MARSHALL COUNTY
HydroFest makes a splash ... with help from tons of volunteers See why Thompson Falls is among Marshall County’s ‘Seven Wonders’ Robert and Mary Bodine’s home is steeped in a deep heritage
FALL 2018 COMPLIMENTARY
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Welcome
Editor shares a thought or two from the dizzying heights of a soapbox
S
ometimes we deserve the criticism some people in some parts of the country make about the South. But so often their comments are based on stereotypes, and ironically they fail to see the same shortcomings in their own backyards. That’s why I was so proud of Guntersville, of Marshall County and of Alabama when I heard gushing ooohs and aaahs from out-of-state visitors here in June for HydroFest. The weather didn’t fully cooperate, but still we put our natural hospitality on display and our mountainsurrounded lake – or hill-surrounded, depending on one’s point of view – simply showed its everyday splendor. Our visitors loved us. Please indulge me if I woke up a little soap-boxy this last morning of production magazine, but while I’m at it I’d like to reiterate a point I’ve made before... Sure, HydroFest was held in Guntersville. That’s where the lake is. I live in Arab, but I purposely refer to Lake Guntersville as “our” lake. That’s because I view that big ole body of water as “belonging” to all of Marshall County. It goes back to a premise I had in mind when I first raised the idea of starting Good Life Magazine five years ago to my now business partner Sheila McAnear. I want GLM to showcase all of Marshall County, to help nurture a sense of togetherness. We’re not just from, and shouldn’t be for just Grant or Boaz or Arab. We’re from Marshall County and have much to appreciate and celebrate – together. Gee ... I’m getting vertigo or something up here on this soapbox. But one more word about stereotypes, a confession, if you will. I perpetuated a southern stereotype when, for the Buffalo Eddie spread in this issue, I photographed a couple visiting from Las Vegas. We chatted and laughed a minute. They were looking for lake property. I wished them well, thanked them for “posing” and started off. Then I stopped and turned back. “I forgot,” I grinned. “I’m supposed to say, ‘Y’all come back now, ya’ hear!’” I meant it.
David Moore Publisher/editor 6
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Contributors Brittany Moore Brain of Vestavia Hills is a 2010 graduate of The University of Alabama with a major in art and a concentration in photography. She’s a daughter of Daniel A. and Brenda Moore of Hoover. Danny is the brother of Good Life editor David Moore, who turned Brittany loose shooting photos in Marshall County.
NASA contractor and novelist David Myers lives in Guntersville with his wife, Rose. She accompanies him to the establishments he visits in order to write his “Good Eats” feature in Good Life. Rose, who formerly wrote for the Birmingham News, gets the joke if you refer to them as Dennis and Bunny. Steve Maze writes about haircuts in this issue. Let’s see a raise of hands from everyone who thinks it’s funny that Steve is writing about haircuts. That’s lots of hands. OK. Let’s see a raise of hands from everyone tho thinks it’s funny that David Moore, with his disappearing hair, is making fun of Steve. Even more hands ... Speaking of Steve Maze and hair (see above) ... In his “Good ‘n’ Green” feature, Extension agent Hunter McBrayer notes how Alabama’s heat and high humidity can make for a bad hair day. (It kinda fits in with his topic of growing fruit.) One has to wonder what Hunter considers a good hair day. Retired Arab teacher Annette Haislip, who writes book reviews for GLM, was proud to see her granddaughter Caroline’s picture in The Arab Tribune this summer. Caroline completed her MA at Johns Hopkins in China and visited here before staring her job at Georgetown University. Some people get all of the brains. If ad/art director Sheila McAnear ever wants a different job she could hire on with a circus as a juggler. Without going into the many personal “balls” she has up in the air, she’s been moving to Guntersville while juggling not only two GLMs this cycle but also working on the Oktoberfest magazine MoMc Publishing does in Cullman.
At this point of writing this page, publisher/editor David Moore has probably already said way too much and should shut up – but that won’t happen just yet. First he wants to thank the many advertisers – old and new – who support the wide and free distribution of Good Life Magazine. Readers, please thank them, too.
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Inside
10 Good Fun
There’s a lot going on this fall, including a Boaz group’s efforts to save an old house
ON THE COVER: The lower of Thompson Falls’ four cascades tumbles down Brindley Mountain, creating water music in the process. Photo by David Moore. THIS PAGE: Al Reese enjoys shooting nature photography – including this storm – in the South Sauty area. He developed an interest in photography during his career with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
18 Good People
Retired NCIS agent Al Reese leads a Marshall disaster relief team
24 Good Reads
Rick Bragg’s latest and “Love and Ruin”
27 Good Cooking
Husband and wife foodies share recipes
36 ‘Just an old house’
Robert and Mary Bodine’s house and land have been in his family for generations
44 Good ’n’ Green
Fall is a good time for planting fruit and here are three that provide easy care
46 Good Eats
Buffalo Eddie’s has great bar food, craft beer to wash it down ... and a buffalo
48 An outsider’s view
A Birmingham photographer explores the places she once knew as “the country”
54 Homemade haircuts
Or getting ‘jecked’ around on the porch
56 Thompson Falls
Where nature creates its own symphony as Mink Creek carves out a huge gorge
62 HydroFest
A weekend visit to hydroplane races with the help of many great volunteers
70 Out ’n’ About
Farm to Table on Main Street, Albertville
David F. Moore Publisher/editor 256-293-0888 david.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com
Vol. 5 No.4 Copyright 2018 Published quarterly
Sheila T. McAnear Advertising/art Director 256-640-3973 sheila.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com
MoMc Publishing LLC P.O. Box 28, Arab, Al 35016 www.good-life-magazine.net
Mo Mc PUBLISHING LLC Proudly printed in Marshall County by BPI Media of Boaz
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The house was built about 1900 by Thomas Snellgrove and his wife, the former Elizabeth Williamson, granddaughter of Boaz founder Billy Sparks. A daughter, Lucile Snellgrove Wright, lived there until she died in 1999. Now in a trust, the empty –except for trash – house is owned by Lucile’s daughter, Gail, and her husband, Don Noel, below. A caregiver for Gail and their grown son for years, Don has been unable to maintain the house and would love to see the Cultural Society restore it.
New Boaz group out to save old house, boost the town
T he still new president of the Boaz Chamber of Commerce has
started the new Boaz Cultural Society. Already with about 25 members, the group is out to make the arts, history and culture more vital parts of the community, in part by pursuing the far-reaching goal of purchasing the historic Snellgrove House and restoring it to its Greek Revival grandeur. It could house a visitors center, chamber of commerce and art classes and shows for students, says Jodi Skinner, chamber president. It sits in the neighborhood with the historic Julia Street United Methodist Church, landmark Boaz Public Library and new city park that’s in the works. “What’s really cool,” Jodi says, “is that I can see the area becoming a cultural and arts district”. 10
A rough estimate puts the cost of restoration at $250,000. That could be offset by grants available because the house is on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage and the
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
National Register of Historic Places. The Boaz Cultural Society meets in the library at 6 p.m. the last Thursday of each month. For more info call Jodi: 256-593-8154.
• Aug. 15 – Discover Scotland Anyone interested in seeing Scotland is invited to attend the 5 p.m. informational meeting today at the Albertville Chamber of Commerce about the March 17-26 trip next year, being held jointly with the Arab Chamber of Commerce. The 10-day trip costs $3,649 for double occupancy and includes overnight flights, 14 meals and stays in Glasgow,
Ballachulish, Thurso, Grantown-on-Spey and Edinburgh. Among other attractions, enjoy a bagpipe lesson, see a sheepdog demo, tour a whiskey distillery and visit Armadale Castle, Loch Ness, Orkney Islands, Dunrobin Castle, Edinburgh Castle, pictured above, and more. For more info, contact: Marcheta Chandler (who’ll be at the meeting), AlBo Travel, 256-891-0888; or mchandler@ albotravel.com; or the Arab chamber, 256-586-3138.
‘Fall’ back ... into lots of activity • Aug. 1-31 – Linda Hisaw exhibit By day Linda Hisaw is a teacher with Huntsville City Schools. While she finds great satisfaction from teaching, Linda longs to be in her studio painting. She works in oils on canvas – in an impasto style with themes of landscapes, seascapes, angels, faces, and local buildings – drawing inspiration from both the natural and supernatural realms. “My hope,” she says, “is that the depth, colors and layers in my pieces lead you into and beyond the work itself and bring as much joy to the viewer as I had creating it.” A public reception for her will be 5-7 p.m. Aug. 2 at The MVAC gallery. It is open 1-5 p.m. TuesdayFriday; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. For more info: 256-571-7199.
• Aug. 1-Aug. 31 – Frank Nelson exhibit The permanent Frank Nelson collection at the Guntersville Museum is on full display. The late Guntersville artist was a long-time illustrator and art director for the military and in private industry. Active in the fine arts in all media, he later concentrated on watercolor, which he considered to be the most spontaneous and elusive of all media. He’s recognized as a world-class artist by many familiar with his work, who contend he perfectly captures the essence of the scenery around him without being too literal. Admission is free, and the museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 1-4 p.m. weekends. • Aug. 10-11 – Main Street Music Festival
Good Fun
Expect thousands for the annual MSMF in downtown Albertville. Gates open at 4 p.m. Friday with music that evening from High Valley and Clay Walker. There will be entertainment 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday downtown plus fun for the kids with children’s inflatables, a water park, water walkers, Spider Climb ‘n Slide and Big Ballers. That evening and night see Dirt Circus, Drivin N Cryin and Tyler Farr on the big stage. It’s all free, thanks to the city of Albertville and corporate sponsors, but donations are welcome. • Aug. 11 – Red, White & BBQ Concert The second year for this fun day runs 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at Civitan Park in Guntersville. Check out smokers made in Marshall County by concert host HBT Smokers. Eat some great BBQ and kick AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
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back and enjoy concerts by Sweet Tea Trio and Love and Theft. Tickets are $25 and available at HBT Smokers, Clay Irrigation, at the gate and at: www.eventbrite.com. All of proceeds go toward funding safety programs at local schools. For more info: FB at redwhiteandbbq. • Aug. 11 – Free movie in the park Bring the family – and lawn chairs or blankets but no pets or coolers – for a free showing of “Wonder” at the Arab City Park Amphitheater. Sponsored by the Arab Chamber of Commerce, the show starts at dusk. • Aug. 18-26 – Arab Restaurant Week Participating Arab restaurants will offer lunch and dinner specials to showcase the tastes of Arab. The Arab Chamber of Commerce will advertise participating chamber members and their specials the week before in The Arab Tribune and through its e-mail blasts. Bon appetit! • Aug. 25 – River Run Car Show Coming off last year’s best show ever,
tons of people and vehicles – as usual – are expected 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. to see the cool cars, trucks and bikes at the Guntersville Lions’ Annual River Run Car Show. It’s held at Marshall County Park No. 1 on U.S. 431. Spectators get in for $5 a carload and will also find entertainment, food, swap Steve Freeman, John Kennedy and Regie Hamm, at the far end meets and of the stage, perform together at Ferguson Barn on June 30. kid’s activities. Enter your 256-677-9763; vendors can register wheels for $25 or $20 each of three or online: www.riverruncarshow.net. more members from a car club enter together: RiverRunCarShow.net; or on • Aug. 25 – Hit Songwriters Series show day until 11 a.m. Vendors space This new series of music continues is $30, and vendors will be selling food, today and again on Oct. 27 and Dec. 1 drinks, parts and more. More info? Call:
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at Ferguson Farm in Union Grove. Relax in a comfortable barn setting and hear three songwriters perform their work and tell the stories behind the stars that have risen on the music and lyrics they’ve written. Performing in August will be Steve Freeman, Jeffrey East, and Jacob Young, who besides writing music has a reoccurring role in CBS’s “The Bold and the Beautiful”. Freeman, with yet to be announced other writers, will be at the October and December events. Doors open at 6 p.m., music starts at 7. Ferguson Farm is at 2989 Union Grove Road. Food is available. Advanced tickets are $35 at: Fine Things in Arab, and online at: www. hitsongwriterseries.com; $45 cash/check at the door; $10 off with coupon from a flyer or Arab Tribune ad. For more info: FB or 256-284-2341. • Aug. 31-Sept. 1 – 48th Annual St. Williams Seafood Festival Seafood is always great at this Labor Day weekend tradition. Held at Guntersville’s Civitan Park. People come from as far as Tennessee and Georgia to
the shores of Lake Guntersville for fill up on the festival’s famous gumbo for $15 per quart, hot or frozen. Cajunboiled shrimp is $15 per pound; catfish and grilled chicken dinners are $10 and $8 respectively. Drive-thru hours for quarts of gumbo and Cajun boiled shrimp are 4-6 p.m. Friday; 7:30 a.m. until sold out Saturday. • Sept. 5-28 – Chris Holmes exhibit Chris Holmes of Arab specializes in southern-made abstract themed art. Color is fully expressed through his work. To achieve this color, he works largely on ceramic and paper surfaces with alcohol ink. You can see his work at his store, Deep South Mercantile, in downtown Arab. A public reception for Chris will be 5-7 p.m. Sept. 6 at The MVAC gallery. It is open 1-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. For more info: 256-571-7199. • Sept. 8 – Arab Community Fair The Arab Historical Society invites you to its annual day of fun, arts and
Color is fully expressed in Chris Holmes’ artwork crafts, games and history in the Historic Village at Arab City Park. New this year will be a program at 10 a.m. in the Hunt School titled “Honoring our Leaders, Past and Present.” Done in conjunction with Alabama’s Bicentennial year of “Honoring our People,” Bob
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them in 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sept. 14-15 at the VFW Post. FFA, 4H and other groups with exhibits should also check them at that time. Judging will be Sunday. For more info: Boaz VFW: 256-5939470.
Performing Sept 8, the “new” Canaan’s Crossing members are, from left, – Drew Long, Dr. Andy Wilks, Hannah Black, Joshua Black and Tim Maze. Joslin, all living former mayors and relatives of deceased mayors are invited. The fair itself is 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and harkens back to Arab’s first fair in 1922. Watch old fashioned corn grindin’, blacksmithin’, log sawin’, needleworkin’ and soap makin’. There will be live music all day in the country store, Rice Church and on the porch of the museum, and vendors will sell food. A Civil War re-enactment group is expected to be there. “And if the old fellows show up, we’ll have a car show,” laughs Juanita Edmondson, director of the village. It’s all fun – and it’s all free. • Sept. 8 – Bluegrass festival Four sweet bluegrass bands will play two sets each providing eight hours at a first-time outdoor concert at Little Mountain Marina Camping Resort on Murphy Hill Road in Langston. Bring your lawn chair, camp if you want and hear Canaan’s Crossing (1 and 5 p.m.), Foggy Hollow Band (2 and 6 p.m.), Backwoods Revival (3 and 7 p.m.) and The Gary Waldrep Band (4 and 8 p.m.). Local musicians will play throughout the day. Hall’s RV and Little Mountain Marina are sponsoring the show. Food and promotional vendors will be on site. Tickets, available at Little Mountain, are $10 in advance; $15 day of the show; $5 for those camping there. • Sept. 11 – Taste of Sand Mountain The Taste of Sand Mountain promises to be just that – a taste of 14
more than 30 of the top restaurants from all over Marshall County. The event is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. outside on Main Street in Boaz. Tickets are $10, and you’ll be able to vote for your favorite restaurant. The top three get a trophy and title as the best Taste of Sand Mountain for 2018. A portion of ticket sales benefits the Coat-A-Kid Project. Feel free to donate new and gently used coats at the tasting. For more info or tickets contact: Boaz Area Chamber of Commerce, 256-593-8154; boazchamber@gmail. com. • Sept. 18-22 – Marshall County Fair The fair’s back for its 61st year of fun, thrills, sights and exhibits for the entire family at the Marshall County VFW Fairgrounds on U.S. 431 in Boaz. Admission is $4; ages 5 and under are free. Also, veterans, active military and those in public safety positions get in free along with three family members. The fair opens 4-9 p.m. Tuesday for special needs families to have access without the crowd. Gates open to the general public at 6 p.m. Tuesday and 5 p.m. the rest of the week; and the fun goes on until 10 p.m. TuesdayThursday and midnight that weekend. The James Gang is again providing the rides. At press time prices were unchanged from 2017. Buy individual tickets or save money with an armband good for unlimited rides, $15 the first two days; or $20 for the other days. Those entering homemade crafts and other typical fair fare should check
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
• Sept. 21-22 – Albertville Community Yard Sale Got good junk? Rather have good money? Businesses, residences and others are encouraged to participate in this annual citywide yard sale. No permit necessary. But if you contact the Albertville Chamber of Commerce, you can buy a $25 yard sale kit that includes signs, tips, mapping and advertising to drive traffic to your location. If you want to offer booth space to others on your property, please contact the chamber so they can refer vendors looking for a spot. For more info contact the chamber: 256-878-3821 or www. albertvillechamberofcommerce.com. • Sept. 21-30 – “Over My Dead Body” Directed by Pat Schobert, The Whole Backstage presents this comedy-thriller adaptation of Robert L. Fish’s 1968 novel “The Murder League.” In the play, the league has fallen on hard times. A roster that once included Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr has dwindled to three aging founders who have seen TV crime stories kill the public’s desire to read about eccentric detectives, murders in locked rooms, and arcane clues. Taunted by a younger writer of violent, sexually-graphic crime stories, they concoct a plan to revitalize interest in their kind of murder. It’s a killer idea that, unlike their old book plots does not go according to script. Performances are Sept. 21-23 and Sept. 27-30; times are 7 p.m. except for 2 p.m. on Sundays. Buy tickets – $10, $16 and $18 – online: www. wholebackstage.com. • Sept. 23 – The “remarkable” Dr. Wyeth Dr. Roderick Davis will present a talk on “The Remarkable Life of Dr. John Allan Wyeth” at 2 p.m. in the
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Sans roof, the church is moved up Sand Mountain on Dec. 6, 2007, for restoration and service in Boaz,
• Oct. 13 – Relocated to Boaz, church turns 100 You are invited this Saturday to visit All Saints Anglican Church in Boaz for the centennial celebration of its church building. Tours of the sanctuary will be given as well as a historical presentation in the adjoining Sunday school building. Originally Church of the Epiphany
in Guntersville, the sanctuary was built in 1918 in the signature “carpenter’s Gothic style” of the day for $1,000. After that congregation moved in 1990, the old church was used as the city’s museum until that function moved into the old armory there. Listed on Alabama Heritage Magazine’s “Places in Peril,” the church received new life with its donation to
the All Saints Anglican Parish in Boaz. In 2007, the building was moved to 706 North Main Street in Boaz, where today Father Rodney Jackson pastors to a congregation of about 25. The celebration will be held 2-4 p.m. Refreshments will be available, and religious icons will be for sale, with all proceeds benefiting the work of the church.
Guntersville Museum. The foremost authority on Dr. Wyeth, Davis is writing a biography on him. His talk will include the famous Guntersville native’s imprisonment in a Civil War POW camp and, later, his lasting contributions to the study of medicine. Davis, also a Guntersville native, is a graduate of Samford, Boston, Yale and Columbia universities. He taught at Rutgers and the City University of New York’s John Jay College for 20 years before returning in 1990 to Samford as the dean of arts and sciences. Admission to the museum is free. It’s open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 1-4 p.m. weekends.
before Aug. 3. For guidelines visit: www.grantchamberofcommerce. com; or Grant’s Mile-Plus Yard Sale on Facebook. • Oct. 3-26 – Two-artist show The diverse artwork of Corinne Cox and Provie Musso will be on exhibit at the Mountain Valley Arts Council gallery. A reception will be held 5-7 p.m. Oct. 9. A Birmingham native, Corinne got a design degree from Florida State, continued her studies and artwork in Atlanta and San Francisco before returning to Alabama to live in her Wedowee home. She loves doing all kinds of art and has a special talent for whimsical clay sculptures. Her colorful raku glazes are an example of her signature look she calls the “CorinneSpin.” Provie, who lives in Killen, is accomplished in all kind of art objects, jewelry, crosses, angels, paintings and mixed media pieces created from found objects. She has a great interest in devotional art, folk art and the art of Mexico. The MVAC gallery is open 1-5
p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. For more info: 256-571-7199. • Oct. 27 – Pink Pumpkin Run The Ninth Annual Pink Pumpkin Run/Walk always draws a crowd. Sponsored by the Foundation for Marshall Medical Centers, the run takes place at Guntersville’s Civitan Park and raises money to benefit mammography and cancer services at MMC for those who cannot afford them. It features a 10K, 5K and a 1-mile/fun run beginning respectively at 9, 9:15 and 10:15 a.m. with awards at 11. There’ll be music, children’s activities and the popular Pink Pancake Brunch at 10:30 a.m. Register online (before Oct. 1 and save $5); or register at 3-6 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Guntersville Rec Center; or from 7-8:45 a.m. on race day. For more info and online pre-registration: www. pinkpumpkinrun.com.
• Sept. 29 – Grant’s Mile-Plus Yard Sale The Grant Chamber of Commerce’s 13th annual Mile-Plus Yard Sale is expected to bring thousands of bargain hunters, starting at 6 a.m., to browse and shop their way a mile down Main Street where 100 or more vendors will offer tons of yard sale bargains. Food vendors will also be on hand. Booth space rents for $25 16
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• Oct. 31 – Trunk or Treat Score big for Halloween, 4-6 p.m. at the Farmers Market in downtown Albertville. For more info: Albertville Chamber of Commerce, 256-878-3821.
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Good People
5questions
Al Reese
Retired NCIS agent leads Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Team: help, hope, healing
Story and photo by David Moore
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l Reese and his wife Deb have always seen the stormy side of life, so to speak. Both had law enforcement careers that included 24 years in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In their retirement, both are members of the Marshall County Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Team, Deb as a chaplain and counselor, Al as the associational coordinator and team leader of 68 volunteers from across the county. Growing up in Anniston, Al was intrigued by the fictionalized, glamorized and secretive side of law enforcement. “I saw all of the James Bond movies,” he says from their comfortable Langston lake house. “When I was a kid I watched The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Secret Agent Man, Elliott Ness ... the whole line up.” David McCallum, who played Russian agent Illya Kuryakin on U.N.C.L.E., later played chief medical examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard on the longrunning TV show NCIS. “When we played UNCLE,” he laughs, “I was always Illya because at the time I had blond hair.” Al’s a big fan of Lee Child’s novel series on Jack Reacher, a former U.S. Army investigator turned drifter. But law enforcement turned real for Al during college when he began working for the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office. His most memorable incident there happened New Year’s Eve in 1979 when he and a partner transported a female inmate to Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka. Deb was a deputy there and assisted with the transfer. “We met in jail,” she likes to say.
I
n April 1981, the year they married, Al and Deb applied for jobs with NCIS. That December, they became the first couple hired by the civilian federal law 18
enforcement agency, charged with investigating felony crime, preventing terrorism and protecting secrets for the Navy and Marine Corps. Their first assignments were in Jacksonville, Fla. “We were criminal investigators,” Al says. “I’ve had a few fights, but not as many as Jack Reacher.” As happens on TV, though, he once solved a crime in one hour. A thief left his jacket at the scene of a crime. Al found the thief’s wallet in the pocket. Case solved. In 1985, he entered into NCIS’s polygraph program, and transferred to the Washington, D.C. area. During part of their 21 years in the area, Deb worked in counterintelligence for NCIS. She had just recently moved from her office at the Pentagon when terrorists flew an airliner into the military complex on 9/11. The plane’s nose crashed through Deb’s former office, killing seven of her coworkers. After Al retired from NCIS in 2005, he did contract work as a liaison between the agency and the Pentagon for another year until Deb retired.
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rior to 2005, the Reeses had planned to retire somewhere near water and mountains. They were about to buy property in Virginia on the Shenandoah River with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, when an odd thought hit Al. “I just don’t feel right about building a house around here,” he told Deb. “What do you think about going down around Lake Guntersville?” Lake Guntersville? He’d only been there a few times in his Anniston days. “Other than the Lord speaking to me, I can’t tell you what made me think of Lake Guntersville,” he says. They looked, found a place in Guntersville, but the contract fell though. Later their agent called them in
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Maryland with news of a home with lots of potential on the water in Langston. They drove back, saw the house, bought it, built a guest suite in the garage and moved there in November 2006 while the house was completely renovated. “We have a pasture in the front yard, the river in the back, Sand Mountain right there,” says Al. “It’s what we always talked about.” Looking for a small country church, they found South Sauty Baptist and loved it. Jerry Butler, pastor at the time, did chainsaw training for the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and recruited Al and Deb. After training, Deb’s first mission was to the heavy Minnesota floods in 2008. Al’s was the Good Friday tornado in 2009 that hit close to home.
1.
What is Southern Baptist Disaster Relief about? In Alabama there are 46 teams with about 7,000 trained volunteers. Across the U.S. there are some 90,000 Southern Baptist volunteers. In 2017 nationwide, they worked more than a million volunteer hours; prepared more than three million meals; provided more than 70,000 showers and cleaned more than 32,000 loads of laundry. If a disaster hits out of state, the only way we can get called out is by the North American Mission Board. If it’s in Marshall County, I can call up our team and go. If it’s too big for us, I call our disaster relief director in Montgomery for help. If they call us, they tell me what they need and a date and ask if I can put together a team to deploy. So I get my list of chainsaw operators and make calls. I have to have a minimum of five volunteers. Twelve
SNAPSHOT: Alan “Al” Reese
FAMILY: Son of Ray and the late Janet Reese, he grew up in Anniston, has two younger brothers, Mike and Eddie. His son, Bart, from a previous marriage, was born in 1977; he lives in Maryland with his wife, Meg, and daughter, Harper Lee Reese. Married the former Deb Dotson of Weaver in 1981. EDUCATION: Anniston High School, 1971; Jacksonville State University, 1976, degree in criminal justice. CAREER: 1974 began working for Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office as a jailer and later a road deputy. Along with Deb, went to work in December 1981 with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service; served as a criminal investigator/field agent; for 16 years as a polygraph specialist, seven of those as polygraph program manager; five years as special agent in charge of the Special Operations and Undercover Division; retired in 2005. ACTIVITIES: Deacon, South Sauty Baptist Church, where he and Deb teach Sun-day school; active in New Covenant Emmaus Community; member of Gideons International; loves shooting nature photography.
As a disaster relief team counselor and chaplain, Deb Reese worked with a young girl named Megan, at right, following the deadly EF-5 Tornado that struck Moore, OK, in 2012. The tornado hit Megan’s school, killing a number of students, including a girlfriend of Megan’s. Deb – along with a teddy bear – helped her deal with survivor’s guilt. is a good number to manage. If we put together a team, they have already identified a church in the disaster area to host us. A deployment will last a week, usually five days of work plus travel. Our Marshall County unit typically covers transportation cost. Meals are provided for us by a mass feeding unit. We have equipment trailers with our chainsaw and wheelbarrows and rakes and ladders to tarp roofs as necessary. We have a trailer to haul our tractor with a grabber on it. We take our own air mattresses and basically camp out in a church family life center or a gym. Typically we are up by 7 and try to start by 8. You make people mad if you run a chainsaw too early. We work from “can to can’t” and take lunch to the field. We usually wrap up about 5. Most importantly, we begin and end our days in prayer time. We are familiar with death and tragedy. But this is a commission Jesus gave us, to love our neighbors.
2.
What dangers might the relief team face at the site of a natural or manmade disaster? After 9/11 we had people who worked the World Trade Center site. My mentor, Jerry Butler was one of those. We don’t have that many, but we do work manmade disasters. In terms of natural disasters, weather is a concern. On a job with thunderstorms with lightning, you wait ‘til it passes. 20
Here, in 2011, we got hit with morning tornadoes and again with afternoon tornadoes. We had to stop several times that day because tornadoes were in the area. Safety is a key concern. One of the responsibilities of the team leader is to watch the work going on and make sure there are not safety infractions. You’re working with chainsaws. The equipment can be hazardous. We wear safety equipment, chainsaw chaps with Kevlar. Protective gloves with Kevlar, helmets with face shield and hearing protection. Before we start work, we survey the area, looking for potential hazards … downed power lines, where septic tanks and gas lines are buried, propane tanks. We watch for what we call “dangling participles,” broken limbs hung up in trees. If we have to get on a house to cut a tree off of it, we make sure the structure will not fall in on us. When you are working cleanup from a flood, a serious potential hazard is black mold. We wear masks to protect ourselves Snakes are a hazard. While in Louisiana, a lady with another team told us that when they opened the door to enter a house. The lights were out, no power, but they saw the floor moving. When they flashed a light on it, it was covered with snakes. I asked what they did. She said they shut the door and left. We have been on two deployments where heart attacks occurred. One resulted in the death of an Alabama team member.
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Another concern is heat and physical exhaustion. When you do laborious work in the heat and humidity, it can be a killer. You have to make sure your team is hydrated. You have to avoid heat stroke. Disaster relief is not for the fainthearted. Most of our members are retired and older than me, and I’m 65. It’s hard to find young people who can volunteer because they can’t get off work.
3.
Which disaster in your resume stands out, and why? Can you even pick one? It’s difficult but there were two. In 2009, South Sauty/Langston was struck by the Good Friday tornado. It was bad. We could see the funnel cloud moving across the river. That Monday morning we were struck by a “gravity wave” with sustained straight line winds of 70 miles per hour for four hours. We worked about three weeks cutting trees and removing debris. When you go somewhere else for disasters, you meet people, basically, by Divine appointment and never see them again in this life. But the Good Friday incident affected members of our church family and friends. We know them personally. For two of our widow ladies, we had to cut our way through several miles of trees blocking the roadway and evacuate them by boat. We offered shelter to a number of families here at our home for several days. If there is a nice side of working a
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23 Marshall County churches have members on local disaster relief team The Marshall County Disaster Relief Program consists of 68 volunteers from 23 churches within the Marshall Baptist Association. They serve in the capacities of: administration, assessment, chainsaw operators, chaplaincy/crisis counselors, child-care, clean-up/recovery, communications, feeding, shower unit and water purification. Their work is strictly volunteer, and crews never ask victims for money to support their efforts. They work on donations from local churches and individuals. The following churches are represented: • Albertville FBC • Central • Arab FBC • Cornerstone • Bethany • Creekpath • Bethlehem • Eastside • Boaz FBC • Gilliam Springs
local issue, it’s that you get to sleep in your own bed at night. In 2011, an EF5 tornado killed seven people in Rainsville. There were other deaths outside the town. It was basically here in our backyard as the crow flies. I did assessments, looking for work a chainsaw team could do outside of town where the tornado had touched down. I saw a house that had minor damage with trees on the roof, but across the road another house was destroyed. There was an L-shaped wall with a corner fireplace and that was all that was left of it. I could see children’s toys dangling from a tree. At the house that had trees on the roof, I recognized the gentleman who came to the door as part of a construction crew that had worked on our church. He said that after the tornado passed, he came out and looked across the street to what had been his daughter’s house. At the time he did not know if they were OK. He said he saw that scene and it almost gave him a heart attack. He learned that his son-in-law had protected his family where that fireplace was. He suffered some broken bones from flying debris. He’d huddled over the wife and children, and they were unhurt. 22
The Marshall County crew with an unidentified tornado victim, front center, at Riddles Bend in Southside near Gadsden, March 2018, consisted of: from left, Stan Clemons, Ronald Pendergrass, Al Reese, Johnnie Bradshaw, Carl Williams, Kerry Mitchell and Doyce Walker. • Grace • Grace Fellowship • Grant FBC • Guntersville FBC • Life Point
• Mt Vernon • Mt View • New Covenant • Primera Iglesia Bautista
When you see how everything in a tornado’s path is gone completely or in remnants of destruction, it shows you the power of nature. Man has no ability to stop or evade it.
4.
Disasters can bring out the ugly side of people, but they are said to often bring out the best in mankind. Can you relate any examples of both? Although truly insignificant in the overall scheme of things, some of the worst in people I’ve seen was in 2010 while working the tornado in Albertville. Thinking about it now, it’s almost humorous … I was driving down a neighborhood road and needed to turn around. An elderly lady, who had no storm damage, was sweeping her driveway. I had a disaster relief emblem on my truck and asked politely if I could turn around in her driveway. She looked at me and said, “I don’t care who you are or who you’re with, you’re not turning around in my driveway.” I said, “Thank you very much. I hope you have a blessed day.” I can assure you, her unreasonable attitude would have
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
• Red Apple • South Sauty • Union Grove FBC
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been totally different if she’d had any damage. Another petty stuff “worst” incident was in Florida. We were working in a widow lady’s yard, and part of one of her trees had fallen into the neighbor’s yard. Rather than taking that debris out to the road, the neighbor was throwing it over the fence into the widow lady’s yard. Another ugly side you run into all the time with any type of disaster is price gouging. The perfect example was in St. Augustine following Hurricane Matthew. While doing assessments, Debbie and I observed a house with several huge trees down. We stopped, identified ourselves and told the homeowner what we did. He kept asking how much it was going to cost him for us to do the work. I gave him my typical response … it wasn’t going to cost him anything. We were there as ambassadors for Christ to show our Christian love, and that Christ had paid the cost on the cross. The man quizzed me several more times: “It’s not going to cost me a penny?” I assured him it would not. He welled up with tears and related that two men who had just left wanted to charge him $5,000 to cut those trees.
We had a team do a good job for him, and they were able to witness to him. He said he had not been to church in years, but he was going to start going back. The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief slogan is that we are there to offer “help, hope and healing.” The help we offer is to help clean up a mess, obviously. The hope we are there to show them is that someone cares – the love of Christ. At that point and time the healing can begin. You never know what type of impact you’ll have on an individual, aside from the disaster relief. It’s important they have someone they can talk to. We’re the same. We have debriefings at the end of the day, at the end of a mission. Sometimes we need someone to talk to, too.
Seeing neighbors help neighbors is one of the good sides of people that we see. Like the “Bayou Navy” in Louisiana. It’s a bunch of good ole boys who take their personal boats out to help their neighbors. Sometimes we offer victims help and they say, “You know what? I don’t need help as much as my neighbor.”
5.
What’s something most people don’t know about Al Reese? Speaking of good ole boys, Debbie says I have an alter ego – Bubba Ray. Without pictures I don’t know how you’ll explain it. (“No pictures!” Deb says.) Bubba Ray is a character I invented
during management school in Colorado in 1996. He wears fake missing teeth and a coonskin cap askew. His cap belongs to Daniel Boone … at least that’s what I was told when I bought it. Bubba Ray has been known to photo bomb rear admirals and show up at birthday parties and homecoming events. You never know where he might show up. I also have another alter ego: James Bond. You know how I said I was into that when I was a kid. Well, when I was issued my NCIS credentials in 1981, I looked down and saw my agent number. It was 3007. I was tickled to death. It was obviously meant to be. I’m sure James Bond is jealous. Good Life Magazine
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Good Reads
Rick Bragg serves a delectable tribute to his mom’s cooking
‘Love and Ruin’ continues McLain’s Hemingway saga
eloved Alabama storyteller and Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg has written a loving tribute to his mother, Margaret, in”The Best Cook in the World.” As she turned 80, her health declining, Bragg realized that none of her recipes, passed from generation to generation were written down. “Well, how do you know Margaret, who had when it’s done?” never owned a cookbook, “By how it smells.” mixer or measuring cup,
aula McLain’s historical novel “The Paris Wife” depicted the magical time in the 1920s shared by Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, before the appearance of Pauline Pfeiffer. In “Love and Ruin” McLain continues the Hemingway saga as she explores the relationship “Paradise is always between him and his third fragile. That is its wife, Martha Gelhorn. The couple met briefly very nature.” in Key West before becoming romantically involved while both were serving as war correspondents in the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Afterward they moved to Havana and lived in the idyllic tropical villa Finca Vigia, while awaiting a divorce from Pauline. Hemingway was also writing “For Whom the Bell Tolls” based on his experiences in Spain and which would become one of his most acclaimed and successful novels. They were finally married in 1940 after the publication of the book which he dedicated to her. Hemingway, much older than Gelhorn, was a handsome, successful writer who took great pride in his masculinity. Attractive, independent and ambitious, Gelhorn was keen to continue her own writing and journalistic career. Conflict was inevitable between this tumultuous couple. The marriage already in jeopardy, they covered WWII separately. She became one of the first journalists to wade ashore on D-Day, while he arrived in Europe later. It was there that he met his fourth and final wife, Mary. Hemingway and Gelhorn divorced in 1945, ending this somewhat brief romantic interlude in their fascinating lives. – Annette Haislip
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measured ingredients by using “a dash, a dab, a smidgen or a handful.” So, her son patiently put 75 of her recipes on paper by watching her cook while listening to the stories she told about the origin of each recipe. As a result, the book is less cookbook and more of what the subtitle states, “Tales from My Momma’s Table.” The stories, sometimes hilarious, involve characters that are familiar from previous novels: great-grandfather Jimmy Jim, grandfather and grandmother Charlie and Ava and, of course, Margaret and her delightful sisters. These simple recipes are those of rural, blue collar southerners who, of necessity, ate mostly home grown vegetables, chickens and pigs (with the occasional ‘possum or squirrel thrown in). The basic “must haves” are bacon drippings, lard, Crisco, butter and the indispensable iron skillet. Many of these dishes are now southern classics ... fried chicken, potato salad, fried green tomatoes, sweet potato pie and tea cakes. Rick Bragg has beautifully captured an earlier era when families gathered at mealtimes, bonded together by the loving hands that had prepared the food. – Annette Haislip 24
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Meet Jeremy and Kera Gilbreath ...
The Sand Mountain Foodies Story and photos by David Moore
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Son of David and Jackie Gilbreath and big brother to Morgan Leath, Jeremy graduated from Boaz High in 2005 and did general studies at Snead State with no set direction. An athlete in school, he got culinary
Good Cooking
and finally they decided on the institute at what was then Faulker State in Gulf Shores. “We weighed the options, and I got the best bang for my buck in Gulf Shores,” he says. If one believes in “signs,” he met Kera the first day of classes.
ell, they do have three dogs. But it’s safe to say that cooking and eating are central to Jeremy and Kera Gilbreath’s life together. They’re foodies in every sense of the word. And when they deem the time is right to go into catering full time – aughter of Tom and Allecia when that dish is ready for serving Mullins of Anniston, Kera graduated – the food aspects of their lives will from Sacred Heart School there, be all the more consuming. They undecided on a career path. Her may start spelling foodie with a mom was a teacher, her dad a capital F. librarian, but the influence that Jeremy, 31, hails from Boaz; won came from cooking with her Kera, 29, from Anniston. They live grandmothers. in Albertville. “I had a scholarship to go to He works 60 hours a week Spring Hill College, but I wanted to as a service adviser at Nissan cook,” she says. of Gadsden. She cooks in the She, too, looked at various lunchroom at Albertville High and schools, came to the same rolls out works of art at Rock-Nconclusion as Jeremy and moved to Roll Sushi in Gadsden. Gulf Shores. On top of that, they work 25-30 “I was always shy. He’s the hours a week catering and – with talkative one,” she laughs. “But my his mom – running their business, mother told me to talk to people at Ole Time Canning Company. school, so I walked up and started “We work. We eat. We travel talking to him the first day.” all we can,” Jeremy says. “And we They dated through college, cook a lot.” graduated in 2009 and married in When they go out to eat, it’s not 2011. As for work, they followed Besides date-night grocery shopping, traveling like most folks. their spirits and noses to a wide to eat out, full-time jobs and catering, Kera and One recent outing they hit range of kitchens. Jeremy, along with his mom, Jackie, started Ole three restaurants in Huntsville: “Work?” “Jeremy says. “Where Time Catering and Canning Co. To contact Ale’s Kitchen at Straight to Ale, didn’t we work?” them: fishermangilly@hotmail.com. Bar Louie’s at Bridge Street and They cooked at a dude ranch in Below the Radar. Another time they Jackson Hole, WY. They bought the stopped at restaurants they found old Red Barn in Albertville where on a 200-mile motorcycle cruise. leaning from his grandfather Billy Ray TJ’s Hot Wings is now. They went to “I didn’t get this big by accident,” Gilbreath, who was known for his fried Orange Beach for several years, working Jeremy laughs. “We find these places to pies. Jeremy also watched pros fish at at Cosmos, Rum Runners and, when it eat, take pictures of our food then try to Lake Guntersville and dreamed of doing changed, Live Bait at the Wharf. mimic it back home.” that. His mind was probably made up “We did anything and everything we “We go grocery shopping, and it’s date during a stay with his parents at Little could around the food service industry,” night,” Kera laughs, too. “We enjoy it. We Mountain Marina in Langston. Jeremy says. “You can make a ton of enjoy cooking together.” “We cooked and cooked and cooked.” money down there.” And he enjoyed it. “I had sort of made But a lot of the money dried up after the nother Gilbreath commonality my mind up that I was going to try Gulf oil spill. Plus they missed friends and is that both earned associate degrees in something different. I didn’t want a family – Kera’s grandmothers had died – hospitality management and culinary arts warehouse job.” so they moved to Albertville in 2014. from Gulf Coast Culinary Institute in Gulf So he and Jackie researched culinary Shores. schools. Many were very expensive, esides day jobs, the Gilbreaths
D
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MAPLE GLAZED PORK LOIN ½ pork loin 2 Tbsp. salt 2 Tbsp. black pepper 1 Tbsp. granulated garlic 1 cup real maple syrup 3 sprigs fresh rosemary ½ cup water 2 Tbsp. cornstarch slurry (equal parts cornstarch and water) Combine salt, pepper and garlic and generously rub over loin. Place loin fat side up on baking sheet pan. Bake at 400° until internal temperature reaches 160°. In a sauce pot combine maple syrup, rosemary and water. Bring to boil and add slurry, constantly stirring until sauce thickens. Cut loin into ½-in. slices and ladle on glaze. If desired, garnish with fresh rosemary.
began catering private parties and weddings. They cooked for Robert and Lynn Entrekin at Spices Catering and Smokehouse Market in Boaz and began cooking weekly at Grace Fellowship Presbyterian in Albertville. Along with Jackie they started Ole 28
NOT YOUR MAMA’S BROCCOLI 2 full heads of fresh broccoli 1 red onion, thinly sliced 6-8 baby bella mushrooms, thinly sliced 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. black pepper 1 tsp. garlic powder 1 tsp. paprika 3 Tbsp. olive oil 1 Tbsp. soy sauce Trim broccoli into florets; place in salted boiling water 2 min. Remove from heat, ice down quickly. Broccoli should be crisp with a bright, vibrant color. Spray baking sheet pan. Add mushrooms, onions and broccoli to pan. Mix oil and soy sauce; sprinkle on onions and broccoli; mix seasonings and sprinkle them on. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until onions are fork tender.
Time Catering and Canning Co., making jellies, pickles, dips and such. “We got recipes from old church cookbooks, not the stuff you see on TV now,” Jeremy says. “We modernize them to a certain extent but kept the old Ball Jars with rings.”
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
In another year, they think they’ll be ready to cater full time. Meanwhile – in addition to their pets – the Sand Mountain foodies have restaurants to discover and dishes to mimic and make their own. Here are some of their recipes …
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DREAMSICLE CAKE Cake 1 box white cake mix 1 package orange Jell-O 1 can Mandarin oranges Icing ½ cup softened butter 3 oz. softened cream cheese 4 cups powdered sugar 2 tsp. vanilla In a Bundt pan, prepare cake mix as directed, except replace water with Mandarin juice from can. Prepare Jell-O as directed. Pour Jell-O liquid over cooked cake while still in pan. Place in refrigerator for at least half an hour. Beat softened butter and cream cheese until well blended. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until creamy. Flip cooled cake out of pan. Apply icing to cake and add mandarin oranges.
PAWPAW’S CHOCOLATE BUNDT CAKE Cake 1 cup unsalted butter (melted) 1 cup water 1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tsp. salt 2 cups flour 1¾ cup sugar 1½ baking soda 2 eggs ½ cup sour cream 1 tsp. vanilla Icing 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips ½ Tbsp. light corn syrup ½ cup milk 1 ½ Tbsp. powdered sugar 30
Mix together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add butter and water and whisk until combined. Add cocoa and vanilla; mix thoroughly. Whisk in sour cream. Pour batter into a greased Bundt pan. Bake at 350° 30–40 minutes or until firmly set. Cook milk and sugar in saucepan until sugar dissolves. Pour mixture over chocolate and corn syrup. Let stand for a few minutes. Whisk until smooth and drizzle over cooled cake. Photo provided
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
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CULLMAN COUNTY
MARSHALL COUNTY
HydroFest makes a splash ... with help from tons of volunteers See why Thompson Falls is among Marshall County’s ‘Seven Wonders’ Robert and Mary Bodine’s home is steeped in a deep heritage
Sports artist Daniel A. Moore to exhibit at Burrow Museum Firehouse recipes offer a taste of life for Cullman firefighters Spud Campbell talks about living with the sinking of the Henry Bacon
FALL 2018 COMPLIMENTARY
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TWICE BAKED POTATOES 6 baking potatoes 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil 3 Tbsp. kosher salt 2 sticks of melted butter 1 cup ranch dressing 1 Tbsp. BBQ rub (We like Bad Byron’s Butt Rub) ½ cup sour cream 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 3 green onions, thinly sliced Rub potatoes with oil and salt. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until fork tender. Split in half and remove ¾ of the cooked potatoes inside; be careful and leave skin intact. Mix butter, ranch, rub, sour cream and cheese with removed part of potatoes. Place mixture back into skins. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Garnish with more cheese, sliced green onions and more rub, if desired. Photo provided EGGS IN A CLOUD 4 eggs ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese 4 sliced green onions 4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
Separate eggs, putting whites into one bowl and yolks into separate small bowls. Whip whites into stiff peaks. Fold in cheese, green onions and bacon. Spoon in to four mounds on a sprayed
OLE TIMEY CHOCOLATE COBBLER ½ cup sugar 1½ cup flour (self-rising) 3/4 cup milk 1 Tbsp. vanilla 2 sticks butter 1 cup sugar 6 Tbsp. cocoa powder 1½ cups hot water Melt butter in 9x13 pan. In a bowl mix sugar, flour, milk and vanilla. Pour over melted butter. Do not stir. In a bowl, mix sugar and cocoa powder. Sprinkle over flour mixture in pan. Do not stir. Add hot water to the mixtures. Bake at 325° for 20-30 minutes. 32
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
baking sheet pan. Make a deep well in each mound. Bake at 450° for 3 minutes. Add yolks to each mound and bake until yolks are set (2-3 minutes).
GARLIC AND ALMOND RICE PILAF 2 cups Jasmine rice 3-1/3 cups vegetable stock ½ cup sliced almonds 1½ Tbsp. granulated garlic ½ Tbsp. paprika ½ Tbsp. salt Spray 9x13 in. baking dish, add all ingredients and stir. Wrap pan tightly with aluminum foil. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until all stock is absorbed and rice is tender. Fluff with fork. Serves 6-8.
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CRISPY ROAST CHICKEN 4 leg quarters 2 sticks softened butter 1 Tbsp. salt 1 Tbsp. black pepper 1 Tbsp. granulated garlic Juice of 2 lemons
Wash chicken and pat dry. Make small openings on the edge of chicken to separate skin from meat. Mix lemon juice with butter and garlic and place mixture under chicken skin. Pat dry again (dry equals crispy).
JACKIE’S SWEET PICKLES 2 lbs. thinly sliced cucumbers ½ lb. thinly sliced onion ¼ cup salt 2 cups sugar 2 cups cider vinegar 1 tsp. celery seed 1 tsp. ground turmeric 1 tsp. yellow mustard 2 tsp. mustard seed For 2 hours soak cucumbers and onion and saltwater (2 parts water to 1 part salt); drain and rinse. Combine salt, sugar, vinegar, celery seed, turmeric, mustard and mustard seed in a large bowl and whisk. Add cucumbers and onions; soak for at least 2 hours. Pack sterilized jars with cucumbers and onions; add liquid to within ½ in. of the jar top. Seal jars tightly; place in boiling water bath for 5 minutes; remove from water; place on counter; do not move until lids pop and seal. 34
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Sprinkle salt and pepper generously over chicken. Bake at 400° until internal temperature reaches 165°. Photo provided
MAMA’S SQUASH PICKLES 8 cups sliced yellow squash 4 medium sliced bell peppers 2 cups sliced onions 3 teaspoons mustard seed 2 teaspoons celery seed 1/3 cup salt 3 cups white sugar 2 cups white vinegar 1 teaspoon pickling spice Mix squash, peppers, onions, mustard seed and celery seed together. Sprinkle with salt. Let stand one hour, drain. Add vinegar, sugar, and spice. Cook until tender. Pack sterilized jars with squash; add liquid to within ½ in. of the jar top. Seal jars tightly; place in boiling water bath for 5 minutes; remove from water; place on counter; do not move until lids pop and seal.
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‘It’s just an old house’
Robert and Mary Bodine’s house sits on 100 acres of rolling pasture and hilly woods, overlooking Browns Valley Road and, in the distance, part of the Browns Creek area of Lake Guntersville. The house has been extensively remodeled since Robert’s great grandfather Vernon Bodine finished it in 1903.
Story and photos by David Moore
R
obert and Mary Bodine downplay their home on Browns Valley Road. “It’s just an old house,” he says. “We keep it country.” Comfortable. Flows. Those descriptions are apt. But the qualifier “just” just doesn’t do it justice. For starts, the house sits on 100 acres. As owners of Marshall Lawn Care and Landscaping, the Bodines keep the grounds gorgeous. From the porch, the expansive front yard spreads out downhill to white 38
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
fences lining either side of the road then a large pasture with a scattering of trees. Beyond that, one sees the southern shore of Lake Guntersville’s Browns Creek a quarter-mile away. “Old” house is true. Robert’s greatgrandfather Vernon finished it in 1903. But the family has been on the land since 1831. Eight generations are buried in the nearby Bodine Cemetery, designated by a state historic marker on the main road, formerly known as Suck Egg Road. Robert, and Mary, too, are indelibly tied to the land. Their home is saturated in family history like few in Marshall County.
Robert opens his copy of “Bodines of Marshall County, Alabama, and Genealogy,” written by the late Thomas Bodine of Brashiers Chapel Road near Arab. With 289 pages of genealogy, family photos, accompanying identifications and tidbits, the book is nearly as thick as a family Bible. Growing up, Robert was immersed in family history and lore. “We called them front porch stories,” he says. “You had no TV. You just talked about your history.” For instance, how Suck Egg Road got its name …
Mary and Robert, upper left, have put a lot into their yard. Besides lots of shrubbery and flowers, various accent areas are connected by stone pathways. Robert found the old millstone on the property. The original double fireplace in the kitchen has a backside open to the dining room, left. The dining room used to be a bedroom, and Robert remembers lying on a corn shuck bed listening to his elders play musical instruments in the kitchen. Stairs at the end of the living room lead to a sitting room, two guest rooms and one of three baths in the 2,800-square-foot house.
T
he Bodines mostly hailed from France, Robert says, Huguenots fleeing religious persecution. “Fire and brimstone Baptists,” Robert calls them. James Bodine fought in the War of 1812. He lived in Virginia, later Sevier County, Tenn., and, in 1831, moved with his family to what later became Marshall County. James received a land grant for 1,800 acres in Browns Valley. Robert’s aunt Louise B. Sewell, 92 years young, still lives on part of the property. James had a son named Cobb, and it was Cobb’s son Vernon who – at age 19
– started building the homestead where Robert and Mary now live. “He built it with a lantern at night after farming during the day,” Robert says. There was a reason he went to the trouble: He wanted to marry a neighbor, Bardoth Ann Moon, but her preacher father made it hard on her suitor. “He required Vernon to have a house to prove he was good enough for his daughter,” Robert says, reciting family lore. “And he wanted to make sure there was smoke coming from the cook stove. So Vernon kept a fire going, even in the summer, to make sure Preacher Moon was
happy. A fire meant his daughter had food to cook.” The house had four rooms built around a core kitchen with a fireplace. Robert’s grandfather, Samuel “Sam” Bodine, and his wife, Sophie Mae grew “cotton, cotton, cotton” on the expanse of land in the valley, an expanse that shrank in the 1930s as TVA began acquiring 110,145 acres for Guntersville Dam and reservoir. “I remember Grandfather talking about TVA getting all of his good land,” Robert says. “But I think TVA was great. Before that, this was a pig trail out here. It was a long way to Guntersville by wagon.” AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
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Shot prior to Robert’s renovation in 1990, the top photo shows how the rooms of the old house “spoked” out from the kitchen and fireplace in the center. Above, the most recent three generations of the six generations of Bodines to live on the same land in Browns Valley: Frank, Robert and Sam. Frank and Robert are deceased.
G
oing back several generations, Robert says, that pig trail was called Suck Egg Road, a name tied to a day of peddlers who bartered with flour, sugar and such to get eggs from country folks. They’d sell the eggs to town folks then buy more flour and sugar. Because of a large population of skunks and possums in Browns Valley, the farmers and their wives often had bad news for the peddlers. “The people in the valley said all the eggs were sucked,” Robert says. His dad, Frank, grew up farming peanuts in the valley, but after marrying Nettie Faye LaFevor in 1950 they bought a row crop farm east in Alder Springs on Sand Mountain. Robert, who was born in 1958, grew up there with his brother Randy and sister Glenese. But Robert’s young heart was in Browns Valley. “We would come here at least 40
twice a week,” he says. “I always had a passion for the valley. It was my ancestors’ home.” Robert graduated from Albertville High in 1976, attended Snead and got married in 1978. The same year they moved to a house near the old homestead, just off Suck Egg Road, and they had twins: Brad, who is married to Jessica, has two kids, lives nearby and works with his dad; and Chad, who lived in Tennessee and died in May. Especially after the twins arrived, Robert found it hard to make a living farming, which was all he’d ever done. “I enjoyed working in the dirt. I worked in the dirt all my life,” he says. “And I saw a need for lawn care and landscaping.” So in 1983 he started his business, which – fittingly for a man with dirt in his blood and deep running roots – involves growing roots in the ground. He operates the business from his farm, employing 38 full-time people.
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
Robert’s grandfather had died in 1977, but Sophie Mae continued to live in the old house. Robert visited often, bringing firewood daily when her health started declining. With further declines, Sophie went to live with her daughter in Atlanta. Robert acquired the old house, started an extensive remodeling project in 1990 and in 1991 moved in. Sophie, he thinks, would have loved the “new” house, but she never saw it. “The next time she came by was in a hearse on her way to the family cemetery,” he says.
M
ary Stoner entered Robert’s life and deeply rooted family in 1995. Daughter of James, 90, and the late Kathleen Stoner, Mary is an Arab High graduate. She’d been married before when she met Robert during her 15-year stint in the insurance business with Hal
As history, Mary had a sign built for their driveway reading Suck Egg Lane, a whimsical nod to what Browns Valley Road was – and sometimes still is – known as. The long drive leads to their on-premise business, past two barns and up the wooded hillside to their house. The stone patio in the lower part of the front yard has a chair that offers quite the view. Browns Valley Road runs between the white fences that border the Bodines’ property. The back of the house has a deck with an outdoor living area and a hot tub. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
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Vandervoort. It was a slightly less than romantic beginning. “I wrote the policy on Robert’s business,” she says. “Later on I wrote his personal vehicles and house insurance.” Now single again, he eventually asked if she was, too, which led to a dinner at Red Lobster in Huntsville and six and half years of dating. “I wanted to be sure,” she says. “We took it kind of slow but we always had fun and laughed.” She also wanted to wait until her son, Mark Edwards, graduated from Auburn and got established. He did both. Today, Mark is principal at Arab Junior High School; he and his wife, Kara, have two kids. In 1999 Robert asked if she wanted to work for him. She was hesitant but eventually said yes. She said yes again in 2001 — they got married.
I
The upstairs sitting room, top, is where the Bodines feel Grandpa Sam’s benevolent spirit. Also on the property is what Mary calls the “party barn,” center, site of the Bodine family reunion in July that drew 169 people. Above, Robert visits nearby Bodine Cemetery, where family members have been buried since 1836. 42
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
n addition to the landscaping business, the Bodines raise registered longhorns and corn and hay for feed. Occasionally they find time to sit on the porch. “Not enough,” Robert says. “Nobody ever does. But we sit back and look at what God gave us.” Like porch stories of old, Robert, especially, likes to recall the past. “All of those things when I was a kid … Grandmother cooking in that kitchen with a wood stove, the old Farmall tractor, chickens on the porch, Papa giving me a nickel for every egg I found.” “It’s hard to comprehend,” Mary says. “Younger people just assume it was always like it is now.” Maybe this is hard to comprehend. Maybe not. But Robert and Mary sense that Grandpa Sam is still in their “just an old house.” “I don’t think he likes the modern conveniences, like the security system,” Mary laughs. “We’ve not seen anything, but you feel his presence,” Robert says. “Papa is here. He’s saying it’s OK.” He would, Robert adds, be tickled that the old homestead and farm in Browns Valley remain in – and are cherished by – Bodines. Good Life Magazine
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• Blueberries – Little disease, minimal pruning, low fertility needs … This is truly the walking dog of easy fruit. Plus blueberries are high in antioxidants and have anti-aging activity. For this part of the state, I’d go with the Rabbiteye Blueberry. Tiffblue, Premier and Climax are good varieties requiring little
Good ’n’ Green
Easy-pickin’, easy-growin’ fruit for you
Story by Hunter McBrayer Marshall County Extension
W
hen I talk to people from other parts of the country, they always have one response to my being from Alabama: “Aren’t the summers miserable?” While the sweltering heat and high humidity of Alabama can make for a bad hair day or a high utility bill, we all know what summer brings us … fresh fruit and veggies! While
• Blackberries – I don’t recommend a thorny blackberry patch for your lawn, but this plant has come a long way in terms of domestication. Development of thornless blackberries might even attract those that have been caught in a seemingly never-ending patch of wild brambles. Another thing that you may like are blackberries as big as your thumb! Blackberries are easy to grow and can be trained to grow on a trellis. There are many videos out there that show how to do this. I promise – give blackberries a try and you won’t regret it. 44
to no spraying for insects or disease and generally produce fruit in the second or third year after transplanting. By year six they can produce up to 2 gallons per plant. The key to successful blueberries is to maintain an acidic soil in a pH range of 4.5-5.2. (test your soil.) Use a 10-10-10 or azalea food fertilizer.
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
many folks head to farm stands to pick up their locally grown produce, the more adventurous choose to grow their own. As an Extension Agent, I talk to countless clients throughout the year who want to know what’s the “easiest” fruit for the average home gardener to grow. While this may be a loaded question – everything takes some work – there are a few fruits I generally recommend that can be grown with minimal maintenance and that will produce a bounty crop for you.
• Muscadines – Muscadine grapes may be the best choice of them for growing fruit in a southern landscape. They’re tough, disease resistant and reliable. Muscadines need sun and a good trellis (a single-wire system is best). They don’t require much spraying but do need pruning in February or March. Some folks collect a wild growing vine, but I suggest you spend a little money on perfect-flowered plants that don’t require male and female vines. Fertilize lightly in May and July for spectacular fruit in September or October.
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Good Eats
Buffalo Eddie’s
You’ll know it when you get there by the food, beer ... oh, and the buffalo
and the more tart and fruity Boysenberry Smoothie Sour. I also appreciated the dark, strong flavor of Straight to Ale’s Old Cootie and their 8th Anniversary, which is a Belgian Dark. ike many old married folks, Rose and I generally cook Our flight took off and was followed by two more, all of and eat dinner at home after work during the week, saving our which were distinctive in dining out for the weekend. taste and color, making for On a recent Wednesday, a fun evening of sipping though, we decided to and comparing. shake things up, go have a If you find a favorite beer and let someone else you want to take home, the do the cooking. bar has growlers available We headed to the for purchase. Wyndham Garden in An easy way to see Guntersville and down the what’s on tap and a handy stairs to the new Buffalo description of each is Eddie’s Pour House. Now to download the free if you’re recalling the DigitalPour App. Buffalo previous smoky bars from Eddie’s pops right up with past decades with red a list of what’s pouring. carpets up the walls and An order of pub disco music blaring, kick food was the perfect that memory aside. accompaniment to the beer, The space is completely and Buffalo Eddie’s has its redone into a beautiful, own menu. We started with welcoming light-filled Beer Battered Mushrooms, atmosphere. A shiplap along with a big Smokey wall behind the bar sets Bacon Swiss burger with the stage for the design, hand-cut fries on the side. which includes tin on the A plate of fiery Buffalo walls with black tables Wings disappeared too and chairs. A glass garage quickly, and a pile of door opens onto the deck Loaded Philly Cheesesteak with more seating for those Fries with grilled Angus wanting to take in a lake beef, sautéed onions, view while listening to mushrooms, bell peppers music. and Provolone cheese put “The water is a relaxing us over the top. draw,” says Shonda Wall, Buffalo Eddie, who stands near the entrance, likes the beerAlso available are sales manager at the battered mushrooms and almost any kind of craft beer. Sourdough Pretzels, Wyndham. “Our regular Smoked Chicken guests love the new bar.” Quesadillas, Onion Rings, That’s largely because it Jalapeño Poppers, Mozzarella Sticks and Fried Pickles. A offers 30 craft beers on tap. That makes choosing a challenge, Club Sandwich, Sliders and three salads round out the pub but at least they make it easy. Beer tasting flights come with menu. four 5-ounce glasses of anything you want to try. I started with two I thought Rose might like and two I thought I would like. She is not a beer drinker so I knew light his new bar has been a longtime dream of hotel owner and flavored would be a good choice for the lady. I went for the Chrys King. dark stuff. That’s why a flight is so great – it’s an easy way to “The new concept of the bar spun from our love of craft find something for any taste and to try something new. beer, and we thought it would be a great addition to our town of Guntersville,” he says. liked the flavorful Yellowhammer Miracle Worker King, his wife Janessa and a business partner, Stan March, while Rose enjoyed the smooth Goat Island Blood Orange had fun with the new creation, especially the name. Stan had Story by David Myers Photos by David Moore
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Clockwise from upper left: enjoy a burger with a lake view at Eddie’s; or a flight of beers from, say, Blue Pants, Main Channel, Ghost Train and Yellowhammer; Cindy and Paul Luna, Wyndham guests from Las Vegas, take a break from looking at lake property; locals take a break at the bar, where Crystal Cox is in charge; and hot wings are always enjoyable.
introduced them to “The Possum Posse’s – Guy on a Buffalo” on YouTube. “We knew that the buffalo would have to be included in our new concept,” Chrys explains. They love Alabama football, and Eddie Lacey helped the Tide win three national championships. During a game in 2012, Chrys and Janessa gave Stan a toy buffalo with a tiny saddle strapped to its back, which Stan named Eddie.
“Little Eddie goes with us everywhere,” Chrys says. “And we now have a life-size buffalo named Eddie welcoming everyone into the tap room.” So, with a little humor and a lot of enthusiasm for craft beer, Buffalo Eddie’s Pour House was born this summer.
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uffalo Eddie’s goal is to offer lots of local and international craft beers – along with domestic beers, wines,
cocktails and bar food – to hotel guests and folks across Marshall County. It’s open 4-11 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Thursday and Friday, and 6 p.m. – 2 a.m. on Saturday. Karaoke is a big hit on Thursdays and Fridays with live music most Saturday nights. Old married folks like Rose and me generally opt for those earlier hours. Good Life Magazine
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A Birmingham photographer returns to ‘the country’ Story and photos by Brittany Moore
T
hough I grew up in the HooverBluff Park section of Birmingham, I was not a total stranger to Marshall County before getting to take a photo excursion there this summer. Over my childhood, into my college days and beyond, I became familiar with Marshall County, at least the Sand Mountain portion of it. My mom’s father was born and raised there. While my grandfather decided to move to Birmingham, most of his family stayed on Sand Mountain in the Asbury area, thus making it a common reunion destination. Being from the “big city” and not accustomed to wide-open places, my sisters and I affectionately referred to Sand Mountain as simply “the country.” There were the rare Thanksgiving visits, but mostly we gathered there for the southern tradition of Decoration Day. On the day before Memorial Day, the family would go out with flower arrangements to decorate the graves of our kin who passed away in war, then reunite for fellowship over southern homemade meals. As a child, my favorite things about our trips to the country were small-scale – baby chickens, hay bales, the plethora of fascinating garden statues and fountains at my great aunt’s house, and the porch swing and pond in my great uncle’s yard. Over the years, however, I began to see and appreciate larger-scale things – 48
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The Sand Mountain barn above sits along Ala. 168 in the Center Point/Needmore communities between Douglas and Boaz. Power lines caught Brittany’s eye as they stretch across a corn field along Ala. 205 west of Albertville. Center is one of the country roads she and Jonathan took to Asbury, from where the Machen side of her family hails. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
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picturesque landscapes that enfold Sand Mountain like a blanket, the beauty in the old barns by the side of the road and even the reunions themselves – actually talking with and getting to know my more distant, extended family.
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he other parts of Marshall County I was familiar with before my photo excursion are associated with my dad’s side of the family – Arab and Guntersville. My dad is a brother of this magazine’s editor, 50
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
and I have many fond memories of going to Uncle David and Aunt Diane’s house in Arab for summer visits and Christmas or Thanksgiving get-togethers. Guntersville has also been a center for family reunions on the Moore side. I have always loved going there, hanging out in the park and getting out on – or just gazing at – that vast, gorgeous lake. My interest in photography began with film in my sophomore year of high school, but documenting family visits didn’t begin
until my senior year with my first digital camera. With the ease of not having to worry about how much film I was shooting, I took the digital camera everywhere, wanting to shoot pictures of almost everything I saw. During college, on a few visits up to Sand Mountain for Decoration Day, I really began to take note of all the scenery we passed. The problem was that I was always riding up in a car with my family, and being on a strict time schedule only left time to shoot from the window.
Clockwise from upper left: Brittany found Double Bridges changed, but not completely; the natural bridge on the property of its late “keeper”Jim Meekins surprised the visitors from Birmingham; as did Marshall County vistas, such as the view of Kennamer Cove from Grant; a smaller surprise was a butterfly that posed on her arm for a macro shot; she found other photo-ops in Parches Cove, at Cherokee Ridge and in Arab.
I felt a building desire to be able to get out of the car, explore that vast countryside and shoot pictures of everything I found interesting. Little did I know that desire would be fulfilled … though it would not be until summer 2018.
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ack in the spring, Uncle David offered me an assignment to photograph what fascinates me about Marshall County – a chance for all of the exploring
I had wanted to do but just never made time for. So in June, my husband, Jonathan, and I visited my Arabian aunt and uncle for the weekend, but, by Uncle Editor’s design, we spent much of the time riding around with a map and shooting photos of what seemed the entirety of Marshall County, mostly in places I’d never seen before. Out of these new places, I especially loved the mountain views such as the one from the top of Gunter Mountain in
Grant, and the fascinating log buildings of the DAR school there. Among all the sites, the natural bridge and the Bridge Keeper’s stone cottage at the foot of Gunter Mountain stood out as a place of surreal charm reminiscent of Middle Earth – a big compliment. Jonathan and I did visit some familiar spots – Asbury United Methodist Church and cemetery where many relatives are buried, Double Bridges and, of course, Lake Guntersville. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
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Boathouses tucked into sloughs and fishermen on great expanses of water made for nice photo ops but were hardly surprising to find in Marshall County, given its crown jewel geographic feature is Lake Guntersville. But the Birmingham visitors were surprised to “discover” a beautiful Tupelo gum swamp in the backwaters near the dam.
I hope my pictures accurately convey the beauty and the sense of awe these places carry with them.
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y biggest takeaway from this is that Marshall County is much more expansive and beautiful than I had previously known. Going down back roads and off the beaten path, we saw places that made us feel we weren’t even in Alabama. From the down-home family businesses on town main streets, to mountains, 52
lakes, rivers, rolling green hills and lush countryside, to giant, majestic rock faces, steep cliffs and tropical-looking marshes, we were able to truly experience the diverse beauty and uniqueness Marshall County offers. To top it off, all the people we came into contact with were welcoming and friendly. It sure helps to get out of the car, but even then, exploring for just a short weekend isn’t nearly enough to uncover all of Marshall County’s gems. Those we were able to find were only the very
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
surface of a deep trove of natural and cultural treasure, and I do hope to come back for more digging. For those of you who call this county home, you are blessed to live in or near such beautiful surroundings without the need to, for city-folk like me, drive 7080 miles to see them. It may not be my home county, but I can say with surety that Marshall County is yet another reason I’m proud to call Alabama my home state. Good Life Magazine
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Homemade haircuts All they were ‘jecked’ up to be ... and ‘Moe’ Story by Steve A. Maze Photo from the author’s collection
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odern hair salons are a far cry from the barbershops of the past. When I was a tot, about once a month, always on a Saturday morning, Dad took me to see Mr. Bodine, our neighborhood barber. He’d pump the chair up with his foot while simultaneously spinning me around to face a large mirror mounted to the wall. Mr. Bodine couldn’t see very well and his hands shook while holding my head, but what difference did a few gaps in my hair make? A little of that good smelling Witch Hazel and a heavy dusting of talcum powder made me forget about the uneven layers of hair. Like most typical 2-yearolds, I could be a handful whenever Mr. Bodine cut my hair. I remember one time the barbershop was packed full of customers when Dad and I walked in. People even stood along the wall waiting. “When will be the best time to bring Steve back in for a haircut?” Dad asked. “When he’s 4,” Mr. Bodine said. I had to find another barber after Mr. Bodine passed away. A so-called friend of mine recommended one at a salon. I didn’t like having to make an appointment for a haircut (we never had to have one with Mr. Bodine), still, I tried the barber. Everything was fine until … Back then, I wore a tie to work, and the barber always asked me to remove it before cutting my hair. He said he could do a better job without it around my neck. One day I was short on time. I rushed into the salon, explained my situation and asked if he could cut my hair without removing my tie. “Mr. Maze,” he said, looking at the thinning hair on top of my head, “I believe I could cut your hair with your hat on.” That was the last time I ever entered his little salon.
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guess Dad and other boys from his era had it worse than AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
that, however. They had barbershops back in the 1930s and early ‘40’s, but most people couldn’t afford to go to them. Even a 15cent haircut was too expensive for farm folks. So many boys got a “bowl cut,” a homemade haircut done by placing an upside down bowl over their heads and using scissors to chop off all the hair hanging below the bowl. While not the most attractive haircut, at least it was in style for the era. After having the bowl removed from their heads, the boys looked just like a popular movie star of that time period – Moe of the Three Stooges. Grandpa would cut Dad’s and his brother’s hair on the front porch each Sunday morning before heading to church. They dreaded the weekly call when they were forced to take turns sitting in an old cane-bottomed, straightback chair. Grandpa cut hair with a pair of squeeze-handled clippers, which worked – in theory. Unfortunately, his clippers were always dull and wouldn’t cut hot butter. Hair inevitably got wedged between the blades and could not be removed … except by jerking. High-pitched shrieks echoed across the neighborhood whenever Grandpa jerked them free. Grandpa couldn’t pronounce the word “jerked” very well and always said he “jecked” the clippers out. I don’t think Dad was too worried about the clippers gapping up his hair since patches of it were being ripped out by the roots. Dad swears that Grandpa “jecked” out more hair than he ever cut.
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randpa never had to worry about one of his “customers” asking him to take a little more off the sides or to hit a certain spot one more time. Dad said he was just glad when his “turn in the chair was over” – which sounded to me like he was describing an electrocution instead of a haircut. Maybe he should have tried out one of those modern hair salons before he passed away. Surely they couldn’t have been any worse than those front porch haircuts – unless they charged him $25 and required an appointment. Good Life Magazine
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Thompson Falls
A waterfall symphony in four rushing movements, it’s one of the Seven Wonders of Marshall County Story and photos by David Moore
T
he dry heat of summer and sometimes autumn or a dry cold winter can leave Thompson Falls forlornly dry. Good rain, however, restores the falls to the splendor that won them a listing in RSVP’s Seven Wonders of Marshall County. Water from miles around fills Mink Creek, which launches itself over the precipice of Thompson Falls and down a long, ruggedly beautiful series of four distinct cascades as it tumbles into the gorge it has carved over time into the heart of Brindley Mountain. It thunders and rushes, dances and clashes – a symphony of water music in four flowing movements. Easiest to reach, the first cascade (pictured at left), is the one most visitors see, and what perhaps most people think of as Thompson Falls. But it’s only the opening movement. From there, the sizable creek squeezes into a rock chute about four feet wide before gushing out into a broad, fast and shallow spillway, (below left). Flowing with authority deeper between the deepening rock walls, the water takes another big tumble, this one down the third cascade (below), sending a different timbre resounding off the steep, wooded cliffs towering above it all.
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From the bottom of the fourth cascade, shown here, you are engulfed in a gorge basement with towering bluffs behind and to your right. The site also offers a view back to the third cascade. It’s not easy hiking down here, and you need to be careful, but it’s worth it to enjoy the water symphony performed by the most spectacular of the Seven Wonders of Marshall County,
The water music symphony is not the only attraction created here under the baton of time and the elements. Interesting formations can be seen below the dirt road leading into the falls, such as the hole in the rock cliffs (above).
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Other things to ponder include an old stone wall in a hillside along a forgotten roadbed (below). And, sadly, one might also wonder why people sometimes trash up such a beautiful place. If you visit, be considerate – or just stay at home.
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
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hompson Falls is only about 5 miles from downtown Arab. Head south on Main Street. About 100 feet past the intersection with Cullman Road/Ala. 69, turn left on Fry Gap Road for 1 mile. At the Y, bare left onto Brashiers Chapel Road for 2.5 miles. Turn right onto Thompson Falls Road. After 0.8 miles, turn left onto Thompson Falls Drive. About 0.1 of a mile down the mountain, look for a dirt road to the left with a no dumping sign. It’s probably best for you – and less disruptive to anyone else visiting – if you park on the side of the road. The walk back to the upper cascade is less than .25 miles. Shortly after entering the dirt road, watch to your right for signs of the old roadbed. That’s your best bet for reaching the lower falls, but the going can be difficult. Coming west from Guntersville, cross the Warrenton Causeway on Ala. 69; turn left at the light onto Warrenton Road. In 4.8 miles turn right onto Thompson Falls Drive. In about 2 miles look for the dirt road, mentioned above, on the right. Good Life Magazine
Marshall County
Marshall County
Marshall County
Marshall County
Marshall County
Marshall Marshall County County
seaplanes take to the sky – and lake – for a world of fun
seaplanes take to the sky – and lake – for a world of fun Catch an eagle, so to speak, during program’s 30th year
Jim and loretta Kennamer’s house stands unique among lake homes
reputation of Mill street has grown beyond Boaz
add a wild (game) twist to your holiday meals Predictions on the Bassmaster Classic? records will fall in ‘gi-normous’ event
Jim and Carol Meekins call honeycomb natural bridge home
some great ideas for adding an outside living area to your home
Glenn Mcneal proves that Mr. nice Guy does win sometimes once so well-known, stocklaw’s legend lives on as a colorful character Follow the cycle of vine to wine at Jules J. Berta Winery in albertville
When the Goat Man and his wagons passed, people flocked out to him In a saw-dusty shop on Georgia Mt. Jeff Horton creates kayak sculpture WINTER 2015 COMPLIMENTARY
students, volunteers talk about serious fun... fishing for your schools
Mary Terrell paints with flowers, and a look at her yard proves it love of quilting attracts artisans from every part of the county
Seaplanes take to the sky – and lake – for a world of fun
WIntEr 2014 CoMPlIMEntary
For the Sumners on Sand Mountain, farming’s a multi-generation lifestyle FALL 2015 COMPLIMENTARY
MARSHALL COUNTY
A world of wildflowers grows in the Cofields’ garden in Boaz An Albertville man has the reins of the new lacrosse team at UAH A retired PhD scientist living in Union Grove is now a textile artist
MARSHALL COUNTY
Cookin’ cousins in Albertville know how to whip up a feast Fly fishing for largemouth bass is making ripples on Lake Guntersville See the winning entries in the first My Marshall photography contest
MARSHALL COUNTY
MARSHALL COUNTY
MARSHALL COUNTY
SPRING 2016 COMPLIMENTARY
MARSHALL COUNTY
For advertising information call Sheila McAnear at 256-640-3973 or David Moore at 256-293-0888
MARSHALL COUNTY
Haven’t hiked Cooley Cemetery Trail? Fall should be a good time
MARSHALL COUNTY
YOUR BUSINESS WILL BE SEEN.
Seth Terrell discovers the past by listening to Virgina Benson
sPring 2015 CoMPliMEntary
Sometimes a garden is a garden ... but Jane McDonald’s is more
FALL 2016 COMPLIMENTARY
MARSHALL COUNTY
Never seen Cathedral Caverns? Go If you have, it’s as beautiful as ever
Boaz‘s renée Pierce wear crown with purpose and a sense of humor
Milton Eubanks reigns (and works) Winter 2013 CoMpliMentary over a spring kingdom in scant City
MARSHALL COUNTY
Add a wild (game) twist to your holiday meals
Usually people tell Santa things; this time he fields five questions
add a wild (game) twist to your holiday meals
Combine passionate readership with the power of 10,000 issues quarterly (most of them lovingly shared) and ...
Jim and Loretta Kennamer’s house stands unique among lake homes SUMMER 2016 COMPLIMENTARY
Jim and loretta Kennamer’s house stands unique among lake homes
since the earliest times man caves have provided shelter from the wild Fall 2014 CoMpliMentary
Readers pore over each and every page.
MARSHALL COUNTY
WINTER 2016 COMPLIMENTARY
suMMEr 2014 CoMPlIMEntary
For five years Good Life Magazine has been packed with interesting stories and compelling photography about people and places across Marshall County.
MARSHALL COUNTY
Wildlife photographer Robert Falls offers a visual tour of Appalachia
sPrinG 2014 CoMPliMentary
albertville-Guntersville football rivalry turns 100 on halloween
PASSIONATE READERSHIP
Marshall County
suMMer 2015 CoMpliMentary
Visit the eight local pipe organs and the musicians who play them
yachting couple respond to the lure of america’s Great loop
Winter 2013 CoMpliMentary
For years sam harvey asked the questions; table’s turned
Mike Alred got axed for doing the right thing at his last job; this time he’s semi-retiring Usually about this time of year Dr. Andy & Martha Jane Finlay eagerly await Eden’s return Just because pro fishermen Matt & Jordan Lee have a dream job doesn’t make it easy work SPRING 2017 COMPLIMENTARY
MARSHALL COUNTY
HydroFest: father-son home team; race info; and Concert on the Rocks A peek into the life of a Boaz man who works at NASA ... and is blind
Larue Kohl: fired up about boat racing again (and as always New Orleans)
HydroFest makes a splash ... with help from tons of volunteers
Question: If you go ‘Somewhere,’ are you in Key West or Albertville?
For Lakeview’s big anniversary, alumni remember the former school
See why Thompson Falls is among Marshall County’s ‘Seven Wonders’ Robert and Mary Bodine’s home is steeped in a deep heritage
Wayne Trimble recalls his days as a Bearcat, Bear Bryant QB and Arab coach
Cook up a real Mexican feast ... and invite a lot friends and family
SUMMER 2018 COMPLIMENTARY
Long-time rumor is that Al Capone slept in Arab. Can that really be true? Couple seeks a monument for the county’s worst aviation disaster
He sailed the seas, rescued people in Africa and moved to Albertville
With their community’s support, Aggies marched in Rose Parade
‘Wonders-of-the-County’ church arose from rowdy days in Boaz
SUMMER 2017 COMPLIMENTARY FALL 2017 COMPLIMENTARY
Transplants from Florida planted their collection of statues in Arab
Nancy Stewart did what many told her ... put recipes in a book WINTER 2017 COMPLIMENTARY
Take a look at wild landscapes through John Sharp’s eye, lens
SPRING 2018 COMPLIMENTARY
FALL 2018 COMPLIMENTARY
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018
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The water got choppy, the sun was late to shine. But the lake, town and volunteers from Marshall County and beyond more than compensate as ‌
Sunday, 5:50 p.m. – The final turn Perennial H1 national champion Jimmy Shane in the U-1 Miss Madison flies out of the inside lane on turn four in the fifth and final lap of the winner-take-all race for the Southern Cup Championship. But Andrew Tate in U-9, left, who’s led most of the race, now slingshots out of the turn and down a half-mile homestretch. Deck to deck, pushing 200 mph, Andrew nudges ahead for a thrilling boat-length finish to claim the Southern Cup. And so it is that hydroplane racing returns to Lake Guntersville.
HydroFest
makes a big splash
FRIDAY, JUNE 22 Splash or crash? No one really knows exactly how HydroFest will play out this weekend as it brings back H1 Unlimited hydroplane racing to Lake Guntersville after a 49-year hiatus. Lots of little thunderbolt-spitting clouds dot the screen of my phone whenever I recheck the forecast. A storm blew through last night, but as I drive down Georgia Mountain from Arab Friday morning the sky is washed softly blue, the clouds innocently white. Will this weather hold? Will people show up? Will this huge undertaking be the success I hope for Guntersville and Marshall County? Questions, questions … but I’m more optimistic than not.
Traffic cones, electric road signs and flashing police lights funnel the two lanes of eastbound traffic into one. As I pass the pit area at Browns Creek boat launch, three tall cranes tower like exclamation marks above the circus bustle of seven hydroplane racing teams, their fabulous boats and an entourage of motorhomes and equipment trailers. Driving across the 1.5-mile wide expanse of Browns Creek, I feel like a kid who just caught a glimpse of his presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Across the way I spot some of the floating buoys marking the 2.5-mile racecourse and a scattering of people and tents along the far shore. Splash or crash? Well, I think, it’s finally here. We’ll see …
Story and photos by David Moore
Philip Morrison delivers kids
Katy Norton; announcer Bard Luce
Yolanda Groce, trendsetter 64
9:50 a.m. – First contact At the media desk at the Guntersville Rec Center I encounter the first of an affable army of 300 volunteers (not counting public safety personnel) who believe enough in HydroFest to freely donate hours of their weekend to the cause. I didn’t get her name, but the lady at the desk quickly got my credentials then radioed someone for an answer to my question about pit access. Dreading a hike down Sunset Drive to the Zone 2 gate, I notice numerous ant-busy four- and six-seat UTVs scooting hither and yon. Sharon Price, daughter of former county commissioner Charlie McClendon, is packing a small passel of Scouts off to Zone 2 to sell HydroFest programs for The Advertiser Gleam. “Can I hitch a ride?” “Sure,” agrees helpful driver Philip Morrison of Merrill Mountain. Volunteering, he says, is lots of work but lots of fun. 10:31 a.m. – “Holy smoke!” For someone who’s been working since 2013 to bring hydroplane racing back to Guntersville, Katy Norton doesn’t look frantic. That’s all the more amazing considering the Marshall County Convention and Visitors Bureau, of which she is president, is staking nearly $500,000 on the success of this gig. Katy is discussing plans with Brad Luce, this weekend’s announcer who’ll also handle most of H1 Unlimited six races this season. When Katy ducks out, I engage Brad, who’s from Seattle and is obviously excited about the races.
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“And,” I venture, fishing with no idea of what it might catch, “this is a fairly nice place to hold them,” “It’s not fairly nice,” Brad beams. “It’s beautiful. Holy smoke! It’s awesome.” I beam back. The other intel I get – a harbinger of things to come – is not beam-worthy. Test runs and qualifying this morning have been under a two-hour delay. It’s too windy on the water and last night’s storm unmoored several of the track-marking buoys. 10:38 a.m. – The “new thing” Among the many vendors, Yolanda Groce of Wetumpka is part of the crew setting up their homemade Gelato Venice booth. I have to comment on what appears to be her makeshift rainwear or mudguards. Nope, she says of her plastic-bag leggings. They’re to keep ants off. “It’s the new thing,” Yolanda laughs. A first-time visitor, she says she loves the lake. 10:55 a.m. – Off to the pits This UTV hitching is fun. Richard Maksimowski of Guntersville gives me and two TV news people from Birmingham a ride back across the causeway to the pit area, traveling in the closed off lane against traffic. Among the crowd, equipment and race boats in the pits is a bit frustrating. Wind has caused a second delay. But I have other missions. I find Charley Wiggins and his dad, Milton. I interviewed them in Gadsden earlier this year for a story on their racing history and U-27 hydroplane. Charley was instrumental in this race happening. It’s good to reconnect, and I wish them well.
11:07 a.m. – Volunteer gearheads In the pits I locate and meet Bill Collins and Ivan Teal, left and right respectively. The Guntersville men are volunteer members of the Wiggins Racing pit crew. Charley Wiggins told me about them earlier this year, and I make it a point to look them up. Cool, friendly guys, they usher me into the restricted boat area where I reconnect with the U-27 and the Wiggins’ piston-powered Grand Prix racer, at left.
11:11 a.m. – Kohl on the hull Checking out the U-27, I am moved to see a thanks to Larue Kohl on the Auburn-colored hull. He chairs the Guntersville HydroFest Planning Committee for Katy’s tourism board. Featured in last fall’s magazine, Larue is arguably HydroFest’s biggest cheerleader. But he’s been undergoing cancer treatment in New York. I’m unsure he’s able to attend the event, but I sure hope so. 11:20 a.m. – Addictive heat Under the awning of the Wiggins’ motorhome, I find another of my missions: Lynn Entrekin. She and husband Robert own Spices Catering & Smokehouse Market in Boaz and are catering this weekend for the Wiggins team. I happened to “meet” Lynn by phone yesterday and now do so in person. On a food table are several bags of Spices Smokehouse Crackers. It’s an “ah-ha!” moment. I sometimes buy the addictively hot crackers from Bobby Morrow at Arab Meat Market, and I now make the connection to Lynn. She says they market the crackers in seven states. Cool fire. 11:31 a.m. – Dilly Dilly Waiting to hitch a ride back to Sunset Drive, I chat with Lisa Courneya, another H1 Seattleite, and ask what she thinks
of our lake. She hadn’t known what to expect, she says, and finds it surprisingly beautiful. Who knew? Well, we did. Manning the pit gate is volunteer Rodney Reece of Arab, who works for Turner Beverage in Huntsville. His T-shirt reads “Dilly Dilly,” referencing a funny Budweiser commercial. We also chat. 11:45 a.m. – The “water gene” “Dilly Dilly,” I tell Rodney, finally catching a ride in a SUV. My new chauffeur is a jackpot catch: Owen Blauman. He handles media for H1 and first visited in 2015 to reconnoiter Guntersville as a possible racecourse with Katy and Charley Wiggins. “It’s awesome,” Owen says echoing Brad Luce and Lisa Courneya as we cross the wide water. His “awesome” applies to more than the lake. “This community is special,” Owen says. “There’s southern hospitality and there’s Guntersville hospitality. Guntersville has it beat by a mile.” Plus, he says, the people here have the “water gene,” a term I’ve never heard but readily comprehend. Dilly Dilly. With incorrigible wind, qualifying runs today are cancelled at 2:30 p.m. But I don’t know that as I drive back to Arab for afternoon appointments. I just know how eager I am to see and hear the boats race tomorrow.
U-27 hull gives Larue Kohl a shout-out
Lynn Entrekin’s addictive crackers
Rodney Reece, a dilly of a guy
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From the looks of the “rumpum” meter on the left, this Grand Prix needs a few more RPMs. Just saying ...
Long lens shows private craft from 69
Happy Go Lucky, a Grand Prix boat
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SATURDAY, JUNE 23 10:30 a.m. – Shaken and stirred Rodney Reece wears a different T-shirt today. “What,” I ask, “no Dilly Dilly?” “It got sweaty yesterday,” he grins. Wind driven white caps scallop the lake. Two hydroplanes head in to the pits from the racecourse. Not good. With things officially cranked up today, the pit area is much more active. Visiting race-goers add to the pit crew throng. Interested first-time fans and wide-eyed, wide-grinned kids mill about under the steel arms of the cranes. Stepping over electric cables splayed like black spaghetti on asphalt and passing race boats of sizzling colors that must have been plugged into 220 outlets, I spy Bill Collins just inside the area roped off for the Wiggins’ U-27 and Grand Prix hydroplane. The race got delayed again, he says. Several drivers had attempted test runs knowing fans want action, but the windroughened water threatened to damage the boats. The last two are just now coming back in. “Cal took ours out,” Bill says. “He said he was seeing two or three of everything.” I picture driver Cal Phipps in the cockpit, shaken and stirred like a Space Shuttle astronaut at liftoff.
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“Everybody wants to be out there playing,” Bill says. “The drivers are trying to make it right for the fans. We know they’re tired of looking at each other.” With time on his hands, Bill asks if I’d like to climb inside the cockpit of their Grand Prix boat, GP-47. What? Are you kidding? “Sure,” I say. 2:40 p.m. – After the evacuation Shortly after 11 a.m. the wind grows stronger, seemingly blowing darkness into the burdened clouds. Police call for an evacuation of the pits and entire race venue across the whipping water. Radar indicates a heavy thunderstorm hitting in 20 minutes, hail in 25. Driving back to Arab under the angry sky, I think of the widespread damage the March hailstorm inflicted on neighboring Cullman. I try repeatedly reaching my wife on her cell but get only voicemail. She’s practicing the pipe organ at Arab First Methodist and can’t hear her phone. It’s uncharacteristic for me and proves unnecessary, but I drive there and evacuate her, too. I later read it’s the first time in 115 years of boat racing that an event has been ordered evacuated. I hate it for the races, but I understand the move. The storm fortunately falls short
U-27 crew lowers the U-27 into the lake after for a run after returning from Saturday’s storm evacuation. of predictions. I drive back down the mountain. It’s cloudy but the whitecaps have blown away. At 2:40 I watch the Wiggins crew lift the U-27 and lower it into the water. Maybe the drivers can finally run qualifying laps, get out there and “play”. 3:10 p.m. – On the causeway Parked again in the lower Piggly Wiggly parking lot, I opt for a different camera angle than the media area at the start/finish line in Zone 2. I trek on the causeway and use a 2x extender on my 100-400 lens. Win some. Lose some. Some get rained out. The new location is much farther from the action than the sidelines along Sunset. Plus, the 2x nullifies autofocus, which adds to the challenge of shooting boats hitting top speeds of nearly 200 mph. Back at the rec center I hitch a UTV ride with volunteer Dana Long, a RN who lives in Grant. She kindly deposits me at Zone 2. 4:05 p.m. – A crowd shows up Up to 2,000 spectators had been evacuated in orderly fashion earlier, and now – to my surprise and delight – some 7,000 folks line the shore, anxious to see some racing.
It’s still overcast, but through the nearly still air the drag-racing roar of 1,500 supercharged horsepower stirs something inside me as the Grand Prix boats run qualifying laps. Cool stuff. I can’t help but think about sitting in the cockpit earlier, and I wonder at the rush it would be skimming the water like that. Later the unlimited boats run. Shane Tate, qualifying in the U-9 from Washington, sets a course record here with an average speed of 157.866 mph around the 2.5-mile oval. 5:30 p.m. – Party crashers Before it’s over, I have to head back to Arab. I hitch a ride with what seems to be my hundredth volunteer UTV driver, this one Kenny Shifflett of Guntersville. I pile in with three delightful ladies whose fun meters aren’t close to red-lining at 70ish-something: Lea McElory of Scant City and, visiting from North Carolina, her sister Bonnie Thomas and cousin, Sharon Cooke. Sharon proclaims she will write a letter to the mayor telling her just how nice everyone has been. Kenny, for instance, didn’t have to but gave them a ride, and the people working in the tents were also nice. “I thought it was awesome seeing the
boats,” Sharon adds. “I didn’t realize they were that big.” Turns out the ladies didn’t even come for the races. They wanted to visit a relation of Lea’s who was at a corporate tent of Team One Nissan. In later conversation with Sharon, she says they went to the tent hoping to get
Crowd awaits next action on the lake promotional pens or other freebies. “You mean you bought a $20 ticket just to get free pens?” I ask. “Ticket?” “Ticket?” She’s surprised like she ran into a glass door. “You were supposed to have a ticket to get in?” So adding in three party crashers, call Saturday’s attendance count 7003.
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Randy Counselman, Sherry Newman
Part of the crowd of 11,000 68
SUNDAY, JUNE 24 11:06 a.m. – Riding with Sherry New strategy. I head to Zone 3 at the south end of the track. It should be a good angle to shoot boats rooster-tailing through turns three and four. From the rec center it’s 1.3 miles as arrows fly. By walking trail it’s farther. And farther still with 16 pounds of camera gear on my neck and shoulder … which is why Sherry Newman and Randy Counselman – providing a lift in their UVX – are my new best friends. With much less activity in Zone 3, hitchhiking will be harder, but Sherry offers me her cell number to Uber her when needed. By day’s end, she, with three different drivers, saves my life three times. The volunteers are absolutely fab, and I can’t even imagine the many services others provide. HydroFest Planning Committee members Carol Thomas of Claysville and Karen Cardwell of Merrill Mountain – sister to my first driver, Philip Morrison – built and oiled this volunteer cog that’s such an integral part of the amazingly smooth machine running the races. Bribing the weather folks sooner is about the only shortcoming I can think of, and those checks obviously arrived today. The weather is great, the wind negligible.
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11:16 a.m. – In the boonies Set up on the grassy shore under a tree, I shoot the H1 heats. It’s a fine vantage point. Among the relative few folks out here in the boonies are Boaz Fire Department Lt. Blake Farmer and paramedic Chris Roesner, part of the semi-volunteer army of public safety employees from several counties on hand just in case. During breaks in the action we chat some and I show them a few of my photos. Zone 3 is not prime for watching Grand Prix heats. Their shorter course ends north of the H1 course. But the rumble of the big-block GP engines pulsates across the water and off the walls of Browns Valley. They must be a thrill to drive. Just south of the H1 track an impromptu Guntersville Navy is lined up, watching the races. Brian Walker from Walker Building Supply is aboard one of the boats and estimates the fleet’s size at 100 craft. They look as if they might be waiting to rescue soldiers at Dunkirk, only I’m sure these folks are having more fun than the chaps in WWII. I overhear a volunteer from South Alabama working the Zone 3 gate. She tells another volunteer what an out-of-town couple at the races told her: “They liked
the area so much they were considering looking for property.” Lots of good vibes in the air. And I enjoy the boonies. 3:18 p.m. – “Other than that …” After a lunch at home, it’s back to the races. I walk the shore from the rec center to the media tent to check out what’s grown to a crowd of 10,000-11,000 people. To my delight I learn that Larue Kohl is indeed getting to see some of the races. He later sends me an email that reads, in part: “We have heard nothing but positive comments from our spectators, so we figure with good weather next year we can double our attendance … The weather was our John Wilkes Booth. ‘Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?’ But all’s well that ends well.” 3:41 p.m. – The wreck Jockeying for starting positions, Cal Phipps in U-27 cuts across the track and hits U-21, driven Brian Perkins. Cal’s starboard “sponson” actually runs up under the U-27. Both boats finish the race, but regrettably the home-team from Gadsden can’t repair U-27 in time for the finals, for which I return to Zone 3 to shoot, hoping to catch some nice silhouettes.
U-21, top, is OK, but the “home team” U-27 sustains damage from the wreck • 5:50 p.m. – Thanks After the finals, Curtis Roesner gives me a lift in the rear of an UTV to where my car is parked at the Pig. En route, I catch a glimpse of white wakes on the lake. It’s only the Guntersville Navy heading home, but briefly I think it’s the hydroplanes racing again. Perhaps I’m just eager to see more of them here. “Thanks,” I tell Curtis when we reach my car, but my gratitude extends to everyone who helped make HydroFest a great splash. Good Life Magazine
Boaz firefighter Curtis Roesner
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Out ’n’ About Albertville Farmers Market’s first two Farm to Table Dinners sold out, so you need make reservations now if you want to experience this unique feast in the middle of Main Street on Thursday, Sept. 6. Cost is $60 per person and there only 150 seats. Tickets go on sale (cash or check only) Thursday, Aug. 2, at Albertville City Hall. For as long as they last they’ll be sold on Thursdays at the Farmers Market. Appetizers and sangria start at 6 p.m. during check in at the Farmers Market pavilion. Chef Jessica Keener, bottom left, will prepare this year’s surprise, five-course meal from local produce. After cooking in Charleston, Atlanta and Portland, Ore., she’s returned home to buy Homecoming Café in South Sauty. There will be live music and wine parings by Jules Berta with each course. The Farm to Table Dinner is held not as a fundraiser but to draw attention to local produce sold at the Farmers Market. Photos of last year’s dinner by Rebekah Ford; rebekahfordphotography.com and on Facebook.
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