports (you’ve probably never heard of) to take your sweaty July to the next level. Roll up your sleeves and get fired up for the last half of the endless summer!

Take a deep breath, shut off your devices and put on your darn bathing suit. You’ll feel a little better about everything after a run through the sprinkler, I promise you.

LEMONHEAD GROWING UP, MY FAVORITE FLAVOR AT WIDEMIRE’S OLD DUTCH WAS LEMON CUSTARD. SOME THINGS STAND THE TEST OF TIME— CURRENT OWNER CAMMIE WAYNE SAYS IT’S A TOP PICK FOR SUMMERTIME!

LOVE THIS ISSUE

WHERE THERE’S SMOKE THE SMOKED PINEAPPLE MARGARITA FROM POST TAKES A FEW EXTRA STEPS TO MAKE BUT IS TOTALLY WORTH IT. NOT UP FOR THE EFFORT? TAKE A CUE FROM POST ANYWAY AND ADD A TAJIN RIM TO YOUR PRE-MIXED MARGARITA, ADDING FLAVOR AND FLAIR IN SECONDS.

PRICKLY SITUATION I WAS A KID IN A CANDY STORE GETTING A BEHINDTHE-SCENES TOUR OF THE NEW GULF COAST ZOO. MEETING BRUCE QUILLIS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WAS A HIGHLIGHT. SWEET NECTAR SUMMER FARMSTANDS ARE CALLING MY NAME! TAKE HOME THAT LARGE BASKET OF PEACHES. BETTER YET, BUY A BASKET TO BRING TO A FRIEND!

Maggie Lacey EXECUTIVE EDITOR

maggie@pmtpublishing.com

THREE MORE THINGS TO DO THIS JULY TRYING TO LIVE A SIMPLER LIFE THIS SUMMER MEANS LOVING YOUR NEIGHBOR, REMEMBERING THE JOYS OF BEING A KID AND TRYING LIKE HELL TO COOL OFF! START YOUR OWN PARADE! TO KEEP FROM MIXING IN LARGE GROUPS LIKE WE NORMALLY WOULD ON THE 4TH OF JULY, DRESS UP, WAVE THE FLAG AND RIDE THROUGH THE NEIGHBORHOODS TO SPREAD JOY TO FAMILY & FRIENDS.

MAKE A HOMEMADE POPSICLE! TRY FANCY INSTANT FREEZE MOLDS OR SIMPLE PAPER CUPS WITH A WOODEN POPSICLE STICK. THIS COOL AT-HOME PROJECT HITS THE SPOT WITH KIDS OF ALL AGES.

CAPTURE THE SWEET TASTE OF SUMMER AND SEAL IT IN A JAR! STRAWBERRIES, FIGS, WATERMELON, CUCUMBERS— WHETHER PICKLES OR PRESERVES, YOU WON’T REGRET THE EXTRA WORK. NOW SHARE A JAR WITH A NEIGHBOR OR TWO!

SUMMER READING LOOKING FOR A WAY TO START THE TOUGH CONVERSATION ABOUT RACE AND INEQUALITY WITH YOUR KIDS? WE LOVE THIS CHILDREN’S BOOK BY LOCAL AUTHOR FRYE GAILLARD ABOUT AN ALABAMIAN WE SHOULD ALL KNOW — A FORMER SLAVE NAMED BENJAMIN STERLING TURNER WHO BECAME A U.S. CONGRESSMAN IN 1871.

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EXTRAS | REACTION

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

A REAL PAGE-TURNER On April’s Spotlight of Blackberry Farm’s Kreis Beall and her book, “The Great Blue Hills of God”

On May’s “How to Move a Meyer Lemon,” featuring gardening extraordinaire, Pat Smith I just moved here from the Pacific Northwest.

One reason: to have a bigger, better garden.

This is so inspiring.

Could not put the book down!

- Wylly Stirling

RAISING CAIN PAT SMITH. PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

- Jessie Laine Shaw Wonderful piece about a heroic, inspiring individual. Gloriously gorgeous writing.

Deeply moving and meaningful.

On “Springhellions,” as seen on MB’s Facebook page, about childhood mischief of yesteryear

Beautiful story, beautiful woman.

I remember when we had a lot of rain and the storm drain at the corner of Dilston and Old Shell would stop up with oak leaves. We would swim, it was so deep. We weren’t very bright. If it had unstopped, there’s no telling where we would have gone.

- Beth Yarbrough

- Richard Grayson

I’ll admit, I skim most of the articles. I read every word of this one. Very well done.

I moved up to Asheville, North Carolina, and the mountains recently.

That article took me back home. Thanks for the memories.

- Scott Peacock

- Anne McCall Gill The best from this latest issue was the Crichton lady who grows such luscious, healthy vegetables in her little home garden! She has a real handle on how to grow and eat your own food.

- Ellen Little Awesome story! What an amazing lady.

- Dee Thompson

‘REEHL’-ING IN THE COMPLIMENTS

Find additional local stories on mobilebaymag.com.

Here’s what’s new on the website!

Jump into Summer Social distancing may be here to stay for a while, but there are plenty of ways to get out of the house and enjoy summer safely!

Check out our summer bucket list for ideas for the whole family.

A Festive Fourth Celebrate the holiday weekend with some of our favorite fun and refreshing summer recipes. Happy Birthday, America!

- Carol Todd The football team photo includes my father, bottom left, along with several fathers of friends I grew up with, including Edward Williams, Stump O’Neill, Blake McNeely and our long-time next-door neighbor, Jack Friend. The original of that photo [seen below] hangs in my office.

- Alec Armbrecht

On Dwaylah and Rance Reehl’s modern Point Clear farmhouse

Tag Along We love seeing how you and your family and friends are celebrating summer. Be sure to tag us in your photos on Instagram (@mobilebaymagazine), and we’ll share our favorite pics on our account!

Join Our Email List Finally, an email you’ll actually want to read. Get the latest in fashion, food, art, homes, history and events delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for our email list at mobilebaymag.com.

Such a unique, beautiful home.

- Catherine Bensman Rogers Stunningly beautiful home!

- Joy Downey Cave

[MORE ONLINE]

PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

Tell us how you really feel ...

A GROUP OF SPRING HILL BOYS IN 1940. PHOTO COURTESY KIT CAFFEY

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

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EXTRAS | ODDS & ENDS

Sunshine Calling

WORLD EMOJI DAY

text by MB STAFF

#79100 The serial number of Austin Greene’s Stauter-built boat.

Early Stauter serial numbers were determined by the year the boat was built and its spot in the construction line. So, Greene’s boat was the 100th Stauter to be built in 1979.

In honor of the July 17 “holiday,” we can sum up our July Summer Fun issue as follows:

60

YEARS AGO

this month: The world was introduced to Scout, Atticus, Jim and Boo Radley.

Since then, Harper Lee’s

“To Kill a Mockingbird” has sold over

On page 40, read about our search for the last Stauter Boat to be constructed on the Causeway.

40 MILLION COPIES

worldwide and has been translated into 40 languages.

8,700 The number of people treated for fireworks-related injuries around the 4th of July every year.

(70 percent of which are men)

[ THAT’S A FACT ]

BORN ON THE 4TH Calvin Coolidge is the only U.S. president to have been born on the Fourth of July.

75’ 2”

The current watermelon seed-spitting distance record, as held by Texas man

Jason Schayot. That’s almost the length of

an Olympic-sized pool.

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FOOD | THE DISH

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

THE PANZANELLA AT PROVISION. PHOTO BY SUMMER ENNIS ANSLEY.

CHARLANA QUIOVERS, Owner, BackFlash Antiques

STREET CAULIFLOWER AT SQUID INK “Eating your veggies is made delicious at Squid Ink. Their ‘street cauliflower,’ with huge blooms of spicy, charred cauliflower topped with aioli sauce, is a not-on-themenu treat that I enjoy only on special occasions. I finished with the power salad, full of lentils, crispy chickpeas, sweet potatoes, quinoa, kale and cauliflower, served with a tangy, sweet soy vinaigrette. Delicious and full of textures — I planned my return before leaving.”

SQUID INK • 102 DAUPHIN ST. • 405-0031 SQUIDINKEATS.COM

RYAN BALTHROP, Singer, songwriter, musician

TOM KAH AT RICE ASIAN GRILL “The tom kah is a traditional coconut soup with mushrooms, lemongrass, lime leaves, green onion and cilantro. I always go vegetarian on this dish because it is perfect, and I usually order a small sushi roll and another entree with rice or noodles. Of course, this means I usually have enough leftover for a midnight snack or lunch the next day!”

RICE ASIAN GRILL • 3964 GOVERNMENT BLVD. • 378-8083 • RICEASIANGRILL.COM

CADE KISTLER, Program Director, Mobile Baykeeper

GLASS NOODLE STIR FRY AT TEAK HOUSE “Teak House is an unassuming Thai restaurant in Daphne. The glass noodles and tofu were flavored with a savory sauce, and every bite had a satisfying crunch of green onions. It was a nice departure from many of the dishes I normally cook and order, and my plate was entirely empty when I got up from the table. Word to the wise, don’t ask for ‘Thai Hot’ unless you know what you’re getting into.”

ANN-BROOKS MORRISSETTE, Executive Director, Fuse Project

BURRATA PANZANELLA AT PROVISION “Every detail was thoughtful perfection at Fairhope’s new spot, Provision, and the food was no exception. I ordered the burrata panzanella, added marinated shrimp and paired it with a blueberry kombucha for a fresh, delectable combination. Colorful cherry tomatoes dressed with basil-infused olive oil are balanced by the crunch of homemade croutons and surround a large serving of burrata. Summer in a dish!”

TEAK HOUSE • 1703 US-98, DAPHNE • 990-5722

PROVISION • 100 N SECTION ST., FAIRHOPE

TEAKHOUSETHAI.COM

850-5004 • PROVISIONFAIRHOPE.COM

 What dishes made you drool and left you hungry for more? Share them on our Facebook page! july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 15

ALL OF OLD DUTCH’S 47 ICE CREAM FLAVORS HAVE BEEN LOCALLY MADE SINCE 1969.

CREOLE PRALINE “The pralines are made fresh locally by Tanner’s Pecans.”

KEY LIME PIE

COTTON CANDY “That one is for my favorite customers — the children.”

Get the Scoop Local ice cream queen Cammie Wayne dishes up the six best flavors to beat the summer heat.

BUBBLEGUM

photo by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

PEACH

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LEMON CUSTARD “The lemon flavor reminds me of licking the beaters as a child when my mom made fresh lemon cake.”

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EXTRAS | WISH LIST

Three Things to Love text by MAGGIE LACEY • photo by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

THE FRINGE ON TOP A cutting-edge electric boat comes to the Mobile area, built for cruising and wrapped in a classic look that’s easy to love.

MOVES THAT TURN ON A DIME

HAVE PARTY, WILL TRAVEL

LIKE A GOLF CART ON THE WATER

THE DUFFY BOAT WAS BORN

WITH SEATING FOR 10

OWNERS DAVID DANIELL

IN 1968 WHEN THE MOTOR

AROUND A COMFY PIPED

AND HARVEY CUNNINGHAM

FROM A SECONDHAND GOLF

BANQUET AND TWO

SHARE THE GOOD TIMES

CART WAS PLACED INTO THE

DINING TABLES WITH BUILT-IN

ON THE DUFFY BOAT WITH

HULL OF A BEAT-UP MOTOR-

CUPHOLDERS, A DUFFY

THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS,

BOAT. TODAY’S MODELS ARE

MIGHT BEST BE DESCRIBED

CROSSING THE BAY FROM

A BIT MORE SLEEK AND CER-

AS A PARTY BARGE FOR

FLY CREEK TO DOG RIVER

TAINLY WELL BUILT, WITH A KEEL

DISCRIMINATING TASTES. SIT

FOR DINNER, THEN BACK

DESIGN THAT ALLOWS THE

BACK, RELAX AND ENJOY

TO THE GRAND HOTEL FOR

BOAT TO LITERALLY TURN ON

THE VIEWS AS YOU TRAVEL

DRINKS. ANOTHER LOCAL

A DIME, A FEATURE NOVICE

ALONG OUR LOCAL WATERS

DUFFY OWNER IS OFFERING

BOAT DRIVERS WILL APPRECI-

IN HIGH STYLE WITH A MINI

CHARTERS AROUND THE

ATE. PULLING UP AT THE DOCK

FRIDGE AND BUILT-IN BAR AT

BACKWATERS OF ORANGE

IS A BREEZE!

YOUR FINGERTIPS.

BEACH. MB

The scalloped canopy is what first caught our eye, providing maximum shade and a classic nautical look almost too cute to handle.

“They’re made in Newport Beach, California, where the whole culture revolves around socializing on the water — a lot like here on Mobile Bay!” - Owner David Daniell

Above Fairhope’s Whitney Gordon is ready for sophisticated cocktail cruising in a chiffon dress ($138) and earrings ($30) from Sway in downtown Fairhope. july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 19

FOOD | TASTINGS

The Wacked Out Weiner text by AMANDA HARTIN • photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

T

here’s something nostalgic about the tiny 250-squarefoot kitchen on the south end of Dauphin Street, home of The Wacked Out Weiner of Mobile. The carryout-only eatery was once a Krystal fast food joint in the ‘50s and ‘60s, according to Robert Jur, owner of the Downtown location. But it’s not just the refurbished mid-century wall and ceiling tiles, the upbeat jazz music being piped in or even Jur’s friendly, personalized service that evokes memories of simpler times. It’s the weiners.

“What’s more American than hot dogs?” Jur asks rhetorically.

Not much, and not much else says summertime like a Nathan’s all-beef hot dog hugged in a fresh, steamed bun. “It’s great food for when you’re having a good time,” Jur says of the meat he slings at one of the many Wacked Out franchises in Alabama.

While there is a standard menu across all locations, Jur explains that individual stores are able to add their own region-specific items. For example, the “Mob City” dog was created for Port City

noshers and comes dressed with ketchup, mustard, sauerkraut, chili and a dill pickle spear. Don’t like those toppings? Every frankfurter is totally customizable.

“We like to see the looks on people’s faces when we say you can put whatever you want on your dog,” Jur laughs while showcasing the more than 40 garnishes offered. “At this location, we offer unlimited toppings. You can’t see your dog when you leave here.” A few give-it-a-try ingredients include French’s French fried onions, Gouda cheese, Sriracha hot sauce and made-fresh-daily coleslaw, potato salad and chili.

Considering all the wacky ways to dress a weenie, one might be surprised by Jur’s favorite: a modest chili dog with mustard and onions. But patrons can follow suit, keeping their creations as simple as they’d like. “We can do plain dogs,” he mentions.

Our advice? Make it a combo with chips and a drink — and Jur’s homemade bread pudding — and you’ve got yourself a perfect lunch or late-night bite to celebrate the dog days of summer. MB

 The Wacked Out Weiner of Mobile • 209A Dauphin Street • 408-9442 • wackedoutweiner.com (Mobile location) 11 a.m. - 3 p.m., M - Th; 11 a.m. - 2 a.m., F - Sa; closed Su • Robertsdale • Foley • Saraland • Gulf Shores 20 mobilebaymag.com | july 2020

BACKYARD DOG CHILI CHEESE DOG

WACKY MACKY

[ ON THE MENU ]

FRITO PIE DOG

BACKYARD DOG

CHILI CHEESE DOG

WACKY MACKY

Crumbled Fritos add a salty crunch to the top of this dog that’s smothered in chili, nacho cheese, onion, cheddar and jalapeños. A dollop of sour cream adds a hint of coolness.

This ain’t your normal grilled-in-the-yard dog. This weenie comes dressed with brown mustard, bacon, coleslaw, baked beans, jalapeños and Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce.

While the name sounds pretty standard, there’s nothing about this forkand-knife dog, covered in mustard, onion, freshly made chili and shredded cheese, that’s boring.

No topping is too zany when it comes to wacking out weiners, including creamy mac ‘n’ cheese, twicecooked bacon, barbecue sauce and shredded cheddar, for good measure. july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 21

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FOOD | BAY TABLES

Summer Breeze Fresh air and a deep front porch call neighbors together during social distancing in Oakleigh. text by MAGGIE LACEY • photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

T

he streets around Mobile are quiet, and most people are at home, navigating their new normal of social distancing and working from home. Summer is here, and the hot sun beats down on the roofs of the historic homes in the Oakleigh Garden District. Turning onto the last block of South Georgia Avenue, however, where the road dead-ends at Crawford Park, a lovely breeze is blowing. There is a touch of salt in the air, and the pavement seems a little cooler. From the front porch of the

Ashbees’ home, summer in the city doesn’t seem too bad at all.

“As the crow flies, we really aren’t far from the Bay,” Zach Ashbee says of the refreshing breeze, his imposing stature incongruous with his easy smile and fun-loving personality. The former Alabama football player and his wife Catherine — a ballet teacher and mother of three — talk about the pleasures of living at the end of the cul-de-sac, where the dog park, tennis courts and fresh Bay breezes are a part of porch life on the fourth block

of South Georgia Avenue.

While the Ashbees haven’t always lived in the OGD, as it’s called, they have always loved old houses and appreciated the appeal of a close-knit neighborhood.

They looked for a house in Oakleigh off and on for years, but since each home has such a unique floor plan, they never found the right fit for their growing family.

Then, right about the time their two oldest children hit high school and their former home on Japonica was no longer working, the Radcliff house (formerly owned by Pete july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 23

and Carol Mackey) came on the market.

“The house didn’t need a thing,” Catherine explains, “and that really appealed to us. It was move-in ready.”

The lure of live oaks and big front porches, calling the Ashbees to Oakleigh, was aided by the constant drumbeat of friends Jace and Paige Arans, who live on South Georgia as well. When the former Texans relocated to Mobile, they found the appeal of the OGD too great to resist. After becoming fast friends with the Ashbees, they played cheerleader for the neighborhood every time the two families gathered together. It wasn’t a hard sell.

Having close friends down the street makes for great impromptu dinners and happy hours, but Catherine promises that all Oakleigh neighbors gather like that.

In addition to the planned OGD socials, Mother’s Day concerts and progressive dinners, neighbors are just drawn to one another’s porches for visits that turn into drinks and then wind up as potlucks. “If you see somebody on their porch, you know you are welcome to head on over,” Catherine laughs. It’s an extrovert’s dream, and with social distancing the new way of socializing, an open-air front porch gathering is just the ticket for a summer at home in Mobile.

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Clockwise from top Catherine Ashbee has a natural flair for setting a beautiful table, a skill she says she got from her mother. Everyone loves a backyard burger, but these sliders are a bit more sophisticated. Zach Ashbee and Scout visit with OGD residents as they walk to Crawford Park. Eight-year-old Robert Ashbee makes sliders disappear.

LEMON HORSERADISH BURGER SAUCE

MAKES 1 1/2 CUPS

Zach grills mini sliders for guests using ground sirloin and serves them on King’s Hawaiian rolls with melted provolone cheese, a slather of his lemon horseradish burger sauce and fresh arugula.

1 cup Duke’s mayonnaise 1/4 cup ketchup 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish 1 clove garlic, grated 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice pinch of kosher salt

Whisk all ingredients and refrigerate 30 minutes before serving.

RANCH WATER

MAKES 1

The Arans’ Texas roots inspired this cocktail.

It can easily be multiplied to make by the batch. Combine the ingredients in a large pitcher and leave on the bar for self-service.

3 ounces Don Julio Tequila, Reposado or Anejo 4 ounces Topo Chico Mineral Water juice of 1 lime several dashes of orange bitters agave nectar, to taste (optional) lime slices, for garnish

Mix all ingredients in a highball glass until well combined. Add ice to fill glass and garnish with lime slices.

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TEXAS CORN DIP RECIPE

CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

SERVES 12

MAKES 24

The Aranses make sure to bring a little bit of the Lone Star State to every gathering.

While the recipe only requires refrigerating the dough for a half hour, Catherine says chilling overnight gives a more intense, toffee-like flavor.

6 ears corn 2 bunches green onions, finely chopped, reserving a little for garnish 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, reserving a little for garnish 1 cup sour cream 1 cup mayonnaise 1/3 jar pickled jalapeĂąos, finely chopped 8 ounces chopped pimentos 4 cups Mexican shredded cheese 1 cup Mexican Cotija cheese, crumbled, reserving a little for garnish juice of 2 limes 1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon chili powder pinch of cayenne pepper (optional) bag of tortilla or corn chips, for serving

1. Place corn in a large pot of water and bring to a boil, cooking 5 minutes. Remove from water and allow corn to cool. Cut corn kernels off the cob, reserving a little for garnish.

2. Mix corn with remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

1/2 cup sugar 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup salted butter, melted 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup chocolate chips, or to taste

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugars, salt and butter until well combined and no lumps remain.

Whisk in the egg and vanilla, beating until light ribbons fall off the whisk. Sift in the flour and baking soda, then fold the mixture with a spatula, being careful not to overmix. Fold as many chocolate chips as you would like, then chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop the dough with an ice-cream scoop onto the baking sheet and bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until the edges have started to barely brown. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Below Fourteen-year-old Virginia Ashbee welcomes the chance to see neighbors and friends, if only at a safe distance.

3. Before serving, top with reserved green onions, cilantro, corn and cheese.

Serve with chips.

CUCUMBER, TOMATO AND ONION SALAD

SERVES 10

This colorful salad couldn’t be easier.

Swap out the dressing for whatever flavorful vinaigrette you have on hand.

2 1/2 purple onions, chopped 2 1/2 cucumbers, chopped 2 pints cherry tomatoes salt and course ground black pepper, to taste Garlic Expressions dressing (purchased from The Fresh Market) 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill goat cheese, crumbled, for topping

1. Combine vegetables in a large mixing bowl.

Add salt and pepper to taste, then thinly coat the salad with Garlic Expressions dressing.

2. Toss to combine. Add the dill and toss again. Sprinkle with goat cheese and serve.

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Above left Sixteen-year-old Cooper Ashbee tries not to share his cookie with Scout. Above right Jace Arans brings out a pitcher of Ranch Water cocktails, inspired by his Texas roots, to Catherine Ashbee (left) and his wife Paige.

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WINDIE KNOWLE WHIPPING CREAM POUND CAKE SERVES 12 Windie Knowle is Catherine’s family farm in Evergreen, dating to the early 1900s. There is no leavening in this cake, so it is important to whip the butter and sugar until really fluffy!

12 ounces softened butter (Plugra is recommended) 3 cups sugar 6 extra large eggs, at room temperature 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 pint heavy cream, room temperature 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Grease and flour 1 large tube pan or 2 loaf pans.

2. Whip butter with heavy mixer and gradually add sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour and heavy cream in three alternating increments. You should begin and end with flour. Do not overmix! Add the extracts and stir just until incorporated. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 90 minutes.

WHIPPED CREAM

MAKES 4 CUPS 1 pint heavy cream 1/3 cup powdered sugar 1 tablespoon sour cream 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar gradually, then whip in the sour cream and vanilla until soft and billowy.

MACERATED STRAWBERRIES MAKES 2 QUARTS 2 quarts fresh strawberries, sliced sugar, to taste zest of half a lemon

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and cover, refrigerating for 2 hours.

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 29

HOMES | BEFORE AND AFTER

A Dogtrot Reimagined A dark bayfront camp house is transformed into a welcoming home for a family with the vision needed to tackle the major overhaul. text by MAGGIE LACEY • photos by TED MILES

O

ne day a stranger knocked on Jonathan and Nicole Carrigan’s front door and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. They sold their house and began searching for the next place to settle their young family of five. When a dated and dark “fish camp” house in Montrose came across Jonathan’s list, he saw possibility. The home had been on the market for a long time and was overdue for a face-lift. Never one to shy away from a project, Jonathan enlisted the help of good friend Ryan Baker, principal architect

Deep porches wrap around a board and batten exterior that has been painted Benjamin Moore’s Swiss Coffee.

The home sits on a substantial hill, but that challenge allowed Baker to tuck an exercise room under the house as well as an extra bathroom, perfect for wet feet running in from the Bay.

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with Fairhope’s Walcott Adams Verneuille firm, to transform the bayfront property. “The great thing about a renovation is that you take something with potential and make it better than anyone could have imagined — even with clients like the Carrigans, who already had a great vision for the space.”

Baker capitalized on the property’s best features — like the view — and reworked the things that didn’t make sense — like the external laundry room — eventually creating the feel of a comfortable old Bay house with modern amenities.

BEFORE

DOG TROT

The original central hall functioned like a dogtrot, flowing through from the front door all the way out the back towards the Bay. (Homeowner Jonathan admits they broke with the tradition of calling the water side of the house the front. “It was just so confusing for guests!”) Designer Rachel Anderson of March + May Design opted to eliminate any large furnishings in the space that would obstruct that stunning view and, by highlighting the dogtrot, it gives the home a feel of history.

BLUFFING

The Carrigans’ home sits atop the Ecor Rouge bluffs in Montrose, 65 feet above the water. “It’s exactly 100 steps down to the beach,” Nicole says. A “sunset deck” sits just 10 feet below the bluff for quicker — and less aerobic — access to the outdoors.

FAMILY FRIENDLY

Anderson used fabrics on the living room sofa meant to stand up to the rough wear and tear of a young family. The open floor plan, which was original to the home, allows everyone to hang out together. Navy blue accents in the throw pillows and sea-urchin-inspired lamp set a breezy tone for the coastal living space. Both rooms face the Bay and spill effortlessly onto the porch, where Jonathan grills and Nicole reads while the kids enjoy the yard.

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 31

HOMES | BEFORE AND AFTER

DARK & LIGHT

At one time the Carrigan’s home had the look of a fish camp, with lots of dark wood paneling and trim. The Carrigans brought in loads of white paint and added windows wherever they could, brightening it overall. To punctuate that coastal lightness, Anderson used dark paint in a few impactful places, like the navy painted kitchen island and the gray shiplap walls in the powder bath. “It’s a small internal room, so we wanted to embrace the fact that it was already dark,” Anderson says.

The wall-mounted brass faucet really pops against the gray.

BEFORE

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The kitchen island once faced the living room, but architect Ryan Baker and designer Rachel Anderson decided to turn it 90 degrees to face the water.

A theme of blue and white accents in both paint and furnishings gives the home a decidedly coastal feel.

HANDY MAN

Jonathan Carrigan laughs remembering how his friends growing up wouldn’t come over during daylight hours. His parents had purchased an 1870s fixer-upper in Battles Wharf and were knee-deep in renovations.

“My dad would put my brother, our friends and I to work — we were free labor! So our friends only came to visit after dark.” But growing up in a household where the home projects never ended and everyone was expected to pitch in gave the Carrigan boys a work ethic that Jonathan now appreciates. Following in his father’s footsteps, Jonathan has a handy

streak and even served as general contractor on this home renovation. “As a kid, we would hang shiplap, frame a door, lay brick.” Since then he has renovated and flipped a number of houses and owned a handful of businesses that cater to the homeowner, like fencing, stone masonry and more. He used all of those skills on this bayfront job, right down to some of the furnishings. Jonathan crafted the dining table as a gift for Nicole on their ninth anniversary from reclaimed, salvaged heart pine. When the family isn’t gathered around for dinner, Nicole uses the round table as a buffet when entertaining guests on the front porch. MB

The dining room initially had plans for fabric curtain panels, but as the project came together, both designer and homeowner agreed they wanted nothing to interfere with that view. Clean walls draw the eye outward.

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 33

FOOD | MIXOLOGY

REFRESH YOURSELF The mixology experts at POST cocktails in downtown Mobile whipped up just the right cure for the summer doldrums. photo by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

ISLAND GIRL 2 ounces Cruzan Coconut Rum 2 ounces pineapple juice 2 slapped mint leaves, plus more for garnish 1 ounce cream of coconut 1 ounce mango puree 1/2 ounce cherry syrup

BERRY BASIL

1. Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and add ice.

Shake until well mixed. Strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with a floating slapped mint leaf.

WATERMELON MULE 34 mobilebaymag.com | july 2020

POST 76 3/4 ounce Absolut Elyx, or vodka of your choice 1/2 ounce lemon juice

SMOKED PINEAPPLE MARGARITA

1/2 ounce simple syrup 1 frozen Popsicle, flavor of your choice Prosecco

1. Shake vodka, lemon and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice.

2. Place Popsicle in a wine glass and cover with the contents of the cocktail shaker. Slowly top with Prosecco and serve.

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WATERMELON MULE POST usually makes this summery spin on the traditional Moscow Mule in a copper mug, but a rocks glass works great and shows off the gorgeous color of the watermelon.

2 ounces Absolut vodka 2 ounces fresh watermelon juice* juice of half a lime 3 - 4 slapped mint leaves**, plus more for garnish ginger beer watermelon slice, for garnish

1. Combine vodka, juice and mint in a small rocks glass. Fill the glass with ice and top with ginger beer. Garnish with watermelon slice and sprig of mint. *To make watermelon juice, get a seedless watermelon from the grocery store and blend to a nice, smooth consistency. The best and easiest way is to cut all the green rind off and toss the pink inside into a blender or juicer. For even better results, you can fine strain the juice when pouring into a drink or storing container. **Slapping mint in your hands helps release its oils.

BERRY BASIL 2 strawberries 2 basil leaves 1 1/2 ounces Basil Hayden’s bourbon 1 1/2 ounces lemon juice 3/4 ounce simple syrup 3/4 ounce Cointreau

1. Muddle 1 strawberry and 1 basil leaf in the bottom of a cocktail shaker, then add remaining ingredients and ice and shake vigorously until cold. Fine strain into a chilled coupe glass.

2. Remove the strawberry leaves from one whole berry and replace with a basil leaf. Slice into the berry, so it will sit on the rim of the glass.

Serve.

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SMOKED PINEAPPLE MARGARITA 1 1/2 ounces Vida Mezcal 2 ounces fresh pineapple mix* 1/4 ounce jalapeño puree** 1/2 ounce Cointreau slice of pineapple Tajín seasoning, for garnish pineapple leaves, for garnish

1. Combine first four ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until mixed well.

2. Rub a small slice of pineapple across half the rim of a champagne coup to wet it and then dip rim in Tajín. Paperclip two pineapple leaves to the rim of the glass.

3. Finely strain the drink from the shaker into the garnished coupe glass and serve. *To make pineapple mix, cut a fresh pineapple into small pieces and roast on the grill at low temperature, until slightly charred. Blend pieces and store in refrigerator in a sealed container. **Make jalapeño puree the same way you make pineapple mix, except remove the seeds and cut into halves before roasting on the grill.

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 37

PEOPLE | SPOTLIGHT

Artist on Board Dirk McCall brings his love for art and the water together to create “art you can surf.” text by JILL CLAIR GENTRY

D

irk McCall may be from California, but he’s a perfect fit for Fairhope — he’s got an adventurous spirit, a unique and creative skill set, a friendly personality and, of course, a deep love for Mobile Bay. All of these qualities intersect in Dirk’s newest venture: building high-quality custom surf and paddleboards that are sold all over the world.

Falling in love with paddleboarding Dirk’s life plays out like a movie. He joined the Navy as a photojournalist just out of high school; painted sidewalk portraits in Hawaii and on Venice Beach; had a successful art career in Denmark (where he met his wife); and owned a house-painting business in California. In 2014, Dirk moved his family to Point Clear without knowing exactly what he’d do there. Soon after the move, he swapped surfing, which he’d done since childhood, for standup paddleboarding.

“It’s fantastic fitness, but it’s really versatile,” Dirk says. “It can be a cardio workout, a morning Zen moment or a relaxed sunset paddle. It’s not a fad. This is going to be around for a while.”

Paddleboarding originated in Hawaii and came to the mainland about 15 years ago. In 2013, the sport had more first-time participants in the U.S. than any other outdoor sporting activity.

“I think paddleboarding has taken off because everyone can participate, regardless of age,” Dirk says. “There’s a little bit of a learning curve, but everyone can do it. I’m 54. People do it into their 80s.”

Combining art and sport Learning to build boards was a natural progression for Dirk after moving to Point Clear.

“I’m an artist and a handcraftsman at heart,” he says. “It just all came together. I saw a market for the boards and decided to learn

 “Damn the Torpedoes” Paddleboard Race August 8, 2020 • 9 a.m. Races will include 200-meter sprints, 1.5 miles and 3 miles Registration: paddleguru.com/races/damnthetorpedoes

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how to make them. There was about a year where I struggled — you can’t really learn how to do this on YouTube.”

Dirk traveled to South Florida to a paddleboard trade show and found a man who would allow him to intern in his factory. He returned and founded Dirk Boards.

“It’s very complex work,” he says. “It’s a problem-solving thing. There’s always a new way to make a mistake.”

Making a profit from surfboards and paddleboards is difficult because each board costs at least $500 to make, Dirk says. His boards are different from the cheaper, massproduced versions from China because of the craftsmanship and custom art on each board.

“As soon as it started to become popular, the market was flooded with the cheapest boards possible,” Dirk says. “That’s why there aren’t a lot of custom board builders.”

Dirk, who speaks fluent Danish, sells most of his boards in Scandinavian countries, where paddleboarding is a major sport.

Boarding on the Bay Paddleboarding is gaining popularity along the Gulf Coast, and Dirk is doing his part to continue to recruit new participants.

“This area is perfect for paddleboarding,” he says. “You can get out in the Bay or on Fish River or down in the Gulf.”

He founded the Fairhope Paddle League last year, and for the past three years, he’s hosted an annual paddleboarding race in the Bay. This year’s event, “Damn the Torpedoes,” is scheduled for August 8.

Dirk says one huge misconception in the region is that Mobile Bay is too polluted for water sports.

“People are afraid to get out on the Bay in anything that’s not a boat, and that’s a shame,” he says. “This is beautiful water.”

And what better way to see it than from a floating, functional work of art. MB

Opposite page Paddleboarders take their marks during the 2019 “Damn the Torpedoes” race at Fairhope’s American Legion Beach. PHOTO BY PETE GLESZER Right Elisabeth McCall, Dirk’s daughter, shows off her one-of-a-kind board. PHOTO BY DIRK MCCALL

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 39

GUMBO | INVESTIGATIONS

In Search of the Last Stauter MB sets out to solve a core mystery of the Stauter-built legacy: Who owns the last boat built by Lawrence Stauter on the Causeway? text by BRECK PAPPAS

K

en Eslava turns over a square piece of wood, once the lid of a Stauter Boat’s live well, and tilts it in his hands for a better view.

“Do you see any evidence of anythi — yep, there it is,” he says, pointing out a faint scrawl of pencil. “Let’s carry it into the light, see what we can see.”

In the sun outside Eslava’s Fairhope workshop, the marking becomes defined: 66037.

Eslava, middle-aged and endlessly friendly, explains how to read the serial numbers on these early Stauters. The first two digits represent the year the boat was built, he

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says. The remaining three indicate the boat’s position in the order of construction. This piece, then, came off the 37th Stauter built in 1966. Builder Lawrence Stauter always burned a boat’s serial number into the transom brace, located at the stern, but that isn’t the only place Eslava finds the identifier.

“To keep thieves from taking a boat and changing out that brace, Mr. Stauter would write the serial number of that boat in some hidden spots, always in pencil,” Eslava says.

“Most Stauter owners don’t have a clue that this exists.”

Eslava, owner of Wooden Boat Restora-

tion, loves getting into the weeds about Stauter-built serial numbers. He’s been restoring the legendary wooden boats fulltime for 12 years now, so when I decided to set out to solve perhaps the biggest Stauter riddle of all, Eslava’s workshop seemed like a good place to start. The key to the whole mystery, he says, is the serial number.

Above Austin Greene putters in his 16-foot bait boat, one of the last Stauter Boats built on the Causeway. PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN Opposite A Stauter-built decal.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW WOOD

When Lawrence Stauter sold Stauter Boatworks to kinfolk in 1979, it was the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.

The new owners continued building the now-revered wooden boats to Lawrence’s near-impossible standards, albeit in a new workshop. But in the years since, a whispered question has rippled its way through the passionate ranks of Stauter Boat owners: Who owns the last boat Lawrence Stauter built on the Causeway?

Eslava gives me a good lead. One of his customers, Austin Greene of Fairhope, owns the highest 1979 serial he’s come across: 79100.

“He’s winning the race so far, to my knowledge. I mean, I’ve done hundreds of these boats in the years I’ve worked on them, but any time I see that ’77, ’78, ’79, it’s like, ‘Let me look a little further at this boat.’”

He promises to put me in touch with Greene and wishes me luck on my search.

“I’ll be curious to see what else exists.”

Lawrence Stauter was raised beside the brown, languid waters of Conway Creek in the Mobile Delta. From the roof of his home, where he liked to sit as a boy, he could look south clear towards the Gulf of Mexico, before man built the Causeway with its bait shops and restaurants. He could look west towards the Mobile River and across the swampy expanse, where the ancestors of early German settlers — with last names like Stauter, Spattle and Kleinschrodt — eeked out a living in homes built on 8-foot pilings. He could look north and see the smoke from distant whiskey stills, tucked into the Delta’s hardest-to-reach crannies.

“Eventually, everybody learned how to make whiskey,” Lawrence told Morry Edwards, a freelance writer for WoodenBoat magazine in 1986. Lence Stauter, however, Lawrence’s father, wasn’t like everybody else. Lence taught his son the finer points of delta living: how to run a trot line, gig frogs, trap turtles — and build boats.

“Daddy was a good mechanic,” Lawrence told Edwards. “He had no schooling. Yet, with nothing but a square and a level, a plane and

a hatchet, he could make things fit.”

In the Delta, your boat was your livelihood.

It carried the Stauters to church in Mobile, it took Lence up the creek to hunt for hogs, it sped Mrs. Stauter to the doctor when she was bit by a ground rattler and it carried the family to higher ground during a hurricane’s early, crucial hours. On Conway Creek, a family lived and died by its boat.

Upon graduating from high school in 1930, Lawrence found that the Depression left few job prospects, so he returned to Conway Creek to help support his family. The delta lifestyle, he said, was far from some romantic adventure. “There weren’t no damn adventures,” he told Edwards in 1986. “You had to work. In those days, you didn’t do what you preferred; you did what you could.”

Chan Flowers answers the door of his Midtown home with a big smile. He’s parked three of his glistening Stauters in his front yard for my benefit, and he enjoys my admiration. “That’s half of my collection,” he says.

Flowers, I’m told, has fixed up a lot of Stauter-builts over the years and maybe could point me in the right direction. He walks me through his home, which is decorated with plaques and trophies from wooden boat shows across the region. Most of the trophies are for first place.

“People tell me I’m sick,” he jokes.

Flowers estimates that he and his son have bought, restored and sold about 15 Stauters in the past 10 years, often spending hundreds of hours on a single boat. The work, he says, is nothing less than a passion.

“There’s one thing a wooden boat has that a fiberglass boat will never have, and it’s called a soul. Stauters are a local piece of history and art as far as I’m concerned.”

I ask if he’s ever heard someone claim to own the last Lawrence-built Stauter.

“I know 100 people who claim to have the last Stauter,” Flowers says. “A lot of people make the claim, but who knows. Back in the day, when you’d go in there and buy a boat, it was pretty much a cash deal and a handshake. There was probably not a whole lot of serial numbers and documentation.”

“So if I can find the latest serial number in 1979, do you think that’d be a fair way to crown a boat as the last Stauter?” I ask.

“Good luck,” he says, with a big laugh.

“Good luck. Who’s to say that boat still exists?”

I decide to pay a visit to maritime historian John Sledge to see if the topic has come up in any of his extensive research. On the back deck of his Fairhope home, Sledge says he’s never personally heard the claim, but he’s not surprised by the mythology that has arisen around Lawrence and his Causeway shop.

“What’s interesting to me about the Stauter phenomenon was that you had that all along the coast, different guys in different places … who specialized in a particular kind of boat that was suitable to whatever their waters were.” He mentions the Lafitte skiffs of Louisiana and the Biloxi Luggers of Mississippi. “Stauter is very much in that tradition of local boat builders kind of perfecting their craft. He really was a master of the environment.”

In 1930, Lawrence, a high school graduate in Conway Creek, decided to start building boats for some pocket money. He charged $25 back then for a 12-foot boat, $35 for a 14-footer.

According to WoodenBoat magazine, he built about one vessel a month, profiting around $10 on each one. “And 10 dollahs was a hell of a lot of money in those days,” he said.

When Lence suffered a stroke and could no longer fish, Lawrence found it necessary to leave the swamp for a construction job in Mobile so he could better support his parents. He worked hard, bought some land and built a home on the Causeway, which at that time lacked drinking water and basic utilities. If that decision

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 41

Clockwise from far left Lawrence Stauter photographed up in the Delta in his trademark khaki outfit, 1986. PHOTO COURTESY MORRY EDWARDS, WOODENBOAT MAGAZINE. The first page of an original Stauter Boatworks brochure, illustrating the wide range of boat designs and customizations. BROCHURE COURTESY KEN ESLAVA. Builder David Bryson brings a 14-foot semi-V boat to near-completion, 1986. PHOTO COURTESY MORRY EDWARDS, WOODENBOAT MAGAZINE.

Frederic’s landfall in September 1979, Lawrence packed up his shop, called some customers to fetch their unfinished boats, moved his supplies to higher ground and went to bed early at the home of some relatives. When his wife went upstairs later in the night, she found her husband awake, listening to the wind.

“Stauter Boatworks is gone to hell,” he told her. “That tin building over there has disintegrated, and the water’s gonna come after a while and wash the whole thing away.” Once again, Lawrence Stauter’s foresight proved true.

doesn’t speak to Lawrence’s foresight, how about this one: Looking ahead to the conclusion of World War II, Lawrence predicted a need for returning soldiers to relax on the water. They’d want boats, and Lawrence knew how to make them. He built a workshop behind his Causeway home and, in 1946, quit his job.

“People thought I was crazy,” he told Edwards. “I dropped from 85 to 50 dollahs a week. But that was alright. I was happy with what I was doing. As far as making lots of money, I never had anything all my life, so hell, if I made a living, I thought that’s all I was s’posed to have.”

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Stauter-built boats were an immediate success. By the end of his second year, Lawrence and his crew of eight were turning out 30 boats a month. At its peak, Stauter Boatworks would build an astounding 400 vessels a year.

Aside from his insistence on quality, Lawrence was also known for his booming laugh, which could be heard, many joked, from one end of the Causeway to the other.

Lawrence was used to hurricanes; he had watched his father prepare for the storms on Conway Creek and had lived through more than a few on the Causeway. But Hurricane Frederic was different. The day before

Austin Greene pulls back the fabric boat cover to reveal his Stauter’s serial number: 79100. Greene bought the 16-foot bait boat in 2017 from Pete Burns, the boat’s original owner. According to Burns, Lawrence called the day before Frederic made landfall and urged him to come pick up the unpainted, engine-less boat before the hurricane blew it off the map. “I mean, it was in the earliest stages of production,” Greene says of the aptly named Last Call. As for Lawrence’s records? Greene says that, to his knowledge, all serial numbers and documents were swept away with the shop.

During our conversation, Greene remembers an encounter he had on Fish River with a man who claimed to have assisted Lawrence after the storm with retrieving

unfinished boats that had been swept into the Delta. For the man’s trouble, Lawrence allowed him to keep one of them. It’s a new wrinkle to the mystery but one that won’t be ironed out.

“I wish I could give you a lead there,” Greene says, struggling to remember the man’s name. “I think that’s the most interesting thing about these boats. There’s such an interesting culture around them, because it’s all word of mouth. It’s basically storytelling that’s keeping the history of all of this alive.”

Mobilian Gin Mathers is the owner of a 15-and-a-half-foot Cedar Point Special with a similar “Frederic” history. Her father, the boat’s original owner, picked up his unpainted Stauter the day before landfall. It makes me wonder, How many phone calls did Lawrence make that day?

Interestingly, Mathers’s boat has a serial number of 78101, which doesn’t align with the 1979 landfall of Frederic. But it’s possible, I’m later told, that the boat was simply outfitted with a leftover 1978 transom brace.

Suddenly, the answer to my question seems further out of reach than ever before.

On the Causeway after the storm, Lawrence found nothing more than a series of snapped pilings where his home and workshop once stood, so at 68 years old, he decided it was time to retire. Four months later, in January 1980, Stauter Boatworks reopened off Three Notch Road under the ownership of Gene, Joseph and Vince Lami, the grandsons of Lawrence’s first cousin and Delta neighbor, Frank Kleinschrodt.

Lawrence’s advice to the new owners?

“Hold your quality,” he said, “and don’t let your price run away. The reputation is there, the business is well-established. You don’t have to worry about a darn thing.”

I call Tom Lami, who has recently bought the Stauter-built name, boat patterns and trademark logos from Gene and Vince Lami (his father and uncle, respectively) with the intention to restart production. Gene and Vince ceased the construction of new Stauter Boats in 2010. As for claims about owning the last Lawrence-built Stauter?

“We hear that all the time. And honestly, I hate to disappoint you, but that is a mystery and will probably remain a mystery because of the fact of what happened to the business there on the Causeway. There were a handful of boats that were still under construction.” As for a collection of records that might still exist? “Mr. Stauter either lost that in the storm or never kept it.”

Furthermore, Tom says, even if two boat owners compare their similar serial numbers, there’s no guarantee that a higher serial number means a later date of completion.

As press time rapidly approaches, I’m put in touch with retiree Richard Craig. “Lawrence was my great-uncle,” he tells me over the phone. The serial number of his Cedar Point Special? 79108.

“The boat was just about finished,” Craig says. “It was in the paint shop, a two-story building at the northern end of his property on the Causeway.” As the storm surge smashed Lawrence’s home and workshop into the pilings of the Bayway, which had opened just the previous year, Craig’s boat somehow managed to ride out the storm, relatively undamaged.

“Lawrence was going [into the Delta] every day, just up there looking around, trying to find what he could find, what he could salvage. And he found the boat.”

Craig’s story is reminiscent of what Greene had told me — that some mystery man was gifted a Stauter Boat for helping Lawrence in the storm’s aftermath. I ask how many boats Lawrence might’ve pulled out of the Delta.

“It was my impression that [my boat] was the only one he found,” Craig says. “I couldn’t say that for an absolute fact, I just don’t remember him ever talking about that.”

I ask Craig if he’s ever come across a higher 1979 serial number than his own.

“Oh no,” he says. “That’s the last one that was built in that shop, for sure. ‘Cause it was in the paint shop being finished the night of the hurricane.”

The story of Craig’s Stauter raises an interesting question: With so many unfinished boats on the property that day, in various stages of construction, can any of them claim beyond a doubt to be the last Causeway Stauter? And if you were to compare

two of those unfinished boats, would their serial numbers, assigned at purchase, really be the fairest way to make a conclusion?

I drive out to Stauter Boatworks itself, a yellow, metal building down Three Notch Road on the site where the Lami brothers set up shop back in 1980. Today, the brothers sell and repair trailer parts and Tohatsu outboard motors.

“Everybody wants to believe that they have the last Stauter that came out of the shop [on the Causeway],” Vince says.

“Truth be known, some of the last Stauters built were probably never found — up in the Delta, you know!”

“What do you think about this quest of mine to find the last Causeway Stauter?” I ask. Gene laughs softly.

“That’s going to be an impossible task.

It’ll never happen. There’s going to be so many people claiming they have the last Stauter off the Causeway, and there’s just no way of knowing.”

I tell them about the boats I’ve found.

Austin Greene’s 79100. Richard Craig’s 79108. “There were boats after that,” Gene says confidently. “‘Cause I bought one in 1973. It’s 73196, and I got it in November.”

“So it’d probably be beyond 125 or 150,” Vince says.

“Oh, yeah. I would think,” Gene agrees.

The Lami brothers also confirm a tidbit I’d heard along the way. The last Stauter that Lawrence ever built? He kept it for himself.

“After we got the business,” Gene says, “he moved to the corner of Senator Street and Morgan Avenue down at the Loop. He had a garage … and he built a 15-and-ahalf-foot Cedar Point Special in that garage.

His nephew owns that, Butch Taylor. That’s the last boat Mr. Stauter built. Definitely.”

That’s a nice word to hear: definitely. And although it’s not the last “Causeway Stauter,” I must admit it’s a poetic conclusion.

The “last Stauter” claims and the Hurricane Frederic stories will continue, and I hope they do. Lawrence, who died in 1998, probably would have enjoyed the rumors and intrigue his boats have created. A man with proven foresight, maybe he saw all this coming, too. And so the boat builder with the big laugh made sure he had the last laugh — and the last Stauter. MB july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 43

CATCHING THE WIND Locals and expatriates find adrenaline and camaraderie through kiteboarding, and they think you should, too. text by BRECK PAPPAS • photos by MATTHEW COUGHLIN

Opposite page Alberto Siller takes flight. Above Jacopo Pedrin displays the full kiteboarding get-up. july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 45

O

ne thing about kiteboarders is that they’re hard to miss.

From the busy parking lot of Pirate’s Bar & Grill on the south side of Dauphin Island, it’s easy to spot six enormous kites dipping and diving like seagulls in the lagoon below. It’s also quickly apparent that the sheltered beach is a kiteboarder’s dream, exposed to the high winds whipping in from the Gulf but protected from its white caps by a sandy barrier. The result is a stiff wind but relatively flat water.

The sand is packed to the water’s edge with beachgoers on this Memorial Day, so the boarders have claimed a spot on the far end of the beach, where they can stretch out their lines for an easy launch and landing. The wind today, I’m later told, is just right: roughly 20 knots, hitting the beach at an angle. If you’re a kiteboarder, you call this a side-onshore wind. Such conditions are ideal because a wind current from the water is less variable, and if something goes wrong, a boarder can easily drift back to shore (an offshore wind would push you out into the ocean). Half the battle of the sport, it seems, is knowing when and where such conditions will materialize.

“You can kind of predict the day before if conditions will be right,” says Andrew Cuny, a 26-year-old kiteboarder from Daphne, “although sometimes the wind meter readings are wrong, so it can be a roll of the dice.” Oftentimes, he explains, it’s “a last-minute jolt to the beach to get a session in.”

Tanned and affable, Cuny is project manager of the family-owned ARK Builders in Daphne. When not constructing custom homes, he’s thinking about kiteboarding, a hobby he picked up about a year ago.

“Kiteboarding is always on his mind,” Cuny’s wife Lydia says, with her feet in the sand. “If he’s not kiteboarding, he’s talking about it. Always checking the wind, watching videos of himself riding — he loves it.”

Cuny smiles in agreement. “I’ve surfed, I’ve wakeboarded, I’ve snowboarded, I’ve

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This page Robert Daniels, a Mobile-transplant from Norway, puts on a show in front of the Isle Dauphine.

Opposite Kiteboarders and friends, from left to right: Andrew Cuny, Jacopo Pedrin, Spencer Johnston, Alberto Siller, Cecilia Goett, Ron Peterson, Shannon Smits and Robert Daniels.

“EXPERIENCED RIDERS ALL SAY THAT THE KITE FEELS LIKE AN EXTENSION OF THEIR BODY. I’M NOT THERE YET. MY MIND IS ON EVERYTHING.” – Andrew Cuny

skied, I’ve done all sorts of extreme sports, and this exceeds the adrenaline rush you get from any of them. It’s the closest feeling you can get to flying.”

Of the eight kiteboarders on the water today, Cuny says he’s the newest to the sport. His interest was piqued last year when he and his father came across a kiteboarder in Orange Beach, and that was that. He looks out at the bright lagoon, points out his friends by the colors of their kites. Some have been riding for more than 10 years, he says, almost in reverence. “I’m still learning tons.”

“Coming down!” someone shouts, and Cuny springs up to catch a descending kite, attached to 30-something female boarder sitting in the water 20 feet from the shore. All afternoon, the kiteboarders come and go in this manner as they please, always with the assistance of someone on land, catching or releasing the enormous sheets of fabric shaped like bat wings. It’s a beautiful free-for-all, a day-long ritual at the altar of wind. “You’ve gotta take advantage of it when you can,” Cuny says.

Kiteboarding as we know it has only been around for the past 30 years or so. Its local popularity is increasing, thanks in part to a growing international community in the Bay area and the high visibility of the sport; it’s not uncommon to see kiteboarders at the Fairhope Pier, Daphne’s Bayfront Park, Little Lagoon in Gulf

Shores, Orange Beach or here at Dauphin Island. One kiteboarder I meet tells me he’s been up and down the East Coast, all around Florida, and “not many places have little flat-water spots like this.”

Through the GroupMe app, roughly 30 kiteboarders from the Panhandle to Biloxi stay in constant contact about weather conditions and future “sessions.”

The eight boarders on the water today run the gamut of experience, skill and age. Ron Peterson, an engaging 54-year-old with a shaved head and a red goatee, says he only strapped on the kite five years ago after coming across some kiteboarders while walking his dog along the Bay in Daphne. He stopped to ask them questions and was told that if he ever wanted lessons, they were willing to teach him. Peterson bought a starter kite online, and the kiteboarders kept up their end of the bargain.

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THREE TIPS FOR GETTING STARTED 1) Research the sport on your own and watch YouTube videos to get a basic understanding.

2) Make sure you’re a competent swimmer with a respect for the water and the weather.

3) Book a lesson with Alberto Siller at easternshorekite.com.

JACOPO PEDRIN

Though Peterson’s an agile 54, his story illuminates a surprising aspect of the sport. “People think it’s really, really strenuous on your body,” Cuny says, “but once you figure it out — you’re in a harness, so it really almost feels like you’re just hanging on a rope. So the main thing you’re doing is steering the kite and using the board to kind of control the direction. I mean, don’t get me wrong, that harness on your waist can be a nice core workout, but you’ll be surprised at the different fitness levels you find on the water.”

More important than physicality, says petite 24-year-old Cecilia Goett, is a mindful persistence. “It’s more about connecting your mind instructions to your body instructions,” she says with an intriguing south-of-the-border accent. “Some people just aren’t good at that, and it makes it harder to learn. But once you get it …” she says, a look of excitement brimming in her eyes.

Goett and her fiancé, Alberto Siller, are from Tampico, Mexico, a city 300 miles south of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. Siller was working for Mobile-based Cooper T. Smith stevedoring in Mexico before being pulled to the company’s Mobile office in January. Both have been kiteboarding for more than 10 years, and they credit the sport for their smooth transition from Mexico to Alabama.

“We’re liking it here a lot,” Goett says. “We never expected to have so many friends so soon — just people being so friendly and open. Kiteboarding has made all the difference. Otherwise, my only connection with people would be through my yoga class and his job.”

As Goett talks, she uses a hand pump to inflate the frame of her multicolored kite. This kite, she explains, is nine meters, meaning it’s comprised of nine square meters of fabric. Kites can range in size from 2 to even 19 meters, and the size a boarder chooses depends on his or her weight and the wind speed on a particular day. Goett and Siller share four kites of different sizes.

Goett was just a teenager when her father introduced her to the sport, and she spends a lot of time on the water these days; while her fiancé is an American citizen, Goett is in the country on a tourist visa until they can get married. She was planning on returning to Mexico for the summer, but that was before COVID-19 became a household name. Thankfully, she says, the wind’s been good in the meantime.

As we talk, Siller cuts across the water, controlling the bar of his kite like he’s steering a bicycle and leaning backwards against his harness. Then suddenly, he’s airborne, soaring 20 feet off the water’s surface before drifting back down at what looks like (from the beach) a comfortable speed.

Later, faced streaked with sunscreen, he describes the sensation of riding: “You feel really free. There’s no motor, no gasoline, no noise — so it’s just being free in the ocean.

And then jumping, that’s also a really nice feeling, because the kite floats when you’re coming down. My biggest jump

is around 40 feet, so floating down from that high is cool because you really have time to appreciate how high you are.”

Today’s kiteboarding group is surprisingly international. Jacopo Pedrin, from Italy, introduces himself.

Robert Daniels, originally from Norway, taps the top of his head from the water’s edge, signifying that he’s ready to drop his kite and come ashore. His fiancé, Shannon Smits of Wisconsin, catches it as it sways to earth like a feather. She begins fiddling with the lines and asks, “Do you know what true love is? Untangling someone’s kite lines.”

Daniels and Smits met in Wisconsin but relocated to Mobile four years ago; Daniels, a calibration engineer, travels the region for work and says that Mobile “is the best part of the Southern states.

It’s a little more untouched,” he says, “and Dauphin Island is a hidden pearl.”

Daniels’s story, of camaraderie through wind sports, sounds strikingly familiar to that of his new friends from Mexico.

“We’ve made a lot of our friends here through kiteboarding,” he says. “It’s a very all-consuming sport. It doesn’t leave room for a lot of other hobbies because whenever there’s wind, this is what you do. This is where all your friends go. I haven’t had time to pick up any other hobbies yet,” he says, laughing. “The days we’re not doing this, we’re probably together on the beach or paddleboarding.” I ask if the sport is addicting.

“Extremely,” he says, almost in a whisper. “It’s hard to find any other sport that gets you excited. None of us are fitness fanatics, but this is good exercise. And it’s a fairly hard sport to learn. It takes some dedication. We all have that in common, we went through the learning stages of it, and it kind of creates a group.”

As dark clouds begin rolling in from the Gulf and the sun abandons Memorial Day, the rest of the wind junkies point their kites towards the shore and cruise in, all carried to the same destination by the same onshore wind. MB

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 49

KEEPER OF THE ZOO The story of “The Little Zoo That Could” proves that with the right support — and the right people — life’s storms can be surmountable.

text by AMANDA HARTIN • photos by MATTHEW COUGHLIN

B

enjamin lopes across the yard in beeline fashion when he spies her. The 8-year-old giant knows what time it is. “We call him Big Ben,” says Cyndi Johnson, head curator at the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, while breaking apart a head of lettuce. The long-necked creature wriggles his prehensile tongue until it connects with the leafy green offering. Ben happily munches his midmorning snack while Johnson pets his ossicones, the protuberances on a giraffe’s head. “He’s a stinky boy, that’s for sure.”

Johnson’s like that, a gentle josher when it comes to talking about her zoo children. And she’s got quite a few roaming around this place.

Netty the ostrich, Benjamin’s roommate, so

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to speak, sashays over, nosing her way into the commotion at the feeding station. “She’s the bomb diggity, isn’t she?” Johnson asks no one in particular about the shaggy, flightless bird. Before long, Netty loses interest. In the distance, a lion roars a greeting — or stern warning, perhaps — while lemurs chirp and play on their centrallylocated island, seemingly oblivious to the big cat noise or the rising temperature.

Johnson turns her attention toward securing the giraffe enclosure, and the radio on her hip comes alive with zookeeper-to-zookeeper chatter.

As she works the lock, a beam of sunlight catches something silver around her neck, casting a dancing orb onto the ground.

“This is Trey’s handprint,” she says, rubbing the

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 51

necklace charm instinctively. “She’d have been 17 years old in March.”

A Little History In 1989, entrepreneur Joey Ward opened Zooland Animal Park one mile from the white sands of Gulf Shores. The small zoo survived as a seasonal-yet-growing attraction, thanks to community support and the vision of staff and volunteers like Patti Hall. In 1997, Hall was appointed zoo director, and the following year, Hurricane Georges blew into town, prompting a partial evacuation, according to Johnson. This was merely a primer of what was to come.

Fifteen years after opening its doors, the zoo, by then renamed the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, found itself preparing to receive a 120-mph punch named Hurricane Ivan.

“We only had 72 hours to get out,” Johnson says of the organized chaos. What followed was something no other American zoo had ever attempted: a full-scale evacuation. “It was a cluster, for sure, but everybody worked very well together. Patti, Rusty [Gilbert] and I told the staff what we needed them to do. We didn’t have anybody who wanted to back out. They wanted to be there and take care of their animals.”

Hall’s property in Elberta, 20 miles inland, served as sanctum for the roughly 200 zoo animals, as well as staff, their families and pets. Despite having no running water for days, Johnson says “there were some good times. Patti had a big pool, and we were able to take the tiger cubs, Rajah and Rani, and bear cub, Boodah, out swimming at separate times.”

But one swimmer had been left behind at the zoo, and it was he who gained worldwide attention, leading media to descend on the coastal town.

Chuckie, the American alligator, rode out Ivan in his enclosure, rising with the tide, as reptiles are designed to do. But the water rose higher than his 10-foot fence. “It was 12 to 14 feet high behind the park, so he literally just floated out,” Johnson explains. Multiple sources reported the “escaped gator” story, including The Weather Channel. “We had people from France calling to check on him.

Several psychics called to say Chuckie was trying to come home. We also had people 52 mobilebaymag.com | july 2020

saying he had eaten their dog or cat. But he was still within our perimeter fence.

When the water receded, we were able to see evidence of where he had been trying to get back into his exhibit.”

A Little Miracle Johnson is no stranger to powering through storms or overcoming adversity. Professionally, she says she started at the bottom. “I’m not college-educated; I worked my way up,” she says of her climb to head curator.

“I was this keeper, then that keeper, and eventually I became the head keeper.” But sometimes life’s hurdles can’t be traversed in such a straightforward manner.

In 1994, Johnson’s 3-month-old son, Trey, succumbed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Within a few months, she was expecting again, but the joy was tempered with heart-wrenching news. “I was seven months pregnant when I found out I had cancer and had to have this eye removed,” she says, pointing to the right side of her face. “It was melanoma, and the doctors were concerned it had gone from my eye to my brain.” It hadn’t, and it hadn’t spread to the daughter she was carrying either.

“Cursti was my miracle baby,” she says of the little girl born in 1995. “She kept me going.” And so did Chance, the son who followed soon after.

In March 2003, on the 9-year anniversary of Trey’s death, a new life entered the world — a tiny capuchin monkey. “I asked Patti if I could name it Trey, in honor of my son,” Johnson says, admitting that at the time, she didn’t realize newborn Trey was a female. That matter was insignificant when it came to the bond that would soon blossom. “When she was a baby, Trey fell off her mama’s back and slammed her head onto the concrete.” As a result, Trey suffered seizures and needed round-the-clock care.

Having already felt a special connection, Johnson added another child, this time of the primate variety, to her brood.

“She went home with me every night, and then she’d come here and play during the day,” Johnson says, smiling. “Trey grew up with my kids. She was a special capuchin; she couldn’t climb very well. I would never keep a regular capuchin in my house!”

A Big Gift “Once we went national with Chuckie’s story, we got a call with a pitch for an Animal Planet series,” Johnson says of what became the network’s 13-episode show, “The Little Zoo That Could.” Camera crews followed the zoo’s ups and downs for months, capturing heartwarming moments, such as Johnson’s snuggles with Trey the capuchin, as well as devastating losses — the zoo evacuated twice more, for hurricanes Dennis and Katrina, during filming. “At the last minute, Dennis turned and went to Florida,” Johnson recalls. “Katrina didn’t do as much damage to us as Ivan, but it still destroyed a lot of stuff we had just fixed or built new.” In total, the zoo had been pummeled twice in 18 months.

As viewers tuned in to the show each week, the story of the zoo’s struggles unfolded. Support poured in, even after the first airing. “When he saw that first episode, he called,” Johnson says of Souvenir City owner Clyde Weir. “He said he had no idea what we went through or how traumatic it was.” Weir and his daughter, Andrea, visited the zoo shortly thereafter, with the younger Weir donating part of her inheritance.

“This property was hers,” Johnson says of

“IF IT WASN’T FOR THE COMMUNITY, YOUR SUPPORT, YOUR CHEERLEADING DURING OUR DOWN TIMES, WE WOULDN’T HAVE HAD THE STRENGTH AND COURAGE TO GO ON.” – Patti Hall, Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo director emeritus, at the facility’s grand opening ceremony Opposite page, top to bottom The entrance to the zoo is flanked by two buildings: the gift shop and ticketing on the right and the Safari Club restaurant to the left. Head curator Cyndi Johnson makes small talk with Jasper the red ruffed lemur. Chuckie the American Aligator gained national attention when he “escaped” after Hurricane Ivan.

Above Lions Jabari and Nandi enjoy a little midday shade.

Opening portrait Benjamin the giraffe shows up for snack time at the feeding station.

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 53

to maintain, is the accessibility of staff,” Hamilton says. “There are opportunities for guests to stop staff with questions and to hear stories about the animals.” Johnson has plenty of stories.

There are few species she hasn’t had a hand in raising, but there might be some she wouldn’t sign up for again. “I never want to raise another wolf,” she says. “They poop more than any other animal I’ve ever had.” I laugh.

“THE STAFF HAS ALWAYS BEEN ONE TO COME Above A moat surrounds lemur island, the epicenter of the 25-acre, multimillion dollar facility.

TOGETHER TO GET THINGS DONE WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN.”

Right Reptile zookeeper Andy Jordan shows off a Brazilian rainbow boa.

– Joel Hamilton, Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo executive director

Opposite page Sixteenyear-old Bengal tiger Rajah experienced the zoo’s three evacuations prior to calling the new zoo — on higher ground — home.

the land we’re standing on. “She wanted to give us 25 acres.”

After 13 long years of setbacks, from hurricane seasons to financial challenges, the little zoo that could, did. Built from the ground up and three times larger than its former footprint, nearly 500 animals now call this higher ground, located four miles north of the beach, their home. “The reception was awesome,” current executive director Joel Hamilton says of the facility’s March 2020 grand opening. But the fanfare was short-lived and would require another round of patience and tenacity.

Hamilton continues, “After the long wait, it was very disheartening to have to shut it down.” On March 18, seven days after opening, the doors were locked. The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, snuck in yet another knock. “The staff has always been one to come together to get things done when the chips are down.” This time would be no different.

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A Big Heart “I am such a ham,” a doting Johnson singsongs to Simba the African lion, the one responsible for the early-morning roar.

“He’s pretty famous. I raised him from 3 months old.” We don’t get far before she stops again, turning her attention this time to the Bengal tiger. “Come, pretty boy!

What a good boy. I’ve had him since he was 2 weeks old.” Johnson once bottle-fed the now-11-year-old Omar every two hours.

“I’ve raised over 50 tigers, but I am not one of those people who feels like I have such a unique connection with a cat that I can go in and play with it. I’m the person who healthily respects the cat — I know what it can do to me!”

Visitors to the reopened-with-restrictions zoo linger near the enclosure. Johnson is soon in her element, fielding questions about the animals to whom she’s devoted so much of her life. “One of the things we were always know for, and are striving

As we near completing the loop around the zoo, I take a moment to really notice my surroundings. The zoo is abuzz with families pushing wide-eyed toddlers in strollers; couples walking hand-in-hand, laughing along with the kookaburras; staff smiling and engaging with inquisitive children; and diners enjoying a meal on the patio at the Safari Club restaurant — the first “Green Certified” restaurant in Alabama. A braying miniature donkey named Angie, out for a walk with her keeper, brings me back to present.

Of all the beautiful sights seen today, perhaps the most admirable is Johnson’s evident love for every creature at the zoo.

“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” she muses. “This is my life.” A life filled with storms of many kinds, one she tackles day by day knowing she’s got an angel Trey above and a handprint of capuchin Trey, who passed away this January, next to her heart.

“Coming here, it’s not like I forget [hardships]. But I can come over and sit next to a tiger, and he’ll rub his face against the fence as if to say it’s OK. You just can’t help falling in love with these animals. And if you can help it, you don’t need to work here.” MB

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NOTABLE WOMEN MEET SOME OF MOBILE AND BALDWIN COUNTIES’ MOST SUCCESSFUL, INNOVATIVE AND DYNAMIC WOMEN IN FIELDS RANGING FROM FINANCE TO HOSPITALITY. EACH WOMAN GOES ABOVE AND BEYOND TO SEAMLESSLY COMBINE LEADERSHIP, PROFESSIONALISM AND COMMUNITY MINDFULNESS.

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SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

Alabama Medical Group, P.C. Sheila Saucier, CRNP, Infectious Disease What contributes to your success?

I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to build upon many areas of experience in my current field of medicine. The expertise of five talented and exceptional Infectious Disease physicians, along with the support of three very dedicated nurse practitioners, has guided my success in this area of healthcare. As a team, we find success by collaborating and providing evidence-based care for a multitude of disease processes.

What sets your group apart?

Alabama Medical Group, P.C. has provided state-ofthe-art healthcare to patients in our community since 1946. Today, we are the only physician-owned medical group with Infectious Disease specialists who care for patients at Mobile Infirmary, Springhill Medical Center and Providence Hospital. The Infectious Disease providers at Alabama Medical Group, have always and will continue to deliver a standard of care that serves as an asset to our patients and community — our mission is to always put the needs of our patients first.

How do you make sure patients get the best results? Our healthcare team takes great pride in creating an environment where patients receive quality, individualized and compassionate medical care. This, coupled with the cumulative experience and shared knowledge of our healthcare team, makes our practice unique and ensures that we deliver the best care to our patients.

How has your practice grown or changed, and where are you going from here?

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

Five years ago, Infectious Disease was an independent, small practice consisting of four physicians and myself.

We have now merged with the largest physicianowned, multispecialty medical practice in the city. As an entity of Alabama Medical Group, we have added another Infectious Disease physician, as well as three additional nurse practitioners. Infectious Disease continues to grow as a promising subspecialty. The Infectious Disease team at Alabama Medical Group has played a vital role during the current COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to serve the healthcare needs of our community.

101 Memorial Hospital Drive, Building 3 • Mobile • 251-414-5900 • alabamamedicalgroup.com july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 57

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

Calley Coldsmith, APMA®, and Jennifer Ryder, CFP ®, APMA® Coldsmith, Ryder & Associates, A Private Wealth Advisory Practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

TWO GULF COAST NATIVES MAKING A NAME FOR THEMSELVES AND THRIVING IN A TRADITIONALLY MALE-DOMINATED INDUSTRY.

What does your business offer that makes it special?

The financial decisions our clients make have immediate and long-lasting impacts on their lives. While finding a good investment is important, we believe that understanding our clients’ lives and goals and then helping them make wise decisions to achieve those goals is not just important, but life changing. We consider our comprehensive financial planning to be the “bread and butter” of our services as we not only help our clients with their investments, but also with building their net worth, planning for retirement, reducing taxes over their lifetimes, estate planning and protection planning.

Every advisor in our practice is required to earn the Certified Financial Planner

CFP® designation to ensure we can offer a truly holistic approach to helping clients plan for their future. The average person never receives any education in personal finance, so we work closely with clients to help them gain clarity and confidence in their financial situation and help them make wise decisions.

How do you make sure clients get the best results?

We believe that as long as our primary goal is putting the clients’ best interest first and delivering excellent customer service, results will follow. It can be difficult to define what the “best results” actually mean, but we believe it not only means investment performance but whether or not our clients achieve their goals. We know this to be true

as almost 100 percent of our new clients come from our existing clients’ referring their family and friends.

What contributes to your success?

We go above and beyond to create a community of resources for our clients by holding events throughout the year on topics we think interest them. We have done everything from Women & Investing wine tasting events to a Homeowner’s Forum, where we hosted local experts in the insurance, construction/home renovation and realtor fields to answer client questions and concerns. During the COVID-19 lockdown, we created a “Shelter In Place” webinar series.

Our clients enjoyed the webinars so much we are developing a “Moving Forward” series and will continue to spotlight local experts.

3514 Montlimar Plaza Drive • Mobile • 251-344-5551 • coldsmithryderteam.com 58 mobilebaymag.com | july 2020

SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

Blackwell Realty, Inc.

Sondra Blackwell, Associate Broker, CRS, CIPS, CNHS

SAVVY. RESOURCEFUL. GRACIOUS. SONDRA BLACKWELL DEMONSTRATES A MULTITUDE OF ATTRIBUTES, BUT THE ONE FOR WHICH SHE IS MOST RECOGNIZED IS HER COMPASSION.

How did you get into this business?

I began my real estate career on the Eastern Shore in 2000, and in 2015, I decided to take a leap of faith and opened Blackwell Realty, a labor of love I share with my husband, Bo, son, Camp, and daughter-inlaw, Chelsea. It is truly a family affair — our agents are like family along with our many wonderful clients.

What sets your business apart?

My focus, integrity and entrepreneurial spirit has helped turn Blackwell Realty into a company that I am quite proud of. Selling real estate is about passion and commitment to excellence, equally measured with compassion and emotional intelligence. Blackwell Realty is not just a transactional company, but a generational one. We focus on building the kind of relationships that allow us to work with parents, grandparents and children, often within the same family.

How has your business changed?

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

It is incumbent upon the business to provide support to its agents in such a way that they have the resources to feel encouraged, inspired and free to achieve their own professional goals. That means staying ahead of trends, embracing technology, actively seeking educational opportunities and maintaining relationships with business leaders and industry shapers. It also means being there to listen and offer advice when issues or questions arise. The future is about adapting, and COVID-19 has certainly changed the way everyone has done business. Nevertheless, with insight and steadfast commitment to continued growth, we have and will continue to provide clients and agents an outstanding and personalized experience. There is one thing that will never need to change and that is giving the absolute best in customer service.

1001 Randall Avenue • Daphne • 251-626-9570 • blackwellrealtyinc.com july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 59

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

Betty Barnhill and LouAnne Barnhill Harrell Christmas Round the Corner AS LONGTIME OWNER OF FAIRHOPE PHARMACY, BETTY BARNHILL (RIGHT) HAS ALWAYS KNOWN RETAIL. WHEN SHE BEGAN ENVISIONING OPENING A CHRISTMAS STORE, SHE SAW THE CHANCE TO DO SOMETHING NEW FOR FAIRHOPE, AND SHE OPENED HER VERY OWN IN 1994. BETTY HAS SINCE RETIRED, BUT LOUANNE BARNHILL HARRELL (LEFT) CONTINUES TO HONOR THE DREAM. AS THEY SAY AT CHRISTMAS ‘ROUND THE CORNER, “YOU CAN’T WORK HERE AND NOT BE HAPPY.”

What does your business offer that makes it special ?

We are open year-round and feature specialty ornaments such as Christopher Radko, Old World Christmas, Karen Didion Santas, nativities, nutcrackers and Mark Roberts fairies, as well as creations and ornaments by local artists. Our buyers are always looking for new and unique items and decor to keep the store fresh and updated.

What contributes to your success?

By buying a variety of traditional and unique products, we are able to appeal to different tastes. For example, we have around 20 trees in our store, each with a unique theme.

People visiting the area always want something to remember Fairhope by, and we offer locally-crafted coastal ornaments to cater to this. Of course, customer service is imperative, and we look forward

to seeing customers from the area and all over the country throughout the year. Our location in Downtown is also a big plus!

Where do you plan to take the business from here?

It continues to grow and change as trends change and new items become available.

We hope to continue to grow in the future and possibly have an online store up and going next year.

396 Fairhope Avenue • Fairhope • 251-928-8822 • christmasroundthecorner.com 60 mobilebaymag.com | july 2020

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

The Fairhope Inn & Restaurant Paige Dawson, Owner How did you get into this business?

I first came to Fairhope years ago to visit a dear college friend. She took me to the Fairhope Inn for dinner, and I fell in love with not just the Inn but the city itself.

After finally moving here five years ago, I was eager to become involved in this wonderful community.

In the Fall of 2018, I was told that the owner might be interested in selling the Inn. Having worked for my father’s construction company most of my life, and with a career of my own in property development, I found the possibilities intriguing.

How have you taken risks in your career or with this business?

Jumping into the restaurant business was a

complete leap of faith. But when the Inn’s general manager of 20 years — Jeffrey Mog — agreed to return and stellar chef Weston Simpson came on board, I knew the stars were aligned.

Another old college friend — Lila Bailey — led the interior design renovation, while B’Beth Weldon added her artwork to the renovated Polo Bar. JubileeScape gave the grounds a new look and renovated the courtyard with fresh lighting to offer more comfortable outdoor space.

How has your business grown or changed, and where are you going from here?

With a history covering nearly 120 years, this wonderful place sits at the heart of Fairhope literally and figuratively. The

memories are endless and still fresh for so many … but the Inn itself needed a facelift, from the restaurant space to the lodging upstairs. I purchased the Inn at the end of February 2019, and by July, began extensive renovations.

Preserving this historic property has been a joy. Seeing the reaction from our longtime patrons as well as new faces is so rewarding for our entire team.

We’re celebrating the Inn’s traditions but adding new ones, like a Friday Gallatoire’s Luncheon. And with the courtyard and private rooms, we can offer comfortable distanced dining that has become the new normal in the restaurant world.

Fairhope has always celebrated here — and it’s very special to be part of that continued tradition.

63 South Church Street • Fairhope • 251-928-6226 • thefairhopeinn.com july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 61

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

Greer’s Markets

Lucy Greer Cheriogotis FIFTH-GENERATION, FAMILY-OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1916. VOTED “BEST LOCAL GROCERY STORE” IN 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 AND 2019.

What is your role in the company?

Corporate Spokesperson, Vice President Deli/Bakery and Secretary.

How did you get into your field?

I stood on a milk crate and started checking groceries on Florida Street at age 9. I worked weekends and during the summer. I felt so important with my own smock and name tag. I was always intrigued by the checkout process, and all I wanted to do was “scan.”

I even begged my dad for a register in my room, and I was sorely disappointed when he brought home a big square machine with no scanner! My dad paid me $1 per hour out of his pocket.

What contributes to your success?

Faith, family and Greer’s is the way I

structure my life and the way we encourage all our team members to structure theirs.

Customers love the family atmosphere in our stores, and the cool thing is that it is natural, unforced. There is so much love in our stores and in each community we serve.

How do you make sure customers get the best results?

All of us at Greer’s live by our Team Vision: “To bring added joy, well-being and value to people’s lives!” While it does not say anything about groceries, it says everything about the respect we show each other and our customers.

What sets your business apart from your competitors?

Our five points of difference are: great

place to work, friendliest, community connected, price competitive and fresh focused. We are very much set apart by our meat departments in that we still cut all our own meat in house.

How has your business grown and where are you going from here?

The grocery business has always been competitive, and now all retail businesses are feeling the same pressure. Our Mission drives us to “enthusiastically continue to improve our team, customer service, values, community involvement and performance!”

Continuing to improve is at the center of how we operate every day at every level.

The most important things to us are being a great place to both work and shop.

28 Locations in AL, FL and MS • 251-457-8655 • greers.com 62 mobilebaymag.com | july 2020

PICTURED, L TO R: JANA WILLISTON, CARLA MIDYETT, MARIANNE TERRY AND LAURA SEARCY. PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE HOPE FARM IN FAIRHOPE BY CHAD RILEY

SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

IBERIABANK “WHILE WE MAY BE INDIVIDUALLY STRONG, WE ARE COLLECTIVELY POWERFUL.” — RAKHI VORIA

This quote embodies the collective impact of four female leaders who work for IBERIABANK. These leading ladies have diverse talents and fill vital roles in the company and community. Marianne Terry, senior wealth advisor, oversees Trust and Estate Administration and Investment Management for Iberia Wealth Advisors (South Alabama). Carla Midyett, senior credit officer, executes credit decisions spanning the bank’s entire footprint for the Centralized Commercial Division and leads a credit underwriting team. Laura Searcy, commercial relationship manager, with 20 years’ experience in numerous banking facets, delivers portfolio growth, disciplined execution and meticulous client service. Jana Williston, a 17-year residential mortgage lending expert, is consistently recognized as a top producer.

Her results, tireless efforts and industry knowledge have often been acknowledged by internal leadership and her clients.

The core element of IBERIABANK’s market centric model allows bankers to deliver exceptional customer service and make locallybased decisions for clients. With a proven strong credit culture and risk management practices, the company maintains local market knowledge and responsiveness, coupled with the resources and scale of a larger institution.

These ladies have been described as passionate, engaged and ambitious — and they don’t mind leading! They share their dedication and drive with their clients and the community, and they have a history of mentoring other female leaders. They will each continue to deliver results and leadership through the merger of equals with First Horizon Bank, where the culture will remain unchanged. A powerful new company will be created with the same banking team you know and trust, that is driven by a shared commitment to clients, associates and the communities served.

IBERIABANK ~ Member FDIC ~ Equal Housing Lender

Downtown Mobile • Spring Hill • Fairhope • 251-345-9670 • iberiabank.com july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 63

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

Infirmary Surgical Specialists Caroline McGugin, MD, MSPH

Dr. Caroline McGugin is a fellowship-trained breast surgeon who specializes in breast surgery and treats all breast conditions, including breast cancer, those at high-risk for breast cancer, and benign breast disease. She is board certified by the American Board of Surgery and works alongside medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, plastic surgeons and Infirmary’s High Risk Breast Clinic on both sides of the Bay. Dr. McGugin joined Infirmary Surgical Specialists in 2019 after completing her fellowship in Breast Surgical Oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. Originally from Dallas, she attended Vanderbilt University, UT Southwestern for medical school, and the University of Alabama Birmingham for General Surgery residency. She also completed a yearlong surgical research fellowship focused on improving surgical outcomes and has her Masters of Science in Public Health. She is actively engaged in breast cancer research and has been published in several peer-reviewed journals and presented at national meetings.

She believes part of her success has to do with patients’ increasing desire to be treated by specialists, particularly in a field like breast oncology where research is making advances every day. Dr. McGugin’s practice is 100 percent dedicated to treating breast disease, and she is focused on delivering the most up-to-date care to her patients. She also credits her ability to relate to her patients. As a wife and mother, she knows that women lead busy lives and that a breast cancer diagnosis can cause a lot of fear and anxiety. She makes sure her patients understand their treatment options, and she uses oncoplastic surgical techniques to improve the appearance of the breast after surgery. Dr. McGugin’s favorite part of her job is helping her patients, from time of diagnosis, throughout treatment, and well into their survivorship.

3 Mobile Infirmary Circle, Suite 305 • Mobile • 251-433-5557 • infirmarysurgicalspecialists.org 64 mobilebaymag.com | july 2020

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

Jane Tucker Photography Chelsea Francis, Owner What is it about your business that makes it special?

To me, having something that cannot be duplicated is the goal. In a world where things are made to look alike, I believe originality is what makes good art stand out. Having a wow-factor piece is what I strive for each and every session.

What contributes to your success?

Although my job is to take a great photograph, I try to take the pressure off everyone so they are able to relax — I realize babies will cry and summer is hot and someone lost a tooth the night before. I go the extra mile to make sure I alleviate any concerns, even if that means singing the ABCs or asking a grandfather to sing his favorite song aloud. More often than not, the concern over the lost tooth or

the toddler who cut her own hair are what my clients look back on with a giant smile.

It’s more than capturing a photograph, it’s capturing that part of life and remembering the feeling of being together that is most meaningful.

What sets your business apart from your competitors?

I find myself always pushing to go beyond expectations. I stay up at night thinking, studying and researching new and innovative ways to capture special moments. My specialty is taking these split seconds in life and having them forever memorialized and placed throughout the walls of my clients’ homes. It is more than an image, it is a fleeting moment in time that is paused.

Additionally, we have been offering pastel-

painted photographs. I began pushing the limits of that idea and creating a monochromatic sketch, printed on a much larger scale, which looks very modern and more contemporary in people’s homes. Our clients love them.

How do you make sure clients get the best results?

I have found that decreasing my clients’ stress is a key component. The more unruffled and serene the energy is, the easier the session will flow. I work hard to be sure that energy is maintained throughout the entire shoot.

My education in photography at Savannah School of Art & Design certainly gives me the tools I need to take great shots, but I like to think it’s more of an experience that I can create.

107 North Summit • Fairhope • 251-753-3255 • janetuckerphotography.org july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 65

SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

Mobile Bay Realty AT MOBILE BAY REALTY, WE BELIEVE IN COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS BUILT ON TRUST. WE ARE ETHICS DRIVEN, DEDICATED TO ATTRACTING AGENTS OF HIGH INTEGRITY AND UTILIZING THE MOST INNOVATIVE PRACTICES.

Mobile Bay Realty introduced itself to the real estate world on February 14, 2020, which is a very fitting date considering the impetus for creating this company — these five equal owners absolutely love working together.

This group has a clear vision of what they want their unique real estate brokerage to look like, and the central piece is a non-competing broker. In this role, Alison Ward’s focus is not on growing her own book of business but rather on the overall needs of every agent and client in the office.

“We are excited about having a broker who is knowledgeable, accessible and dedicated to supporting all of our agents in the commitment to providing the highest quality of care and expertise.”

— Anne Dorman

Continuing in the belief that a well-supported agent will provide the highest level of service, the owners then focused on providing innovative tools and education incentives for their cadre of agents.

“Acquiring technology and creative marketing strategies to create a highly competitive agent benefits package is not just an investment in our agents, but also our colleagues, collaborators and ultimately our clients as well.”

— Laurie Weber

The name, Mobile Bay Realty, and using the Middle Bay Lighthouse in their logo was no accident.

“We proudly serve clients on both sides of the Bay and thought it would be quite fitting for the lighthouse to be a symbol of guidance and safety for people coming to both Mobile and Baldwin counties.”

— Jill Delamore

8390 Gayfer Road Ext. • Fairhope • 251-230-7555 • MobileBayRealty.com 66 mobilebaymag.com | july 2020

PICTURED, STANDING: ANNE DORMAN, ALISON WARD, JILL DELAMORE. SEATED: CARRIE MACKEY, LAURIE WEBER. PHOTO BY JOHN ESTES

“We are an eclectic collection of personalities, talents and experiences that blend together beautifully in a collaborative and innovative approach to serving our clients.”

— Carrie Mackey

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

SPECIAL SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN

Synergy HomeCare

Brooke Hartner, Co-Owner SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 2013, SYNERGY HOMECARE IS A NONMEDICAL HOMECARE COMPANY THAT ASSISTS WITH DAILY CARE NEEDS, INCLUDING ERRANDS, HOUSEKEEPING, PERSONAL CARE AND COMPANIONSHIP.

How did you get into your field?

What contributes to your success?

I assisted with my mother’s care during her battle with cancer.

After her passing in 2012, I realized the importance of these services, allowing peace of mind for not only clients but their families as well. It is truly an honor to serve and care for others.

Our success comes from the love of serving individuals in our community. This is manifested through the strong compassion of our caregivers. We care for our clients as we would our own family.

How do you make sure clients get the best results?

What sets your business apart from competitors?

We have a Quality Assurance Program that allows us to stay connected to our customers. We rely on client and caregiver feedback to grow and evolve. This would not be possible without the incredible caregivers and office staff. This feedback ensures our clients’ needs are met daily. I have an open door policy for clients and caregivers alike.

Our strong Quality Assurance program, which encompasses third party surveys, and our communication plan that involves weekly contacts and personal interaction. We are a very process-driven organization, which allows us to sustain repeatability. We strive to employ caring and dedicated employees.

1048 Stanton Road, Suite D • Daphne • 251-621-1900 • synergyhomecare.com/agencies/al/daphne/al03 july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 67

EXTRAS | CALENDAR OF EVENTS

MARKET IN THE PARK

Jubilant July!

EVERY SATURDAY IN JULY

JULY 4

JULY 15

MARKET IN THE PARK 7:30 a.m. - Noon. Downtown Mobile’s farmers market is back!

SHARK RUN 5K 7 a.m. It’s time to lace up and get ready to run for your life — or for prizes, beer and refreshments. Registration $26 - $55.

KIDS GULF DISCOVERY DAY 9 a.m. - Noon. Experience guided cruises on Fowl River by WildNative Delta Safaris (additional fee); The Raptor Road Show, featuring native birds of prey; and explore marine life through touch tables provided by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Admission: Free for members; $14 for adults, $8 for children ages 5 - 12; free for children ages 4 and under.

CATHEDRAL SQUARE FACEBOOK.COM/MARKETSINMOBILE

THROUGH JULY 29 WONDERFUL WEDNESDAYS 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. Sessions include home gardening and horticultural techniques.

BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOME BELLINGRATH.ORG

THE WHARF • SHARKRUN.COM

JULY 4 INDEPENDENCE DAY AT OWA Take part in family-friendly activities, and cap it off with a spectacular fireworks show at 8:45 p.m.

OWA • VISITOWA.COM

BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOME BELLINGRATH.ORG

JULY 3

JULY 11

JULY 15 - 19

WWI AND WWII EVENT 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Stroll through the photo gallery, and talk with the living history interpreters station inside the fort.

BATTLESHIP RUGBY 7S TOURNAMENT 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Bring a pop-up tent and lawn chairs to view rugby all day.

Free to watch; $4 parking fee per car.

BLUE MARLIN GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP Watch spectacular fish being weighed in after a week’s worth of fishing festivities.

FORT MORGAN FORT-MORGAN.ORG

USS ALABAMA BATTLESHIP MEMORIAL PARK USSALABAMA.COM/EVENTS

THE WHARF BLUEMARLINGRANDCHAMPIONSHIP.COM

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

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READY, SET, EXPLORE! Looking for a way to enjoy the outdoors?

Check out these three downtown Mobile self-guided tours.

MOBILE ART GO! MOBILEARTGO.COM FACEBOOK.COM/MOBILEARTGO

ArtGO! is a visual reference map to a walkable public art gallery in downtown Mobile. The self-guided walking trail provides education and entertainment to residents and visitors. Price: Free.

MOBILE SCAVENGER HUNT: PARADE THROUGH MOBILE LETSROAM.COM

America’s Mardi Gras tradition all began in our beautiful Alabama city. On this fun-filled Mobile trek, explore the city’s iconic buildings, great green spaces and Mardi Gras attractions. You can do this interactive, app-led adventure at any time. No tour guide or reservation required. Price: $11.

OPERATION CITY QUEST OPERATIONCITYQUEST.COM/LOCATIONS/ MOBILE-AL

Operation City Quest is a scavenger hunt using your smartphone. You’ll be given nearly 140 objects to find. Once you’ve found the object, send a photo in to score points. Along the way, you will perform challenges and answer trivia questions for even more points. Price: $10 and up.

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 69

THE GULF COAST EXPLOREUM exploreum.com

THROUGH SEPTEMBER 7

ALABAMA DEEP SEA FISHING RODEO PHOTO BY TODD DOUGLAS

DINOSAURS AROUND THE WORLD Learn about the ways volcanic activity, plate techtonics and land bridges affected how the dinosaurs roamed the globe.

JULY 16 - 19

JULY 30 - AUGUST 2

ALABAMA DEEP SEA FISHING RODEO The 87th Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo is a 3-day Captain’s Choice tournament and a Southern Kingfish Association (SKA) sanctioned event. The total awards package is valued at up to one million dollars in cash and prizes.

ALABAMA FARM AND LAND EXPO Times vary per session. Farm tours, speakers and trade shows are features of this year’s conference. Attendees can purchase a la carte tickets for events.

DAUPHIN ISLAND ADSFR.COM

ABBA SHRINE AUDITORIUM, HITT ROAD ABBASHRINERS.COM

JULY 25

historymuseumofmobile.com

THROUGH OCTOBER 1 HISTORY OF MOBILE IN 22 OBJECTS The 300-year history of the Port City is represented in this collection of 22 objects.

MOBILE CARNIVAL MUSEUM mobilecarnivalmuseum.com

THROUGH JULY 4 RIGHT OFF THE ROYAL RUNWAY: CARNIVAL AND COUTURE View the chic and one-of-a-kind couture from Mardi Gras of the past.

RENAISSANCE RIVERVIEW PLAZA HOTEL FARMANDLANDEXPO.ORG

* Check event websites for most current status.

JULY 18 - 19 ABBA SHRINE CRAFT & ATTIC SHOW 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sa. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Su. Over 100 vendors displaying and selling arts, crafts, antiques and much more.

HISTORY MUSEUM OF MOBILE

MOBILE MUSEUM OF ART mobilemuseumofart.com

THROUGH JULY 5

RESCHEDULED EVENTS WEDDINGS TO BRAG ABOUT NOW NOVEMBER 1

SOUTHERN MASTERS II: MARION “PINKY” BASS, RUTH MILLER AND MIRIAM N. OMURA Explore how these three female Southern artists have mastered their mediums.

THROUGH SEPTEMBER 6

GEORGE LOPEZ 8 p.m. George Lopez’s multifaceted career encompasses television, film, standup comedy and late-night television.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY BOUTIQUE BASH

AN ART HISTORIAN COLLECTS: THE DAVID E. BRAUER COLLECTION View the collection of art historian David E. Brauer.

NOW DECEMBER 5 - 6

SAENGER THEATRE MOBILESAENGER.COM

THE GROUNDS WHATEVERMINISTRY.COM/CHRISTMAS-INJULY

THROUGH DECEMBER

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WEDDINGSTOBRAGABOUT.COM

FOR CHILDREN 2020 This immersive exhibit has several hands-on features designed by local artists.

FOUNDER’S DAY AT BELLINGRATH

[AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS]

AUGUST 1 CARIBBEAN DAY Sway to the sounds of the steel drums, compete for the coolest Hawaiian T-shirt and more at this free event.

OWA • VISITOWA.COM

AUGUST 1 COMMEMORATION OF THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. The historic battle at Fort Morgan comes to life via reenactors.

FORT MORGAN FORT-MORGAN.ORG

AUGUST 6 FOUNDER’S DAY, MR. BELLINGRATH’S BIRTHDAY In honor of Mr. Bellingrath, admission to the gardens and home is free to Mobile and Baldwin County residents.

BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOME BELLINGRATH.ORG

AUGUST 8 “DAMN THE TORPEDOES” PADDLEBOARD RACE Races will include 200-meter sprints, 1.5 miles and 3 miles.

FAIRHOPE PADDLEGURU.COM/RACES/DAMNTHETORPEDOES

AUGUST 9 DARCI LYNNE FARMER NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” winner, 15-year-old singer/ventriloquist, Darci Lynne, impresses audiences with her sweetheart disposition and show-stopping talent beyond her years.

SAENGER THEATRE MOBILESAENGER.COM

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 71

HISTORY | ARCHIVES

The Siege of Mobile, 1780 Spanish and British forces clash at Mobile in a Revolutionary-era battle for the Bay. text by JOHN SLEDGE

the British. He gave and accepted American help at every opportunity. War declared, he acted quickly and moved a small force upriver, seizing the British Mississippi River posts in a nearly bloodless campaign.

Mobile was next, and there were good strategic reasons for attacking it. To begin with, it was next closest and would provide an important base from which to hit the better fortified Pensacola. Should a Pensacola attack go badly, Mobile represented a strong fallback position. Perhaps more importantly, Mobile’s abundant cattle could feed an army, and Gálvez preferred it be his force rather than the enemy’s. Taking Mobile would also cut off the British from their Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian allies. And lastly, the local French residents were thought to be more sympathetic to rule by fellow Catholics rather than money-grubbing Anglo-Saxon Protestants.

Don Bernardo de Gálvez leads Spanish troops at the Siege of Pensacola, 1781.

PAINTING BY AUGUSTO FERRER-DALMAU

T

he Valenzuela fired the first shots on February 26, 1780. She was perfectly positioned to do so, anchored in Mobile Bay, barely two miles from Fort Charlotte. She looked like she came out of a Renaissance painting rather than the 18th-century Gulf of Mexico — a shallow-draft, lateen-rigged vessel with a sharp prow, oar banks and a single 24-pounder cannon that periodically belched flame, acrid smoke and a heavy iron ball. Yet there she was, larger than life and banging away. The American Revolution had arrived.

When the Thirteen Colonies rebelled against King George III, Mobile was part of British West Florida, an underappreciated “14th colony” that stretched between the east bank of the Mississippi River (excluding New Orleans) and the Apalachicola River. The British had several small outposts along the Mississippi and settlements with forts at Mobile and Pensacola, the capital. When Spain allied with France against Britain in 1779, these immediately became attractive targets to Spanish Louisiana’s young and aggressive governor, Don Bernardo de Gálvez. Even though his sovereign did not officially recognize the infant United States, the shrewd Gálvez understood their common interest, namely defeating

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Battery on Broad The die cast, Gálvez departed New Orleans on January 14 with a dozen small vessels and some 800 men, a mix of Spanish regulars, militia, free and enslaved blacks and a few Americans. But just getting to Mobile proved vexatious. Contrary weather scattered the fleet, and at the mouth of Mobile Bay, churning waves and strong currents grounded six ships on sandbars. Ignoring naysayers who urged he cancel the attack, Gálvez put his men ashore on Mobile Point, lightened the grounded ships and succeeded in refloating three of them.

During the following days, the Spanish moved further up the Bay, even as five ships arrived from Havana with hundreds more

Spanish Louisiana’s Governor Don Bernardo de Gálvez, 1785. PAINTING BY JOSÉ GERMÁN ALFARO

troops. Gálvez remained constantly visible, inspiring his men and urging them forward.

By late February he had established a camp on Dog River and sent the Valenzuela to harass the British. By month’s end he had a battery under construction within 2,000 yards of Fort Charlotte (roughly where Broad Street is today). It was time to parley.

On March 1, Gálvez sent forth a young officer with a note addressed to Capt. Elias Durnford, commanding at Fort Charlotte.

As Durnford watched the officer approach under a flag of truce, he could not have felt confident about his chances. He was competent enough, 40 years old, trained as an engineer and served as the colony’s assistant governor. But his fort was in poor condition, “in a sorry state,” as he himself described, and he had fewer than 300 men to defend it. These included regulars from the 60th Regiment of Foot and local militia and

july 2020 | mobilebaymag.com 73

slaves, plus several dozen civilian volunteers, the latter of doubtful worth. By way of preparation, he had done little more than burn the surrounding houses to clear fields of fire and repositioned his cannon.

Gálvez’s emissary cordially greeted Durnford, and the two retired to the latter’s quarters where they dined and toasted each other’s sovereigns. Gálvez’s missive informed Durnford of the disparity between their forces, pointing out the wisdom of a British surrender. If Durnford chose to fight, he darkly stated that the British faced “all the extremities of war.” While the emissary waited, Durnford penned a polite but firm reply. “The difference of numbers I am convinced are greatly in your favor, Sir, but mine are much beyond your Excellency’s conception, and was I to give up this Fort on your demand, I should be regarded as a traitor to my king and country. My love for both and my own honor direct my heart to refuse surrendering this Fort until I am under conviction that resistance is in vain.” Durnford’s answer in hand, the Spanish officer bid him farewell.

Battle it would be.

Bad Weather — Surprise!

During the following week, the Spanish kept advancing their zigzag trenches toward the fort, moving heavy siege cannon into place and sniping at the beleaguered defenders. Meanwhile, a British relief force was en route from Pensacola, but bad weather and muddy roads prevented its timely arrival. At last, at 10 a.m. on March 12, Gálvez ordered his batteries to fire.

The British guns replied, and all day the balls flew back and forth. Just as Gálvez had predicted, the contest was an unequal one. The fort’s weak walls were blasted open in two places, and several British guns dismounted. Despite the racket and destruction, only one defender was killed and several wounded. But the British were out of ammunition, and at sunset a white flag fluttered from Charlotte’s ramparts.

After a brief negotiation, Gálvez allowed Durnford’s troops to march out

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Spanish grenadiers and militia as depicted during Spain’s Gulf Coast campaign. PAINTING BY HUGH CHARLES MCBARRON JR.

of the fort’s breaches with flags flying and drums beating. The men stacked muskets outside, but the officers were allowed to keep their swords. Durnford proudly reported that, “No man in the garrison stained the luster of the British arms.”

Gálvez proved to be a gracious conqueror. He agreed to transport the British soldiers to a friendly port, provided they promised not to take up arms against Spain for 18 months and was solicitous toward Durnford’s wife and their newborn child.

As for his own men: “I thanked them on behalf of the king for their resolution in facing all of the hardships we endured, and for the zeal, courage and determination that they displayed to achieve success.” Thanks aside, he offered them a third of the value of everything taken at the fort and doled out promotions.

It was a stunning success, hailed on both sides of the Atlantic. In Paris, John Adams heard the news and exulted, “The English are on the losing hand.” Mobile was in Spanish possession, and American hearts were immeasurably cheered. MB John S. Sledge is the author of “The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime History.”

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THE ARTS | LITERATURE

Eat a Peach As far as writer Audrey Atkins McDonald is concerned, there’s only one way to eat a peach.

excerpt from the book THEY CALL ME OR ANGE JUICE by AUDREY MCDONALD ATKINS

B

“

aby, eat that peach over the sink! Don’t get that juice on the floor!”

That’s what Sarah would say to me in the summertime when the peaches were ripe and warm, their skins almost bursting with sweet, sticky juice. And she’d pull a chair over in front of the kitchen sink and stand me up on it. Then I could lean over, and eat the ripe fruit while the juice ran down my face and arms.

That’s the way God intended us to eat peaches — with reckless abandon over a sink, juice running in rivulets down our chins, down our arms.

Granny had a huge farmhouse sink in her kitchen. The kind with the built-in drain board, cast iron with white enamel. There was a window over it.

The window looked out over a red brick patio with a big barbecue built on one side. Stone chimney. Rebar set in cement. Big enough for a whole goat. Gladiolus bloomed around the edges. A Lady Banks rose engulfed one corner.

Beyond the patio was a quince tree. And the clotheslines where the sheets would wave on the summer breeze. And a martin house. Beyond that was the horse pasture.

There was a shed where we raised biddies in an incubator.

Where the tiller was. Where the spiders lived. By the shed

was a scuppernong arbor.

All this could be seen from the window. All this could be seen by a little girl eating a peach over the kitchen sink. All this could be seen while the juice ran down my face and arms onto the white enamel.

Last Saturday, I smelled them before I even got close to the produce truck — peaches at the farmers market. Chilton County peaches. They were beautiful. Bright yellow bleeding into burgundy velvet. They were warm from the morning sun.

I bought a whole basket. You know I did.

As soon as I got home, I fished out a promising looking one — not too green, not too mushy — and stood over my kitchen sink to eat it, my stainless steel kitchen sink with a modern, gray glass backsplash. It doesn’t have a built-in drain board. I don’t have a window.

But as soon as I took the first bite of that peach, the very second the juice started tickling the underside of my arm on its way to my elbow, I was again looking at the red brick patio with the big barbecue built on one side. I could see the red and yellow gladiolus. The Lady Banks rose is blooming yellow in the corner. There’s the quince tree, and the clothesline (Don’t let the sheets touch the ground!), and the horses in the pasture. The martins are circling their house. Did we check on the biddies? I’m afraid of the spiders.

Maybe I’ll climb up on top of the arbor this afternoon.

Yes, that’s the way God intended us to eat a peach. 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 audreyatkinswriter.com.

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HISTORY | ARCHIVES

Life Before Air-Conditioning As summer hits its stride in Mobile, we can’t help but wonder: How did Bay residents ever survive without air-conditioning? text by TOM MCGEHEE

CATCH A BAY BREEZE

SLEEP OUT ON THE PORCH

Whether strolling at Monroe Park on the western side or gathering on a Point Clear wharf, area residents flocked to the Bay looking for a breeze long before Mr. Carrier and his air-conditioner arrived.

Notice the clothing on this assembled crew — that summer staple white cotton.

Gulf houses in the early 20th century were routinely built with screened sanctuaries for occupants to sleep during the summer months. Here is a view of the second-floor sleeping porch once enjoyed by members of the Mobile Business Women’s Club on Mobile Bay. The women who spent the night on those crisp cotton sheets could enjoy the cooler night air and the sound of water lapping in the Bay beyond. Airconditioning seemed to make such spaces unnecessary, and this porch, like countless others, has been infilled for other uses.

Harry Hardy Smith Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama.

Erik Overbey Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama.

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PICNIC IN A LAKE

SLIP-COVER IT

Mobile has lakes, as well as its Bay, for picnickers to enjoy. Here, Murphy High School seniors take to cool waters to enjoy a floating picnic, circa 1928.

The “tables” are set with china and what appear to be Coca-Cola glasses filled with America’s favorite summertime beverage at the time. The paper hats offered comical protection from the relentless sun.

Summertime once brought a curious change inside homes. Turkish wool rugs were rolled up with mothballs, exposing gleaming hardwood floors, while heavier winter drapes and valances were replaced with white organdy or floral print curtains. The velvet and damask covered furniture was annually enveloped in heavy white cotton slipcovers. In these photographs of the entrance hall of the J. F. McGowin home at 1151 Government St., the effect appears a little ghostly, but on steamy days the miles of white cotton must have given an illusion of coolness.

History Museum of Mobile Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama.

William E. Wilson Collection, Historic Mobile Preservation Society

The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama.

SIT ON THE FRONT PORCH

Houses were built with deep porches so owners could enjoy the space in rain or shine. Here, the Erik Overbey family is enjoying theirs at 1102 Selma Street in what is now known as Mobile’s Oakleigh Garden District. Light colored clothing, linen suits and the gentleman’s white bucks confirm that this is a summer scene.

VISIT THE ICE HOUSE

In 1930, Mobile had a total of 20 listings for ice dealers in the city directory. Here, boys gather at Oakdale Ice and Fuel Company, which was located at 900 South Broad St. Taking turns sitting on that block of ice must have offered brief relief on a sweltering day. The growing popularity of electric refrigerators led to the demise of most icehouses.

Erik Overbey Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama.

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END PIECE | IN LIVING COLOR

Dauphin Street, 1916 Photo courtesy History Museum of Mobile, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama • Colorization by Dynamichrome Limited

Onlookers wander the waterlogged sidewalks of Dauphin Street, between Water and Royal streets, surveying damage left in the wake of a Category 3 hurricane. The storm — simply known as the Hurricane of 1916, as names weren’t assigned to storms until 1950 — produced the city’s highest-ever storm surge, an astonishing 11.6 feet.

The hurricane struck near Pascagoula, Mississippi, on July 5, packing winds of 121 miles per hour. “In the late afternoon, the wind veered to the south, blowing the water out of the bay up into the city,” reads an excerpt from the 1940 book,“Highlights of 75 Years in Mobile.” It continues, “At 7 o’clock, the water was running two feet deep across Royal Street. A few minutes later it was a foot deep across St. Joseph Street …

Meanwhile, a heavy rainfall added to the water damage, as scores of structures were unroofed.”

Do you have photos or stories of the Hurricane of 1916? Let us know!

Email ahartin@pmtpublishing.com.

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84 mobilebaymag.com | july 2020