Food, Music and Fun

Food, Music and Fun

Summer Shade Founders’ Day brings community together

BY JEN CALHOUN

Ron Underwood is well aware of his outsider status in Summer Shade. But his love and appreciation for the community he calls Mayberry feels much longer than the mere five years he’s lived in the area.

“I’m a move-in person,” says Underwood, a fine woodworker who owns Southern Wood, a shop that makes items like cabinets and furniture. “I’m originally from South Alabama, but my father retired here because of my stepmother. So, I moved to this area in 2014. I like to joke that it took an outsider to find Summer Shade.”

He wants others to discover it, too. That’s why he helped start Summer Shade Founders’ Day, a daylong celebration of the little community with a long history. The event on Saturday, May 11, will offer everything from barbecue and music to bouncy houses and face painting.

Terran Caffee, left, and Brenda Crumpton look at the flowers planted during the Founders’ Day celebration.

Ron Underwood thanks the Summer Shade community for supporting the renewed Founders’ Day, as resident Janice Turner looks on.

Ron Underwood, Founders’ Day Committee organizer and owner of the Southern Wood store, discusses the event turnout with Chamber of Commerce and Founders’ Day Committee Member Erica Hensley.

HOMETOWN HISTORY

According to information Underwood dug up from a history of Metcalfe County, Summer Shade once popped with businesses that supported the local farming community. “There was a post office and a stagecoach stop in the years around the turn of the century,” he says. “Then it kind of bustled for a while after WWII. There was Froedge’s grocery store or general store and a bank. In fact, there were about 15 of those little mom-and-pop stores between here and Burkesville at one time.”

As times changed, however, so did Summer Shade, Underwood says. Some buildings were empty, including the 1907 former bank building he bought and refurbished to house Southern Wood.

“We ended up gutting the front part of the building, and we hired somebody to put in a new heating system,” he says.

Before he finished renovating the building, he decided his grand opening ceremony should include the other businesses in the community. So, he stopped in at Terran Caffee’s beauty shop where she and Brenda Crumpton, owner of Country Tyme Diner, were having a chat. “Ron came in and said we should do something, because all these other nearby towns have all these little celebrations going on to bring people in,” Crumpton says. “So, we did.”

The first Founders’ Day was in May 2018. And while it rained, nobody complained, Underwood says. “The restaurants were packed all day long,” he says. “And all the businesses had ballot boxes to elect an honorary mayor, who turned out to be Harmon Milam. We had barbecue cooked by Jason Caffee, and everybody loved it.”

They plan to expand the event this year to include more activities and possibly a parade, if they can get the logistics worked out. “We’re going to have some old-time sporting events like the horseshoe toss, a corn hole tournament and maybe a haybale throw,” he says. There will also be raffles by local businesses, live music and activities for children. Proceeds will go to help support the Summer Shade Volunteer Fire Department, he says.

It’s also a chance to keep Summer Shade thriving. “I just think the community needs a time to reflect and celebrate and support the local businesses,” Underwood says. “It just creates a stronger community. I think ultimately it’s about supporting the community and keeping it alive.”