Homewood Life, July/August 2020

THE REDMONT DISTILLING TEAM • CAROLYN COKER’S PLEIN AIR ART • MAYBERRY: QUARANTINE EDITION

a girl with

GRIT

HOW GHAN AL SHARQI BEAT THE ODDS

HOMEWOOD’S BEST WINNERS THE RESULTS ARE IN

JULY/AUGUST 2020 HomewoodLife.com Volume Four | Issue Four $4.95

HomewoodLife.com 1

IN AN EMERGENCY,

A COMMUNITY BUILT ON RESPONSIVENESS In an emergency, you have the power to choose where to receive expert care. Insist on going to Brookwood Baptist Medical Center. As your community of care, take comfort in knowing we’ll always be here when you need it the most.

For more information, visit BrookwoodBaptistMedicalCenter.com For life-threatening emergencies, call 9-1-1

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“ TAKE ME TO BROOKWOOD BAPTIST.”

A PL AL IC ED

DR ZA

BROOKWOOD BAPTIST MEDICAL CENTER: EMERGENCY ROOM

O WO OK BRO

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DR ER NT CE AL C I ED

Brookwood Baptist Medical Center 2010 Brookwood Medical Center Dr. Birmingham, AL 35209 PENDENCE CT INDE

FEATURES

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LIFE ON THE ROCKS With a pandemic comes layer and layer of uncertainty. Here are some of our neighbors’ stories of struggle, hope and giving back amidst it all.

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WELCOME TO MAYBERRY Homewood, widely referred to as an incarnation of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry, became even more Mayberry-like during the coronavirus pandemic.

HOMEWOOD’S BEST WINNERS 2020 You voted. We tallied. See just who Homewood’s favorites are.

4 July/August 2020

PHOTO BY LINDSEY CULVER

48

42

37

PHOTO BY LUCY BAIRD

arts & culture

11 In the Open Air: Carolyn Coker’s Landscapes 16 In Style: A Splash of Summer Green 18 Read This Book: Black Voices with Alabama Ties

schools & sports

19 A Girl with Grit: How Ghan Al Sharqi Took on a Challenge 24 2020 Graduation: Celebrating Homewood High School Seniors 28 Five Questions For: Edgewood Teacher Laura Mitchell

food

& drink

in every issue 4 Contributors 5 From the Editor 6 The Question 7 The Guide 56 Chamber Connections 58 Out & About 62 Marketplace 64 My Homewood

29 The Story of a Still: The Team Behind Redmont Distilling 36 Five Questions For: Maple Street Biscuit Company

HomewoodLife.com 5

contributors EDITORIAL

Stephen Dawkins Alec Etheredge Madoline Markham Keith McCoy Scott Mims Emily Sparacino

CONTRIBUTORS

Lucy Baird Lindsey Culver Meredith Elder Mary Michael Kelley Patrick McGough Melanie Peeples Elizabeth Sturgeon Lauren Ustad

DESIGN

Jamie Dawkins Kate Sullivan Green Connor Martin-Lively

MARKETING

Darniqua Bowen Kristy Brown Kari George Caroline Hairston Rachel Henderson Rhett McCreight Viridiana Romero Lisa Shapiro Kerrie Thompson

ADMINISTRATION Hailey Dolbare Mary Jo Eskridge Daniel Holmes Stacey Meadows Tim Prince

Mary Michael Kelley, Writer

Mary Michael, M.Ed., MPA, is a writer, mom of a 10-year-old boy, Thomas, and two incredible angel kiddos, Kathryn and Micah. She and Thomas live in West Homewood. Mary Michael is also the founder of the Mother’s Milk Bank of Alabama, which was a project of love that was born after Kathryn’s death. She works full-time at UAB School of Medicine, managing the UAB DETCT Program, a project aiming to expand testing for HIV and Hepatitis C among the most at-risk members of the community. She writes in her spare time on her blog, lifewithghosts.com, and on various lifestyle/family blogs and was also a featured speaker for 2019 TedX Birmingham.

Patrick McGough, Photographer

Patrick has had a passion for photography from when he bought his first cardboard box camera in a flea market at the age of 12. That passion has taken him all over the South and abroad on many assignments and projects. Every shoot creates an opportunity to meet new people and to explore ideas and locations. Whether shooting businesses, families or individuals, he strives to capture the most fun, genuine and unique images for his clients.

Melanie Peeples, Writer

When Melanie Peeples first moved to Homewood 12 years ago, she couldn’t figure out why so many people were wearing shirts that said “Homewood” on them. Three years later she wanted to know where she could find one, having fallen deeply in love with the town people compare to living in a Norman Rockwell painting. Before becoming a mostly fulltime mom, she covered the South for NPR, writing about everything from the trial of the country’s first school shooter to the 100th anniversary of the MoonPie. She loves travelling to new places (and old places, too) and also coming home.

Elizabeth Sturgeon, Writer

Elizabeth Sturgeon was born and raised in Birmingham and has stayed close to home ever since. You might find her searching for a thrift store gem or ordering a meal she’s never tried before. A recent Samford University graduate, Elizabeth works in Birmingham-Southern College’s communications department, writing about students, alumni and campus culture.

Homewood Life is published bimonthly by Shelby County Newspapers Inc., P.O. Box 947, Columbiana, AL 35051.

Homewood Life is a registered trademark. All contents herein are the sole property of Shelby County Newspapers Inc. [the Publisher]. No part of this periodical may be reproduced without written permission from the Publisher. Please address all correspondence (including but not limited to letters, story ideas and requests to reprint materials) to: Editor, Homewood Life, P.O. Box 947, Columbiana, AL 35051.

Homewood Life is mailed to select households throughout Homewood, and a limited number of free copies are available at local businesses. Please visit HomewoodLife.com for a list of those locations. Subscriptions are available at a rate of $16.30 for one year by visiting HomewoodLife.com or calling (205) 669-3131, ext. 532.

Advertising inquiries may be made by emailing advertise@homewoodlife.com, or by calling (205) 669-3131, ext. 536.

6 July/August 2020

from the editor

O ON THE COVER

A Girl with Grit

Ghan Al Sharqi poses in front of Homewood High School, the place she'd first entered four years ago knowing little English and left this spring speaking English fluently with plans to attend UAB Photo by Lindsey Culver Design by Kate Sullivan Green

On my first ever birthday in a quarantine, my new sister-in-law told me about her family’s tradition to share a “wisdom” they’d gained from the past year on their birthdays and asked me what mine would be. That was May 16, and at that point all I could recall from the last year was the sixth of it we’d spent in quarantine.

So I told her about the reflection that came to mind from that part of the year: “It’s good to see your mess.” I’m usually pretty calm and don’t stress out easily, but COVID-19 brought out my inner type A monster some moments and a lost-my-appetite anxiety plague others. I didn’t know what had come over me. And then with summer heat came a new set of discomfort with headlines and worldwide conversations as I wrestled through what my place is in things that aren’t right. None of that is pretty.

None of it is comfortable. But all of it is growing me for the better in ways I never would have if the tumult of 2020 had never happened.

And that’s why the stories that stand out most to me from the pages that lie ahead are those that wrestle with hard things too.

Four years ago Ghan Al Sharqi started as a freshman at Homewood High School speaking no English and hesitant of what her peers would think of her wearing a hijab. The journey ahead of her wasn’t an easy one, but she was determined to succeed. Be sure to read about just how that played out starting on page 19.

Further back in this issue, Mary Michael Kelley chronicles a few families around us whose lives were affected in grave ways by the COVID-19 quarantine, putting faces and stories behind the growing unemployment numbers in not only our country and state but also in our city. But before you get that, two of the visionaries behind Redmont Distilling Company who call Homewood home shared with us the moments where the future of their distillery was up on the air—and how its operations work now.

But don’t worry, we’ve got a good dose of our usual pretty, happy stories in this issue too, about how Homewood became all the more Mayberry like in quarantine, Homewood High School art teacher Carolyn Coker’s plein air art and winners of the votes on this year’s Homewood’s Best ballot.

Thanks for reading, and I always welcome your ideas for stories to share in our future issues, be they about sunny days or stormy ones!

madoline.markham@homewoodlife.com HomewoodLife.com 7

“ ” THE QUESTION

What’s one thing your family would NOT have done if it weren’t for the COVID-19 quarantine?

My stepson has been with us for almost a month now, and it’s been wonderful as he lives 500 miles from us.

His mom is a nurse and she felt it was safer for him to stay with us.

Been home for many of our infant son’s “firsts”

An opportunity to eat dinner with our college freshman son/Marine reservist most nights, which we really thought we wouldn’t have many more of once he left for boot camp.

We have ordered from hole in the wall eateries that we have never tried before.

Every Friday we choose a new place to try.

Each night has been a different family member’s night to prepare and cook dinner. The best part is then having all six of us sit down together and enjoy their meals.

Just stopping to smell the roses, literally and figuratively! (And plant the roses and trim the roses, maybe paint the roses, take pictures of the roses, make a jigsaw puzzle of roses...)

Sorted, counted and bagged all the change we throw into a very tall glass jar. The grand total was $149.75. We are searching the sofa and chairs for one more quarter.

Taught our girls (5&6) to ride their bikes! Someday they will tell their kids they learned to ride during the great pandemic

-Leslie Cumptan

-Andrea Herrington Sutton

-Kathy Key Pope

-Susan Cormany Angelo

8 July/August 2020

-Jenni Thibault Ezzell

-Allison Hill Dahlke

-Karen Cook Gray

-Kathryn Potts Simmelink

THE GUIDE

WEST HOMEWOOD FARMER’S MARKET TUESDAYS 160 OXMOOR ROAD 5-8 p.m.

You can still spend warm summer evenings supporting local businesses and farmers at this weekly market with special safety measures in place due to COVID-19. The number of vendors has been reduced by 50 percent, booths are spaced 10 feet apart, hand sanitizing stations are setup, and visitors are asked to wear masks as they walk around. Vendors are also required to wear masks and gloves, and no kids’ activities will be held this year and pets will not be allowed either. The market runs the first week of June through the first week of August. Learn more at westhomewood.com.

HomewoodLife.com 9

THE GUIDE JULY 4

Thunder on the Mountain

Vulcan Park & Museum 9 P.M.

The god of the forge will once again play host to everyone’s favorite fireworks display. The show will last about 20 minutes and be choreographed to a soundtrack of patriotic favorites and popular music.

JULY 25

Sidewalk Sale Downtown Homewood ALL DAY It’s well worth venturing into late July heat to catch discounts up to 75 percent off at your favorite shops on 18th Street and its neighbors. Shop inside and out on the sidewalks, and come early for the best selection.

RESTAURANTS

VIEW 1

FROM 18TH STREET SOUTH

LITTLE DONKEY / RODNEY SCOTT’S BAR-B-QUE

RIBS PLEASE Signage Studies

Restaurant Buildings Homewood, Alabama PRO #1335

February 10, 2020

Rodney Scott is bringing his barbecue to 18th Street. The restaurant, which started in South Carolina and has an Avondale location, will share a building with Little Donkey (which will move from Central Avenue) by the new Valley Hotel development between 27th Avenue and DeVinci’s in 2021. Cheers to barbecue, margaritas and good news during quarantine.

COMMUNITY

COOLER OF HOPE In quarantine Mollie Erickson’s driveway quickly became a Homewood landmark with dozens of volunteers dropping off food each morning for those in need, inspiring this “The Cooler of Hope” artwork

by Karen Marcrum. Better yet, O’Henry’s owner Blake Stevens reached out to see how he could help. As it turns out, O’Henry’s coffee bag ties could be used to for a nose pinch in face masks Mollie was making. After donating 1,000 bag ties, Blake called up the tie manufacturer TricorBraun Flex Inc., and within a few days they had donated 10,000 coffee ties to the effort. Now that’s what we call commUNITY! Side note: You can also buy notecards with this artwork through

Community on the Rise to support their work in the community and read the full story of the coffee ties on the O’Henry’s blog.

Find Upcoming Event Listings

Due to the COVID-19 quarantine that began in mid-March, many local events have been cancelled, and as of producing this magazine issue in mid-June, it was unknown when scheduled events would resume. To give our reader the most up-todate information, we will be posting events details as they are confirmed on homewoodlife.com and on our social media at @homewoodlife. Please check those places for event updates for July and August.

10 July/August 2020

THE GUIDE ARTS

COVID-19 SO SUPREME Edgewood Elementary fifth grader Anne Wesley Jones (pictured) placed third in Homewood Public Library’s poetry contest for these words she wrote in quarantine: COVID-19 so supreme It makes you wonder—is it just a bad dream?

The stores are closing and schools are too It makes you wonder— will it spread to you?

People hide in their house as quiet as a mouse In fear of the horrible COVID-19.

COVID-19 so supreme.

Everyone looks forward to the very happy day When all of this chaos will go away.

JULY 17-19

Back to School Sales Tax Holiday

Save the date to shop sales tax free for back to school clothes, supplies and more in Homewood city limits and lots of other counties and municipalities around the state. For more details on what items qualify, visit revenue.alabama.gov.

HomewoodLife.com 11

THINGS HAVE BEEN A LITTLE UPSIDE DOWN, BUT NOW IT’S TIME TO GET

MOUNTAIN BROOK’S

BEST M

OU

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12 July/August 2020

2020 WINNER

AIN

B R O OK M A G A Z I

NE

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&CULTURE

ARTS

IN THE OPEN AIR

Abstract landscapes have always been Carolyn Coker’s superpower—and now she gets to help shape the artistry of students in her neighborhood too.

BY ELIZABETH STURGEON PHOTOS BY LINDSEY CULVER AND CONTRIBUTED HomewoodLife.com 13

Carolyn Coker's arts students work in her high school classroom.

D

During a normal day of class, Carolyn Coker helps one of her AP Studio Art students staple a bed sheet to the wall. The queen-sized linen becomes the blank slate for a new piece and a much larger workspace than usual. But that’s what Carolyn sees her students do as they find their style and direct their own work—they take on challenges and, sometimes, go big.

“I get to watch magic happen,” Carolyn says.

“The pieces they make reflect everything that’s happened to them up until that moment. It’s cool when kids feel safe to explore that.” As her Homewood High School students master basic technique, they also invest meaning and soul into each project.

Carolyn has a rich teaching experience in

14 July/August 2020

schools around the Birmingham metro area, including positions in the art departments at Hoover High School, Spain Park High School and Berry Middle School. When the position in Homewood opened up for the 2018-2019 school year, she saw the perfect opportunity to be closer to her children, Sid, who will be a junior at the high school, and Harper, who will be in fifth grade at Edgewood Elementary.

She teaches introductory and upper-level art, digital photography and AP studio courses and meets a wide range of skills and interests. “Being the art teacher, I get to know them and spend time talking to them. I find out what they’re good at,” she says. Whether through the projects themselves, class-wide critiques, or the other creative

“When you make a piece of art, everybody sees it. You have to feel safe to be able to put yourself out there.”

-Carolyn Coker components of each class, she sees students discover the spark that sets them apart from everyone else.

Throughout her life, Carolyn has always remembered enjoying art, starting with her collection of pencils when she was a kid, and that passion became her constant. “I went to six or seven schools before I graduated high school. The thing I always felt good about is my superpower, what I could do a little bit different, and that was my art,” she says. During her graduate school courses at the University of Montevallo, Carolyn concentrated on painting and developed her personal style.

In her landscape pieces, skylines are hazy, soft, sometimes runny. “I love being on location, studying the nuances, the shades of green and the way light hits,” Carolyn says about her plein air work. “Then, when I take pieces into my studio, the subjects become more abstract.” She has a love for being outside, which she’s been reminded of daily over the last few months as she and her husband, Robert, walk miles around the neighborhood during safer-at-home measures.

Carolyn also paints figures and portraits, for which she’ll sometimes trade acrylic or oil paint for pastel. She hasn’t done quite as many shows recently, devoting her time to her family and classes (and even converting her old studio space into a bedroom for her two stepsons, Walt and William.) But, her passion still thrives in the classroom.

Through working with The Memory Project, her students HomewoodLife.com 15

PLEIN AIR WORK Plein air painting takes an artist outside of the studio and into the landscape. In “open air,” artists develop early sketches or a piece in its entirety while right in front of the subject. The impressionistic, hazy effect comes naturally with this style. Carolyn has done work with both the Alabama Plein Air Artists and the Emerald Coast Plein Air Painters, whom she’ll join when she’s ever vacationing on 30A. get to explore the power of portraiture. The organization allows them to complete portraits of and for children around the world in orphanages who have very little personal belongings. The opportunity becomes many students’ favorite project because they get to reach beyond the classroom and use art as a language.

For any artist, but particularly young, student artists who are still figuring out who they are, producing work takes a lot of confidence that Carolyn admires. “When you make a piece of art, everybody sees it. You have to feel safe to be able to put yourself out there. I’m hopeful that my students feel that when they’re in my classroom.

You have to be brave.”

Last May, a handful of Carolyn’s students contributed pieces to an auction for Impact Family Counseling and their Kalopsi(ART) event, and the

pieces depicted what good mental health looks like. Students had the chance to explore the emotions and complexities associated with mental health and, then, shared that with their community—one that Carolyn finds constantly supportive of the arts.

This year, she will finish her term serving on the Homewood Arts Council, a city organization that helps encourage creativity and a diverse range of arts experiences throughout Homewood. And her tie to the area goes beyond that. Although she’s only taught at the high school for two years, Carolyn has been a part of the community for much longer.

She first moved to Homewood in 2001 and has stayed ever since. “I love the community feel, the sidewalks and the aesthetic. The architecture, the shopping downtown, the food—there’s a little bit

I strive to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.

Animal Hospital, Veterinary Care, Boarding & Grooming 2810 19th Place South, Homewood, AL 35209 StandiferAnimalClinic.com 16 July/August 2020

Carolyn holds some of her own artwork at her home not too far from Homewood High School.

of everything here.” At the high school, she can be even closer to all those things. Carolyn even had the chance to lead a Christmas painting workshop for Harper’s class at Edgewood since it’s just a few minutes away.

“I have loved having students I’ve known since kindergarten.

They’ve been at my house, I’ve gone to their swim meets, I’ve been at their games. I’ve seen them grow.”

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considered objects for an artful life.

HomewoodLife.com 17

IN STYLE

a splash of

SUMMER GREEN

BY MEREDITH ELDER PHOTOS BY LAUREN USTAD

LOOK 1

Meredith Elder is a local content creator sharing her west coast flare on southern style as a freelance stylist and social media specialist.

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Invite a fresh take on your favorite tank with a fun fray detail.

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This top that can be worn in so many ways.

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3. AGOLDIE PARKER VINTAGE CUT OFF SHORTS Distressed denim shorts are a staple, no doubt.

Soca | $128

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4. CREVO FOOTWEAR – SAFFRON BLUE SANDAL Keep it cool all summer long with these slip-on sandals.

Shoefly | $69

5. ABLE FOZI BACKPACK This backpack is functional as it is fashionable.

Shoefly | $218

18 July/August 2020

4 1. OLIVIA HIGH NECK TANK A seamless tank that is an essential yet elevated basic.

Fab'rik | $19

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LOOK 2

2. NAKED ZEBRA CLAIRE MINI SKIRT This flirty skirt can easily transition from a long day at the office to a night out on the town.

Fab'rik | $54

3. JESSICA SIMPSON ASHTYN HEEL This natural heel that goes with everything and never goes out of style.

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2. “DREAM” MESSAGE BRACELET Fab'rik | $12 each

3. CHAIN LINK BRACELET Fab'rik | $16

HomewoodLife.com 19

ARTS & CULTURE

READ THIS BOOK

Black Voices with Alabama Ties Recommendations from

Our Editorial Staff

As protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis took place at the start of the summer, books about race relations and the black experience in America started to sell out at local bookstores and national online retailers alike. Likewise, librarians and bookstore owners in our community are great resources for recommending reads that speak to these topics. As one more starting point in those conversations, here’s a list of titles by black authors (and one illustrator), all set in our state. Each comes recommended by our editorial staff, who have found that words and pictures that take place closer to the place you call home have all the more power to shape how you see the world around you and respond accordingly.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

By Bryan Stevenson There’s a reason Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times said Stevenson “may, indeed, be America’s Mandela.”

In his book, Stevenson recounts his years as a young lawyer founding Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative to defend the wrongly condemned in the farthest reaches of the criminal justice system—many of them on Alabama’s death row—and how it transformed his understanding of mercy and justice. There’s also a young adult version available and a 2019 film by the same title.

Homegoing

By Yaa Gyasi This novel follows the parallel paths of two sisters from Ghana in the eighteenth century and their descendants through eight generations, illuminating how oppression spills through from generation to generation and creates systemic problems. Latter chapters take us to a cotton plantation in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, among other settings, not far from where Gyasi, a Ghana native, was raised in Huntsville.

Barracoon

By Zora Neale Hurston We have a new mural across from the Pizitz Food Hall to thank for introducing us to Cudjo Lewis. Back in 1931, Zora Neale Hurston interviewed him in Plateau, Alabama, a community 3 miles from Mobile that he and other former slaves had founded. At the time, the 89-year-old was the only living person who had been transported from Africa to America as a slave. In this volume, Hurston, an Alabama native herself best known for writing Their Eyes Were Watching God, captures his story and the tragedy of slavery.

Let the Children March

By Monica Clark-Robinson & Frank Morrison “I couldn’t play on the same playground as the white kids. I couldn’t go to their schools. I couldn’t drink from their water fountains. There were so many things I couldn’t do.” So begins this children’s book account of the thousands of African American children who marched in Birmingham for their civil rights after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak in 1963. Frank Morrison’s emotive oil-on-canvas paintings that are paired with Clark-Robinson’s poetic words earned this book a Coretta Scott King Honor Award for Illustration in 2019.

Gone Crazy in Alabama

By Rita Williams-Garcia In this book for middle grades, Delphine, Vonetta and Fern travel to Alabama one summer in the 1960s to visit their grandmother, Big Ma, and her mother, Ma Charles, and uncover family history and bonds along the way.

This is the third book in a trilogy, so be sure to start with the first, One Crazy Summer, to see how these sisters visit kin all over the nation and discover their own strength along the way.

20 July/August 2020

SCHOOL

&SPORTS

A GIRL WITH GRIT Ghan Al Sharqi might not have spoken English when she started at Homewood High School, but that wasn’t going to hold her back.

BY MADOLINE MARKHAM PHOTOS BY LINDSEY CULVER HomewoodLife.com 21

Ghan Al Sharqi, center, with her younger siblings Ahmed and Gmahir OPPOSITE: Ghan holds photos from her early childhood in Yemen.

“(Ghan) just enjoys life.

(I always notice) her curiosity and her openness to hearing other viewpoints than her own.

There are aspects of her culture that are pretty different than aspects of American culture, but with love, joy and curiosity, she is able to navigate that and make others around her reflect back that love joy and curiosity. “ -Jennifer Harvey 22 July/August 2020

I

If you know Ghan Al Sharqi, you know her smile. It spread across her face with brightness as she shyly entered Homewood High School four years ago speaking no English, and it was all the more present when she received her diploma there in May. “The first thing I remember (about Ghan) was her wanting so badly to communicate with me,” school counselor Elaine Meeks recalls. “She wanted to say hello and give me a proper greeting. We were in a position to welcome her, but she was welcoming us into her life. In a very graceful way she made you want to get to know her better.“ Ghan (pronounced “Gee-han”) was born in Yemen and lived there until 2016—January 6, 2016 to be exact, she’ll tell you—when her family immigrated to the U.S. through the American embassy in Algeria since the one in Yemen was closed due to civil war. For the first six months they

lived in New York before coming to Alabama and finding it “quiet and chill and easy,” Ghan recalls.

When her family started looking at moving there, one of her dad’s friends recommended a community to live in. “If you are living in Alabama, you have to go live in Homewood because they have the best schools,” Ghan remembers him saying.

That fall Ghan entered the ninth grade at Homewood High School speaking no English. The average length for developing language proficiency in a school setting is five to seven years—not to mention the academic rigors that come in high school. But that wouldn’t be true for Ghan.

She was persistent. She had grit. And she fought tooth and nail to learn and advocate for herself.

She’d often stay up until midnight studying, and even when she wasn’t doing school work she was studying TV shows like Prison Break, Just Add Water and Wonder Woman to see how people HomewoodLife.com 23

Ghan is especially proud of being nominated for Miss Homewood her senior year.

communicate.

When she looked around her at HHS, Ghan only saw a few Arabic-speaking students in each grade.

Initially she was afraid that because she wore a hijab that no one would talk to her. But Ghan found the more she spoke English, the more students would say hi to her and ask about her day, and the more she interacted with her peers, the more motivated she was to improve her English. Day by day, her confidence grew not only in her new language but also in herself.

And it paid off. After just two years at Homewood High School, Ghan was at 85 percent proficiency in English and headed into her junior year without enrolling in English language support classes. She even signed up for a French class taught in English.

And her teachers certainly took note. “Her life was never an excuse for her,” says math and ACT prep teacher Holly Drake. “She was determined to learn the language and make the best of every

opportunity.”

In the beginning, Ghan might not have known her teachers’ native tongue, but they spoke another language she knew. “Not only were they teaching me, but they also put a smile on their face and chatted with me (about my life) to improve my English,” she says. And each of them told her how they noticed her smile—a trait Ghan had never picked up on herself.

English class was always difficult for her with the language barrier, but math and physics came more easily and ultimately sparked her interest in studying dentistry—yet another way to let smiles shine.

By her senior year, Ghan had seen the school had a French club, a Spanish Club, a Latin Club—but no Arabic Club. So she founded one as an avenue to share her language and culture with her peers. At their meetings she taught them how to write their names in Arabic, and they watched Arabic movies

205-447-3275 • cezelle@realtysouth.com

24 July/August 2020

and tried Arabic food. “I want them to know that wearing the hijab and the (other) way we do things are what we chose by ourselves, and it’s part of our culture and life, like Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter,” Ghan says. “It’s not forced from our government and our parents.”

ESL teacher Jennifer Harvey credits the high interest in the club to Ghan herself. “It has a lot to do with her engaging outgoing personality and her passion for sharing about her culture,” Harvey says. “Because she loves learning about American culture, they were interested in her culture.”

Entering her senior year in 2019 Ghan also had her sights set on going to UAB for college. But her biggest barrier was the ACT. So she practiced, she studied, she practiced and she studied. She’d work through one book of practice tests and then ask her teachers for more. She was good at math, but the word problems in a language that was still relatively new to her were a challenge. In the end, though, her final test score was below UAB’s minimum requirement. She applied anyway.

Even with her 3.9 GPA, the university turned down her application.

But the story didn’t end there. Together with Meeks and some of her teachers they started an appeal process with UAB. “I had no idea what we were doing, but we got to learn together,” Meeks admits. And now the Homewood counselors know better how to advocate for students in a situation like hers.

Without her even realizing, Ghan was paying it forward.

Ghan’s teachers wrote about the cultural bias against nonnative English speakers, but that’s not what they focused on.

Instead they touted Ghan’s academic acumen and how hard she works even when she didn’t know what the end result of her determination would be.

Ghan will never forget the day in early March the letter came in the mail revealing UAB had admitted her into their freshman class. She screamed, she yelled and she jumped around, and then she called a friend on Facetime. “It was the best thing ever!” she says. “I went and told Mrs. Meeks and she cried, and she made me cry too.”

Like all of her peers, Ghan spent extra time with her family as her senior year wrapped up in quarantine. She translates mail for her parents since they don’t speak English and encourages her two younger siblings to never give up. Her brother Ahmed, a rising senior, is involved in ROTC and plays tennis, and her sister Gmahir, a rising freshman, likes art and makeup art and has been involved with the Trendsetters, Heritage Panel and SGA. As our interview with Ghan over Facetime came to a close, she wanted to make sure this article gave credit where she saw credit was due for her successes. “I’d like to thank every teacher and staff member in Homewood and Dr. Cleveland, who always gives me a big hug and asks about Yemen. It’s the best thing ever,” she says. “And I thank my mom and dad and (older) brothers who sacrificed too so I could learn English and go to a good college. This is the dream of everyone in Yemen so they can become a successful person.”

(Still) Serving Children Safely ChildrensAL.org

It has always been our priority to ensure the safety and well-being of each child in our care — and that remains our commitment as we continue our mission during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here’s how we have redesigned our operations to keep our patients and their families as safe as possible: q All visitors are screened immediately for signs of illness and fever. q We follow Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting our facilities. q Our staff practices safe hand hygiene. q We are wearing masks for your safety.

Thank you for wearing your face covering. q All visitors to campus are required to wear masks. q Waiting rooms have been reconfigured to accommodate social distancing guidelines.

HomewoodLife.com 25

GRADUATION 2020

2020 GRADUATION Celebrating Homewood High School Seniors Photos Contributed

Dear Homewood Class of 2020, First, I would like to thank everyone who was involved in making our graduation ceremony possible while keeping the well-being of our student body and our community ahead of all else. However faint it may be, this sense of normality is something we have all been longing for, and it is greatly appreciated.

2020 has been a year that will never be forgotten: fires raged across Australia, record floods displaced thousands in Indonesia, swarms of locusts invaded much of East Africa, and now, COVID-19 affects us all. Despite these devastating tragedies in our community and communities across the world, we, as a human race, must push on and not allow these tragedies 26 July/August 2020

to define our future. Now is not the time to further divide ourselves, identifying ourselves by political parties or other arbitrary standards. Rather, now is the time to join together in solidarity for not only our personal struggles, but our shared struggles as a community. There is no doubt in my mind that Homewood High School has prepared us to do just that.

This loving community and the dedicated faculty and staff of Homewood City Schools have prepared us to make an impact on the lives of others, not out of a desire to improve our resumĂŠs, but because of care and concern for our neighbors. From the example set by the adults and teachers in our

GRADUATION 2020

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GRADUATION 2020 community, we have learned to love with compassion and empathy and to care for our neighbors through kind words or actions, and remember that every seemingly “little” action makes a difference.

We, the Class of 2020, have been a great recipient of this generosity and kindness through the overwhelming love within the Homewood community that has been showered onto us in the wake of this unexpected and abrupt end to our high school careers. As much as we would all enjoy it to remain in our little bubble, time moves relentlessly forward, and we must too. We will be beginning new lives—across the street at Samford or working on a farm halfway around the world in New Zealand or, for the majority of us, reuniting for the next four years on the last Saturday in November at the Iron Bowl. Wherever we will be in the years to come, I have hope that this special class will share that love and generosity that we have been shown with those around us.

There is much to be said for our accomplishments as a class over the past four years, as well as the accomplishments that would have been if not for our current state of affairs. But I encourage you all, as I often have to remind myself, that dwelling on what could have been is time wasted figuring out what you will do next to get you where you want to be. This virus is something we cannot change. My hope for this class is that we accept the unwavering obstacles in life while boldly changing what we have the power to change and having the insight to distinguish between the two.

John F. Kennedy once said, “Do not pray for easy lives.

Pray to be stronger men.” We are stronger. Let’s use that well.

Congratulations!

Sincerely, Kaj Knudsen HHS Student Government Association President

28 July/August 2020

SCHOOL & SPORTS

5

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR

Laura Mitchell

Edgewood Elementary Second-Grade Teacher PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

Laura Mitchell will never forget that Friday in March when, just before her students left for the weekend, she said, “Okay guys, I think we are going to be at school Monday, but we may not be.” They all quickly replied, “We don’t want to not come to school!” Little did any of them know how the next two months would look with learning from home during the COVID-19 quarantine. To get a taste of what an e-learning “classroom” looked like, we chatted with Laura just before the school year ended about the ups and downs of it all—certainly nothing like anything she’d seen in her previous eight years teaching at Edgewood.

What have been some silver lining moments in this time?

I live right by the school, so I am super close to most of my students. I have been able to attend their birthday parties, and I see them riding bikes and playing outside.

I have received flowers and artwork and notes on my porch. One of them even brought a pack of baseball cards for my What are some of the challenges of son. I am doing our typical awards on teaching this way?

Google Meet, and we are packing up all There’s more on the computer that we their stuff that was left behind that they would like, but it’s what we have to work will come pick it up next week. I might try with. There is no real-time feedback from to get my students together later this the teacher, so they could do an assignment summer if it is allowed. I never imagined it wrong versus getting corrected would be this long. immediately. Aside from everything being What do your days look like with on a technological device, the biggest What new appreciation has quarantine challenge is being physically separated teaching given you? e-learning in quarantine?

Everybody realizes how great school can Every morning I start my day meeting from my students. My favorite thing about virtually with one of my students. We meet teaching is working with children, and be—just being able to walk next door to a for about an hour and work on math or although I can see them virtually, I miss colleague’s room and ask her a question as reading, and then after that my days vary. their hugs, conversations and fun stories opposed to FaceTime her. Every teacher has to do everything because we are not Some days I meet with small groups of from their weekends. together whereas before we could help students to review concepts, and other each other and lighten the workload. days I work on planning, grading and Can you tell us about the personality of your class this year?

This class has been one of my favorites I have ever taught. They are incredibly social, competitive and fun-loving. Before quarantine we had just finished our Living Museum project where they dress up as a famous person they have researched, and it was fun seeing them shine. Earlier in the year we had Market Day where they create products and sell them to teach them basic economic principals. This year I made it my goal to eat lunch with my students at least once a week, and it was fun to get to know them on a social level and not just an academic level.

30 July/August 2020

making instructional videos. I have also done an all-girls and all-boys meets. It’s fun but chaotic. My students utilize the online learning platform Schoology to watch videos, create slideshows, write paragraphs and conduct experiments. Our goal was to do two hours and 20 minutes of school day for second graders.

&DRINK

FOOD

THE STORY OF A STILL

Little did a few friends who made vodka know what the future would hold: Redmont Distilling Co.

BY MADOLINE MARKHAM PHOTOS BY PATRICK MCGOUGH & CONTRIBUTED HomewoodLife.com 31

32 July/August 2020

Redmont distiller Jonathan Guidry

T

To the untrained eye, an enormous hand-fabricated still that sits in Avondale is just industrial equipment with copper accents. To a distiller, though, it’s where the magic happens.

One room over from the still sits a miniature version and one slightly larger—relics of the earlier days of the Redmont Distilling brand that started as a hobby back in 2014. The idea came one day when Jacob Hendon and Stephen Watts were sitting around with friends drinking gin and tonics and vodka and tonics and talking about starting a brewery, as they’d been doing since college.

That’s when it dawned on them that maybe they could make liquor instead—after all, it’s what they were drinking, and no one was doing it in Alabama at the time.

So that’s just what they did. The two of them took some classes in Colorado and travelled to distillers around the country to learn how the still works.

By 2015 they had a license, and in January 2016 the first bottles of Redmont vodka were in ABC stores around Alabama with Jonathan Guidry now a part of their team as well. But before bottles came the name.

More than anything the Redmont team wanted a moniker that marked their spirits’ roots in Birmingham.

“What better name is there than Red Mountain, which is why Birmingham is here because of its iron ore?”

Jacob says. “It almost was named Red Mountain Distilling Company, but we thought it was a lot of words to put on a sign or logo or label. Redmont was short and sweet and creates a story people can read about on the back of the label.” Their branding was red and black

from day one, but its newest label has more golds and plays up who else but Vulcan himself.

From there the brand started to grow as they encouraged their friends to ask for it at restaurants and bars around town—not just a vodka and tonic, but a Redmont and tonic—and buy it at ABC stores. Before long, Birmingham’s locally owned bars and restaurants, including Soho Social and what was Jackson’s in Homewood, were touting their local spirit alongside Alabama farm-fresh produce.

Over time a hobby had become a viable business, but just as it was picking up momentum, the building that housed their still was being sold and finding a new home for it wasn’t a quick process. For a while they weren’t sure what would become of Redmont after they had to stop production in October 2018. But in that in between time, their distributor connected them with investors who would join the Redmont team in 2019. Today Eleanor Estes is the Redmont CEO and her husband, Claude, its CFO, while Justin Watson heads up technology and Montal Morton marketing. Perhaps most notably NBA great and Leeds, Alabama native Charles Barkley is now the brand’s “head coach” and majority owner. You can even buy bottles Barkley signed at local ABC stores. Last year they also started leasing a warehouse space behind Cahaba Brewery in Avondale where they installed the still they’d long envisioned running.

Jonathan now works full-time as the Redmont distiller and Jacob is still a part of the team too. “If this is Phase 2, I can’t wait to see Phase 3,” Jacob says as he and HomewoodLife.com 33

REDMONT LEMONADE 1 cup sugar 8 1/3 cups water 16 ounces Redmont Vodka 4 lemons, juices Juniper berries and flamed rosemary sprig, for garnish *In a saucepan, combine sugar and 1/3 cup water and place over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then cook the sugar until dissolved.

Do not cook the sugar until it starts to turn color.

Remove from heat and cool. In a pitcher, combine the syrup, 8 cups water, lemon juice, vodka and ice and stir to combine. Garnish with juniper berries and a flamed rosemary sprig.

still with a copper “onion head” on top. The process starts with what’s called a distiller’s beer with around 15 percent alcohol. Redmont uses one made from 100 percent corn, which means it, and the end product, are gluten-free too. Once the distiller’s beer is placed in the pot still, steam heats it up and vaporizes the alcohol from the “beer,” up into the onion head and then over to a six-plate refraction column. In each

Jonathan talk about eventual plans for a tasting area with a window in to see the still. As of this spring, they had licensing in states outside Alabama and were to introduce Redmont there soon. The key to continuing to expand is that set of steel and copper we opened this article with. Let’s go back to that, with a tour and science lesson from Jonathan and Jacob.

The centerpiece of the operation is a 400-gallon pot

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34 July/August 2020

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layer of the equipment, the purest alcohol rises to the top and ultimately makes it to the end product.

Throughout the process, the distiller monitors the temperature gauge to make sure it stays between 172 degrees, the point at which alcohol evaporates, and 213 degrees, or the point at which water evaporates.

From there they add cold filtered water into the vapor to turn it back into a liquid, just enough to keep it at 80-proof and 40 percent ABV. Some companies end the process here, but Redmont takes it through another filtration system that cleans it up even more. “That’s an extra step,” Jacob explains. “We could not do it and call it vodka all day long, but it doesn’t taste good. It’s the difference in tasting Aristocrat versus Grey Goose.” And lastly, the vodka is weighed and proofed before it’s bottled up and ready to leave the warehouse.

The gin distilling process is the same as vodka except for one step. Essentially, it’s just flavored vodka, after all.

After the vapor goes through the refraction plates, what will become gin then runs through a basket of botanicals that infuse it with flavor.

The predominant botanical in any gin is juniper berry, but the Redmont team took special care to determine what other roots, berries and citrus peels they used. Back when they were still testing it out, they took about 30 botanicals, separated them out, put them in water, and

HomewoodLife.com 35

Jacob Hendon and Jonathan Guidry both call Homewood home.

tasted them separately. They picked out four they liked best and stuck with just those to simplify the flavor profile.

“It’s a simple classic gin,” Jacob says. “It doesn’t have that pine tree flavor a lot of people describe. Most people who say they hate gin will taste ours and like it, but a hard-core gin person might not like it.”

The same process with the basket can be used to infuse a flavor in vodka that’s far more subtle than infusion processes used after vodka is vodka. So far the Redmont team has experimented with dried satsuma peels, and there are endless other options they could try.

But for their primary vodka product the name of the game is no flavor. “We experimented until we got the flavor profile we wanted, which is completely neutral,” Jacob explains. “A lot of companies want their own flavor, but we wanted almost nothing. It makes it that much easier to drink.” To get there originally, they tried a wheat base, a straight sugar base, a wheat and sugar mixture, and a potato base. Potato makes a good vodka, they found, but the process is much messier. Ultimately corn won, especially since it’s an easy product to source in the South.

Today, Jonathan can make about 200 cases of vodka a week start to finish, but they have the space to expand too. “It’s primed and ready to go for bigger and better, but as is it meets demand,” Jacob says.

These days when they aren’t crafting vodka, you might just find Jacob with a vodka tonic with lime, and Jonathan with gin and tonic—unlike 2014, when he didn’t like gin. He’s among the many gin converts the Redmont flavor profile can claim. Coincidentally, they now live less than a mile and a half away from each other in the Murray Hill area of Homewood and both have kids who attend Hall-Kent Elementary. But no matter where they live, it will always be the story behind the still that most binds their ties.

36 July/August 2020

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FOOD & DRINK

5

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR

Troy Harrington Maple Street Biscuit Company Community Manager PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

Holler & Dash might have closed on 18th Street, but biscuits weren’t gone for long before Maple Street Biscuit Company opened in its place in late May. So there’s no need to fear if you were missing fried chicken and goat cheese atop a flaky biscuit! You can stop by for one Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. If you stop by on the weekend, they close at 3 p.m. on Saturdays and are open 8 a.m.- 1 p.m. on Sundays. To learn more about Maple Street’s mission and, of course, menu, we chatted with its Community Manager Troy Harrington as opening day approached.

First of all, can you tell us a little bit about how Maple Street Biscuit Company got started?

Gus Evans and Scott Moore were friends and church members from Jacksonville who came together and came up with a whacky idea to start a biscuit place. They had locals come to their homes to try the recipes. Their community picked items for the menu and the name. Scott started working on a list of names he thought would work for the restaurant, and his neighbors suggested that the name have “maple” in the title since a lot of the recipes have maple flavoring.

So, let’s talk food. Tell us about the menu!

It’s comfort food with a twist. Everything is centered around the biscuit. We use artisan flour, pure butter instead of lard and a touch of maple syrup to make them.

My favorite item on the menu has to be The Squawking Goat. It’s a flaky biscuit with a hormone-free fried chicken breast covered with goat cheese and pepper jelly.

It has even been featured on Food Network!

Another great item is The Five and Dime, 38 July/August 2020

which is a flaky biscuit with a fried chicken breast topped with pecanwood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese and our housemade sausage gravy. The Farmer has the pecanwood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese and our delicious apple butter. We make our apple butter fresh inside each restaurant. They are all crazy good.

Is there anything to order in addition to biscuits?

We have some delicious waffles and serve oatmeal and grits. We have a vegetarian bowl with a tomato-based sauce, feta, basil and two sunny side eggs as well. We have four different varieties of coffee plus espresso and lattes. Our most popular coffee is the Maple Tap, which has a nice maple flavor. We have an orange juicer on our front counter that squeezes it in front of you while you wait and tea made in-house.

How did the decision come about to buy out Holler & Dash, and what are some differences between Holler & Dash and Maple Street?

We were able to form a partnership with Cracker Barrel, the parent company of

Holler & Dash. The ambiance will be different, and it follows a maple theme. We have a giant maple leaf in our lobbies and pictures of different maple assorted things.

We also have our own coffee roasting company.

How does Maple Street give back and serve the community?

We are always involved in our communities with what is needed at the time. We get here early in the morning from 6-7 a.m. and open our lobby to various civic or church groups to use it as a meeting spot and allow them to have our coffee for free before we open at 7 a.m. We love to pick up the banner of something happening in our neighborhoods. For instance, when the threat of COVID-19 became more prominent, our St. Augustine location started a grocery store for the community so that residents didn’t have to go so far to get toilet paper and other basics. During this pandemic season, we have given away hundreds of meals in the communities that we serve. We also have a program where the customers can pay for the meal of a first responder, and we will take it to them.

With a pandemic comes layer and layer of uncertainty. Here are some of our neighbors’ stories of struggle, hope and giving back amidst it all.

By Mary Michael Kelley | Photos by Lucy Baird Even in a Stars Hollow-like community, we’ve discovered something we can’t beautify in these very uncertain times—a virus. Of all the things that threaten our way of life, it’s this. Just because our city is financially sound and our businesses generally thrive here doesn’t mean we are immune.

COVID-19 is leveling the playing field—both healthwise and economically.

In February of 2020, the employment rate in Homewood was 1.8 percent, one of the lowest in the state. By March of 2020, when the pandemic

arrived, it rose to 2.2 percent. By the end of April, Homewood’s unemployment rate was a whopping 7.1 percent.

While Homewood’s rate is still lower than the national and state average (12.9 percent in April), it’s exponentially higher than the national rate just a few months ago, and the people behind these statistics are our neighbors and friends. These numbers also don’t reflect residents who endured pay cuts. Here we share a few of their stories of loss, hope and giving back during these difficult times.

A food and book giveaway at the Ingram house

Angela and her family at home during quarantine

So they decided that her husband would place himself into quarantine—bathing, sleeping and eating in a different part of the home separated While many of her neighbors were starting to from his family. He spent his days with three work from home during quarantine, Joy’s* family coworkers in close proximity, and Paul had no didn’t have that luxury. She works in a control over what his colleagues did in their time professional position while her husband, Paul, off work or how they protected themselves. works for a local municipality considered an As time went on, it became clear to the couple essential service, even though his particular job that the risk Paul took going to work wasn’t worth was non-essential. Both of them are considered it, so they requested letters from his physician high-risk for catching the virus. documenting his high risk. The doctor’s office

JOY

40 July/August 2020

explained they were not providing excuse letters at that time, so Paul had a decision to make: keep going to work for a paycheck and risk exposing his family, or stay home and use up all his leave before going unpaid.

He chose the latter in late March as the virus ramped up. In the week leading to when he thought he’d return, Joy was so stressed that she lost eight pounds. “I was so upset that I told him I was willing to lay my body down in the driveway to keep him from going if that’s what it took,” she says.

Paul discovered later that someone had shown up to his job site in mid-April with the virus. Only the three people who had the closest contact with the individual were tested. One request for his leave was denied in March, as was a second request following news of the exposure.

Joy considers herself a woman of faith and has engaged meditation practices to get through this experience. One person she follows on social media advised that when worries get out of control, to create a “God Box,” so she placed her husband’s job security in hers and let it go as best she can.

“My hope and prayer is that God will give us favor and they will understand the decision he made—how it affected not just him, but me, and

our blended family,” she says. “It’s just complicated. Being a divorcee, and having had the opportunity to find love again, I thought to myself what my life would be like if he wasn’t here, and a paycheck is one thing. But I can’t replace him. You can’t replace people. It’s especially difficult for him because men are raised to be providers, but no one should have to make a choice between their job or their life.

“We’re going to have to make some hard choices, but my choice still remains that his life is far more valuable than any paycheck.”

Paul has been home since mid-April to protect his family, and as of the writing of this article, he was unsure of his future with his employer.

ANGELA Angela and her family moved to Homewood last summer from Shelby County for the schools for their daughters. They settled into Homewood beautifully, and Angela, a nurse who had recently gotten her master’s degree to become a nurse practitioner, was getting tired of the bedside hospital night shifts. When she was offered an opportunity late last year as an nurse practitioner with a reproductive clinic with regular office

HomewoodLife.com 41

Mary Liz Ingram at the food giveaway table in her front yard

hours, she was thrilled.

Unfortunately, in mid-March, when all non-essential workers were instructed to shelter-in-place, an order came from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine to suspend treatments that limited the income generation of the clinic. As she was the newest on the team, when the clinic had no choice but to make lay-offs, she was one of the first to go.

“I was shocked,” she says. “One of the reasons I went into nursing in the first place is because it’s a recession-proof profession. But apparently it’s not pandemic-proof.”

When we spoke with her, Angela and her family were managing well all things considered, and her husband, a high school teacher, was working through e-learning students. But times have been tight. “Normally, we travel, we plan day trips with our kids, and we are able to put money towards retirement. But unfortunately, all of those things have been placed on hold,” she says. “I never in a million years imagined we would be in this situation. Never.”

As of when this article was sent off for publication, Angela had good news though: She was back to work with an outpatient clinic as a nurse practitioner.

MARY LIZ Speaking of good news, Mary Liz Ingram is no stranger to sharing with plants, meals and more with her neighbors on Montgomery Lane in West Homewood, but she began to think about it in new ways as quarantine began. At the most basic level, people need food for their families—and when life 42 July/August 2020

gets tough, the grocery bills feel even more daunting. It was at that point that she began setting up a tent with a table outside her front yard with a sign reading, “Free Food.”

Just like in The Field of Dreams, she discovered, “If you build it, they will come.” People started driving by in their cars asking, “What’s the catch? Can I really just get some food?”

Not only did the number of families stopping by each day increase, but so did the number of neighbors pitching in—with either grocery runs to stock the supply or financial donations for Mary Liz to purchase produce. “I just believe that as a town, we are in this together, and neighbors have a responsibility to share the burden with their neighbors in tough situations,” she says.

This home-grown neighborhood food outreach has grown so much that it’s now partnering with Trinity United Methodist’s Food Share project. An even cooler part of their work? They’ve received donations from individuals who have lost jobs and received help from the neighborhood farm stand.

After all, when one card falls in a house of cards, they all fall, and Homewood has a history of supporting their own. It’s initiatives like it that provide the glue to keep the house of cards intact, and during these stressful times, we need as much glue as possible.

Editor’s Note: Some names in this article have been changed to protect identities upon our neighbors’ request.

HomewoodLife.com 43

welcome to mayberry

Homewood, widely referred to as an incarnation of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry, became even more Mayberry-like during the coronavirus pandemic.

By Melanie Peeples | Photos by Lindsey Culver

44 July/August 2020

In the beginning, we went inside and closed our doors, not knowing how long we would hide. We watched the trees outside change from bare branches to bright green boughs, the brilliant blue sky beckoning us back outside through one of the most temperate springs Homewood has surely ever seen.

As we finally stepped outside, with our first tentative walks around the block, we learned we could leave the house and wave to neighbors from a safe distance. And then, it seemed like all of Homewood was outside. Roads, once filled with

two-ton cars and trucks, felt almost empty. And kids, no longer being ferried to baseball and gymnastics, took over those roads on their bikes, setting off on the kind of adventures most of us remember from our own childhoods. The simpler times, we told ourselves, when we’d leave home in the morning and only come home for lunch and again for dinner, when the streetlights came on.

Suddenly, it was all the things we’d always wanted for our children.

Bikes lay abandoned on the banks of Griffin Brook, near the wood and steel footbridge where HomewoodLife.com 45

Kids play in a creek during the COVID-19 quarantine.

Forest Drive meets South Forrest. It’s late afternoon, and four boys are down in the ravine. Two are in water sandals, two in sneakers, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Everyone’s feet are wet.

The boys, ranging in ages from 7 to 9-and-threequarters, approach a slightly older boy who’s just arrived with a net, and is picking up rocks. He settles for the minnows, but what he really wants to catch is a crawfish. The boy with the net moves upstream, his head down, his blond hair a little longer and shaggier than normal. He has the patience of someone who knows he’d normally be doing homework right now. Or rushing to karate. Or Boy Scouts.

The four boys look for fish, too. JP, Robert, Jamie and Stuart are their names. All four wear a Gizmo Gadget watch that lets their parents see where they are on a map, and is also a phone. Two have fresh buzz cuts that look like their mama owns an electric razor.

46 July/August 2020

“Truth or dare?” one says to the other.

“Truth.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Dare,” he changes his mind.

“Go where the snakes are and get bitten by a copperhead.”

The boy calling the shots gets a hard stare, so they pick up sticks instead. An epic sword fight ensues.

They parry, they thrust, oblivious to four more kids who cross the bridge above them, on bikes. A kid in red plaid pajamas passes over them on a scooter.

One of the boys picks up a bamboo stick.

“Hey, I’ve got a survival straw!” he says. “Do you think I can drink with it?”

The consensus is that, no, a piece of bamboo is not a filter able to turn a glorified drainage ditch into a potable water source.

“Hey, let’s try to survive outside ‘til our mom says to come in!”

It’s their first taste of freedom, and they guzzle it

Lathrop Street neighbors including Tinsley Ketcham (pictured on right) gather for a church service.

down, unaware that this moment in time is the one that will forever mark their before and after. For now, they are just boys in a creek, living a simpler, slower life. And they love it.

I, too, am on my bike more than usual. And every time I pass by the house of a friend of mine, her front door is always open, like an invitation to step on the porch and poke my head inside. We’ve only recently become close enough to actually spend time in each other’s homes, and I ask if her front door is always open.

She’s not sure. She wonders aloud, “Is the weather always this nice this time of year, or are we just home all the time now? I mean, usually we’re rushing around to so many things,” she says.

And we know that while the weather has been amazing, it’s the pace that has changed things.

Further up the street, Kathryn Harris and her family sit around the wrought iron table she bought off Facebook Trading last year, and finally painted right before the lockdown started.

“This table has been a lifesaver,” she says. “It’s

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NOW ALSO SELLING AY COMMERCIAL PLAY EQUIPMENT! CALL 205-408-4386 86 FOR MORE INFO!

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www.backyardalabama.com HomewoodLife.com 47

HOMEWOOD & ANOTHER EPIDEMIC The first people to settle what would eventually become Homewood began to arrive in the early 1800s, but it took a cholera epidemic in Birmingham for Homewood’s population to really take-off.

During the summer months of 1873, the deadly, water-borne bacterial disease broke out in Birmingham.

As deaths in the Magic City rose, residents feared for their lives and fled. Some landed in Homewood and surrounding communities. Others never returned.

In the end 128 were dead from cholera, and Birmingham’s population was split in half. The city went from 4,000 people at the start of the summer of 1873, to only 2,000 by the end of the season.

48 July/August 2020

Todd Harrington initiated his neighbors gathering for a worship service during Holy Week, and the tradition continued on Saturday nights.

definitely kept me sane.” Their front yard has essentially become an extension of their house. It’s where the family of six starts the day, with breakfast outside, and continues with card games and reading.

The kids have even invented a game to see who can roll the tennis ball into the table’s empty umbrella hole. (It’s harder than you think.)

Sitting at the three-way stop of Clermont and Ardsley Place, it seems half of Homewood passes by here. A kid zooms by on a battery-powered scooter. “His sister will be by in just a second,” Kathryn says. She’s spent enough time outside to notice. “They come flying by every day, probably right about this time,” she chuckles. And right on cue a little girl on a bike whizzes past.

A few minutes later their mom hurries past, apologetic that she can’t stop to chat as she tries to catch up with them.

That’s the difference between precoronavirus and after, Kathryn says.

Before, everybody stopped at the sign and waved. Now, she says, they’re all on foot,

and most everyone stops to chat.

A dad on a bike pedals by with a distinct six pack in a plastic bag hanging on the handlebars, and Kathryn’s husband, Tom, shouts out, “That’s definitely an essential run, right?”

It is SO much like that famed town where Andy Griffith spun his wholesome tales. “Living in Mayberry,” Tom says, “It’s a total luxury.” Especially at a time like this.

A few neighborhoods over, the sun begins to slip down, playing peek-a-boo between the branches of a giant oak tree.

The Lathrop Street Saturday night church session is about to begin.

Around 30 people have pulled their camp chairs and adirondacks down to the street, and in some instances into the street. Anyone wanting to drive through would have a problem. But the street is empty. There’s no one going anywhere right now.

Birds sing their evening song and somewhere a dog barks. A preschooler rides his scooter down the middle of the

street. A toddler in footfall pajamas snuggles in his father’s lap.

Jeannie Feldman says her street has always been friendly, and when social distancing began, they still gathered together, just further apart. During Holy Week, one of her neighbors, Todd Harringon, who is a minister, suggested they have an Easter service on Sunday morning, but when the weather forecast started to look bad, they decided to hold a Saturday night Easter vigil. “We all loved it so much we decided to keep the services every Saturday night until we [could] gather again at our own churches,” she says.

They talk about what they’re grateful for. Someone

has a brand-new baby. Another is thankful for his kids: “They’re a lotta light in a dark time.”

Jeannie has printed the words to “I Want to Walk As a Child of the Light,” and as they sing, a little girl named Tinsley Ketcham, who is 3 and wearing a pink tutu, sashays into the middle of the street and dances, her arms waving slowly in freeform celebration.

Far off, you can hear the hum of cars and trucks on I-65 zooming past, heading somewhere fast.

Probably important. But right here, right now, Tinsley twirls. And we are all just here. Here in this one, shining moment. Together. Wondering why it took a pandemic to get here.

HomewoodLife.com 49

HOMEWOOD’S BEST WINNERS 2020 YOU VOTED. WE TALLIED. SEE JUST WHO HOMEWOOD’S FAVORITES ARE. PHOTOS BY KEITH MCCOY

50 July/August 2020

FOOD & DRINK MOST FRIENDLY SERVICE Taco Mama 1014 Oxmoor Road 205-414-0441 tacomamaonline.com Runner Up: Ash West Homewood

BEST COFFEE O’Henry’s 2831 18th Street South 205-870-1198 // 569 Brookwood Village, Suite 101 205-870-1148 ohenryscoffees.com Runners Up: Red Mountain Expresso, Seeds Coffee

MOST KID FRIENDLY DINING Taco Mama 1014 Oxmoor Road 205-414-0441 tacomamaonline.com

BEST SWEET TREATS Cookie Fix 2854 18th Street South 205-582-2623 cookiefix.com

Runners Up: Urban Cookhouse, Ash West Homewood

Runners Up: Pastry Art Bake Shoppe, Savage’s Bakery, Hero Doughnuts

BEST ETHNIC/REGIONAL CUISINE Saw’s BBQ 1008 Oxmoor Road 205-879-1937 sawsbbq.com

BEST PIZZA Pizzeria GM 600 Oak Grove Road 205-905-3266 pizzeriagm.com

Runners Up: Little Donkey, Red Pearl Restaurant & Market, Nabeel’s Café & Restaurant BEST DATE NIGHT Gianmarcos Restaurant 721 Broadway Street 205-871-9622 gianmarcosbhm.com Runner Up: Jinsei BEST LADIES LUNCH Ashley Mac’s 1831 28th Ave. S., Suite N101 205-582-0062 ashleymacs.com Runners Up: Real & Rosemary, O’Carr’s

BEST OUTDOOR SPOT Homewood Central Park

BEST BOUTIQUE/CLOTHING The Pink Tulip

Runners Up: Dave’s Pizza, New York Pizza BEST DRINKS/COCKTAILS Taco Mama 1014 Oxmoor Road 205-414-0441 tacomamaonline.com Runners Up: Soho Social, Gianmarcos Restaurant BEST CHEF Mark Driskill, Ash West Homewood 705 Oak Grove Road 205-558-9401 ashhomewood.com Runners Up: Tim Hontzas/ Johnny’s Restaurant; Giana Respinto/Gianmarco’s

HomewoodLife.com 51

COMMUNITY BEST COMMUNITY EVENT We Love Homewood Day Bands, barbecue, festivities, neighbors and a street dance: always the first Saturday of May Runners Up: Christmas Parade/Star Lighting, Homewood Witches Ride BEST NEIGHBORHOOD Edgewood Full of sidewalks, neighbor hang outs, and choices for get dinner or ice cream Runners Up: Downton Homewood, West Homewood BEST LOCAL CAUSE The Exceptional Foundation 1616 Oxmoor Road 205-870-0776 exceptionalfoundation.org

BEST OUTDOOR SPOT Homewood Central Park 1632 Oxmoor Road homewoodparks.com Runners Up: Patriot Park, Homewood Pool BEST CHURCH CHOIR Trinity United Methodist 1400 Oxmoor Road 205-879-1737 trinitybirmingham.com Runners Up: Dawson Family of Faith BEST LOCAL PERSONALITY Steve Sills Homewood Middle School Teacher + Coach + DJ Runners Up: Bill Cleveland, Frank Morgan, Susie Ankenbrandt, Johnny Montgomery

Runners Up: The Bell Center, Homewood City Schools Foundation

BEST CHURCH CHOIR Trinity United Methodist 52 July/August 2020

HEALTH & BEAUTY

BEST HAIR SALON Salon U

BEST FAMILY MEDICINE PRACTICE Mayfair Internal Medicine 3106 Independence Drive 205- 871-7007 Runner Up: MedHelp BEST PEDIATRIC PRACTICE Mayfair Medical Group 3401 Independence Drive 205-870-1273 childrensal.org/mayfairmedical-group Runner Up: Alabama Pediatrics BEST DENTAL PRACTICE Brighter Image Dentistry/ Dr. Spencer Maddox 2908 Central Avenue, Suite 150 205-591-6220

brighterimagedentistry.com Runners Up: Davis & Nix, Powell Pediatric Dentistry

BEST EYE CARE PRACTICE JJ Eyes 2814 18th Street South 205-703-8596

jjeyesoptical.com Runners Up: Red Mountain Eye Care, EyeCare Associates

HomewoodLife.com 53

BEST DENTAL PRACTICE Brighter Image Dentistry/ Dr. Spencer Maddox

BEST CHIROPRACTIC CARE PRACTICE Witt Chiropractic 1919 Courtney Drive 205- 871-1888 wittchiro.com

BEST HAIR SALON Salon U 2824 Linden Avenue 205-870-8708 salonustyle.com Runner Up: Wheelhouse

Runners Up: Oxmoor Chiropractic, Friends & Family Health Centers BEST ANIMAL CLINIC Homewood Animal Hospital 501 Scott Street 205-943-0008​ homewoodanimal.com

HOMEWOOD’S

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Runners Up: Oxmoor Animal Clinic, Standifer Animal Clinic BEST PHARMACY Homewood Pharmacy 940 Oxmoor Road 205-871-9000 homewoodpharmacy.com Runners Up: CVS, Walgreens

54 July/August 2020

BEST NAIL SALON OR SPA Genesis Nail Spa 350 Hallman Hill East, Unit 51 205-802-0639 Runners Up: Escape Day Spa, Soho Nails and Spa BEST FITNESS CENTER YMCA-Shades Valley Branch 3551 Montgomery Highway 205-870-9622 ymcabham.org Runners Up: Homewood Rec Center, Squad Fitness, Three15 Studio

SHOPPING & SERVICES BEST NEW BUSINESS Byars-Wright Insurance 1701 28th Avenue South 205-417-1321 byarswright.com Runners Up: Homewood Bagel Company, Off Central, Bandit, Shea Davis Boutique BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE Hemline 1802 29th Avenue 205-802-9252 shophemline.com Runners Up: Bridal Bliss, Homewood Toy & Hobby BEST BOUTIQUE/CLOTHING The Pink Tulip 2848 18th Street South 205-637-0710

thepinktulipclothing.com Runners Up: Alabama Outdoors, Soca Clothing, Fab’rik BEST STORE FOR GIFTS Alabama Goods 2933 18th Street South 205-803-3900 alabamagoods.com Runners Up: Cottage Basket, White Flowers BEST STORE FOR KIDS Homewood Toy & Hobby 2830 18th Street South 205-879-3986 homewoodtoy-hobby.com

BEST STORE FOR KIDS Homewood Toy & Hobby

BEST PLACE FOR CREATIVITY Do It Yourself Crafts

Runners Up: Sikes Children’s Shoes, Jack N Jill Shop

HomewoodLife.com 55

BEST STORE FOR HOME Furnishings/Décor At Home 2921 18th Street South 205-879-3510 athome-furnishings.com Runners Up: Homewood Antiques & Marketplace, Nadeau Furniture BEST FLORIST/NURSERY Sweet Peas Garden Shop 2829 Linden Avenue 205-879-3839 facebook.com/ sweetpeasgardenshop/ Runners Up: Homewood Flowers, Wild Things, Stems & Styles BEST PLACE FOR CREATIVITY Do It Yourself Crafts 1909 Oxmoor Road 205-868-4346 doityourselfcrafts.com Runners Up: Susan Gordon

Pottery, Homewood Musical Instruments BEST CHILDREN’S DAYCARE Homewood Day School 265 West Oxmoor Road 205-945-1015 homewooddayschool.org Runners Up: Montessori Kids Universe, Heritage Preschool

HOME, FINANCE, & AUTO BEST REAL ESTATE AGENT Joe Falconer/RealtySouth 205-281-1831 joefalconer.realtysouth.com/ Runners Up: Scott Butler/ LAH Real Estate, Johnny Montgomery/ERA King BEST INSURANCE AGENT Gabe Clement/ByarsWright Insurance 1701 28th Avenue South 205-221-8665 byarswright.com BEST COMMUNITY EVENT We Love Homewood Day

56 July/August 2020

Runner Up: Thomas Waters/ State Farm BEST BANK Regions BankIndependence Plaza 1 Independence Plaza 800-734-4667 regions.com Runners Up: Wells Fargo28th Avenue South BEST AUTO SERVICE Rob’e Mans Automotive Service 2600 18th Street South 205-518-9511 robemans.com Runners Up: Express Oil Change & Tire Engineers-27th Court South BEST NAIL SALON OR SPA Genesis Nail Spa

VOTED

BEST BANK HOMEWOOD 2020

WE WORK HARD TO HELP CUSTOMERS MOVE THEIR LIVES FORWARD. Thanks to the readers of Homewood Magazine for naming Regions the Best Bank. We’ll continue to work hard to give you the best banking experience possible.

Homewood Independence Plaza Branch 1 Independence Plaza Homewood, AL 35209

regions.com Follow us for helpful tips and information. © 2020 Regions Bank. Regions and the Regions logo are registered trademarks of Regions Bank. The LifeGreen color is a trademark of Regions Bank.

HomewoodLife.com 57

Homewood Chamber of Commerce C O N N E C T I O N S

Upcoming in July/August Please check our website for more information about luncheons in July and August.

July 25th

2020 Sidewalk Sale Join the merchants of Downtown Homewood for the ninth annual Sidewalk Sale! Lasting throughout the entirety of the day, merchants will line the sidewalks in front of their shops with merchandise discounted up to 75%! Come early and shop local!

Recent Event Recap Tuesday, March 31st Homewood COVID-19 Resources Video Conference Call With speakers Mayor Scott McBrayer, Councilors Alex Wyatt, Britt Thames, Patrick McClusky, Jennifer Andress, and Andy Gwaltney, Representatives from Senator Doug Jones and Richard Shelby’s offices, Attorney Kyle Smith of Sirote & Permutt, Accountant Anthony DiPiazza of DiPiazza LaRocca Heeter & Co., Dr. Ellen Eaton and Battalion Chief Brandon Broadhead and Interim Chief Nicholas Hill of Homewood Fire Department.

April 1st, April 9th and April 23rd Virtual Happy Hours

Thursday, April 16th Coffee & Contacts, A Virtual Networking Event Business Unusual We’ve had “business unusual” at the Homewood Chamber of Commerce, just like everywhere else these last few months. Many of our gatherings have pivoted to virtual events. Much of our focus as a chamber of commerce has shifted to supporting our local businesses and helping them succeed during the challenging time our country is facing.

We hosted this Zoom meeting as an opportunity for chamber and community members to connect virtually.

Tuesday, April 21st Community Financial Resources Virtual Meeting We hosted a virtual meeting with Damian Carson of Operation Hope and Maxwell Kunstmann of Regions Bank and learn about community financial resources.

7 HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD 58 July/August 2020

HOMEWOOD, ALABAMA 35209

F i n d U s O n l i ne

Sign up for our weekly newsletter | Access our member directory Purchase Buy Local Homewood eGift Cards

Recent Event Recap

#MaskHWD Campaign

Tuesday, May 5th Stress Relieving Exercise Webinar We hosted an online, stressrelieving exercise class with Margaret Virden, owner of Provision Studio.

Wednesday, May 13th Homewood COVID-19 Town Hall Conference Call With Scott McBrayer, Homewood Mayor, Alex Wyatt, Homewood City Council, Ellen Eaton, MD and Trey Whitt, CPA

Friday, May 15th A Washington Update with Senator Doug Jones This event was co-hosted

by Homewood Chamber of Commerce, Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce, Greater Irondale Chamber of Commerce, Montevallo Chamber of Commerce, Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce, Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce and The Shelby County Chamber.

In conjunction with Homewood City Council and Homewood Mayor Scott McBrayer, we developed and implemented a campaign to encourage residents to wear masks when shopping in Homewood. We posted mask reminder announcements on social media channels daily, featured a Homewood business with their employees or customers wearing masks each day and ran a mask selfie contest with the award of an Instagift card for social media users who posted their masked photo with the hashtags: #HWDStrong #ShopHWD #ShopSaferHWD #MaskHWD

Thursday, May 26th A Socially-Distanced Ribbon Cutting with Birmingham Direct Primary Care The new clinic, located in Edgewood, celebrated they opening in late May with a socially-distanced ribbon cutting ceremony.

205 - 871 - 5631

WWW.HOMEWOODCHAMBER.ORG HomewoodLife.com 59

OUT & ABOUT

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EASTER SUNDAY

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PHOTOS SUBMITTED

Easter Sunday 2020 looked different than usual on April 12 with church services happening online during the COVID-19 quarantine, but many families still dressed up and took pictures. Here are some you shared with us.

1. Julie Anastasia Terrell 2. Lauren, Drew, Mabry and Whitt Cater

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3. Brandon, Molly, Norris and Phoebe Hasenfuss with the Kinman, Wagner, Hubrich and Mitchell families in the background on Broadway 4. Amelia, Benton and Worley 5. Sean, Ethan and Ann Brasher 6. Damon, Lety, Colton, Camden, Cason and Emery Cox 7. Leah, Mary Everett and David Knight 8. Leighton, Elizabeth and Caroline Conner 9. JohnWesley, Annabelle and Mary Kate Holley 10. Mary Caroline Reid 11. Maggie Reid 12. Ruby and Dylan Snyder 13. Pierce, Adelaide and Welden Gamble 14. Carrie Varner

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OUT & ABOUT

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CHOOSE-A-RACE CHALLENGE

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From April 17 to 25 Homewood Middle School encouraged students, teachers and community members to walk, run or bike a distance of their choosing in honor of health care works and other affected by the COVID-19 quarantine. Participants submitted these photos of their races that were also shared on the challenge’s website.

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1. Georgia Miller 2. Cynthia Geer 3. Mr. and Mrs. Radcliff 4. Christy, Chandler and Graham 5. Paul Litton 6. Elizabeth McGowin 7. Lauren and Jessie Tubbs 8. Robbie Gibbons 9. Hanna Brook 10. Eric Swope 11. Darby and Ruthie Grace Baird 12. Emily Wilder 13. Brooks 14. Anna Laws

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MARKETPLACE

Marketplace Homewod Life • 205.669.3131

Need appliance or air conditioner parts? How about a water filter for your refrigerator? We have it all at A-1 Appliance Parts!

Call 1-800-841-0312 www.A-1Appliance. com

HIRING EXPERIENCED FULL CASE ORDER SELECTORS $18.58 per hour plus production $$$ incentives. Grocery order selection using electric pallet jacks & voice activated headsets. Great benefits including Blue Cross health & dental insurance & matching 401k.

Pre-employment drug test required.

Apply Online: WWW.AGSOUTH. COM Automation Personnel Services Hiring IMMEDIATELY For: Automotive Assembly, General Labor, Production, Clerical, Machine Operator, Quality, Carpentry, Welder, Foundry. Positions In: Calera, Clanton, Pelham, Bessemer, McCalla. Walkin applications accepted.

Clanton (205)280-0002.

Pelham (205)444-9774.

Avanti Polar Lipids is looking for full and part time employees.

Submit resume to jobs@avantilipids.com • Highly proficient 64 July/August 2020

HomewoodLife.com

math skills required.

Boise Cascade Now • High school diploma Hiring for Utility required.

Positions. Starting pay $13.66/hour.

Mechanic needed.

Must be able to pass Must have own background screen. tools and five years Please apply at experience. Apply in www.bc.com person: 1105 7th St N, Clanton. Or call for Core Focus appointment Personnel 205-826205-755-4570 3088 • Now Hiring Production Mill Bama Concrete Worker, Jemison.

Now Hiring: Diesel 12 hrs (days/nights), Mechanic 4 Years ability to pass drug Minimum Experience. test, background CDL Preferred. check, physical.

Competitive Pay. Positions working in Great Benefits. outside temperature Apply in person: conditions. Previous 2180 Hwy 87 manufacturing Alabaster, 35007 experience required. $11.75/hr to start.

Bent Creek Apartments. $2000 SIGN ON Affordable 1 and 2 BONUS NEW Bedroom. On-site PAY SCALE TO Manager. On-site QUALIFYING Maintenance.

DRIVERS EVERGREEN 3001 7th Street. North TRANSPORT, is Clanton, AL 35045. accepting applications TDD#s: for local drivers in the 800-548-2547(V) Calera and Leeds, AL, 800-548-2546(T/A) area. Must have Class bentcreek@ A CDL, good driving morrowapts.com record, 1 yr verifiable Office Hours: tractor trailer Mon-Fri, 8am-4pm. experience. Good Equal Opportunity pay and benefits.

Provider/Employer Apply in person at 8278 Hwy 25 South, Immediate need for Calera, AL, or call for LPN’s. Full time LPN info 205-668-3316.

Position with sign on bonus. BMC Nursing Lancaster Place Home. Responsible Apartments. for patient care Location, community and supervision of & quality living in CNA staff. Will also Calera, AL. 1, 2, & 3 provide treatment and bedroom apartments meds for residents. available. Call today Apply online or call for specials!!

Human Resources 205-668-6871. Or visit at 205-926-3363 hpilancasterplace.com bibbmedicalcenter. com

Industrial Coatings Group, Inc. is hiring experienced -Sandblasters -Industrial Painters - Helpers. Must be able to pass drug test and e-verify check.

Must be willing to travel. Professional references required.

Please send resume to: icgsecretary@ hotmail.com or call (205)688-9004

Shake up your career!!! Are you looking for something new and FUN? Milo’s is always looking for great managers to come join our growing and dynamic team. Apply online at miloshamburgers.com

Specializing in all your hair care needs SERENITY SALON Barber/Stylist Chairs Available for Rent 2 Owner Operators Convenient Locations Wanting Dedicated • 2005 Valleydale Rd. Year Round • Pelham Anniston, AL • 3000 Meadow Lake www.pull4klb.com Dr. Suite 107 Call Nichole Marble Valley Manor. 205-240-5428 Affordable 1 and 2 Bedroom Apartments South Haven Health for Elderly & Disabled. & Rehab NOW Many on-site services! HIRING!!! •LPN’s & 2115 Motes Rd, RN’s -$5,000 Sign-on Sylacauga.

Bonus for Full-Time 256-245-6500 shift •CNA’s •TDD#s: Apply in person: 800-548-2547(V) 3141 Old •800-548-2546(T/A).

Columbiana Rd Office Hours: Birmingham,AL-35266 Mon-Fri, 8am-4pm.

Equal Opportunity CLOCK REPAIR SVS. Provider/Employer * Setup * Repair * Maintenance. I can Are you a motivated fix your Mother’s professional? Are clock. Alabaster/ you looking for a Pelham. Call Stephen dynamic career? Are (205)663-2822 you ready to control your own level of Electrician - FT success? See why Supreme Electric, McKinnons’ is an local-based company exciting place to in Pelham. Must be work and grow. Now willing to learn & accepting applications work hard. Go to: for Sales, Service, and supremeelectricDetail Shop. Apply al.com Print with the receptionist. employment 205-755-3430 application under Contact Us. Mail to: Supreme Electric 231 Commerce Pkwy Pelham, AL 35124 or call 205-453-9327.

MARKETPLACE Nursing assistant to care for high functioning quadriplegic home health patient in Jemison. Must have valid drivers license.

Part-time.

Call Mr. Wilbanks 205-908-3333

Alabama Air Power Inc Now Hiring Industrial Air Compressor Technician Will cross train person with mechanical skills, Electrical and/or HVAC knowledge Blue Cross Health and Dental Paid Vacation Paid Holidays Apply In Person 1293 Hwy 87, Alabaster

$Cash Paid For Used RV’s!$ Motor Homes, Travel/Enclosed trailers, consignment welcome, Cars and Trucks, Pick up available, Mccluskey Auto and RV Sales, LLC 205-833-4575

The Harvest Place Christian Church Join us for worship every SUNDAY The Harvest Place Christian Church 14 Westside Ln, Columbiana, AL 35051 Bishop Wales Pop & Sons Williams, Jr Chief Oxford Healthcare Demolition & Junk Apostle in Montgomery Removal • Morning Worship currently hiring (205)948-8494 Sunday 11am certified CNA’s and/or junkguys2014@ • Life Enrichment Home Health aides in gmail.com • Junk Classes Sunday the Clanton, Marbury Removal Services • 10:15am and Maplesville areas. Thrift Store Hiring: Demolition• More!!

• Join Us Every Must be able to pass Cashier/Stocker FREE QUOTES!! ALSO Tuesday Night at complete background 35+hours/week WITH THE MENTION JOYFEST check, have reliable $10/hour Part-Time OF THIS AD GET $20 • Midweek Worshiptransportation Driver $8/hour. Must OFF!!!

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Technician • Minimum and wants to learn Assistant in ONLY com (205)217-1366 5 years experience new profession. Work8 WEEKS! Please • Residential, vehicle/equipment visit our website Acceptance Loan Commercial and provided. Must capstonedental Company, Inc. Refrigeration • Ipad drive straight-shift, assisting.com or Personal loans! Let Experience • On-Call have clean driving call (205)561-8118 us pay off your title Rotation Apply at: record/be 21/pass and get your career loans! www.servicetechhvac. background/drug test. started!

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Members. OPEN Grade Pharmaceutical PATIENTS Doctor Send resume to INTERVIEWS DAILY Grade CBD Oil, a Appointments, facsmith@charter.net 2:00pm-5:00pm unique concept for Bathing/Dressing 3300 Pelham Parkway. sublingual absorption. Meal Preparation, Tru Acupressure Immediate Openings! Helps pain, anxiety, Errands, Laundry,Light Clinic LLC - You’re Start work this week! energy & more.

House Keeping and one massage away Apply online: Order from home More. Lenette Walls, from a good mood! work4popeyeskitchen. 205-276-7778. www.

Owner 205-405-6991 Massage therapy is com CiliByDesign.com/ not a luxury, it is a BrendaGlaze Western necessity! Licensed GENERAL LAWN International Gas Therapist SERVICES CARE Specialist in Construction & Cylinders, Inc AVAILABLE: • Deep large yards 2+ acres.

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844 US Highway 31 details: 205-955-3439 Adam 205-863-9059 com EOE South, Alabaster AL. ~Military & Senior OPEN 7 DAYS A Discounts~ WEEK! 9:30am9:30pm 205-624-2211 AL License#E-3013

MACHINIST WANTED Need to have experience running manual lathe and milling machines.

Please call 205-337-2140.

University Baptist Child Development Center is pleased to announce that our First Class Preschool program was awarded a New Classroom Grant by Governor Ivey and the State Department of Early Childhood Education.

Our second classroom will house up to 18 preschoolers who are 4 years old by September 1, 2020.

Tuition is incomebased and we provide meals at no additional charge. Register at http://alprek. asapconnected.com WE ARE NOW HIRING Lead and Auxiliary teachers for First Class 4-yearold Pre-K programs.

School year positions with competitive pay.

Lead teachers must have degree in Early Childhood Education/ Development.

Auxiliary teachers must have Child Development Associate (CDA) or 9hrs Early Childhood Education/ Development.

Experience in First Class program & bilingual skills a plus. For questions about registration or to apply for a teaching position, contact Lorrie Ozley: universitybaptistcdc@ gmail.com 205-665-4039

HomewoodLife.com 65

MY HOMEWOOD MERRICK WILSON

Homewood City Schools Communication Director + Mom of Two

Early Morning Cheerleaders

Nexus Fitness Homewood has so many great fitness options.

Thanks to Nexus in West Homewood, I have a community of people cheering me on to work harder and making sure I’m up at 5 a.m. This small gym is able to bring such a big sense of community by helping and supporting each of their members.

The Dessert Capital

Sweets and More Sweets I feel like Homewood is the dessert capital of Birmingham. There are so many amazing options to choose from: Pastry Art, Edgewood Creamery, Dreamcakes, Steel City Pops, Cookie Fix, Savage's, Big Spoon Creamery, Hero Doughnuts. This is why I have to go to Nexus!

A Festive Night Out

Holiday Open House The Chamber’s Holiday Open House is one of my favorite events to kick off the holiday season. It’s a fun girls’ night out or a time to walk around with your family to snack, shop and see Santa.

Come Together

The People The people of Homewood make this community so unique. If there is ever a need, Homewood comes together to find a way. Our businesses, schools, city leaders, chamber and local organizations all work together to ensure our city is a wonderful place to work, live and play.

Friday Night Lights

Waldrop Stadium Fall Friday night home games bring everyone together. Elementary kids are decked out in Patriot gear, the student section is ready to yell, and the band halftime performance is always an impressive show. It’s an event where you will find future Patriots and former Patriots all under the big lights cheering on Homewood!

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68 July/August 2020