MARSHALL COUNTY
Ben and Linda Gamel discuss Bear, Wallace and fighting stress with art Amber Hart talks about local loons she has studied and photographed SUMMER 2016 COMPLIMENTARY
A behind-the-scenes look at a show few have seen by AMT’s director
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Welcome
Here’s another highlight in the good we have E ventually, I figured, I’d write about Arab Musical Theatre, the acclaimed drama program at Arab High School. I took the opportunity to do so in this issue when AMT was invited to perform in June at the International Thespian Festival. In the course of working on the story, I asked Mike Rickles, a real estate guy from Huntsville, why he bothers to drive 45 minutes to volunteer as AMT’s production consultant. Here’s what he says... “There are few opportunities available to work with a program considered one of the best in the nation. They allow me to put
the final touches on their already incredible work. It’s an honor ... not a burden. “We all live in our own little world with little knowledge of what happens in other parts of the country. Fact of the matter is, there just aren’t that many high school musical theatre programs in the nation that do what AMT consistently achieves. “A person with musical interests being born in the Arab City Schools district is akin to the average person winning the million dollar lottery, and AMT director Brian Quillin is providing the winnings. “Brian and his team are truly changing lives and finding a way to bring out the
best in the Arab students. To say Marshall County and Alabama should be proud is an understatement. Without exaggeration, this program truly is one of the best high school musical theatre programs in the nation… not just Alabama.” Mike’s comments fit into my thinking that we have much to be proud of here in Marshall County. It’s my pleasure to spotlight some of it every three months.
David Moore Publisher/editor
Contributors Annette Haislip went to Washington, D. C. last month with her two daughters for her granddaughter Caroline’s final concert with the Georgetown University Orchestra. The rest of her plans weren’t nearly as exciting ... forcing herself to wine and dine her way through Georgetown’s superb restaurants. Patrick Oden has many talents, ranging from patching up old boats and surviving with four females in his house, to taking excellent photos, writing stories and doing layout. Lately he’s applied himself to remodeling an old building at 383 Gunter Avenue for a studio and gallery. He’d love for you to drop by.
Good Life’s Sheila McAnear has a talent for designing and building ads. But it goes beyond that. You should see the patio she built in her yard. She used 12x12 landscape pavers. Before grouting them with concrete, she cut them at angles so they form a curved pattern. If she ever leaves GLM, she could get rich as a handywoman. 6
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Steve Maze has made unwanted history. He’s dealing with a record list of health issues as long as a shopping receipt from Walmart. Other than snapping at a few nurses, his attitude is good and he’s ready to turn his ailments into “Yesterday’s Memories,” so to speak. Of course, he still has an interesting piece in this issue. The day he finished his bug piece on page 24, Extension Agent Hunter McBrayer and a game warden also had to chase two squealing piglets that escaped from a trailer at Asbury Elementary’s Farm Day. To onlookers’ delight, one was tackled after five minutes; the other hid in the woods for two hours. “All in a day’s work,” he says.
To know him is to love him ... assuming you like dogs, that is. Dog though he might be, that refers not to publisher/editor David Moore but to his pet, Porter. Besides supper, Porter’s biggest thrill is riding in the car with the editor. Alas, he has his travel limits. As much as he’d love it, Porter can’t ride all the way to Boaz.
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Inside
ON THE COVER: Alan Alred’s meticulously restored classic 1954 Chris-Craft – named the Fussy Gus for his Paw Paw – looks and runs as good as it ever did. THIS PAGE: During an Arab Musical Theatre dress rehearsal, Tarzan – played by Isaac Pruett and wearing his dead father’s top hat and coat – comforts his ape mother. She is played by Riley-Grace Jordan, and the scene occurs just after her husband and Tarzan’s apefather is shot and killed. Photos by David Moore
10 Good Fun
You can have vino and poke – separately
16 Good People
Ben and Linda Gamel talk about Bear, Wallace and solace in art during the war
22 Good Reads
Pick: wide-raging drama or tight action
24 Good ‘n’ Green
Not all of those bugs out there are bad
27 Good Cooking
Hospice volunteers, staff and families share recipes that can make memories
34 Good Eats
When Dustin Chamblee bought The Yum Yum Tree, he kept all of the old recipes
36 A Texas-size remodel
Kim and Patrick Lawler use rustic luxury to overhaul the house where he grew up
45 Amber Hart and loons
She found a new birding passion on the winter waters of Lake Guntersville
53 Ride ‘em cowboy
Walter Gilbreath was a Hollywood extra alongside many of the old Wester stars
57 Fussy Gus
After war and six months of restoration Alan Alred has a beautiful Chris-Craft
62 A rare look backstage
There are many reasons AMT gets national recognition. Eavesdrop on the main one.
70 Out ’n’ About
Marshall County’s only amusement park heads into full – and brightly lit – swing
Mo Mc PUBLISHING LLC 8
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David F. Moore Publisher/editor 256-293-0888 david.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com
Vol. 3 No.3 Copyright 2016 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
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Vino on the Lake
It’s the second round for the great wine and food festival at the harbor
N
early 1,000 people showed up last year for the first Vino on The Lake at Guntersville City Harbor. And nearly 1,000 people – if not more – would have been disappointed to learn that the out-of-county promoter did not want to hold it again this year. So Sally Cobb, owner of Kala’s Cottage since August, raised her hand and volunteered. It made good sense to her since, among other nice things, she sells specialty wines about a block from the site. She’s also keen on spotlighting beautifully created wines, artisan products and local chefs – which is exactly what Vino on the Lake does. “It was such a good event, I thought why not?” she says. “Why would I not put it on and keep it local and put the money back into Guntersville?” The Downtown Merchants Association agreed with Sally, and together they’re ensuring that …
V
ino on The Lake: A Wine & Food Festival at Lake Guntersville returns to City Harbor for its second year from 5-9 p.m., Saturday, June 4.
Join the fun and you can have unlimited tastings from a choice of more than 100 different wines. There will be food trucks on hand to feed your munchies. Area artists will have their work on display. You’ll also hear Spare Change, a “band of Marshall County boys” from Douglas and Arab that includes Heath Landers, Judson Murphy, Sean McCreless and John Rodney Mitchell. A portion of ticket sales benefit Every Child’s Playground, a full access project under way at Civitan Park.
Y
ou’ll need an ID that proves you’re 21 to get into the festival. Cost is $75 each. For $100 you can get a VIP ticket that allows you to get in an hour early and gets you complimentary food tastings from Old Town Stock House, Rock House Eatery, The Bridge Café, Crawmama’s Restaurant and others that are expected to participate, a Vino on the Lake signature wine glass with a lanyard and other perks. Corporate tents are also available for up to 10 guests who’ll receive exclusive catering from the local restaurant of your choice. Tickets are available at: www.vinoonthelake.com. May 15 is the deadline for artists and restaurants to register. For more information on that, contact Sally: sally@kalascottage.com.
No. 32 might be the best crop of Poke Salat in years T “W
he 32nd Annual Poke Salat Festival in downtown Arab cranks up Friday, May 20, with arts and craft vendors along Artisan Avenue (First Avenue). They’ll be giving demonstrations in pottery, caning and other crafts. That night, the Crackerjacks and Microwave Dave and The Nukes will give concerts. Saturday, May 21, everything will be in swing … • 8 a.m. – 5k and fun run for all ages, including people in wheelchairs • 10 a.m. – Poke salat cook-off • 11 a.m. – Motorcycle ride-by and show 10
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• 11:30 a.m. – Pet parade registration The kids zone should be the “funnest” ever. It will include the Shriner Hillbillies, a clown doing balloon animals, a Mickey and Minnie meet-and-greet, and a Hula Hoop hoopla. There also will be a bungee jump, monster water balls, rock climbing wall, pony rides, inflatables, Thomas the Train, Big Jake the mechanical bull ride, games and more. Music will be going from two stages all day long, and downtown will be filled with vendors of all sorts. There will be lots of food – including poke salat in various forms and fashions.
The Saturday night concerts feature Shane Adkins and Kaleidoscope.
ith the awesome concert lineup for both nights, music all day Saturday, and the large amount of interactive events, we’re expecting our biggest crowd in the past ten years or more,” says Kathy Ramsey, one of the event organizers along with Dawn Sparks and members of the Arab Downtown Association. For more information and to sign up for the 5k run, pet parade and other events, visit: www.pokesalatfestival.com or www. facebook.com/pokesalat.
Good Fun
Journey through a crossroads of civilizations in Sicily then visit the spectacular coastlines of Southern Italy. The 11-day tour, sponsored by the Albertville Chamber of Commerce through Al-Bo Travel Agency, will be Nov. 7-18, but you need to register soon. Among the stops in Sicily will be Agrigento’s ancient Valley of the Temples and the Greek theatre in Taormina, above. Experience a local wine tasting and regional dinner in southern Italy. Explore the ancient town of “Sassi di Matera,” known for its cave dwellings and the stunning Amalfi Coast and Sorrento. Walk in the footsteps of ancient Romans who perished in Pompeii in the foothills of Mount Vesuvius. Cost is $3,999 double occupancy. For more info: Marcheta Chandler, Al-Bo Travel, 256-891-0888; or mchandler@albotravel.com.
Summer’s here, and the time is right for ... lots o’ stuff
• Through May 27 – Susan Turner art exhibit Mountain Valley Arts Council Gallery is exhibiting the work of Susan Turner this month. She has painted more than 250 commissioned floor cloths, wall hangings, furniture and fish along with 400-plus original designs and has exhibited her work at art shows and galleries across the Southeast and in Grafton, Australia. She holds a master’s degree in elementary education and has taught for 26 years, incorporating art almost daily in her class. She is the owner of Brand New Day Art Studio located on her great grandparent’s farm in New Market. The MVAC Gallery is open 1-5 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and 10 a.m.-
2 p.m. Saturdays at 300 Gunter Ave., Guntersville. For more information: 256-571-7199.
• May 13-14 – Fire on the Mountain This will be the second year for this fun day and nationally-sanctioned BBQ competition at Arab City Park. Besides BBQ, there will be arts and crafts, family fun and entertainment. Friday there will be gospel and bluegrass from 6-10 p.m. Saturday, country and southern rock groups will play between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. There will also be a car show 10 a.m.3 p.m. Saturday. All proceeds go to support the Tri-County and Four C volunteer fire departments. • May 14 – “The Minions” The Arab Chamber of Commerce
opens its summer movie series. Movie in the Park is a free event starting at dusk at the Arab City Park Amphitheater.
• May 17 - Makers Market Local artisans set up from 5-7 p.m. in the Northgate Shopping Center in Arab. Food Trucks are on hand for dinner and all shops stay open late. Sponsored by the Arab Chamber of Commerce. For more info: 256-5863138. • May 24 – June 28 – Concerts on the lake The Mountain Valley Arts Council’s summer concert series on the shores of Lake Guntersville opens May 24 with Big Daddy Kingfish. Subsequent concerts are: MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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Opening June 24, a cast of 40 singers and dancers at The Whole Backstage in Guntersville bring to life musical selections from such icons as Buddy Holly, Patsy Cline and, of course, Elvis. An original music revue for all ages, the show is compiled and directed by Johnny Brewer with choreography by Kate Bilke. Performances are June 24-26, June 30 and July 1-3. All show times are 7 p.m. except Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16 for students and seniors and $18 for adults. Tickets can be purchased online at www. wholebackstage.com. For more info: 256-582-7469. • May 31 – Jed Eye • June 7 – Shane Adkins • June 14 – Clear Blue Skies • June 21 - Eric and the Idols • June 28 – Rose Wood The free concerts are held 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays at Civitan Park in Guntersville. • May 30 – Memorial Day ceremonies Memorial Day makes for a nice long weekend, but take out time to pay your respects to those who died in the service of the country. The speaker was undetermined at press time, but you can attend the 11 a.m. ceremony in front of the Marshall County Courthouse or a second one at 2 p.m. at Arab City Park. • June 1-July – Exhibit by Gene Black, Dave Burks and Rita Winters Mountain Valley Arts Council Gallery is exhibiting the work of three area artists this month. Gene Black is a painter and quilter, Dave Burks is a photographer and Rita Winters is a weaver. A reception for them will be held the evening of June 2. The MVAC Gallery is open 1-5 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and 12
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10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays at 300 Gunter Ave., Guntersville. For more information: 256-571-7199. • June 10 – Wine tasting Jules Berta Winery will host a wine tasting from 5:30-7:30 p.m. to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, Marshall County. There will be wine, heavy hors d’oeuvres and music. No price has been set, but for info: 256891-5115. • June 16 – Celtic Evening Arab Main Event, a series of four monthly concerts starts its season with A Celtic Evening with the Sullivans. The free concert, sponsored by the Arab Downtown Association, will be 7:309:30 p.m. by the Gazebo downtown. Bring lawn chairs, grab dinner, drinks or desserts in one of downtown’s diners and bring it to the show. • June 17-18 – “Jekyll & Hyde” Directors John and Meagan Cardy will hold auditions at The Whole Backstage at 6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday with callbacks at 2 p.m. June 19. Performances will be Oct. 7-16. Fifteen roles, a sextet and 10-15
chorus members and dancers are needed. Audition materials, such as sheet music and audition tracks, will be made available through the office and email. For more parts information, visit: www.wholebackstage.com. For materials, contact: JohnCardy87@ gmail.com • June 20-21 – Art classes Space is limited for the two-day class offered by the Mountain Valley Arts Council. Prices to be announced. For more information: 256-571-7199. • June 24 – “The Force Awakens” Movie in the Park is a free event starting at dusk at the Arab City Park Amphitheater. It’s sponsored by the Arab Chamber of Commerce. • June 25 – Big concert and fireworks in Boaz The headliner for the annual Boaz Independence Day Concert was not yet finalized at press time, but past performers – including Ronnie Milsap, The Oak Ridge Boys, Tim Watson and Lee Greenwood – have drawn 10,000 and more people. Between the music and $10,000 worth of fireworks
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Guntersville Library will host a public reception with food, wine and music at 5 p.m. Aug. 6 for entrants in the “My Marshall” themed photo contest. Deadline to enter is June 6. It’s open to members of Marshall County Photography – which you can join for free – and sponsored by Oden Imaging and Good Life Magazine. For more info: contact@odenimaging.com. Jeff Horton of Georgia Mountain – recently featured in GLM for his kayaks – won first place for his foggy shot at left in a contest the photo group held this spring. afterward, it’s a great way to get a jump on the Fourth of July. It cranks up on Billy Dyar Boulevard with an opening act about 7 p.m. and ends with fireworks about 9:30. Bring a lawn chair. Food vendors and local restaurants will ensure that no one starves. The event is sponsored by the city of Boaz and the Boaz Chamber of Commerce. For more information: 256593-8105. • June 26 – Boat racing exhibit The Guntersville Museum will open a new exhibit, A Tribute to Boat Racing on Lake Guntersville. It will include a timeline and history of the races. The popularity of boat racing on the lake in the early years is lost to many today. For the first race – held in August 1939 to dedicate the new lake – organizers thought maybe they could draw 10,000 to a boat race in a town of 4,000. That many showed up a day early. Race day found 50,000 people in town with no overnight accommodations, few restaurants and no water or public restrooms. Traffic was backed up for miles north of the bridge. Relive it all at the museum, including a tribute to the Miss Guntersville Lake Pageant over the years and possibly one of the two hydroplanes (or a replica) that set world speed records on the lake. The museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 14
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Tuesday-Friday and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. Admittance is free. • July 4 – Fireworks over the lake The great tradition continues about 9 p.m. with a fireworks extravaganza over Lake Guntersville. Many people watch from boats. From land, it’s best viewed from the walking trail between Civitan Park and the pier. Come early and expect a crowd stretching across the Ala. 69 causeway. A communitywide effort, the city of Guntersville spends about $20,000 on the big drawing event. WTWX 95.5 FM will simulcast music to the fireworks. For more information call: Mila Sachs, Guntersville City Hall, 256-571-7565. • July 9 – Arab Horse Show Love horses? The Alabama Walking Horse Association does, and it consistently ranks the Arab Parks and Recreation’s annual one-day show as one of the best. Held at the Arab City Park Horse Arena, it draws some 150 entrants from across the Southeast to compete in walking and racking classes. The show starts at 5:30 p.m. and is over about 11 p.m. For more information: 256-586-6793. • July 16 – Antique Tractor and Power Show With nice weather, the annual show at the Boaz Farmer’s Market usually
draws about 70 old tractors and curious old engines. And when the show ends at noon, about half of them hold a parade over on Billy Dyar Boulevard. In between the parade and registration at 7:30 a.m., you see all of the old farm equipment, usually some displays of antique hand tools, buy breakfast or lunch from vendors, enter the tiny tricycle races or skillet toss, take a covered wagon ride with the Sand Mountain Saddle Club and watch events such as the tractor barrel races and the blind man (yep) tractor race. • July 17-19 – Art classes Space is limited for the two-day class offered by the Mountain Valley Arts Council. Prices to be announced. For more information: 256-571-7199. • July 21 – Arab Main Event The free concert series continues with Brad Strickland, who plays country with a blues twist. The concert, sponsored by the Arab Downtown Association, is 7:30-9:30 p.m. on a stage set up by the Gazebo downtown. Bring lawn chairs, grab dinner, drinks or desserts in one of downtown’s diners and bring it to the show. • July 29 – “The Hunger Games” Movie in the Park is a free event starting at dusk at the Arab City Park Amphitheater. It’s sponsored by the Arab Chamber of Commerce.
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15
Good People
5questions Story and photo by David Moore
L
inda and Ben Gamel of Boaz say they’re blessed. Their marriage – a second for both – gives them a family of five grown children (one is deceased) and 15 grandkids, ranging from 3 to 26 years old. “It’s somebody’s birthday every week,” Ben says. Both are happily active in Boaz First Baptist Church. And both have interesting backgrounds. At age 79, Ben has spent an unusual 51 years in law enforcement. As an Alabama State Trooper, besides rising to the rank of divisional major, he was a member of Gov. George Wallace’s security team for four years in the wake of the 1972 assassination attempt in Maryland during the governor’s bid for the presidency. What’s more, Ben headed personal trooper security at football games for Bear Bryant during his last two seasons at Alabama. After Bryant retired and died, Ben did security for coaches Ray Perkins, Bill Curry and Gene Stallings. Ben wears an SEC championship ring – six rubies surrounding a large diamond – which he got working with Curry when the Tide won a share of that title in 1989. Ben retired from the troopers – and 10 years of Alabama football security – when Gov. Guy Hunt appointed him in 1991 to fill the unexpired term of Marshall County Sheriff Walter “Big John” Colbert, who died. Five days after taking the oath of office, Ben married the former Linda Carroll, who, ironically – and in jest – tells people she sold drugs for a career. Linda lived in the Fayette County town of Berry in 1978 when she began 16
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The Gamels
Ben guarded Bear, Wallace, folks here; Linda made art to ease a mom’s heart commuting to Tuscaloosa for pharmacy training. Twice a week, she’d kindly get prescription orders filled in Tuscaloosa for elderly people back home who could not get to a pharmacy. “I was the drug lady,” she laughs. “They’d sign and pay, and I’d take the paperwork.” She retired from pharmacy work in 2000 but within a few years had started a new career, as such: She became an artist and turns many of her paintings into colorful note cards. The Gamels have lived in Marshall County since Ben, a Boaz native, became sheriff. On top of the honor and challenge, it provided him a chance to return to his old stomping grounds. “This is home,” he says. “I worked all over the state of Alabama and never found a place as good as this.”
1.
How did you get together, and how did your wedding week transpire? Linda: We were introduced in 1990 by my best friend, whose husband was a state trooper. She knew Ben and decided I needed to go out with him. She literally opened my purse, pulled out my calendar and marked out a whole weekend. She said, “We are going to Montgomery, and you are going to meet Major Gamel. You don’t have to like him, but I want you to spend two hours with him and go to dinner.” That night after dinner, Ben suggested we meet in the morning for breakfast. We did, and he was all dressed up in a coat and tie. He said he’d been to early service, and I thought, “Uh-hunh, this is a good man.” I had prayed that God would send somebody I could have a Christian home with, and God sent him. Ben had never been around teenaged
girls. I was living in Fayette County, and my daughter was still at home. He was such a good influence on Anna. When she met Ben and saw that he would include her and open the door for her like he did me, she was fine with him. Ben and I prayed about marriage and upending Anna from her school and decided we could be active in any church as along as Anna was happy there. She was 16 when we married. It was a small, family ceremony the home of Loyd and Polly Fowler, the friend who introduced us. It was very sweet. Just before we got married, Ben became the new sheriff in Marshall County. At the swearing in I was with him and held the Bible. Judge Bill Jetton swore in Ben on Monday, and we were married the following Saturday. He went to work the next morning. I was a little bit apprehensive about him being sheriff, but Anna put it into perspective. She said, “Mother, you were dating a state trooper, and now he’s the sheriff. Every trooper will know your car. Every deputy in Marshall County will know your car. You don’t have anything to worry about.” Ben: I always thought of Anna as my daughter. Linda and I both had experience being married. We talked it out, what type of relationship we wanted. Of course law enforcement was a big part of it.
2.
What impressed you most about Bear Bryant on and off the field? Ben: He had two trooper captains with him for a long time. I was the captain in Decatur. They were retiring
Snapshots: Linda and Ben Gamel
LINDA GAMEL: Born 1949 in Marietta; lived 20 years in Cobb County, Ga. EDUCATION: South Cobb High, 1967; attended Walker Junior College and University of Alabama; obtained an emergency certificate for teaching in rural schools: trained in Tuscaloosa as a pharmacy technician. CAREER: Taught two years, Berry Elementary school in Fayette County; worked 11 years as a pharmacy tech in Berry, Ala.; worked six years at Albertville Discount Pharmacy; retired in 2000. FAMILY: Three grown children of her own – Terri Phillips, Northport; National Guard Lt. Col. Joel Traweek, Berry; Anna Ethredge, Jackson, Ala.; four grandchildren. Three grown sons from her marriage to Ben: Scott Gamel, Indiana minister who died in 2014; Jon Gamel, Marion, Ohio; Paul Bryant Gamel, Birmingham; 11 grandchildren.
BEN GAMEL: Born in 1936; grew up on McVille Road, a mile from where he now lives. EDUCATION: Boaz High School, 1955; attended FBI Academy in Quantico, Va.; Calhoun State, Athens State, bachelor’s degree in criminal justice; master’s degree at age 65 from Jacksonville State University. CAREER: U.S. Air Force, four years; left in 1959, worked 21 months at Republic Steel, Gadsden. Joined Alabama Highway Patrol in 1960; 1965-1991, began teaching as corporal at the Alabama State Trooper Academy in Selma; over course of 16 years also taught at police academy at Jacksonville State University. Left troopers as a major in 1991, when appointed sheriff of Marshall County for 27 months following death of Sheriff Walter Colbert; did not seek election. As special deputy U.S. Marshal, served 15 years in federal court security in Birmingham, Gadsden and Anniston. Since 2015 served as part-time bailiff in criminal cases for Marshall County Circuit Judge Tim Riley.
running for president for a and he asked me to consider while. There was a lot of travel. being the trooper with the We’d have to do something, go football team. somewhere, and he’d say. “Ben I had been an Alabama how should we do it?” fan since 1948 and said I’d love it. He was still Governor I set down in Coach Wallace. He did the job. It Bryant’s office on his couch. didn’t slow him down. He It had short legs and I had to would wear us out sometimes. look up at him. He was a big Sometimes we’d slide him man anyway. He said they across a board into the backseat were glad to have me. of his Lincoln. He had pain in I was at the games with his side, and he’d say, “Ben, I him the last two years he don’t feel like going to work coached, the 1981 and 1982 today.” But he would go on to seasons. the office, and when the first Coach Bryant was a person walked through the door, winner. You could feel it just he was Governor Wallace again. being around him. Around the We have a junior college players, at halftime, before system because of him. We the game, he was intense. have interstates because of him. He’d call them by name, tell His stand on the issues of the them to win. time were what the people of He was a football coach. Alabama wanted at that time. That’s what he did. It was just He did what they wanted. He real impressive. There was no represented them. doubt – he wanted to win. I never heard him say We went to the Cotton anything bad about anybody. Bowl that first year and the The Alabama Department of Liberty Bowl the second year. Public Safety let me do a lot of Ben, in his trooper hat, keeps tabs on Gene Stallings. That was the last game he things in my career I would not coached. have even thought about. It was After he was shot, he came back It was a little bit of a shock when he more than a job. It was a calling. from Maryland and went into Spain announced he was retiring, but Coach Rehabilitation Center at UAB. I was Bryant was sick. His health was not What led you to take up with him the day he checked in. good, but I didn’t realize how bad it was. painting? I was with Gov. Wallace all the time. I was not there all the time. That’s what we did. That was my daily Coach Stallings was a good ol’ East Linda: My son Joel was deployed to job. We wore civilian clothes – coats Texas boy, a good guy, a Christian man Iraq the first time in late 2003. He was and ties – but we were armed. who loved his family. He loved his son in a bad place in Mosul with the 877th There were two of us troopers John Mark. He was dedicated to him. I Combat Engineers. We heard very little working him. I was a lieutenant; my grew to love John Mark, too. People who from him. partner was a sergeant. One pushed have Down syndrome are so special. Our nights are days over there. I am that wheelchair, the other covered a pretty active person, anyway. I am not the governor. We also had two other Linda: We both are big Alabama a sleeper. I would get ready for bed and guys on advance detail in a crowd. We fans. We used to travel to the games but realize he was getting up and would be rotated the crews. not any more. Ben’s a very vocal fan, out in a dangerous area. Rather than Your job was to take a bullet if you but I’ve had my moments, too. staying up and watching movies and had to. I never thought about that. It wandering around the house, I started was my job. It’s what I did. He had What sort of person did you to paint. already been shot, and I didn’t want know Gov. George Wallace to be? I had always thought I could. I anything else to happen to him. would see things when we traveled Governor Wallace, I felt like he was Ben: It was long hours but probably and say, “I could paint that.” But I was a relative. It was not just a job for me. the best job I had with the troopers, always so involved with the children I had tremendous respect for him. He as far as being accepted into a family. and work I did not have time. treated us that way. One day after Joel had deployed, I Governor Wallace was one of the best We took care of him and his family went to WalMart and picked up a few men I have ever known. We were all when they were along. He was still eight-by-ten canvases and some acrylic treated like family.
4.
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Linda has created cards from many of her paintings, art she created to channel concerns for her son fighting overseas. paint. I would paint every night when I couldn’t sleep. It was something I could concentrate on besides my son being away from home and out in harm’s way. No one knows a military mom’s heart unless they have had that experience. I later had the opportunity to speak to military moms as they prepared for their sons or daughters to be deployed and tell them how I took up a little hobby and used that as my therapy. I encouraged others to pick something they could occupy their time with while their child was away. Joel came back OK, but my hobby had taken over. I now have a makeshift – and I mean makeshift – area in the garage, and I paint any time I feel like it. Later, I would scan my canvases and take them to a printer and get really good prints made to sell as note cards. And every year I do a set of Christmas cards – except this past year – and I write my own verses on them. I’ve only been to one painting workshop and that was last January. Joel went back in 2009 to 20
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Afghanistan. By that time, I pretty much knew what I needed to do, and I painted every night. You take something bad and turn it into something good.
5.
What’s something most people don’t know about Linda and Ben Gamel? Linda: People think of Ben as being very military, very structured, very organized. And he is all of those things … well, not the organization part, at least at home. When he is involved in a job, he makes sure everyone does it perfectly. But that gets put off at home. It’s called procrastination. Also, most people wouldn’t believe how much time he spends with Tre, Anna’s youngest child. He’s 3. Ben had one of his old golf clubs cut down for the grandkids. Tre just loves it. He spent five days with us, by himself, last summer, and every day Ben would say, “Do you want to play some golf?” He took the time to put down putting carpet outside and taught Tre how to
hold the club. When Tre hit it, he hit. You could see Ben just grinning. All of his military bearing went out the window. When Ben watches an Alabama football game on TV, there is nothing else going on but the game. Usually. But Tre once got up in his lap and watched a game with him, and they would just talk about what all was going on. I am just amazed at Ben’s softer side. Most people would not believe he had one. Ben: Linda is a very giving person. She helps the church and needy people. She enjoys and gets satisfaction out of it. She’d give you the shirt off her back. She doesn’t look for recognition. People at church know she does these things, but I don’t think they know how intense she is about it. She really doesn’t want recognition. It’s a calling for her – the Christian thing to do. That’s what she wants to do. It has a lot to do with why I love her. Good Life Magazine
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Good Reads
This decades-long love story entwines a spectrum of issues
Baldacci’s action is dead-on in his latest Will Robie thriller
he life of retirement home resident Alma Belasco is gradually revealed through lengthy flashbacks spanning almost 70 years. Isabel Allende’s “The Japanese Lover” is the story of two doomed lovers who prove that although separated by world events and racial attitudes, love can prevail – if only through intermittent “In itself age doesn’t make meetings and beautifully anyone better or wiser, written love letters. but only accentuates what In 1939 as Alma’s parents grow increasingly they have always been.” alarmed by the escalating threat to Jews in Poland, they send their young daughter to live with wealthy relatives in San Francisco. Lonely and displaced, she forms a close relationship with Ichimei, the son of the Japanese gardener. They are separated for eight years after Pearl Harbor is bombed and the Japanese are sent to relocation camps in the Southwest. When they are reunited, the couple cannot publicly associate because of post-war racism. A brief, passionate, hidden affair ensues with results lasting decades. To resolve complex issues arising from this relationship, Alma marries her much older first cousin. Allende uses the lovers’ story to cover major events of the 20th century: the Jewish Holocaust, the Japanese internment, racism, illegal abortion, AIDS and the white slave trade in Eastern Europe. She really could have covered less, tightened her plot and added more depth to her major characters. Still, this engaging, multi-generational love story will appeal to Allende’s many faithful readers. Annette Snow Haislip
avid Baldacci’s “The Guilty” is the fifth adventure of sniper Will Robie, the nation’s most lethal covert assassin. On his previous mission his bullet inadvertently struck a small child. Riddled with guilt and no longer confident of his skills, he fails to pull the trigger to complete his latest assignment. “I can abort this mission Removed from the all the way up field, he realizes that to until my finger pulls regain his confidence the trigger.” he must confront his conflicted past. For the first time in 20 years, he returns to his childhood home in rural Mississippi. There he finds his estranged father, the local judge, accused of murder, the motive linked to his mysterious young wife who is half his age. Will visits his father in jail and finds their relationship unchanged. He is, however, determined to investigate the murder since he knows his father is no killer. Will visits his father’s home, meets the new wife and finds he has a 2-year-old stepbrother. Surprisingly, he feels a strong bond and immediate attraction to his new stepmother. As murders mount, ties to casino gambling, questionable gas and oil rights, long hidden child sex crimes and incest are revealed. Will eventually discovers that events related to his abrupt departure from home years earlier provided the motivation for the murders and the complex efforts made to implicate his father. Baldacci never fails to write an action-filled story, and this one does not disappoint. Annette Snow Haislip
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Mantids, commonly called praying mantis, are very efficient and deadly predators that capture and eat a wide variety of insects and other small prey. They use their “neck,” which allows the head to rotate 180 degrees, while waiting for a meal to wander by. Camouflage coloration allows mantids to blend in with the background as they sit on twigs and stems waiting to ambush prey with their highly specialized front legs. So what do these natural enemies control? Mantids eat insects as small as aphids and other prey as large as hummingbirds.
Good ’n’ Green
Don’t let ‘em all bug you
Story and provided photos by Hunter McBrayer
B
ugs – whether you love them or hate them – are a big part of everyday life. From the ant mounds springing up across the lawn to those microscopic fellas that break down leaves and other organic matter, we are always surrounded by insects. In fact, over 950,000 species of insects have been identified on earth, though no one knows for sure how many species actually exist. Many more are discovered and described every year, adding to that number. As gardeners and homeowners, it is important to remember that not all bugs are bad. Indeed, most species of insects are not only good for the environment but are actually friends of the garden. Unfortunately for these good guys (and gals), most gardeners associate all bugs as bad bugs and start trying to kill them as soon as possible. For instance, while most know that honey bees are a great pollinator, many are surprised that we have many species of native pollinators, including other bees, some wasps and even beetles that pollinate our fruit and vegetable crops. Here are just a few of the best natural pest control options we can have in our vegetable and ornamental gardens – and they are bugs ... 24
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The brown lacewing, Mircomus sp., is another helping hand around the vegetable garden. Though small, these insects – especially as larvae – have a big appetite for aphids. Aphids are one of the most common plant pests, feeding on new, succulent growth with their piercing, sucking mouthparts. While you can reduce the number of these pests by using less nitrogen in the garden, having the brown lacewing larvae around to handle your aphid hunting could never hurt. The tiny, parasitic braconid wasp, Cotesia congregates, helps tomato gardeners. They “sting” the dreaded tomato hornworms, laying eggs in its body, using them as a living and eating host. Once the eggs hatch, they eat their way from the inside out, eventually killing the host. So if you see a hornworm covered in small, white wasp eggs, leave it alone so that more wasps can hatch.
The insect order Hemiptera gives us a lot of both friendly and harmful insects. Many of them are plant pests that use sharp, needlelike mouthparts called a proboscis to pierce leaves and stems of host plants and suck out the sap. Insects such as the leaf-footed bug and squash bug are common insect pests in our gardens. From the same order – though basically distant cousins – we get predatory insects such as the assassin bug, top, and the wheel bug, bottom. The assassin bug, Zelus longipes, is just that, a harmful insect killing machine. Wheel bugs, Arilus cristatus, named for the gear-like growth on their thorax, are great hunters of the garden, eating many soft-bodied insects. While other members of the order use their proboscises to pierce plants, these predators use them as weapons, killing everything from aphids to ants and flies.
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Good memories
preserved in Hospice cookbook Story and photos by David Moore
G
ood, home-cooked food often plays a part in the good memories we make with family and friends. To celebrate these “Homecooked Memories” – past, present and future – Hospice of Marshall County has
• Florence Dennis of Grant, one of the guest cooks for this issue, submitted her recipe for red velvet cake in honor of her daughter, Karen Denton, coordinator of Hospice volunteers for 21 years. It’s one of Karen’s favorite cakes. Karen actually recruited Florence as a volunteer, but it took a few years. Florence had to get over the death of her husband, Milford Dennis, on July 10, 1998. “We were friends for years, and then we lived together for 52 years,” Florence chuckles at the memory. “He loved to eat. Sometimes he would be at the table eating before I got everything on it.”
Guest cooks cutting up in the library at Shepherd Cove are: from left front, Florence Dennis of Grant and Nell Wise of Albertville; rear, Tiffany Gilbert of Arab and Jerry Parker of Boaz. published four cookbooks over the years with that title. The recipes were submitted from the many volunteers who pour their hearts and hours into helping Hospice, as well as paid employees. Some recipes are memorials to loved ones lost, some honor the living, all have created some memory. The recipes in this issue of Good Life Magazine come from “Homecooked Memories Volume IV.” Here are the four guest cooks who prepared dishes from their recipes …
Good Cooking
• Nell Wise, who lives in Albertville with her husband, Max, prepared her recipe for chicken casserole. She retired in 2000 after teaching ninth grade science at Boaz High School. An empty nester looking for a good cause, she started volunteering for Hospice about nine years ago and loves everything about the work, from working the reception desk to making bereavement calls. “I love everyone here,” she says. “It’s been a wonderful experience for me.” Nell has seven recipes in “Homecooked Memories,” none dedicated to or in memory of anyone. She just loves Hospice so much she wanted to be a part of the cookbook.
• Tiffany Gilbert submitted her Cowboy Soup. A 15-year employee for Regions, she lives in Arab with husband John and their sons, Carter and Reece. Her mother, Pam, watches the boys. Tiffany’s recipe is in memory of her dad, Ronald Lockhart who worked for Abertville’s Municipal Utilities Board and died June 24, 2007. “I actually got to cook it for him one time,” she says of the MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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soup. “He liked spicy foods and would cook in a Dutch oven when we’d go camping.” Tiffany uses Regions’ What a Difference a Day Makes program and volunteers time through Marshall County United Way to weed flowers, clean windows and scrub rockers at Hospice. Like her recipe, her work is done in memory of her father. • Jerry Parker of Boaz takes his vast experience from Goodyear and applies it to his handyman job at Hospice. His cooking skills are limited, however. “I am a one trick pony, he laughs. “I don’t even know where the dishwasher is.” Well, maybe he has more than one trick. Besides scrambled eggs, bacon and a burger, for years he’s made a lemon pie. While he had a sister who was under Hospice care, his pie recipe is in honor of his wife, Sharon. It’s payback, he laughs for all the good dishes she’s made for him, including the pie he brought in for the photo … COWBOY SOUP Tiffany Gilbert, in memory of Ronald Lockhart 1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained 1 can (14½ oz.) crushed tomatoes 1 can Rotel tomatoes 1 can (15 oz.) whole kernel corn ½ c. dried minced onion 1 box (6.8 oz.) Spanish rice, with seasoning packet 6 c. water 1 can Veg-All
Combine all ingredients in Crock Pot. Cover and cook on low heat 4-5 hours. Do not overcook. Makes 4-6 servings. Top with grated cheese and sour cream, if desired. Serve with tortilla chips. NOTE: The recipe calls for water, but I don’t use it. I like it hearty because I don’t have to cook anything else to go with it.
BARBARA’S CORNBREAD DRESSING Barbara Eubanks, in memory of Willie Cochran
“Homecooked Memories Volume IV” has been out for several years, but some copies remain for sale at Shepherd’s Cove at 408 Martling Road in Albertville and Hospice’s Thrift Shoppe at the top of the mountain in Guntersville at 13014 U.S. 431. The $20 cost helps cover the $1.2 million of unreimbursed care Hospice provided over five years to patients with no other resources.
1 skillet of cornbread 5 slices of loaf bread 5 eggs approx. 1½ quarts chicken broth Sage to taste 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 can cream of celery soup 1 onion, chopped ¾ c. chopped celery 1 stick butter Salt/pepper Make cornbread a day or two ahead. Crumble cornbread and loaf bread in a large bowl. On medium heat sauté onions and celery in the butter until
transparent; add to bread. Beat eggs with a fork and add to bowl. Add cans of soup, salt, pepper and sage (optional). Pour in a qt. of broth and stir to moisten ingredients. (I use my hands for this.) Continue adding broth until mixture is very moist, about the consistency of unbaked cornbread. Pour into a large greased pan. Bake at 400 on middle rack for 30-40 minutes until lightly brown and set. NOTE: You may buy broth or make your own by boiling a chicken with root vegetables. You can also add boned chicken. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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3-4 boneless chicken breasts, cooked 1 16 oz. can mixed vegetables, drained 8 oz. water chestnuts, drained and sliced 1 small onion 1 c. cheese, grated
GRANDDADDY’S (EASY) DINNER ROLLS Alaina Ladner 1 envelope dry yeast 1 egg, beaten ¼ c. sugar 1 c. warm water 4 c. self-rising flour ¾ c. oil Dissolve yeast in warm water. Mix with remaining ingredients. Cover in bowl. Cook immediately or refrigerate until ready to bake at 450 for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
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CHICKEN AND VEG-ALL CASSEROLE Nell Wise, HMC volunteer ½ c. mayonnaise ½ c. sour cream 1 stick margarine, melted 1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed Place chicken in lightly greased 9X13
baking dish. Combine vegetables, water chestnuts, onion, cheese, mayo and sour cream. Pour over chicken. Combine cracker crumbs and margarine. Sprinkle over top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Makes 6-8 servings.
CRACKED BLACK PEPPER POTATO CHIPS WITH ONION DIP Susan Sanders, HMC staff 3 large russet potatoes, 2¼ lbs. total, sliced in 1/8-in. rounds 2 Tbsp. olive oil 2 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper Salt Toss potatoes in a large bowl with olive oil and pepper until well coated. Preheat oven to 450. Arrange potato slices in one layer on two cookie sheets. Bake for 20-25 minutes until chips are crisped and lightly browned. Remove from oven, season with salt and allow to cool. ONION DIP 2 tsp. olive oil 1 sm. onion, minced 2 scallions thinly sliced, greens and whites separated
1 ¼ c. non-fat Greek style yogurt or 1 2/3 c. regular nonfat plain yogurt ¼ c. mayo ¾ tsp. onion powder ¾ tsp. garlic powder ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp pepper Heat oil on medium; add onions and scallion whites. Stir often until golden brown and soft, about 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool. If using regular yogurt, place in a strainer lined with a paper towel over bowl; let drain and thicken for 20 minutes. Stir in onions with thickened (or Greek-style) yogurt, mayo, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and scallion greens. Chill for 1 hour to let flavors meld. Serve with chips.
STUFFED CABBAGE ROLLS Paula Phillips, HMC volunteer In Memory of Pat Phillips 8 large cabbage leaves 1lb. ground beef 1½ c. soft breadcrumbs ½ c. finely chopped onion 2 beaten eggs 1½ tsp. salt ¼ tsp. pepper Dash garlic salt 1 can condensed tomato soup Cook cabbage leaves in boiling water for 5 minutes; drain. Combine ground beef, breadcrumbs, onion, eggs, and seasonings. Shape meat mixture into 8 rolls: wrap cabbage leaves around them securely. Pour soup into skillet; add cabbage rolls. Cover and bring to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer 35 minutes, spooning sauce over occasionally. Add water as needed. STRAWBERRY PRETZEL SALAD HMC staff 2 c. pretzels ¾ c. butter, melted 3 Tbsp. sugar plus ¼ c. sugar 8 oz. cream cheese 8 oz. Cool Whip 2 pkgs. strawberry Jell-o 1 c. boiling water 2 to 3 c. fresh strawberries 8 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
RED VELVET CAKE Florence Dennis, HMC volunteer, in honor of Karen Denton 1 box yellow cake mix four minutes with mixer. 1 tsp. cocoa Pour batter into three 1 c. buttermilk greased cake pans. Bake at 350 1 stick margarine, softened for 30 minutes 3 eggs 1 oz. red food coloring FROSTING 1 tsp. soda 1 stick margarine 1 Tbsp. vinegar 1 (8oz.) cream cheese, softened 1 Tbsp. vanilla 1 box powdered sugar 1 c. chopped pecans Stir cake mix and cocoa together. Blend in margarine, Blend margarine and cream buttermilk, eggs, food coloring cheese. Add box of powdered and vanilla. Combine soda and sugar mixing until smooth. Stir vinegar. Add to batter. Beat in nuts and spread on cake.
Mix pretzels, butter, and 3 Tbsp. sugar. Press into 9x13-dish and bake at 400 for seven minutes. Cool completely. Beat cream cheese and ¼ cup sugar. Fold in Cool Whip, spread over cooled crust and refrigerate until chilled. Dissolve Jell-o in boiling water. Cool slightly and add strawberries and pineapple. Pour over cream cheese and refrigerate until firm. UNCLE ELLIS’ BBQ SAUCE Rhonda Osborne, HMC staff ½ box (4oz.) black pepper 1 12 oz. bottle Worcestershire sauce 1 qt. vinegar ½ small bottle Tobasco sauce 1 pint Louisiana hot sauce 1 46 oz. bottle Heinz ketchup Mix ingredients and simmer 45 minutes -1 hour. Pour sauce into bottles when cool. NOTE: This recipe was created by our Uncle Ellis Jakes. It certainly has a kick to it and is very good. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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Lemon Icebox Pie Jerry Parker In honor of Sharon Parker 2 8 oz. blocks of cream cheese, softened 1 sm. can sweetened condensed milk ¼ c. lemon juice Mix all of the ingredients together and pour into pre-made graham cracker crust. Let chill for 2-3 hours.
SKILLET APPLE PIE Joan Gravel, HMC volunteer 4 lbs. of your favorite cooking apples 1 tsp. cinnamon ¾ c. sugar ½ c. butter 1 c. brown sugar, packed 1 pkg. ready crust (2 crusts) 1 egg white 2 Tbsp. sugar Preheat oven to 350. Peel apples and cut into ½-inch wedges. Toss apples in ¾ c. sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Melt butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat; add brown sugar and cook, stirring constantly for 1-2 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Place one pie crust in skillet over the butter/sugar mixture. Spoon apples over crust and top with second pie crust. Seal edges of both pie crusts. Beat egg white until foamy, then brush over top of crust. Cut slits in top of pie for steam to escape. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp. sugar over crust. Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes or until golden brown. Shield edges of pie to keep from getting too brown. Cool on rack for 30 minutes before serving. 32
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HERSHEY’S BAR CAKE Jenny Powers 22 squares of an 8 oz. Hershey’s bar (or about 3½ regular bars) 1 can Hershey’s syrup (16 oz.) 2 c. sugar 4 eggs 2½ c. flour ½ tsp. soda ¼ tsp. salt 1 c. buttermilk 1 tsp. vanilla 2 sticks butter Mix squares of candy bar and syrup. Cream sugar and sticks of butter. Blend in eggs, beating after each. Sift together flour, soda and salt. Add alternately with buttermilk. Add chocolate mixture and vanilla. Bake at 325 for 1 hour 15 min in a greased Bundt pan. Freezes well.
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The Yum Yum Tree
A lunchtime favorite for more than 60 years Good Eats Story and photos by Patrick Oden
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ince 1949, the Yum Yum Tree has blossomed in the same plaza in Albertville. And though it has passed from owner to owner over the years, the menu has remained largely unchanged. When current owners Dustin and Christina Chamblee purchased The Yum Yum Tree from Mike Colvin in December 2013 they made sure to get all of the restaurant patrons’ favorite recipes. 34
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“They got ‘em all,” says Mike, who still eats at his old restaurant on a regular basis. “I love it.” If ever there were a great testament to a restaurant, its heart rests in a loyal customer base. And there is no denying The Yum Yum Tree has just that. Take Josh Doster of Albertville, for example. “I’m in here just about every day,” says Josh. But his favorite is the Thursday special, spaghetti, and a heaping helping of the homemade coconut pudding. In fact, each day of the week, The Yum Yum Tree has a special.
Business doesn’t slow as Dustin Chamblee poses for a portrait in The Yum Yum Tree at 212 N. Broad St. in Albertville. The heaping tray of food carried by Josh Doster is enough to make any hungry soul smile. The regulars know the schedule by heart. “I come on Tuesdays and Thursdays for their taco salad and spaghetti,” says Robby DeArmond between bites. Dustin, a graduate of Jacksonville State, had been looking to put his business degree to use when he learned through his father-in-law The Yum Yum Tree was up for sale. “I had always wanted to own my own business, so I decided to go for it,” says Dustin.
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ustin had worked in restaurants during college, and the well-established Yum Yum Tree seemed like a sound investment to the young entrepreneur. “A restaurant had never crossed my mind,” says Dustin. “But I knew I was ready to do my own thing.” Proudly, Dustin says nothing on the menu is fried. In fact, he takes pride in offering healthy and fresh meals. And if loyal customers are a testament to a restaurant, then so are loyal employees ... and Dustin has two who have been with the restaurant for more than nine years.
“I got here when the dinosaurs were still roaming” laughs Christie Cline, who has worked at The Yum Yum Tree for 11 years. “This is a very interesting place to work,” she adds. “The most interesting was when Dustin bought it. I thought, ‘He’s just a kid.’ But he’s turned out to be a great boss.” “It’s part of the community really,” says Dustin. “When you think about Albertville, you think of The Yum Yum Tree.”
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ut Dustin isn’t resting on his laurels or the restaurant’s reputation. He says he’s dedicated to his customers and committed to providing them with the level of quality and consistency they have come to expect over the years. Confident of the blooming business and reassured by nearly three years of steady business, 33-year-old Dustin says, “If you’ve eaten here before, you love it ... if you haven’t, you will.” There’s plenty to eat at The Yum Yum Tree, but it’s unlikely that Dustin will have to eat his words. Good Life Magazine MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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Times do change ... as can the house where you grew up (Especially after ‘the world’s longest remodeling project’)
Sentimentally speaking, Patrick and Kim Lawler live in the house where he grew up on Lake Guntersville. In reality, after undergoing what he calls “the world’s longest remodeling project,” it’s a totally different place. Here’s another reality: the Lawlers don’t live there full time. At age 20, Patrick left Guntersville, towing his bed and TV in a U-Haul trailer, bound for Texas. There, through hard work, he found success in wholesale automobiles and later in real estate. Today he and Kim return to Marshall County about twice a month – now flying in his jet. Times do change ...
Everything in Texas might be big, but this
Remodel job on the lake
is even bigger
Story and photos by David Moore
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to ride but to resell for profit. By high school, he’d graduated to buying and selling cheap cars.
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im Gilbert grew up in Albertville, the daughter of Nell here were no silver spoons, not back in the early days, and Don Gilbert. After they divorced, Nell married Carl Pruett, much less a jet plane. who later became mayor of Albertville. Patrick Lawler and his older brother, Paul, now a minister, Coincidentally, she were reared in the worked during high Huffman area of school at the Mall Birmingham by their Garden Theater, which divorced mother, Patty. Jake owned and is now There was barely rent Crossroads Mall. money, much less “I loved it and had money for bikes and tons of friends,” she other things young says. “We still keep up boys desired. with each other.” “We didn’t know In fact, she’s any different,” Patrick heading to the beach says. “If I wanted a this summer with a nice bike or go-cart, I bunch of them. had to figure out how “We’ve lost parents to get money to buy and children and it.” husbands,” Kim says. He’d buy a cheap, “We’ve watched our used bicycle, turn it babies grow up.” for a profit, invest it Long before in a nicer bike, sell these aspects of life that one, then the next Daisy keeps Kim and Patrick company on the front porch. unfolded, she met one, and soon he had a Patrick. It happened at nice bike. And, as yet summer school. unknown to him, he “I was taking senior English my junior year,” Kim says. soon had a skill set he’d capitalize on for years. “She was there getting ahead, and I was there catching up,” Life took a turn for the better after Patty met and married Patrick laughs. Jake Hammonds, who was raised in Marshall County and Kim graduated from Albertville High in 1982, the same year owned several local movie theaters. Patrick, by his account, “barely” graduated from Guntersville. “My stepdad was probably one of the best things that ever He did what came naturally to him and went into the car happened to my brother and me,” Patrick says. business, buying them at auctions in Florida and Texas. He was 12 when Patty and Jake married and built a In 1984 he decided to move to Dallas where the opportunity four-bedroom house on the Browns Creek shore of Lake to acquire inventory was better. So he packed all his belongings Guntersville. – his bed and TV – in a U-Haul and left. Lake life was great, but Patrick was too busy to enjoy it as “I say it was all I owned, but the TV was really my parents’. much as he might have. It wasn’t studying that kept him busy. When I was that age, I couldn’t be gone from here fast enough. By 13, he had his first job at Char Burger in Warrenton. At this age,” he adds, “I can’t get back here fast enough.” “I was a general grunt,” he grins. “I cleaned fryers, took Kim stayed behind, working at an outlet store in Boaz. orders.” “We knew we were going to get married, but it took a little He also bought and sold bicycles, motorcycles, go-carts, not 38
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The 4,400-square-foot house looks very different from the old days, but the Lawlers kept the “footprint� basically the same. The former house had the balcony, which adds to the cabin feel of the place. The low, wooden ceiling keeps the big kitchen cozy.
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The master bedroom, one of four in the house, is upstairs, off the balcony. The fireplace is one of five in the house, adding to the feel of rustic luxury. Squared, reclaimed logs on the back of the house are visible in the bedroom. In the master bath, copper ceiling tiles compliment the copper tub. even opened a second office in Marshall County. He finds himself spending a lot of time here handling his local developments. (Please see related story on the following page.) Ryan, 29, now works with Patrick in Texas. Big double doors separate their offices. “I feel I am the luckiest guy in the world to work with my son,” Patrick says.
longer than we were happy with,” she says.
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hey finally married in 1986 and she moved to Dallas with him. “What she brought to the relationship was a car and a car payment,” Patrick says, a joke never far from utterance. “That’s not nice!” Kim grins. “Well,” he replies in self-defense, “I got rid of the car payment and kept you.” Their son, Ryan, was born 14 months later. As he grew, so did Patrick’s first business, Lawler Motor Sports. Located in Grand Prairie, between Dallas and Fort Worth, he sold wholesale, preowned cars, most of which he bought at auction. Over time it has evolved into more of a bank or clearing house than an actual dealership. Patrick now has a dozen buyers and averages selling more than 500 vehicles per month. In the early 1990s, he started P. Lawler Enterprises, handling “a smorgasbord of commercial property,” 40
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primarily commercial developments in Dallas/Fort Worth. It’s outgrown his car business, and a few years ago he
he stepfather who meant so much to Patrick died in 1997. His mom continued living in the family house by the lake, but in 2005 she started building a new one next door. “She was going to sell this one,” Kim says. “It was getting old and had become a maintenance problem.” Patty never saw the new house finished. Walking in her yard one day, she collapsed and died. Patrick, torn up, met with a real estate agent the day after her funeral to sell the old house.
Ever a business guy, Lawler takes on developments in Marshall County
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Patrick brags on the detail work Phillip Todd did in building the house. For instance, he used dowel rods instead of nails on the built-in bunks in the second upstairs bedroom. Phillip made extensive use of bark-on poplar shingles outside and inside, such as the walls of this guest bath on the first floor. “I just needed closure,” he says. Kim told him that would be a mistake he’d later regret. So for sentimental reasons they maintained the house for five years, doing little more than staying there occasionally when they returned to Guntersville. Between raising Ryan and growing businesses, Patrick and Kim’s roots had spread deep in Texas. They had a second home on the popular Possum Kingdom Lake where Patrick had developed several
high-end homes during the oil and gas boom. Eventually, they sold their Texas lake house and about five years ago found themselves spending more and more time in Guntersville. And doing more and more projects on the old house. “Pretty soon,” Patrick says, “it was full-blown.” Full-blown in this case means keeping the house’s original footprint for the most part, but moving walls here and there and
atrick Lawler is compelled by challenges and projects that might baffle others. The latest challenge in Marshall County is his 300-acre residential development with a halfmile of waterfront on Lake Guntersville. As a child, Patrick bought and sold used bicycles, a knack he parlayed in later years into two successful businesses based in Texas. One of them, P. Lawler Enterprises, his real estate company, opened a branch office a few years ago in Marshall County. In 1998 he took on his first local challenge – developing the old Guntersville Hospital on Ringold Street. After the hospital merged with the old Arab Hospital to form Marshall Medical Center North in Scant City, the building was used as an annex to the Marshall County Courthouse. By that point, it was condemned property. People said nothing could be done with the three-story building, given the thickness of its concrete walls, but Patrick bought it and took on the challenge. “He gets motivated when people say he can’t do something,” wife Kim says. Hiring the property contractors allowed Patrick to drill core holes in the concrete walls to hold electrical conduit where needed and install a drop ceiling to conceal air-conditioning ducts. “It was kind of a no brainer,” he says. Recently, he completed The Landing at Snug Harbor. Patrick is currently constructing roads for The Reserve at Lake Guntersville, a residential development he’s building in phases on Lewis Mountain. The lots – expected to go on sale this summer – will be both lakefront and lake views with elevations of 600 to 1,100 feet. Someone probably said he couldn’t do it. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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Not surprisingly, the Lawlers spend a lot time on the screened in patio, above. “I love the rustic look,” Patrick says. “I like the feel of a cabin being on the lake.” Some of the old wood in the house came from Pennsylvania, some from James and Co. Antique Timber and Flooring in Collinsville. in places taking everything down to the dirt. “It was the world’s longest remodeling project,” Patrick laughs. They hired Phillip Todd of Albertville to handle the remodeling. “Phillip is not a carpenter,” says Kim. “He’s a craftsman. It’s incredible when you start looking at the detail.” What emerged by the end of last summer was a high-end, rustic cabin, a completely different place from where Patrick had grown up. But he was never out to erase the past. Too much sentiment for that. Says Kim, “If I had a dollar for every time he said. ‘I wish Mom and Jake could see this place now …’”
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imes do change. So do houses. But some things don’t change. The repartee between Patrick and Kim, for one. The Lawlers did not hire a decorator. He had some input, but Kim did most of the decorating. “People,” Patrick quips, “look around and say, ‘I didn’t think so.’” 42
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Having recently celebrated their 30th anniversary, Kim says they have been very blessed. During that time, she notes, they lived in Texas longer than they’ve lived in Marshall County. “We love it. We have wonderful
friends out there. When you raise your kid there, you have a lot of roots. But this,” she says of their remodeled family house on Lake Guntersville, “is home. It just is.” If only Patty and Jake could see it. Good Life Magazine
Sunset glows behind Kim and Patrick’s boathouse, one of the most interesting ones you’ll find on the lake. He got the idea of the stone arches one night and asked Guntersville contractor Scott Martin if it could work. Scott said he would make it work. The results are an interior, left, with a bar, fireplace and lounging space.
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Amber and the Loons And maybe a duck or two mixed in with her passion
This loon has shed its dull winter plumage for breeding plumage shortly before returning to is summer waters up north. “They left Lake Guntersville early this spring because of the warm winter,” Amber says. Her last spotting was on April 16, but the birds will begin to return in late October.
Story by David Moore Nature photos by Amber Hart
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mber Hart is a relatively rare breed … a birder. She’s made a new nest among the waterfowl of Lake Guntersville, focusing her 500mm lens and Nikon on the little known and less-studied winter population of Common Loons. Understanding the difference between a birdwatcher and birder helps you to understand Amber. The former loves to observe songbirds flittering about wellstocked feeders in the yard and can maybe identify a dozen or more species. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” Amber says. Birders, however, might be described as birdwatchers on steroids. With spotting scopes, binoculars or cameras in one hand and a list of prized sitings in the other, birders expend time and money, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles,
Amber drew a crowd of hopeful ducks at Civitan Park earlier this year during an interview that was supposed to be about loons. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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to glimpse a particular species: the rarer, the better. Some folks might call birders nuts, or crazy loons, perhaps. “We prefer the term ‘passionate,’” Amber grins from under her plumage of red hair. Some peers in the jury may not be swayed from “crazy” in her case when they learn Amber also enjoys herping. Derived from herpetology – the study of reptiles and amphibians – herping refers to the act of seeking out reptiles and amphibians. “I always liked snakes,” she says of her childhood in rural towns around Columbus, Ohio. She thinks the attraction morphed from a young interest in dinosaurs. But birds always flew to the top of her nature list. A reader at age 3, Amber memorized her first birding field guide at 5. “I could,” she says, “go to the nature center and tell you what every single bird was.” Nonetheless, it would be years before her birding passion took flight and she migrated to Guntersville, somewhat like the loons she admires.
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arried at 19, Amber became a stay-at-home mom. Her husband, Matt, became a nurse. They have a brood of five: Aubrey, 12, Morgan, 10, Charlotte, 8, Libby, 6, and Seth, 4. With hands and days full, it was 2012 before Amber started chasing and listing the birds she spotted. In 2013, she and a fellow birder in Ohio competed to see who could spot the most species. The contest was interrupted at mid-year – she had 223 listings – because her husband lost his job in the flooded medical market there, and the family moved first to Huntsville, then to Morgan City, north of Arab. Amber says her birding buddy won by one sighting because she missed out on seeing many winter species there. As a testament to her growing passion, however, Amber drove to Ohio that winter just to spot a snowy owl. 46
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Loons, like all birds, follow predictable migration patterns – usually. Amber likes that “usually” part. “I think part of my fascination with birding is that there is always the possibility of seeing something new,” she says. “Birds are not bound by their ranges on a map. Because they fly, they can wind up anywhere. You can get some pretty neat birds to show up in the most unlikely of places.” The loon here is in its winter plumage.
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For flying they’re fine, but the legs of the loon are located so far back it makes it impossible for the bird to walk or even waddle. The best it can manage, Amber says, is to scoot on its rear.
It was November 2013 when she first visited Lake Guntersville. “I figured it would be a pretty good place for ducks,” she says. “Actually, it’s a Mecca during winter for migrating waterfowl. I had never seen so many ducks until I came down here.” To her delight, Amber also spotted her first Common Loon … make that plural. “I came to the Alabama 69 causeway and realized that most of the birds in the water right there were loons,” she says.
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mber knew loons summer in New England, the Great Lakes region, Washington and nearly all of Canada. They winter in the coastal waters of the southern Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and southern Pacific. She wasn’t surprised that Guntersville 48
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was a migration stopover, but there appeared to be a population of loons that winter on the lake. It was a study waiting to happen … which it did. Amber’s immediate goal was to make 2014 her biggest birding year. With their dad watching the kids, she’d take off a few days to go birding as far as Texas, driving all night, birding all day, sleeping very little. When someone wrecked her vehicle in February, it also wrecked her travel plans. But in less than two months she’d already spotted some 250 different bird species, due to her diligence and to the digital grapevine groups that serious birders rely upon today, such as Yahoo’s Albirds and Listserv. For instance, Albirds this winter carried an online report of a western tanager sighted in Clay that drew birders
from Killen, Birmingham and Montevallo. Amber says the use of internet birding intel is even more intense in Ohio, where birders are generally a little younger and more tech-savvy. “I think the birder community here is mostly folks in their 50s and 60s who stay in touch by word of mouth,” she says. “There are pockets of up-and-coming birders here, but in my age range, in the 30s, we’re more of a rare species.” “There’s an age gap and a different atmosphere down here. I kind of keep to myself and bird on my own time.”
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n December 2014 the Harts moved to Guntersville. She scheduled birding and loon counts around the kids’ school and Matt’s nursing days off. Continued on page 51
If you look, you can see bands on the legs of this loon swimming at Lake Guntersville State Park. Amber has spotted four banded loons in two years of observation. Below, a loon shakes the water off its wings.
Loons Things you probably never suspected about these ‘snowbird’ visitors I
n the world of birds, the call of the Common Loon is the call of the wild … and anything but “common.” Its tweety tremolo is eerily beautiful and can turn into a haunting screech. A relatively small number of loons winter on Lake Guntersville, but they seldom call at that time of the year. While their audible allure remains where they summer on northern lakes, Guntersville birder Amber Hart still finds loons to be fascinating creatures. She points out that loons … • Can swim underwater up to 2½ minutes • Have been tracked by GPS diving 20-25 feet deep in the Browns Creek channel at the Warrenton causeway bridge • When banded on their leg, collect data ranging from location to wing-loading, toxicology, genetic sampling and radio isotopes • Require a quarter-mile of water to take flight • Arrive on Lake Guntersville in late October in their winter plumage • Shed or molt their striking black and white plumage in February; it’s replaced by a rather dull brown, until new flight feathers grow • Are flightless while molting; and, because their legs are so far back on their bodies, they can’t walk on land but only scoot short distances
• Migrate north in breeding plumage and the last of them have flown the coop by the third week of April • Spend half of their lives in, or migrating to and from, their wintering habitat • Tend to return to the same wintering location • For the most part winter in the Atlantic or Pacific near southern shorelines • Are born in the North, but after their first migration South, juveniles stay on the ocean – or perhaps Lake Guntersville – their first two or three years of life. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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Most people shy from snakes and maybe even salamanders. Amber, however, loves to go herping to photograph reptiles and amphibians. She finds cottonmouths, like the one above on a warm side road, in the Blackwell Swamp area at Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. The Northern Red salamander was nosing around Guntersville. The timber rattler below was up at Hightop. She shot it with a 50mm lens that required getting about three feet from it. “I wasn’t close enough to get bitten,” she says. “You have to know where to look for snakes,” she says. Not as a warning but in appreciation she adds, “We have so much around here.”
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It’s gotten to the point that some regular fishermen along the Ala. 69 causeway recognize Amber. In winter, some ask what her loon count is that day. “A lot of fishermen don’t like loons,” she says, taking up for her birds. “They think that, like the cormorants, they are eating all the fish and taking over the lake. But loons go where the fish are, and that’s where the fishermen are. Mostly the loons target schools of shad.” She already had observed loons migrating to the lake in late October and November. Then, that December, she spotted a color-coded band on the leg of a loon at the causeway bridge. Checking the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory database, she learned that Kevin Kenow, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, had banded the loon as a chick in Crow Wing County, Minn. Using GPS tracking, Kenow confirmed that some migrating loons don’t use Lake Guntersville merely as a rest stop, they park here for the winter. Amber had been maintaining a website – “Under the Canopy” – and a separate blog, but as 2015 rolled around, they fell by the wayside, replaced by her fascination with the wintering loons. After getting the kids to school, she spent three or four hours daily on population research, meticulously
double- and triple-counting loons on the lake. Though non-paid, she works under the guidance of Dr. Paul Spitzer of Maryland, one of the country’s foremost loon experts. Amber counts from the Warrenton causeway, Honeycomb, Lake Guntersville State Park, South Sauty and the boat launches along Ala. 79. “I get 450-490 loons consistently,” she says. “There are a lot of areas I cannot see, but I would say we have a winter population of 500 loons, and that’s pretty conservative.”
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oons are not very vocal on their wintering waters. Nonetheless, Amber is answering the call of the loons. One interesting thing she’s noted is that rain and runoff affect the winter population of loons, which feed on fish they dive and catch. “When the water is turbid and they can’t see the fish, they don’t stick
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around,” she says. “They’re out of here.” Her goal now is to write a scientific paper on the wintering population here. If she can get it published, it will make it easier to attract grant money. Spitzer is encouraging her. She’s already testing the grant waters with TVA and the US Army Corps of Engineers. But a lack of funding so far isn’t stopping her. “There is nobody else down here doing any legitimate studies on wintering populations in the Southeast,” Amber says. If she gets grant funding, she wants to branch out to loon studies on Wheeler Lake, Lake Weiss and maybe even Lake Eufaula. “For now, I’ll stick with Guntersville,” says the woman with the birder heart. “But if I get funding, it would be a whole different story.” Her passion, no doubt, would soar. Good Life Magazine
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He said howdy to the cowboys of Hollywood Broncobuster Walter Gilbreath rode the wild range as an extra in Western shows and movies Story by Steve A. Maze Photos provided by the author
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e worked with some of Hollywood’s biggest movie and television stars during the 1950s and ’60s. Chances are you have seen him shooting it out with a gang of outlaws, riding along in a posse led by Roy Rogers, or walking the streets of Dodge City. He was quite familiar with our area, but you probably would not remember him because he worked in the rather anonymous role as an extra, a vital part of every movie and television series. Walter “Rusty” Gilbreath was born Feb. 24, 1919, in Jackson County, one of 11 children in a family eventually settled atop Sand Mountain in Sylvania. He worked on the family farm where he learned to break and ride horses, as well as plow mules. He also held a variety of jobs as a young man, including construction, running power lines and working on small ranches. His work often took him into neighboring Marshall County, an area he was fond of, and where he developed many friendships. Eventually, Walter moved to Kansas as a foreman for a 1.5 million-acre ranch. He also began riding professionally in rodeos.
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he broncobuster later moved to California but worked mostly construction and landscaping jobs, including a stint
Walter takes a “Happy Trails” break on location with Roy Rogers. as assistant gardener at the Palm Spring Country Club. It was there he had his first encounter with a movie star. “I had just finished planting a section of grass at the club when an attractive, red-haired lady walked out to the patio and stepped onto the freshly planted grass,” Walter grinned during an interview some 10 years ago. “I asked her if she would stay on the sidewalk instead of walking on the lawn.” “She raised an eyebrow and told me I didn’t know who I was talking to. I didn’t really care who she was, and replied that I was kindly asking her to stay on the sidewalk. She said she would see the manager … and she did.” The manager came out and patiently listened as the bronc buster explained the situation to him. The sympathetic manager then asked him to try and accommodate the guests, especially Lucille Ball.
He never suspected he would later work with the famous redhead and her husband, Desi Arnez, at Desilu Studios. “She was very nice to me at Desilu,” Walter said. “I don’t know if she remembered our first meeting, and I never mentioned it.”
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alter had not given any thought to acting, even after moving to California. That changed one day when he answered a call for extras in a western movie. His fondness for westerns extended back to the Alabama Saturdays he spent as a youngster at movie theaters watching legendary stars such as Hopalong Cassidy, Sunset Carson, Roy Rogers and others. Now he was going to be riding alongside his western heroes. Walter also shared the silver screen with film stars Ward Bond, Forrest Tucker, Andy Devine, Joseph Cotten, Anita Ekberg, Dennis Weaver, Chuck MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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Conners, Lash LaRue, Clayton Moore and He never appeared in a film with the “We were shooting a hanging scene a couple who billed themselves as Sonny legend, but they were introduced by cast with stunt man Red Kelly,” Walter and Cher. members Walter knew. whispered, as if telling a dark secret. “I never dreamed I would get the “Duke would invite me to a barbecue “There were two ropes tied to him.” chance to work with them,” said the A noose rope was around his neck bowlegged horseman. “I got to work and a release rope, out of view of with some of the nicest people you the camera, was tied to his waist to would ever meet.” break the weight of his fall. Over a six-year period his “But the noose rope slipped credits included 25 movies (“Old when the horse ran from underneath Yeller” being the best known) and Red,” Walter whispered. “The noose 15 television series with MGM and started choking him, and Red was Desilu Studios. He also had television hurtin’ for air before they cut him roles on The Rifleman, Wagon Train, down. It was funny, but serious at the Fury, Have Gun Will Travel, The same time.” Lone Ranger, Rin Tin Tin, Lassie and others. n 1973, Walter married a ballet The first movie he worked on teacher named Irene. The next year starred western legend Roy Rogers, they moved to Sylvania to tend to whom Walter considered to be one his ailing mother. Also, the moral of his favorite actors to have worked climate of Hollywood film-making with. was changing. Walter didn’t care “Roy was a kind, considerate and to be a part of it and all but quit thoughtful man,” he said. “I lived watching movies. a short distance away and enjoyed “Most of them are too violent. many barbecues and hay rides at his There are no gentle and kind movies Though he never had a speaking role, Walter ranch. He was a hard worker and as like we used to make. Many contain rubbed elbows with some of Hollywood’s elite nice a guy as I ever worked with. His a lot of vulgarity,” he said. wife, Dale Evans, was the same.” Irene died in 1995, and Walter back in the day. He earned $1,000-$1,500 per spent his remaining years living month as a movie extra, but he loved his job so alter also enjoyed working a simple life. He took on a few much that he would have worked for free. with a young actor he met while landscaping and odd jobs around the community, devoting most of his filming the popular television time to his church. series Gunsmoke. John Wayne had or luau at his place,” Walter said. “We But Walter managed to accomplish recommended the actor for the role of would usually discuss a role he happened something that most young people only Marshal Matt Dillon, and his name was to be playing at the time, but he always dream of – gracing the silver screen with James Arness. asked how my work was going.” his childhood idols. “Jim was always considerate and Walter also worked behind the scenes, In the end, as with most old westerns, jolly,” Walter recalled. “We would visit helping with the special effects and the hero rode off into the sunset. The sun a local restaurant after shooting was sometimes riding the camera car in front set on Walter in 2008 when he passed finished for the day, or go over to his of a galloping posse. He recalled a day on away as a resident of Marshall Manor house. He was just fun to be around.” a California ranch when one of the special Nursing Home in Guntersville. Another friendship he developed was effects almost turned tragic. with the “Duke” himself – John Wayne. Good Life Magazine
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Fussy Gus Age 62, Alan Alred’s Chris-Craft kicks up as fine a wake, cuts as fine a line as ever Story and photos by David Moore
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ostly, it was Guntersville Marina that lured Alan Alred home after going to war in Iraq in an Abrams battle tank. Buddy Alred owned it and offered his son a job. “You have to go where you can find a job,” says the practical veteran. But his old wooden boat was a part of the lure. It’s a 1954, 22-foot Chris-Craft Sportsman. Paperwork shows it was built in Cadillac, Mich., and delivered to Avery M. Roan of Decatur on March 15, 1954, for a cost of $4,480. When and how it got to Guntersville is a mystery. As far back as Alan remembers, the Sportsman has belonged to his grandfather, the late Augustus “Gus” Alred. Gus owned Alred Marina, which Alan says opened in the Alan takes a zip around the neighborhood at Signal Point, above, where he is vice president and manager of Guntersville Marina, visible on the shore in the photo at left. The 22-footer, with the engine covered amidships, is very roomy for five or six people.
‘50s, one of the early marinas on Lake Guntersville. The son of Buddy Alred and Wanda Ledbetter, he grew up in Claysville about a half-mile from Paw Paw Gus’s marina. It was a natural place for a youngster to hang out. Gus could be “particular” and outspoken. “He would let you know if you were not doing something right,” Alan says.
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or all of that, Gus made a memorable grandfather and they shared a special bond. By the time Alan was 14, Gus would tell him to “go get your boat” – meaning the Chris-Craft. Around that time, Gus sold Alred’s, and he and Buddy opened Guntersville Marina and Harbor House Restaurant. Alan worked summer days and weekends at the marina, nights at the restaurant. “They made sure I didn’t have time to get into any trouble,” he says. About 1985, Paw Paw gave him the boat outright. It was in fairly good shape, but nowhere near what it is now. Alan was as a happy as a … well, a kid on the lake in his own boat. In the spring of ’86 he graduated from Guntersville High School. That winter, the day after Christmas, Gus unexpectedly died. Alan was devastated. He worked locally for two years, but the world beyond Marshall County beckoned. Alan joined the Navy. “It seemed like the place to grow and it had longevity and stability,” he says. He served six years, mostly aboard a frigate and a destroyer as an electronics technician supporting radar. He saw the Persian Gulf, India, Thailand, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and more. “For a single man, it’s great,” Alan says. But he got married, got out of the Navy and returned to Marshall County. Once back, Alan joined the National Guard, serving out of an armory in Gadsden and later Collinsville.
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n 1998, local recruiter Robbie Thornton signed Alan up for the Army, and he went into tanks. Six years later, Robbie became Marshall County’s first soldier to die in Iraq when a rocketpropelled grenade hit his tank. That was a year after Alan deployed to Iraq in 2003 for his first of three tours as a tank commander with the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment. 58
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Driving for Baghdad as the “point of the spear,” Alan’s company played a key role in taking Objective Peach. During a few hours of intense night fighting, they annihilated the opposing Iraqi Republican Guard and took Saddam International Airport the next day. “I was actually part of the first group of tanks to roll into the airport and take it,” Alan says. For lack of a better word, his third tour – 2006-07 – was the hairiest, fighting in Ramadi, dubbed “the most dangerous city in the world.” Sticking his head above the windshield of Fussy Gus is one thing, but as a
commander of a four-man tank crew, Alan’s head often stuck out of the turret hatch. He also commanded a four-tank platoon. Twice IEDs took out a tank and killed platoon members. Still, Alan says, he’d rather be in his Abrams than not. “There are 50 tons of armor around you,” he points out. “Why carry your weapon when your weapon can carry you?”
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he year before that tour, Alan had remarried. He’d met Nichole at Fort Stewart, Ga. She left the service in 2007. They later moved to Fort Knox,
Ky., where he spent his final Army years training Iraq- and Afghanistan-bound forces. Alan retired as a sergeant first class, in 2012, and he and Nichole moved to Guntersville, thanks to his dad’s offer to manage Guntersville Marina and the lure of his old Chris-Craft that had been in dry storage during his 14 years in the Army. After settling into his new job – with Nichole as office manager – he took a big step and decided to fully restore the boat his grandfather had given him. With help from Donnie Foster, who works at the marina, they sanded the insides down to the wood and refinished
Alan and Gus zip beneath Veterans Memorial Bridge. Ever mindful of keeping his boat deservedly pristine, he’s in his sock feet this particular day. His desert tan Army boots, parked behind the bulkhead, serve as an unintended reminder of his 20 years in the Navy and Army. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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Alan’s attention to detail shines brightly. In 2014, he entered Fussy Gus in the big antique boat show sponsored by the Lake Guntersville Yacht Club and won People’s Choice. He reentered last year and took Best Chris-Craft in Show. The mahogany boat’s straight-six generates 145 hp. Designated the ML, it’s the larger of two engines Chris-Craft offered in that model. The Sportsman gained fame and generated great interest in wooden boats after a 1950 model appeared in the 1981 movie “On Golden Pond. them. They sanded off several coats of old varnish on the hull and built it back up. Bull Barkley, a mechanic at Valley Auto rebuilt the engine. When he tore it down, he found a stamp mark he puts inside all the engines rebuilt, probably dating to when Gus owned it. Ken’s Upholstery in Albertville, which specializes in marine work, recovered the seats.
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he biggest challenge of the sixmonth restoration is hard to identify. “Pick one,” Alan laughs. “It was everything from detailing the white 60
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stripes to the carburetor not cooperating. The list goes on and on.” It was such a fussy project, the name of the boat became obvious. Fussy Gus was painted on the stern. “But because of the sentimental value,” Alan says, it was definitely worth the effort.” He’s not overly concerned about taking the boat out for a cruise. That’s what it’s for. That’s part of the memory. Paw Paw Gus would understand. Alan and Nichole took the boat 40 miles up river to eat at Goose Pond. At the same time, he doesn’t run it wide
open and take any chances. People are attracted to classic wooden boats for various reasons. “For me it is the craftsmanship that went into making it,” Alan says. “It’s comparable to a ‘57 Chevy when all the heads turn and look.” Yes, Gus turns a lot of heads. But don’t bother asking if he wants to sell the Fussy Gus. “A million bucks wouldn’t touch it, just because it was my grandfather’s boat,” Alan says. “No. Selling it would never happen.” Good Life Magazine
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‘Zombie Prom’ goes nuclear; AMT goes national – again; but first comes Tarzan...
A send-off performance of “Zombie Prom” will be staged in the AHS auditorium at 7 p.m., Friday, June 17.
“Zombie Prom” exploded on stage last October with
energy, laughs, spot-on acting and fun music. Blown away, the Arab Musical Theatre show, a panel of judges selected it as one of five musicals from across the country, the best of the best, to be performed on the Lied Center Main Stage this June at the International Thespian Festival on the campus of the University of Nebraska. It marks the fourth time in 10 years that AMT has been invited to perform at the six-day festival that draws some 3,800 high school actors, actresses and stage crews from across the U.S. plus, this year from London, Canada and Dubai. Some might call Arab’s run a dynasty. It requires a talented, dedicated cast and production crew plus a small army of hard-working volunteers to stage a high school play that garners national attention. Those involved in AMT rightfully credit Arab High School choral and musical theatre director Brian Quillin as the fountainhead of their consistently high-caliber program. Brian, as director, launched AMT in 2000 with the goal of earning national recognition. They first achieved it in 2007 with “Little Shop of Horrors,” performing at a small venue on opening night of the Thespian Festival. Some ticket holders had to be turned away, but the 850 people packed in the hall erupted with a standing ovation at curtain call. Returning in 2009 and 2011, AMT gathered further acclaim with “Little Women” and “Pippin,” respectively.
“Zombie Prom” is extra special in that it marks AMT’s first time on the festival’s Lied Main Stage. The Arab cast will perform June 22 in front of more than 3,500 peers. Bet on a championship performance. AMT’s got drive and talent. Its assistant director, Taylor Hyatt, who teaches performing arts for Arab City Schools, says Brian makes extensive use of costumed, youth ensembles in nearly every show, from Munchkins in “The Wizard of Oz” to a herd of 39 baby apes in “Tarzan,” which was staged this spring. The youth ensemble opened “Tarzan” singing and monkeying around on stage. A thrill for the elementary kids, Taylor says it’s also a great recruitment tool. “If you read the AMT program bios, almost all of the kids in the cast talk about when they were in the youth ensemble,” Taylor explains. “It gives them experience, but it also is a memory giving them roots back to when they first started with AMT.” In football parlance, AMT doesn’t usually face rebuilding as seniors graduate, it simply reloads with fresh talent.
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alent-packed shows, of course, are great for audiences. Thousands of people have enjoyed AMT performances over the last 17 years. But few have ever seen the show before the show – when Brian gives his cast and crew “the talk” just prior to each performance. Don’t break your leg. Just read on …
... which means Brian Quillin talks up the troupe Story and photos by David Moore
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“Circle up and grab a hand.” Unless you’re part of the cast, this is the AMT show you’ve never witnessed. Brian addresses his students, his actors and production crew, the young people with whom he passionately shares the bond of the stage …
he dressing rooms in the Arab High School auditorium open to a long, narrow hallway that tonight is crowded with gorillas ... well, student actors in stylized gorilla costumes and face hen I was in the musical painting. program at my school, we were Brian Quillin, director of Arab pretty good. I started at Huntsville Musical Theatre, his face mostly High School and transferred to Lee grins with hints of tightness, my junior year. That year we did Brian watches the time, alone on the far end slowly makes his way though the “Pippin.” gorilla gauntlet, pausing to answer of the hall. At 6:40 he joins his cast, top, for a little I didn’t know, but we had that questions, to give instructions. heart-to-heart in an atypical teaching opportunity. show judged for the International He makes it past the jumbled Thespian Festival. At that time prop table and through the ruckus (1994) it was in Muncie, Indiana. to the far end of the hall, which is hands again. Rechecks his watch. He’s We were selected. We went. We were on void of gorillas. On the opposite end of bodily alone, mentally not. the Main Stage. the hall, cast members line the walls and Finally: 6:40 p.m. The first time I was in the program begin singing voice exercises. Brian will work the 7 p.m. show from at Lee, that is what I was a part of. That It’s March 31, opening night of his high-tech control booth high in the experience in Muncie was so incredible. AMT’s production of “Tarzan.” Brian’s back of the auditorium. But getting to That was really a moment when I felt like been here. Plenty of times. Still, it’s the booth can wait. First things first. He that was what I was supposed to do, that opening night, a culmination of months returns amidst the gorillas. He quickly I could give this very same experience to of hard work on everyone’s part. tames them and for several minutes others. Brian rubs his hands. Touches his addresses “housekeeping” points. In my senior yearbook, where it fingertips. Checks his watch. Rubs his “I think that’s it,” he tells the cast.
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Lexi Scarbrough started singing as a kid. After a part with The Whole Backstage, she eagerly joined AMT in high school. They were dejected in 2014 when “Seussical the Musical” failed to get them invited to ITF. “‘Zombie’ was a chance at redemption,” she says. “We knew what it felt like to be not accepted.” That drive, Lexi says, plus the cool stage set and knowing people had raised so much money for AMT stoked their energy for “Zombie.” says where you will be in 10 years, I said I would be teaching choral and theatre in a private school in the North Georgia mountains. I only missed that goal by about 200 miles, because we’re pretty much a private school, and we are not that far from North Georgia. Here’s the deal. That’s the power of goal setting. I didn’t know how I was going to do it. I didn’t know where I was going to college. All I said is, “That’s what I want to do.” You set those goals and you don’t have to worry about the how or any of those other steps. Don’t worry about the small stuff. You just set that goal, and then you find your way to get there. 64
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Acting with AMT has been Grant Lackey’s goal since seeing its production of the “Wizard of Oz” in kindergarten. Most recently he played an ape friend of Tarzan and the student turned monster in “Zombie Prom.” “It’s out of a love of being on stage and performing,” he says of AMT’s professionalism. “It’s a release for whatever you have going on that day, that week. You come here and it’s time to work and focus.”
his leads into the other thing I want to say… I told you the other day about my senior year, and I told you about my wife. Jessica was the female lead, and I was the male lead. It’s the only lead I had in high school, but it turned out pretty well, right? I got the girl, and I got to keep her. Jessica reminded me of something just the other day. She came backstage to help Maggi (Yancey, playing Jane) with her costume. Jessica looked across the stage and saw our daughter, Anna, (in her first AMT production) getting ready to come on stage. She said it was, like, crazy. We wore these very same sandals when we did “Once on This Island” (at Lee). She said
it was like looking at a mirror across the stage. It’s come full circle. (Students give a lot of happy ooohs and aaahs.) I say this because of this: It was like 20 years ago, and I couldn’t have told you that 20 years from that night I would be standing here in a back hallway with my daughter about to do the very same thing that I love to do so much. That’s huge, OK? Here’s the thing: It’s not about tonight. And it’s not ever about if your makeup is perfect. I don’t even remember that stuff. I don’t remember the minutia. What I do remember is the feeling. I told you earlier today (after performing a final dress rehearsal for a small group of younger students) that
Blake Ware, above, put on an amazing performance as Miss Strict, the school principal, in “Zombie Prom.” She spent months developing her character. Says Blake, “She is a woman of principle, yet she has a rebel past that comes out, so I had to mix that in as well. As for “Tarzan,” I was a member of the ape ensemble. That role didn’t take as long to really settle into, but it was much more physically demanding.”
Encouraged by his dad 10 years ago to audition for an ensemble part with The Whole Backstage, senior Noah Luker, above, immediately loved acting and has had eight leading roles with AMT. Performing at ITF, he says, is a huge honor. “No matter how nervous I am when I hear that crowd cheering when those curtains open, I need to remember that my priority is giving that audience a show they won’t forget.”
A look at back at 17 year’s worth of performances and the shows coming up this fall and next year Arab Musical Theatre started with a host of volunteers working with director Brian Quillin and financial backing from a foundation led by Jane and the late Sid McDonald. Since then, AMT has produced the following musicals: • 2000 – “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” • 2001 – “Guys and Dolls”
• 2002 – “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat” • 2003 – “Once on This Island” • 2004 – “Wizard of Oz” • 2005 – “Grease” • 2006 – “Into the Woods” • 2007 – “Little Shop of Horrors” • 2007 (fall) – “Godspell” • 2008 – “Children of Eden” • 2009 – “Thoroughly Modern Millie”
• 2009 (fall) – “Little Women” • 2010 (fall) – “Oklahoma” • 2011 – “Beauty and the Beast” • 2011 (fall) – “Pippin” • 2012 – “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” • 2013 – “Willy Wonka” • 2014 – “Seussical” • 2015 – “Bye Bye Birdie” • 2015 (summer) – “Snoopy the Musical” • 2015 (fall) – “Zombie Prom” • 2016 – “Tarzan” • 2016 (fall) – “Annie” • 2017 – “The Addams Family”
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a school resource officer did not even know what he was walking into; he just rode the bus over to get those kids into the auditorium. He said he was watching the play, and within 10 minutes he had tears in his eyes. You did that. You’ll remember that forever. And there is a bunch of people out there waiting for you to show them the very same thing. That’s why we do it. That’s why we do what we do.
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here is another story I will tell you another day. (Aaah! Tell it!) Just know this … Sometimes you guys frustrate the heck out of me. Sometimes I question your intelligence. Sometimes I think you’re rapidly sliding down the evolutionary ladder (a line from “Tarzan”). However, I will say this … Mike Rickles (AMT’s volunteer production consultant from Huntsville) sent me an email today. I don’t know if I’m supposed to share this with you or not, but it meant a lot to me. He said that his wife put it best. And I think this is a testament to you. A testament to what we do. She said, “That program takes ordinary students and puts them in extraordinary circumstances.” You have to take advantage of that. You have to seize that. Know that. The memories start now. So make them good. My brother taught at a high school in Texas for a long time, and they used to say, “Make good ghosts.” Which means you perform so incredibly vibrantly on stage that, when you leave, your essence of that character is still glowing on stage. When the lights fade, and they can still see the essence of where your character was, you have performed so incredibly hard and so incredibly intensely, that they cannot get that image out of their minds. You know, when you can stare into a light and look away and you can still see it? We ought to be burning these images in. So many of you have so many wonderful opportunities to do that on stage tonight. Please do it. Because you don’t get another shot.
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K. So, let’s do this. I normally don’t let everybody see me do this, so… 66
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Close Face and Open Face. “Not many people see me do this,” Brian grins afterward. are you ready for this? We are going to do “Closed Face and Open Face.” (OK! Yeah! Yes!) When I say, “Close face,” we squinch our faces so tight that you can’t go anymore. When I say, “Open!” it’s as wide and open as you can possible go, eyes, mouth, nose, ears, everything. Ready. We are going to do it rapid fire. Close! Open! Close! Open! Does that hurt? Close! Open! (Lots of laughs.) Close! Open! Close! Open! Close! Open … oh, my, gosh! (Applause. Laughter. Ooohs!)
(Over the commotion, assistant director Taylor Hyatt gets everyone’s attention.) Mike Rickles called to check on you guys. He’s been thinking about you all day. How did it (the performance before the younger students) go? What did they like? Did anything go wrong? He was worked up about it. He’s excited to come see you. Another thing (Taylor still talking) … the baby gorilla doll got left under the set. Stage guys, when you go out there, you have to discreetly, in the dark, find that black gorilla doll. You’ll throw it off stage to Sarah or Claudia (Sarah Cordell, Claudia Smith, the respective stage and assistant stage
Tarzan, played by Isaac Pruett, intervenes after a guide shoots and kills his ape father, Kerchak, lying down at right above. The action unfolds during the first dress rehearsal three nights before the musical opened March 31. In hope of landing the part, Isaac began working out to build muscle and lose 15-20 pounds. “I wanted the part,” he says. Now he’s concentrating on going to ITF and playing the TV anchorman in “Zombie Prom.” “I’m really excited to go to Nebraska,” he says. “We’ll be performing before people who know what goes into it all.” Luke Shirley, who plays one of the zombie’s three school buddies, says it was the most fun experience in his life performing earlier this year before 1,000 students at the state theatre program at Samford University.
“Their yells for us literally shook the stage,” he says. As Kerchak, his part is much more serious. Jane, watching in shock above, is played by veteran AMT actor and singer Maggi Yancey, who confesses to excited butterflies but not scared nerves before going on stage. “It’s good to have a little edge because you never know what can happen when you walk out there,” she says. Riley-Grace Jordan played a floozy in “Zombie.” Above, she plays Kerchak’s wife and bends over him as he dying. To help get her mind into a tragic scene she thinks about sad things that could happen to those she loves. “Then, once you are there and in the moment, it’s like it’s actually happening to you.”
Claudia Smith, left, assists stage manager Sarah Cordell, right. Though backstage, Claudia says they are not forgotten. “The show couldn’t go on without us,”she says. A new transfer student from Brewer, she says she’s getting her feet wet and hopes for a part in a future show. For Sarah, graduating in May, “Tarzan” is her fifth show behind the scenes. When “Zombie” concludes in Nebraska, she predicts thunderous applause. “Each member of the show loves to perform, and I believe their energy will be reflected back from the audience.” She expects some tears too. For seniors, she says, the curtain will close on their final AMT experience in a long, rewarding journey. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2016
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managers. Laughing and commotion. The guilty party says “I’m sorry.”).
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hhhh! (Brian quickly regains control.) Circle back up. Grab a hand. Then I have to go. OK … Four times. We are going to inhale for four counts. We are going to exhale for four counts. On the inhale you are inhaling your character – everything you are and you are going to be on stage. This is character transition. Every time you exhale you are exhaling another part of yourself. Eliminate everything that might distract you on stage. OK? Inhale – one, two, three, four. Exhale – one, two, three, four. Inhale – one, two, three, four. Exhale – one, two, three, four. We’re halfway there. Inhale – one, two, three, four. Exhale – one, two, three, four. Inhale – one, two, three four. Exhale – one, two, three four. (Gorillas, other characters, stage crew … all are quiet for a moment in
the narrow, crowded hallway. Then Brian checks his watch.) Now. Break a leg. I’ll see you on the other side. (With that, Brian heads to the control booth. The production crew
and cast of Arab Musical Theatre, goals in focus, set out to create good ghosts for an audience that waits in eager anticipation in the darkness beyond the stage.) Good Life Magazine
It’s time for Brian to head to the booth, above, the cast and crew as ready as they’ll ever be. Spoiler alert: At the end of the show, Tarzan gets Jane, Jane gets Tarzan plus the jungle and apes, and AMT gets a standing ovation ... leaving, perhaps, some “good ghosts” burned into the minds of the audience.
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Out ‘n’ About If you were out and about April 9, you might have been one of several hundred invited people having fun at the soft opening for Lake City Amusement Park. Among those there were, from left at lower center, merrygo-round horsemen Canaan Burgess, Alex Lay and Lane Usher, all of Cullman. The park has some 30 rides, an amphitheater for bands and plans to grow over the next few years. It’s located on Reed Road, off U.S. 431 between Applebee’s and Lowe’s. Until Memorial Day, the park is open noon-10 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. After that, it’s open those hours seven days a week through Labor Day. Photos by David Moore
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