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Features and ArticlesDiscover The Essence of St. Clair

June & July 2015

Traveling The BackroadsPage 18

For Their serviceMarine uniform donated

Page 30Riders visit veterans

Page 32Making Music TogeTher

Page 32WriTers conFerence

Page 50disasTer help

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chicken head runPage 70

arTisT claY allisonPage 74

Business revieWStandard Furniture

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Page 80Business Briefs

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6 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2015

Writers AND PhotographersCarol Pappas is editor and publisher of Discover St. Clair Magazine. A retired newspaper executive, she served as editor and publisher of several newspapers and magazines during her career. She won doz-ens of writing awards in features, news and commentary and was named Distinguished Alabama Community Journalist at Auburn University. After retiring, she launched her own multimedia company, Partners by Design Inc. In addition to marketing, de-sign and web services for companies and nonprofits, Partners publishes Discover, various community magazines for cham-bers of commerce and Mosaic Magazine, a biannual publica-tion of Alabama Humanities Foundation.

Carol Pappas

Jerry C. Smith’s interest in photography and writing go back to his teen years. He has produced numerous articles, stories and photographs for local websites and regional newspapers and magazines, including the St. Clair County News, Sand Mountain Living, and Old Tennessee Valley. His photos have appeared in books, on national public television, in local art displays and have captured prizes in various contests. A retired business machine technician and Birmingham native, Jerry now lives near Pell City. He recently published two books: Uniquely St. Clair and Growing Up In The Magic City.

Jerry C. Smith

Mike Callahan is a freelance photographer who resides on Logan Martin Lake in Pell City. He specializes in commercial, nature and family photography. Mike’s work has been published in Outdoor Alabama Magazine, Alabama Trucking Association and Alabama Concrete Industries maga-zines. Publishing his work to the internet frequently, he has won many honors for pictures of the day and week.

Mike Callahan

For almost 30 years, Leigh Pritchett has been involved in the publishing industry. She was employed for 11 years by The Gadsden Times, ultimately becoming Lifestyle editor. Since 1994, she has been a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in online and print venues. She holds the Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Montevallo.

Leigh Pritchett

Wally was born in Birmingham. He gradu-ated from Mountain Brook High School in 1973, and went on to Auburn University where he graduated in 1976 with his BA in History and minors in German and Educa-tion. Wally’s skills in photography blos-somed during college. Upon graduation, he entered his father’s business, National Woodworks, Inc. After a 30-year career, he decided to dust off his camera skills and pursue photography full time.

Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Elaine Hobson Miller is a freelance writer with a B.A. in Journalism from Samford University. She was the first female to cover Birmingham City Hall for the Birmingham Post-Herald, where she worked as reporter, food editor and features writer. A former edi-tor of Birmingham Home & Garden maga-zine and staff writer for Birmingham magazine, she has written for a variety of local, regional and national publications.including American Profile, Woman’s World, The Dallas Morn-ing News and The Birmingham News. She is the author of two non-fiction books, Myths, Mysteries & Legends of Alabama and Nat King Cole: Unforgettable Musician. She is a member of Alabama Media Professionals and NFPW (the National Fed-eration of Press Women). Follow her weekly blog about life with a dozen four-legged critters, life in the country and life in general at www.countrylife-elaine.blogspot.com.

Elaine Hobson Miller

Jim Smothers had his first work published in The Gadsden Times in the late 1960s when his father, sports editor Jimmy Smothers, had him take games called in from youth sports coaches and put a camera in his hands at Jacksonville State basketball games. For more than 40 years he has been a writer, photographer, graphic artist and editor at publications in central Alabama for which he has won dozens of Associated Press awards. He has degrees from Jacksonville State University and the University of Montevallo and also studied at the Winona School of Professional Photography.

Jim Smothers

Tina Tidmore was publisher and editor of a small-city newspaper for seven years before launching her freelance communica-tions services business in 2009. Since then, she has won Alabama Media Professionals awards in a variety categories, including for feature articles written for Discover maga-zine. She is the current Alabama Media Professionals presi-dent.

Tina Tidmore

7

Discover The Essence of St. ClairJune and July 2015 • Vol. 24 • www.discoverstclair.com

Carol Pappas • Editor and PublisherGraham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer

Brandon Wynn • Director of Online ServicesMike Callahan • Photography

Wallace Bromberg Jr. • PhotographyArthur Phillips • Advertising

Dale Halpin • Advertising

A product of Partners by Designwww.partnersmultimedia.com

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As we put this issue to bed, we couldn’t help reminiscing about what the past four years have brought to us here at Discover. That’s right, we celebrated the final edition of our fourth year with this issue and are embarking on year number five with our August edition.

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that we began to assemble a team of talented photographers and writers — many of whom are still with us — to tell the story of our region. But they wouldn’t be just any story. They would be the story behind the story — compelling, thought-provoking, entertaining, adventurous, curious, whimsical, historic. In other words — or one word, actually — different.

So with a great deal of faith in what we wanted to create, we leapt. Four years later, we count the rewards of our own adventure as blessings, overwhelming support that keep issues growing larger than the ones that came before them.

In our quest to create something different, we have taken readers on journeys that precisely fit our name, Discover. Our writers and photographers have taken them in flight across Washington Valley in a hang glider. They have meticulously climbed the mighty boulders at Horse Pens 40. They have ridden the rushing rapids of Kelly Creek in a kayak. And they’ve taken old-fashioned, scenic Sunday drives. Adventures, they were, no doubt.

They have peeked inside the lives of St. Clair’s heroic veterans, movie stars and just plain good folks who inspire us, like Bill, the Peanut Man — compelling characters whose stories were meant to be shared.

Readers have been introduced to reality TV personalities like

From the EditorLooking forward

to another birthday

Honey Boo Boo and the Moonshiners. They’ve met gas station gourmets, been on the hunt for the best barbecue joints and pulled up a front row seat at the drive-in theater in Argo.

And lest we not forget our roots, our Traveling the Backroads series has taken readers back in time — to the days of coal mining, locomotives, Native Americans, cities born and cities that died. Our historic pieces have uncovered St. Clair’s ties to a little known war camp, the world’s greatest archer and Alabama’s ‘First Lady of Flight.’

For us, St. Clair County has been like a canvas, its people, places and things providing the picture perfect artwork. And there is much more to come — in this issue and those that follow it. That’s our promise.

Thank you for our first four years. We look forward to number five. We suspect the very heart of it won’t be much different than any of the first four — you and us, together, discovering the essence of St. Clair.

Carol PappasEditor and Publisher

8

LonghornsSt. Clair ranch home to head-turning

Moonlight is one of two longhorn steers owned by Morgan.

9

Story by Elaine Hobson MillerPhotos by Wallace Bromberg

Welcome to Springville’sLazy M Farm

Mack Morgan greeted recent visitors to his Lazy M Farm with a huge, longhorn steer named Moonlight on a halter and lead rope, as if the steer were a horse and Morgan was about to saddle up for a ride.

“Keep an eye on those horns,” Morgan cautioned, stating the obvious. “Approach him from the side.”

It has become a tradition for motorists traveling U.S. 11 through Springville to stop at Morgan’s Lazy M Farm to take pictures when the longhorns are out. Lured by the horns that give the breed its name, they call Morgan to inquire whether he has sold them if they are in one of his hidden pastures. This tradition may soon go the way of the romanticized Old West that the breed symbolizes, however, as Morgan downsizes his longhorn herd in favor of the more profitable Brangus.

“The beef market has gone up 150 percent over the past two years, and longhorn meat is too lean for most folks,” Morgan explains. “It’s a matter of supply and demand. There are so many old farmers getting out of the beef cattle business and no young ones replacing them.”

Morgan has always had cattle. His father raised Herefords before him, and Mack began raising longhorns 30 years ago so he could practice his roping skills. Soon he started selling them to other ropers and rodeo companies. He held roping events at his own arena behind the trees on the north side of U.S. 11. “We held round robins, where every header (the one who lassos the horns) ropes with every heeler (the one who lassos the hind legs),” he says.

Born 56 years ago in a former plantation home reduced to its rock foundations years ago, Morgan lived in that house six months, until his daddy decided he wanted to be off the road. There were five slave houses around the property when it was a plantation. Look closely, and you’ll see the remains of one at the edge of the woods behind and to the right of the stone enclosure that Morgan now uses for pens and hay storage.

Morgan started out riding bulls when he was 13 to get out of doing farm chores. He hitchhiked to rodeos in Mississippi, Georgia and North Alabama before he was old enough to drive. “Five boys from the Springville area all started riding bulls together

10

around 1972: Clayton Bromberg, Barry Long, Doug Downing, Mark Cousins and me,” he says. “We taught ourselves, went to bull riding school, too,” he says. He went into the sport to prove a point to his father.

“I worked for him and was cutting grass, stacking hay on the side,” he explains. “I went to a rodeo and thought, ‘I can do this, and if I can win, I won’t have to cut grass.’ And it worked.” He also went to saddle-bronc riding school, but his heart was in bull riding, which won him more money than the broncs.

“As a teenager and through my 20s and into my 30s, I could win enough on weekends to support my lifestyle,” he says. “I knew my limitations, though, and I knew the bulls.” The only major injury he suffered was a separated shoulder, but his arthritis reminds him of the ones he either wasn’t aware of at the time or that have faded into distant memory.

From bull riding, Morgan went to team roping and “did pretty good,” he says. “There were lots of Saturday and Sunday ropings around Alabama.” Rodeoing became an addiction, one that helped him preserve his farm all these years.

He hasn’t roped since his knee replacement a year ago, although a back operation the year before had already slowed him down. “It had become more of a hobby than competition by then anyway,” he says. “I can rope if I have to, though. I have a couple of Quarter horses. But the cows are so gentle they follow me across

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the road to the other pastures.”Longhorns are known for their gentleness. Originating

from an Iberian hybrid of two ancient cattle lineages, they are direct descendants of the first cattle brought to the New World by Spanish settlers in 1493. Their horns grow from the base, and their life spans are as long in years as their horns are in inches. Cows live into their 30s, bearing calves into their mid-20s. Steers live even longer because they don’t have the stress of calving.

Scalawag, 23, was a roping steer for many years, “back when I was good,” Morgan says. He has kept him around because of his 94-inch horns. “He won me a belt buckle a year ago,” he says. Horn length competitions, it seems, are quite common among breeders.

Steers have longer horns than the cows or bulls, because when gelded, their hormones turn away from muscle-mass and toward horn growth. Morgan’s biggest steer in terms of horns was Spike, who had a span of 104 inches when he died. “The world record a few years ago was 111 inches, but it probably has been beaten by now. It’s all about genetics and putting the right cow and right bull together.”

Due to their innate intelligence and gentle dispositions, longhorns are increasingly being trained as riding steers.

Moonlight, 16, who Morgan calls his “sweetest” steer, rides in area parades. “Sweet” is hardly the adjective most folks would use for a 1,400 pound animal with a horn span of six feet, but Morgan says longhorn steers are low-key and easy to handle. “Each has its own personality, and they come in a variety of colors,” he says. (The Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America says there are no two alike.) “There are lots of speckled and spotted ones, solid whites, solid blacks, black-and-white ones, red ones, each with a different color pattern.”

Like the longhorns in Gene Autry’s Back in the Saddle Again, who feed on “the lowly Jimson weed,” Morgan’s herd will eat just about anything. They are a hardy breed, and will graze in hot weather and in the woods, even eating leaves. “But they won’t put on weight,” Morgan says. “Longhorns are the leanest of beef cattle, and not that tasty because they don’t marble. They don’t have the fat that other beef cattle do.”

Even though he doesn’t rope or ride any more, he keeps the cows because they force him to maintain the 380-acre farm that his father bought in the 1950s. Without the cattle, there would be a lot more bush-hogging, which would give him less time for his “real job,” that of landlord.

“I own two apartment buildings on Highland Avenue near St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, and I go to work every day,” he says. “I work all the time.” He cuts hay with only occasional help, and finds it stressful to keep all his machinery running.

“We’re real involved in the Springville Community Theater, too,” he says of him and his family. His sister, June Mack, is founder and director of the theater. Mack used to act there and still builds sets and whatever else his sister needs him to do.

“My wife and I have raised two boys on this farm, and it helped send them to college,” he says. One is at Virginia Tech now, the other is about to enter Nashville’s Belmont University. As to whether they will continue the family tradition, Mack can’t say for sure.

“One son is an Eagle Scout, and we kid him about turning it into a Boy Scout Camp when I’m gone.” l


Super Fast FunTwo seats + three wheels + a big engine =

Story by Jerry C. SmithPhotography by Michael Callahan

and Jerry C. Smith

Luke Skywalker would love Pete Hill’s new ride, a Polaris Slingshot. This eerie three-

wheeler looks like it’s moving a hundred miles an hour — even when it’s parked. Its

appearance is turning heads and stopping traffic all over St. Clair.


Super Fast FunIs it a motorcycle, a car, or something else entirely?

You be the judge; it has two wheels up front, a single rear wheel that propels it, a steering wheel, gas, brake and clutch pedals like a car, side-by-side seating for two with seat belts, and a stick shift. But there’s no roof, AC, airbags, windshield wipers or bumpers, and by state law, you must wear a helmet to drive or ride.

Pete, a St. Clair local who grew up in Jefferson County, bought it a few months ago from Hall’s Motorsports in Pelham. He says it may have been the first sold in this area because their mechanic told him the break-in oil change was the first he’d done on a Slingshot. Pete and his wife, Kathy, traded in their Can-Am Spyder, a much smaller and slower three-wheeler that’s driven more like a motorcycle. Their Spyder was also the first one sold in St. Clair.

The Slingshot sports a screaming 2.6 liter Chevy automobile engine, five-speed manual transmission, and enough torque to snap your neck right back into the headrest. Price-wise, it runs about the same as a Toyota Camry, depending on style and equipment.

Kathy especially loves the seating. “I get to ride up front in a real sports-car seat instead of hanging on behind Pete on a buddy-seat.” She’s looking forward to operating it herself, as she learned to drive in a stick-shift car.

Pete is more into handling than seating arrangements. He says, “It handles like a Porsche. To me it’s like driving a high-performance sports car, but with the wind in your hair”, which is wryly rhetorical since Pete is totally bald.

The Slingshot’s bodywork is unlike anything from the previous millennium, more like something meant to operate in the sky, or even in outer space. It sits low to the ground, and is almost impossible to tip over because much of its weight is between the wheels instead of over them. An added safety feature is selective traction modes and computerized engine and suspension performance control.

Pete, now 60, has owned motor toys since he was 12, and says this is the machine he’s been waiting for most of his life. His first bike was a Cushman scooter, which he soon traded for a Cushman Eagle. Since then, he’s owned a variety of rides, including a 1930 Harley Davidson Hummer, Honda 90, a Honda 160 Dream, Suzuki 1500 Intruder, several dune buggies, Baja racers and boats.

He’s currently restoring two cars — a Ford Model T kit car, based on a Volkswagen chassis, and his pride and joy, a 1968 Ford Mustang.

Pete’s been remarkably accident-free until recently, when he was hit by a 93-year-old car driver while riding his Intruder. This accident was part of his incentive to buy the Slingshot, which offers better accident protection and more agility to avoid dangerous situations.

Pete and Kathy plan to drive the Slingshot to an upcoming biker’s gathering in Wichita, Kan., an event like those held in Sturgis, S.D., and Daytona, Fla.

Until then, you can usually spot this blazing road rocket around Pell City, particularly on Bike Night Thursday at Jacks, and sometimes at Waffle House. He’s quite proud of his machine, and loves to answer questions.

More photos and a video are available online at www.discoverstclair.com.

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Traveling theBACKROADS

St. Clair During the Civil War

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Story by Jerry C. SmithPhotos by Michael Callahanand Jerry C. SmithSubmitted photos

As Civil War re-enactor William Watkins poses in his Confederate army uniform for our staff photographer, one might wonder of his thoughts as he gazes out from a sunlit window of Ashville’s historic Inzer home.

As commander of a local Sons of Confederate Veterans camp and active member of the 4th Alabama Re-enactors, Bill has posed for literally hundreds of such photos. His practiced ease helps to free his mind for a few minutes as various ‘lensmen’ do their jobs.

We might surmise that Bill allows himself to slip into an alternate persona for a few moments, possibly a Confederate officer on a short furlough during the latter years of battle, who’s wondering if this warm home place will be waiting when the shooting finally stops. Or, for that matter, he might be wondering if he will be coming home at all. So many St. Clair men did not.

While only one important battle was fought on our soil, St. Clair’s homefolks endured the same wartime hardships as all Southern Americans, some even more so. Like most of the South, St. Clair was largely an agrarian district which depended on its men folks to labor in the fields as well as protect their families.

According to Larry David Stephens in his treatise, Mossbacks and Bushwhackers, “In 1860, there were 9,236 whites living in St Clair County, along with 9 free blacks, and 1,768 black slaves. Approximately 14 percent of the whites owned slaves, but … most owned only one or two.” Huge plantations were few in number.

Many of our citizens were tenant farmers, who depended for their very survival on a share of each year’s crops in fields they attended for owners. Others were subsistence farmers, growing and making almost everything they needed, hopefully selling any scant surplus to buy the rest. For many, life was even more precarious for them than for plantation slaves.

But domestic hardship didn’t prevent some of our finest young men from volunteering to defend a Southern cause which most didn’t even understand. Indeed, the family of Thomas Layton Sr. of Shoal Creek Valley sent no less than five sons. According to a 1983 St. Clair News-Aegis story, all five were captured by Union forces, four in the same battle.

Local legend tells of one farmer who deserted his unit during the war, rushed home to plow and plant his fields while wearing his wife’s clothes to avoid detection by the infamously cruel Home Guard, then returned to the ranks, claiming he got lost. Had he been caught, he would have been shot on sight for desertion.

A county dividedNot everyone agreed with secession; in fact, according to

Stephens, the first vote was 763 against and only 499 in favor. Some towns, such as Steele, Vandiver and Moody Crossroads, were strongly divided, even to the point of attending separate churches. Several who fought for the South found themselves facing their own kinfolks across the front lines. In fact, there is a gravestone in Odenville’s Liberty Cemetery for a veteran of the Indiana 4th Cavalry, along with others scattered across the county.


St. Clair contributed almost 10 percent of its population to the war effort, losing many fine men who were sorely needed back home. Hundreds mustered in at Ashville Courthouse, while many more enlisted under a fabled apple tree in Cropwell, then marched 75 miles to the railhead at Montevallo. A plaque at the Confederate Memorial in Cropwell lists several who had enlisted as paid substitutes, which was allowed in those days for wealthy men who declined to answer the draft call themselves.

Stephens relates that some 800 men chose to either hide out locally or surrender to the first Union forces they encountered. He tells of, “… John Hyatt, who … took his wife, mule, and all his worldly belongings, stuffed into a pillowcase, along with a dime in his pocket, and moved to a rocky section of Chandler Mountain …he evaded the draft for three years and liked his new digs so well that he (later) applied for a 40-acre land grant. To this day, the area where Hyatt hid is still known as Horse Pens 40.”

Battle of Ten IslandsUnion Major-General Lovell Rousseau, in conjunction with

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According to a Gadsden Civil War Round Table plaque near Ashville’s old Masonic building, “ … (they) arrived, mostly unopposed, … on the morning of July 14th. They immediately began to consume the food captured in storage buildings throughout the town, ... and ransacked the post office and the county jail, freeing a female prisoner held as a Union sympathizer.

“Finding the abandoned office of the “Ashville Vidette” newspaper, Rousseau decided to complete the current issue. The new headline read, DISTINGUISHED ARRIVAL … (with text that said), “The U.S. Army paid our town the honor of a visit this morning. The General looks well and hearty, and was satisfied with the manner in which he was entertained.

“Also, they inserted a satirical story about … Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet, denouncing them as devils, scoundrels and malefactors. They printed 1,300 copies of (that) Edition.” Our readers may recognize this printing office as the one belonging to George Cather, who was away doing military service for the Confederacy.

Under Sherman’s orders, Union forces habitually burned county courthouses to destroy records and deeds, but St. Clair’s courthouse was spared because, according to Riverside Mayor Rusty Jessup, all vital files had been hidden in the basement of Blue Eye Baptist Church in Talladega County.

After sacking Ashville, Rousseau advanced to Greensport, where he met serious resistance from a band of guerillas before capturing a ferry and proceeding to Ten Islands, a strategic ford on the Coosa River near present-day Neely Henry Dam. It was previously used by Andrew Jackson’s army during the Creek Wars.

At Ten Islands, Rousseau clashed with forces of Confederate Brigadier General James Clanton, for whom the city of Clanton was later named. Clanton’s ill-equipped men fought bravely, but were outnumbered and outgunned by Rousseau‘s army, which was well-armed with new Spencer repeating rifles. Clanton lost his entire staff of officers in this one-sided battle.

A plaque at Ten Islands Historic Park reads: “On July 14, 1864, a small group of brave Confederate cavalry under Gen. James H. Clanton, approximately 300 strong, were overwhelmed by a vastly superior Union Cavalry force under Gen. L.H. Rousseau. The Confederates were attempting to protect the Janney Iron Works near Ohatchee and Crowe Iron Works near Alexandria. The superior Union force destroyed both iron works and proceeded to Talladega.”

Another Union officer, Gen. Abel Streight, led part of Rousseau’s forces to search for horses and livestock all over the mountain just north of Springville and Ashville that now bears his name. But he found none worth taking, because all the prime livestock had been hidden in a natural rocky enclosure on neighboring Chandler Mountain, an area later named Horse Pens 40.

Streight had just fought a no-win battle with Nathan Bedford Forrest’s small, but courageous forces at Crooked Creek, near Cullman. His army of some 1,500 men were finally out-maneuvered and captured in Cherokee County, even though they outnumbered Forrest’s cadre of 322 brave Southerners almost five to one. A stone monument, flagpole, and several plaques commemorate this spot on U.S. 411, just east of Centre, Ala.


Inzer House steeped in historyAshville’s Inzer House is an architectural and historic

treasure. Built in 1852 for local merchant Moses Dean, John Washington Inzer bought it upon returning home from military service. A successful lawyer and planter before the war, Inzer soon became a pillar of local and state politics. In fact, Inzer’s name heads the list of signatures on Alabama’s official document of secession.

Like many Alabamians, Inzer was against secession, but vowed,”… if Alabama should secede … I would go with her and stand by her in every peril, even into the cannon’s mouth.” And stand with her he did. Wisely, he converted the family’s wealth to gold before enlisting as a private in the 5th Alabama Infantry Battalion.

Inzer quickly rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the 58th Infantry Regiment, doing battle at Corinth, Shiloh and Chickamauga until his capture at Missionary Ridge and subsequent imprisonment at Ohio’s infamous Johnson Island for more than a year. His wartime journal was later published as Diary of a Confederate Soldier by Ashville historian Mattie Lou Teague Crow.

Among its entries: “January 1, 1864 (while a prisoner) …The coldest day I ever saw. The thermometer is sixteen degrees below zero. I have been in bed all day, nearly freezing. Am very sick from cold and sore throat. We are in a barn of an old house, indeed.”

Inzer also wrote of his homecoming: “My Mother knew I was coming, a negro boy getting the information, dashed across the plantation a nearer way and told her. She at once put out in a run to meet me and ran through the branch without knowing it, meeting me near the branch. This was one of the happy periods of my life.”

Inzer House was deeded to the St. Clair Camp when the last Inzer moved out in 1987. The old home has been faithfully restored, and now serves as a museum and gathering place for Camp functions, with guided public tours by appointment and

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during various street festivals.Among its unique features is several plantings of a type of

hibiscus called Confederate Rose, which had been imported from China a year before the Civil War began. Thelma Watkins explains its name: “When it first blooms, it is white, signifying the purity of the South. Next day, those same blooms will turn pink, for our suffering during the war. The following day, it’s red, for our blood.”

Inzer House sells cuttings from these shrubs to raise money for museum maintenance. Bill adds a story about a lady from somewhere up north who bought some cuttings. He told her that, once taken across the Mason Dixon line, a reaction in the plant occurs that will cause it to blow up your house in six months. He said she bought them anyway, and has since mail-ordered more.

Coal for the ConfederacyLarge quantities of excellent coal, mined near Ragland,

were shipped to suppliers of the Confederate Army in Selma. According to W.M. Blake, who in 1903 wrote in Coal Barging In Alabama in War Times, “… The coal was hauled to the river on wagons and there loaded on flat boats. Some of these boats were floated down the river to Yellow Leaf, now Wilsonville, and there the coal was transferred to railroad cars and shipped over the Selma, Dalton and Rome railroad. The greater number of the boats were floated down the Coosa River to the Alabama River, and thence by Montgomery to Selma.

“The labor at both mines was done chiefly by ... slaves, many of whom had been recently brought to that section as refugees from Kentucky and Tennessee. Negroes also constituted the crew for the boats which were made of sawed lumber and were fifty feet long, eighteen feet wide and thirty inches in depth.

“The largest boat built was seventy-eight feet long, twenty-two feet wide, and thirty inches in depth. The amount of coal carried on each boat was from twenty to fifty-two tons.” Blake adds that Ira Harmon, who lived in Easonville, was a pilot for many of those boats.

A tearful reunionAn account which appeared in Ragland’s St. Clair County

News in 1911 tells this story of a Confederate veteran’s reunion held in Odenville: “Standing beneath a canopy bedecked with the stars and stripes, St. Clair County men of the old Fifty-eighth Alabama Regiment wept as they gathered around the flag that once floated above their heads amid the carnage of battle. Many of them, perhaps all of them, had not seen the banner that led them onward in many a charge since the day of Appomattox when the standard bearer of their regiment tore it from the staff and hid it away in his soldier blouse in order that it might not find its way into the hands of the enemy.

“The scene at Odenville was one that will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. Prior to the unfolding of the flag, Judge John W. Inzer, himself a member of the Fifty-eighth Alabama, … talked of that old flag which was so soon to be unfurled again by him, until his comrades were almost impatient for a sight of their bullet-ridden banner once again, but soldier-like, they waited as for the word command.

“At last came the moment when the Judge carefully unwrapped the cloth that held the flag enclosed. ... Hardly had the final wrapper been removed and the flag unfolded to their gaze before one old soldier, whose locks had been whitened by the years that have passed since as a young man in all the vigor of his manhood he followed his loved flag, stepped quickly forward and grasping tenderly the hem of the banner raised it reverently to his lips, his tears streaming down his face the while.

“One by one his comrades followed him until there were gathered around that flag, probably for the last time, about 50 survivors of the regiment. Who can tell what were their thoughts as they gazed on that loved bunting? … Many had returned from that bitter struggle maimed and wounded and possibly (they) thought it might be the last time they would gaze on that flag, ... but certain it is that there was not a dry eye in that group as one old comrade, his face literally bathed in tears, dried those tears on the blood-stained colors of his old regiment.

“Bare-headed and with his right hand extended in the direction of ‘Old Glory’ which was proudly floating in the breeze, Judge Inzer stood in the center of the group telling with pride but with trembling voice about the men who had carried that flag as the shots of the enemy shrieked through the ranks of his comrades leaving many of them wounded or dead on the battle field. There was no bitterness in his voice nor was there a word uttered against the men once his foes. But one thing did he declare that neither he nor his comrades were rebels, but that they were fighting for the principles of the constitution as it then was. ...”


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RemembranceWhen asked why the Civil War happened, Bill Watkins

thought for a few moments, then replied, “All the South wanted was to be left alone.” Hundreds of books have been written about those days, so there’s no point in belaboring political intricacies here, but most folks tend to agree with the maxim “rich man’s war, poor man’s blood”. Groups such as the SCV exist to honor those who fought, rather than to champion a cause.

Bill, now 81 years of age, is a Birmingham native who moved to St. Clair about 10 years ago and soon got caught up in the area’s rich heritage. He’s been Commander of St. Clair Camp No. 308, Sons of Confederate Veterans, for some six years and was a member of another SCV Camp in Birmingham.

Under his leadership, Camp 308 actively participates in annual Civil War gatherings and functions, such as Robert E. Lee Day celebrations, guided tours of Inzer House, battlefield re-enactments and military funerals for those whose forebears fought in that war.

Such a funeral was held upon the passing of local historian Garland Minor, who had worked untiringly with Camp 308 in finding, registering and marking graves of Civil War soldiers.

The St. Clair SCV Camp tends to more than 60 Civil War veteran gravesites in the Ashville cemetery, as well as many others throughout the county. It’s an ongoing mission, with 25 “Guardians” who conserve the graves.

On Feb. 12, 2015, Camp 308 participated in multi-city commemorative flag ceremonies for President’s Day in honor of Jefferson Davis. Other celebrations are planned throughout

the year. Bill’s wife, Thelma, is usually present among other Southern belles, wearing large hoop skirts and accoutrements of that era.

They love to visit schools while in uniform, where they’re privileged to speak to children about life in St. Clair during a much younger America’s most troubled era. Such discourse is mostly discouraged these days, even disallowed in some areas, but most local schools still love to hear about the gallantry, sacrifice and selfless devotion imparted by their ancestors. Bill feels these things should always hold value in our corner of the world.

Camp 308 also participates in an annual re-enactment event of several days duration, held every October at the Baker Farm near Harpersville.

The Camp owns a fine reproduction of a real Civil War cannon, which they usually fire at these events. Bill says its thunderous report commands attention, and the gun has enough power to accurately send a projectile for more than a mile. He adds that it’s insured with Lloyds of London for $1 million of damage liability.

A fine statue of a Confederate soldier graces the front lawn of Ashville’s courthouse square. Placed there in 1922 by the local United Daughters of the Confederacy, the monument is physically maintained by the Camp. Large slabs of original granite paneling, removed during a recent courthouse renovation, are destined to be imprinted with meaningful words and added to the memorial site.

“It’s not about politics, or even the Southern cause,” Bill explained, “just people doing their duty for a land they love.”

Civil War re-enactor William Watkins

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Story by Jerry C. Smith

Greatness is often better measured by one’s deeds and acts, rather than his spoken words. Garland Ray Minor was such a man. Always of gentle speech and countenance, Garland was the kind of person you instinctively liked — and trusted. He was multi-talented, highly intelligent and had once led a dynamic lifestyle almost worthy of an action movie, but you would never hear it from his lips.

Both Bill Watkins of SVC St. Clair Camp No. 308 and Charlene Simpson, curator of Ashville Archives, characterize him as a quiet, unassuming man whose main goal in later life was service to others, with little in return except satisfaction of a job well done. “We never really knew him until after he was gone,” explains Bill. “He did so much that we simply took for granted until we finally took stock of it all.”

Garland made his rounds every day, usually beginning at Inzer House or the Archives office on Ashville’s courthouse square. The rest of the day was generally spent doing cemetery censuses, compiling historical data, and working at art, photography and writing. He loved speaking with school children about St. Clair history and helping them with their annual heritage projects.

Garland often worked as a museum tour docent at Inzer House, where he also served as its director. An authentic

Civil War uniform he wore while conducting tours is currently on display at Inzer.

His greatest contribution, however, was a cemetery program he established, whose goal was to seek out every Confederate soldier buried in Alabama, insuring that their graves were appropriately registered and marked with stones procured from the Veteran’s Administration. Many had been interred in unmarked graves, so Garland had to research each one to determine which soul lay in repose there.

He located literally hundreds of veterans’ graves, and was working on an exhaustive compendium of them at the time of his tragic passing which, due to his solitary lifestyle, went undiscovered for several days.

His demise was commemorated in a warmly affective service at Leeds Kilgroe Funeral Home, presided by Bill Watkins and surrounded by Camp 308 comrades, all wearing period uniforms. After his service, Garland’s Confederate battle flag was removed from his casket and ceremonially folded, followed by a three-volley musket salute.

Then, his casket was re-draped with an American flag to honor his Air Force career as well as his undercover CIA work in South America and vital participation in the Gemini space program at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Garland was buried with full military honors at the new National Military Cemetery near Montevallo. l

Garland Minor seeker of lost soldiers

Confederate grave Ashville Cemetery

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FOR THEIR SERVICEMarine uniform donated for special display

Story by Leigh PritchettPhotos by Michael Callahan

Wherever we go, whatever we do, we leave a little piece of ourselves in some way.

For one employee of the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home in Pell City, he was able to do it in a very tangible way.

Larry Collins, who heads security at the home, donated his Marine Corps dress uniform for the facility’s permanent display.

Collins, a native of Southern California with an extensive military career, relocated to Pell City about 30 years ago. He was in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1969 to 1972, serving a tour of duty in Vietnam. When he returned from Vietnam, he was assigned as a marksmanship instructor in Quantico, Va.

Then, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and returned to Vietnam in 1974. He also was aboard ship during the Persian Gulf War.

In 1991, Collins retired as a petty officer first class, with 23 years of military service and has worked at the veterans’ home since September 2012.

When Collins got the uniform in 1971 as a young Marine, he found that people noticed its sharp, snappy appearance. “I got invited to more weddings when I got that uniform.”

After becoming a corporal, he was allowed to add to the trousers the red stripe that is reserved for certain ranks.

For more than three decades, the uniform hung in a closet before being donated to the veterans’ home. Nonetheless, it is in very good condition.

When Collins decided to donate it, two people lent their services to prepare the uniform for its new home. Collins’ wife, Lynne, did some necessary needle work and Steven Howard of Pell City, a volunteer at the veterans’ home, helped obtain certain medals and ribbons that needed replacing.

Doing so was a heartfelt project for Howard, whose brother is the namesake of the home.

“This place means a lot to me,” said Howard, who relocated from Prattville to Pell City to volunteer at the home.

Among the medals and awards on Collins’ uniform are Vietnam Campaign, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Civic Action Colors, Sharpshooter and Expert Rifleman.

Derrick Williams, administrator at the veterans’ home, called Collins’ contribution “touching” because it comes from such a “loyal and dedicated” employee. Williams particularly highlighted the fact that Collins served in two branches of the Armed Forces.

For Collins, the donation is his expression of appreciation to other veterans.

“I couldn’t think of a better place for it to be,” Collins said. “I’m just proud to have it here. … Now, I’m part of this place.”

Editor’s Note: The administration of the veterans’ home continues to seek unique items from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard to fill the facility’s expansive permanent display. Each item considered for display must first go through an approval process. Objects accepted for display become the property of the veterans’ home. Those who would like to contribute items may contact Williams at 205-227-7985.


Larry Collins of Pell City, left, donated his Marine Corps dress

uniform (situated behind him) to the permanent

display of the Col. Robert L. Howard

State Veterans Home. At center is Derrick

Williams, administrator of the veterans’ home. Steven Howard of Pell

City, right, helped Collins acquire some medals that needed replacing

before the uniform went on display.

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FOR THEIR SERVICEMotorcycle riders pay a special visit to thank veterans


Photos by Carol Pappas

Since the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home opened its doors in St. Clair County, its resi-dents have been treated to all sorts of special visits, entertainment and gifts. After all, those on the giv-ing end say, it’s a small token of appreciation for those who gave so much in service to their country.

On a spring Saturday in late April, veterans lined the entrance way to get a good look at visitors arriving in an unusual way — in a parade of motorcycles. Members of Cedar Grove Baptist Church organized a motorcycle ride as part of a fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House, and one of the four stops along the way was the veterans home.

About 50 riders from throughout the region participated, paying a special visit to the veterans. They dismounted, shook each veterans hand to thank them for their service and concluded with a booming rendition of “Happy Birthday!” l


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Heather and Shannon Slaughtercharterd their first No. 1 recording in May.


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St. Clair teachers’latest recordingtopping chartsStory by Jim SmothersPhotos by Jim Smothers, Wallace Bromberg Jr. and Graham Hadley

Their students may have noticed Shannon and Heather Slaughter were in an especially happy mood in mid-May, and it wasn’t just because the last day of school was approaching. This bluegrass performing couple just got word that their independent CD, Never Just a Song, had reached No. 1 on the National Roots Music Report for the week of May 13.

In their Facebook message to fans, the Slaughters said, “It’s our first number 1 on any chart, and we are really excited and feel really blessed.”

The traditional bluegrass song, Moonshiner, was the first single to be released after the album’s January release, and it’s gotten a lot of attention and airplay in the genre. But they’ll tell you quickly their favorite song on the disc is one they wrote together, The Best Thing We Ever Did.

It’s about their daughter, 2-year-old Rae Carroll Slaughter, who has changed their outlook on life and what’s really important in this world.

And it’s easy to see why. The adorable little girl inspired the lyric “She makes my day without saying a word,” and she is the center of their life together and their plans for the future.

About herShannon Slaughter was already a veteran performer and

songwriter in traditional country and bluegrass music while Heather Sanders was playing electric bass with the youth band at her church in Argo in western St. Clair County.

She had a musical tradition in her family going back at least three generations. Her grandmother Ramona Carroll was part of a female vocal group that performed locally, and she hosted regular music nights in the basement of her store, Buckeye Grocery, near Argo.

Heather’s mom Robin was also a singer and bass player. She met Heather’s dad, Terry Sanders, when he came with his guitar to make some music with the people at the Carroll family store.

So it was no surprise that Heather could sing, but performing didn’t come naturally to her at first.

“My grandmother used to make me get up and sing at church,” she said, “and I was the shyest human being of all time.”

Her dad taught her to play guitar and mandolin, and she eventually conquered her shyness.

She made connections with Mike Toppins in Nashville and began work on her solo CD, I Meant It, and that’s what led to her first contact with Shannon.

A moderator with an Internet music site, Worldwide Bluegrass, knew Heather was ready to record, and wanted


to help her along. The station had a message board, and the moderator sent Shannon a private message asking him if he had written any songs that would be good for a female singer, and he told him a little about Heather.

As any modern male would do, he looked her up on the Internet and found her photos on MySpace.

“She was really good-looking, so I replied, ‘Yeah, I think I have some songs for her,’ ” he said.

Heather recorded two of his songs on that CD, In My Heart, and Dying to Live Again.

The two communicated by email and telephone and really hit it off, but didn’t meet face-to-face at the time. Shannon was based in North Carolina where he was networked with a number of professionals in the industry. But Heather’s dad wasn’t sold on the idea of letting his daughter go out of state to meet a guitar-playing singer. The Internet station moderator didn’t like the idea, either. “She’s too young and innocent for the likes of you,” the moderator told Shannon when he asked for Heather’s phone number.

They didn’t have any more contact for two years.“He left me high and dry,” Heather said. “Then I got home

from a vacation, and there was an email waiting saying he wanted to see me.”

Meanwhile she joined the Gadsden-based band, Acoustic Rain, and played a number of shows across central Alabama. Shannon came down for a weekend to see her perform at Moonsong near Noccalula Falls in Gadsden.

“By the time I heard her sing five notes, I knew she was as good as anyone I had ever heard,” Shannon said. He sat in with the group for a couple of songs that night and stayed up all night singing with Heather. They hit it off so well in person, he extended his stay to spend more time with her, and they’ve been

together ever since.They swap lead vocals and support each other with silky

smooth harmonies sure to please.

About himShannon is one of the better-known performers in bluegrass

and classic country music today. Fans are quick to say he is “the real deal,” with his solid songwriting and guitar playing and friendly, soothing voice. He was raised in Chiefland, Fla., where he started performing while he was still in grade school. He started playing guitar when he was 8, and within two or three years he was singing at churches and livestock fairs and anywhere else people would listen.

As a teenager he met professional player Booie Beach at a Tony Rice concert and asked him if he would help him improve his playing. Beach taught Slaughter a lot of techniques and guitar licks that helped him on his way.

“We became lifelong friends,” Shannon said. He had played professionally already five to 10 years by that time.

“Two years later, Beach left the Larry Stephenson Band, and I took his place. Since he was my teacher, I already knew his licks, and I played my first two gigs with them without a rehearsal, and they told me, ‘You’ve got the job.’

During more than two decades of performing and recording, Shannon also played with Lost and Found, and for two years, he was the lead vocalist and guitarist for The Lonesome River Band. He was part of the Lou Reid and Caroline band, performed with Grasstowne and with Melonie Cannon, and he is also an award-winning songwriter.

But with all his experience and stature in the music industry, Shannon has kept his feet on the ground.

“There aren’t really any stars in this kind of music,” he said.


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“We’re just regular people.”And they don’t have any intentions of quitting their day

jobs. Both are school teachers. Heather is a special education teacher at Walter M. Kennedy Elementary School in Pell City and Shannon, a history teacher at St. Clair County High School in Odenville. He recently resigned from his additional duties as a football coach to be able to spend more time with his family.

“We want to keep on doing music, and we would like to have about 15 gigs a year,” he said.

TogetherAlabama influences are making their way into the couple’s

music, as reflected on their newest CD, Never Just a Song.Back to Birmingham most obviously touches on Shannon’s

new home state. Co-written with Heather and Dale Felts, they sing, “When I need to find out who I am, I go back to Birmingham.”

Less obvious is the Alabama connection in the song, Company Town. It’s about the lifestyle of a coal mining community in Margaret, where Heather’s grandfather once lived, the poverty the people endured, and how they lived together.

The sight of a farmer in bib overalls on Sanie Road between Argo and Odenville inspired the song, That’s What’s Good in America. It’s about “doing honest work for honest pay,” football, God and family.

The CD has 14 tracks, half of them written or co-written by Shannon. l


T ogetherComplete lyrics and song samples are on their website, where the CD can also be ordered or downloaded. Their performance schedule is also updated on the website, with a June 6 appearance in Moody, two shows in Canada and others in Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana and South Carolina on the calendar so far.

online @ shannonandheatherslaughter.com

Shannon teachesat St. Clair County High

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Baby Rae is thesubject of theirsong “The Best Thing We Ever Did”.

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MUDMACHINESStory by Graham HadleyPhotos by Michael Callahanand Graham Hadley

Once a farm, Beaver Creek Offroad Park brings a whole new kind of racing to St. Clair County

43

From private parties to massively popular competition racing, Beaver Creek Offroad Park is St. Clair County’s place for fun in the sun with mud.

When Allison Morgan and her husband, Jason, inherited St. Clair farmland near Vincent that has been in the family since 1823, they knew there was one thing they did not want to do with it — farm.

She is a teacher, and he is an engineer, and while they loved the outdoors and spending their time with their kids outside, they had no desire to plant crops and till the soil.

“I grew up learning to work in the fields, but we don’t have time to do that. We had a garden for awhile, but before you knew it, it was overgrown,” Allison said.

Then one day, while driving to Walmart, like lightning, an idea struck: The property, with an abundance of wet springs and good terrain, would make the perfect outdoor park, complete with a massive serpentine competition ORV mud track with steep banks, a long straightaway and deep mud holes.Even the parking area

was muddy on Race day.

The track features a long straight stretch.

Eddie Blevins and hisson Cale in the pits.

Racers hydroplane acrossparts of the deep water holes.


“It was an idea that we, me and my husband, had on the way to buy groceries. I was looking online, and all our friends from Pell City were going all over the place to drive in the mud,” she said.

Beaver Creek Offroad Park was born, and mud racing had officially come to St. Clair County.

“We had come up with something that provided family time where we could have fun, and we wanted the public to come out and enjoy the outdoors the way I did growing up. This was a good fit for us,” she said.

The project started out modestly, with just a simple muddy area for riders, but has steadily grown since then.

“The first time we opened, it was just basically a mud hole, but we had 800 to 900 people out here.

“Then we posted on Facebook just to see if people would be interested in having something like this track. We ended up with 40 people on our doorstep who wanted the park. The racers just showed up at 9 at night and asked if we would build them a place to race,” Allison said. “We did not know what they were talking about, so we researched online.”

From the word “go”, the park was a success — and since both Allison and Jason were new to the sport of mud racing, there was an admittedly steep learning curve.

“We started on the track in August and worked through September and October 2013. Then the racers showed up, and we had our first race in April 2014,” Allison said. “We had an excellent turnout. We were kind of shell-shocked by the number of people who came out. We were understaffed; we had no clue what was coming.

“Since that day, we have learned a tremendous amount about running these kinds of events and this sport.”

On average, they can easily see 800 people at the park in a single weekend, with bigger events drawing even more.

Those big events can include truck racing, ATVs, side-by-sides, sometimes combined with a music fest where they play everything from country to hip-hop. The music events are taking on a life of their own, with an emerging style of music that actually combines those two disparate music styles becoming especially popular with the mud-racing crowd.

Allison says the park is making money, but they are not pocketing the profits. She has put her teaching career on hold to run the park, while Jason works as a plastics engineer supporting the family. The extra money the park earns goes into expanding the park and building on the already solid business foundation.

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“It is a work in progress. I don’t know if we will ever be finished in our eyes. We are always working on something,” Allison said.

“I put my dreams as a teacher on hold for this, but it has been a success. We are still in the process where we are growing and expanding, so every dime we make at the park is turned around and invested in the park. I believe 100 percent it will be a financial success, but we are not calling it that yet because we are still investing in making the park the best it can be.”

Family FunA key to that success is the family-inclusive nature

of the park, with a focus on providing a place where people of all ages can experience the outdoors. Allison and Jason want a place where they can have fun with their children and where other families can do the same.

“Family time is important. It’s kind of our motto: This is a family place. We want to be able to bring our kids out there,” Allison said.

“It took awhile for people to realize our dedication to the family environment. We have been fortunate that we have not really had any problems. The fans respect what we are trying to do. The people show up, respect our rules — they have an amazing time. It is turning into a great thing.”

Race DayThat family atmosphere was pervasive at one recent

mud-racing event April 19. Everywhere you looked, people were out riding around the park with their kids, cooking out with their families and watching as the specialized trucks raced against the clock and each other through the track, several areas of which were full of many feet of water thanks to days of heavy rain.

For the Morgans, they were hard at work as a family supervising everything — a busy job for Allison, who was running the concessions, and Jason, who was down in the pit area keeping the drivers and their crews organized.

And many of those teams were family and friends themselves, often racing against each other in different trucks.

Eddie Blevins from Shelby, Ala., said he just started racing last year.

Pointing to the stands, he said, “I used to be up there watching. Now I have not missed a race here.”

With pit support from his son Cale, Blevins had a solid showing with his truck Never Satisfied — “We did pretty well, won two and lost one” of the races.

At a previous race, they had won almost $1,000. For Blevins, that’s a win-win situation however you look at it. “You get paid to get out here and do something you love,” he said.

The winnings from those races can add up quickly — something that is important in a sport where the price of vehicles can hit the $40,000 range or more for the higher-end trucks.

But many drivers, like Blevins, are fielding much more affordable rides.

One young man who had just turned 15 was racing that day — and winning — in a truck he and his friends, with help from his father and family, had built

A number of different classes race at the track.

Mudfights betweenkids in the spectator

sections are a regular part of the day’s events.

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literally out of spare parts for almost nothing. David Matzke pointed proudly to his son Austin, saying,

“He won his first race today. He turned 15 Friday. We probably have $1,000 in that truck.”

Austin grew up watching his Dad drag race. “He always wanted to race, so I taught him mechanics. We built this truck in two weeks.”

David said he is a huge fan of the mud racing scene and the family-friendly environment Allison and Jason are fostering at Beaver Creek.

“I love to see the kids out here doing this. Out of everything they could be out doing, this is a good thing to do,” he said.

Travis Perkins from Columbiana, who is also in his second year of mud racing, and Brian Johnson said the Beaver Creek track fills out the area perfectly. With two other regional tracks, Beaver Creek makes three. That lets them rotate venues every week or so without having to travel all over the Southeast to keep a regular racing schedule.

“We love it here. Allison and Jason Morgan, they are good people. If it was not for them, we would not be out here,” Johnson said.

While mud racing may be the big draw, with music fests a close second, the 150-acre park also has paths for ATVs and other off-road and off-highway vehicles, room for camping and other outdoor activities.

Allison says they are looking at finding a way to also eventually add rock climbing to the park. That’s not the people clambering up cliffs with ropes kind of climbing, that’s the specialized off-road vehicle clambering up piles of boulders kind of climbing.

“We are improving; we are expanding; we are making things out here that we need,” Allison said.

“I think this year is going to be great.” l

The track is located at 139 Beavers Lane, just off U.S. 231 south of the Logan Martin Dam road

between Pell City and Vincent.You can find it online @ beavercreekoffroad.com

and follow it on Facebook.

For more photos and video from the track, check out discoverstclair.com

MUDMACHINES


Story by Leigh PritchettPhotos by Michael Callahan

It was April 21, 2012, a Saturday … and a rainy one at that.

A poetry reading was scheduled that evening at Pell City Library.

Rita and Harry Moritz of Pell City had planned the event, with the assistance of Sam Hurst, a Florida poet; Joe Whitten of Odenville, president of Alabama State Poetry Society at the time, and Susan Mann, the library’s assistant director.

Because of the forecast, “I didn’t expect a lot of people,” Mrs. Moritz said.

Yet “it was just under 100 people that showed up,” she said.

The attendance indicated to the Moritzes that Pell City was ready for that taste of culture.

As a result, the couple — along with Sandy Richardson and Margaret Rush — met the next month to form the group, Writers Anonymous (WA).

The group started holding monthly meetings and quickly began to leave its mark on the cultural scene.

When it was 10 months old, WA already had held a creativity workshop that attracted about 30 people and had facilitated a poetry contest for Pell City junior high and senior high students.

During its second year, WA promoted an essay contest for junior high and senior high students, to which about 85 essays were submitted.

Now at the age of three, WA has about 30 paid members and has hosted two writing conferences.

Forty-five people from Alabama and Georgia attended the first conference, held in early 2014 at Pell City’s Center for Education and Performing Arts.

The second one almost doubled in size. The 2015 Mid-Winter Writers Conference, held this past February at Seddon Baptist Church in Pell City, drew 85 people from Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee.

In his opening comments at the conference, Pell City Mayor Joe Funderburg noted that the city is known for its artists, musicians and actors.

The writers’ conference, he said, is a welcome addition to Pell City’s cultural landscape. “We support you. We support the arts. We hope this will become an annual thing.”

Not only did members of WA organize and staff the conference, but they also prepared the food items served to attendees. Members of Seddon Baptist provided security, while the church’s youth – in classic black-and-white attire with suspenders and bowties – were servers and ushers.

The Friday night before the conference, 31 people

Writers Conferencea growing cultural asset

Ellen Sallas of Clanton and Jerri Hardesty of Montevallo, right, were two of the 13 presenters.

Chris Tiegreen of Atlanta is at the meet-and-greet event.


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During the 2015 Mid-Winter Writers Conference, 13 presenters shared their insight.

Karen Allen of Birmingham, author of Confronting Cancer with Faith – “Difficulties in life can be used in advantageous ways.” She found her battle with cancer not to be a test of her faith in God, but rather an opportunity to see faith increase. “(God) has blossomed it into a ministry” through outreach to others facing a similar crisis. “Sometimes, the battle is the blessing.”

Urainah Glidewell of Pell City, author of the self-published Cluttered Thoughts: A Poetry Collection – Self-publishing is an avenue through which writers can reach their goal of being published.

Jerri Hardesty of Montevallo, president of Alabama State Poetry Society: Writers should use their words to create memorable imagery, striving for symbols that go “10 miles and not 10 inches.”

Ashley Kitchens of Hoover, division chairman at Jefferson State Community College’s Clanton campus: Poetic imagery should not be confined just to poetry. It is a powerful tool in writing prose as well.

Kathryn Lang of Guntersville, speaker, columnist and author of books and eBooks: “No matter what it is you are trying to do – business, online, writing, family, church – it all comes down to relationships. You are uniquely designed for relationships. You aren’t supposed to do it alone. So reach out and make connections and then invest in those connections to grow a foundation of relationships. Relationships will drive you to your purpose and your desired success.”

Harry Moritz of Pell City, webmaster: A social media platform is effective for disseminating information. It is not difficult to do, but does require diligence. He manages his wife’s blog, which receives 25,000 hits a month, with visitors from about 62 countries.

Rita Moritz of Pell City, speaker, blogger and author of the self-published Precious Poems: A Journey of Hope: People tend to find time for the things that are important to them. If writing is a passion, then it is essential to plan time to write and to guard that time carefully.

Jennifer Rash of Pinson, executive editor of the statewide newspaper, The Alabama Baptist: Stressors drain a person’s energy. In order to have the freedom to write, it is important to have stability in other areas of life. Effective teamwork in life allows an individual to have the time, resources and energy to write. People must be good stewards of their time.

Kim Ridley of Mississippi, acquisitions editor for Little Roni Publishers and author: It is important to have realistic expectations about publishing. Because there are many ways to be published, it is necessary to investigate the options (such as traditional versus self-publishing), and know the process, the dos and don’ts, the expectations of editors and contract pitfalls.

Ellen Sallas of Clanton, speaker, author and editorial director of Little Roni Publishers: It is essential for writers to develop three-dimensional characters and an interesting plot. The writing process must be taken seriously. So often, writers rush through the writing process to get the manuscript published quickly. As a result, they are not producing their best work.

Constance J. Smith of Huntsville, professional blogger: With a few clicks, even a person who is not tech-savvy can have his compositions on the web for the world to read. “Go for it.”

Chris Tiegreen of Atlanta, Ga., author and editor at Walk Thru the Bible: Devotionals place a message in front of a large number of people. Effective devotionals are written in a manner that spurs daylong meditation on those thoughts.

Jeanette Willert of Pell City, professor emerita of Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., and writer: Each sentence must be composed with great care so that it conveys exactly what the writer wants. Writers must learn to exercise variety in words and styles to express thoughts effectively.

Conference presenters and their message


attended a meet-and-greet time at the library. Twelve even shared their own compositions during a round-robin poetry reading. Some read from their personal collections, some from their books.

In her keynote address that Saturday, Mrs. Moritz asked listeners to “dare to dream.” She recounted how WA came to be three years ago as a handful of fledgling writers with few – if any – compositions to their credit. In the months that followed, members practiced and polished and honed their skills. As a result, six WA members earned seven awards in one Alabama State Poetry Society contest and three members garnered seven more awards in the most recent competition.

All too often, people allow excuses to stand in the way of their life “dream,” Mrs. Moritz said. They convince themselves that they are too young, too old or too busy or believe that the brokenness in their life has turned aspirations to ashes.

“That lost or stolen dream may be God’s calling on your life,” Mrs. Moritz said. “That lost or stolen dream is waiting on you to reclaim it. … You are uniquely qualified for what God has called you to do. You’ve got a story to tell.”

Mrs. Moritz gave her own blog as an example. At one time, it was receiving 100 hits a month. But by the end of 2014, it was logging 25,000 visits a month from as many as 62 countries.

“What would you try to do if you knew you could not fail?” she asked. “What would you accomplish if you dared to dream?”

A story to be toldBeing a published author one day naturally was on the

minds of some who attended the 2015 conference and they came to find out how to achieve it. Yet, others wanted information to use in everyday life and its activities.

Mysti Milwee of Southside in Etowah County works,

Writers Conference

The 2015 Mid-Winter Writers’ Conference took place in Febru-ary at Seddon Baptist Church in Pell City.

Susan Mann, assistant director of Pell City Library, helped to host the meet-and-greet event.

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writes poetry and creates artwork. She sought direction in managing time to accomplish everything.

Looking to retire to Pell City in a few months, Susan Bush of Bibb County wanted information that would be useful in the virtual work and leisure projects she has in mind.

For Mac Howard of Chelsea, the conference was a trove of information on communicating more effectively and building relationships. “I have taken pages of notes,” he said.

Howard, who is vice president of strategic markets for Brandlive of Portland, Ore., explained that business people and writers are alike: both are salesmen in the sense that each is trying to create a word-picture.

The opportunity to improve skills as a writer and communicator brought Tim Gold, minister of education and administration at First Baptist Church in Pell City, to the conference.

To Richard “Doc” Wallace, pastor and host of a radio show in Meridian, Miss., the conference was a step in the process of preparing for non-fiction and fiction projects.

Earleen Sides, who lives on Treasure Island, heard about the conference through a publisher. And she was thrilled that she decided to come.

“It opened up a new world for me,” she said.This conference offered an affordable experience to

local writers, said Shawnette Richey of Cropwell, who has been part of WA almost from its beginning.

For $50 ($60 at the door), local attendees could go to eight workshops without incurring the transportation and hotel costs for an out-of-town conference, Richey said.

Richardson said WA’s writing conferences are valuable because they provide writers with new ideas and a different perspective.

The conferences and local writing contests of WA encourage writers, especially young people, to explore and maybe even discover a talent they did not know they had, observed Richardson, who now lives in California.

Mrs. Moritz said the group is purposely named Writers Anonymous “because most of us are likely to stay that way.” To WA members, receiving recognition is not the ultimate goal.

“We kind of feel like our purpose is bigger than that,” she said.

The point of WA, its conferences and its contests is to motivate, enrich and equip writers, Mrs. Moritz continued. The activities are meant to challenge people to write and to express themselves. “We’re seeing people falling in love with words.”

Rush understands how that could happen. It is what she experienced by participating in the monthly WA meetings. Because of her involvement with WA, the Pell City woman has rekindled a love of poetry writing that had been dormant since she was in high school.

“People are hungry,” Harry Moritz said, “and we have the privilege of feeding them.” l

Writers Anonymous meets the first Thursday of each month from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Pell City Recreation Hall on 19th Street. Visitors are welcome. Membership is $20 a year. For more information, visit writersanonymous.us.

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Harry Moritz of Pell City, left, and Jerri Hardesty of Montevallo

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The hard hat and gloves of a crew

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Story by Leigh PritchettPhotos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Submitted photos by Ben Chandlerand Ellen Tanner

“Jesus is the hope that calms life’s storms.”The marquee message at Friendship Baptist Church in Odenville

one March evening seemed quite appropriate because, inside the building, a large group of people was learning how to help others recover from natural disasters.

Nina Funderburg of Talladega, who sat beside Pell City friend, Sandy Gafnea, excitedly looked forward to being part of faith-based disaster relief. “If Jesus is in it, I want to do it.”

Early the next morning, Funderburg would have to demonstrate safety and skill with a chainsaw by felling a tree.

Mary Parsons of Moody was completing her disaster relief retraining to do what she finds fulfilling. “I just like helping people,” she said.

After finishing hours of training and passing a background check, the men and women in the group would receive the Homeland Security clearance necessary for entering a disaster area.

With those credentials in hand, it would be official: each had earned the privilege of wearing the yellow shirt and hat of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.

Some of the attendees had traveled from as far away as Athens and Rainsville. After the weekend of training, they would return to their part of the state to attach to a unit in their locale. The individuals who attend a Southern Baptist church in St. Clair would become part of the St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief team.

Members of that team are ambassadors who dispatch on short notice to a storm-damaged area, bringing with them chainsaws, comforting words … and prayer.

Sometimes, they are the first and only contact people in crisis ever have with St. Clair County, Alabama.

“We’re kind of one of the best-kept secrets in St. Clair County,” said Glenn Pender of Steele, coordinator of St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief.

help is on

The WaY

When disaster strikes

Dewey Lewis of Pine Mountain, front, prepares to drive the Bobcat skid steer off its trailer as Richard Warr of Trussville assists.

Dewey Lewis of Pine Mountain mans the Bobcat skid steer.


help is on

The WaY

In the beginningIn 2003, efforts to organize the team began and, the next

year, the first volunteers completed training. Pender said it was also in 2004 when they embarked on their first mission — a rebuilding project in Flomaton after Hurricane Ivan.

Currently, 115 men and women — from ages 25 to 85 and from 22 Southern Baptist churches in St. Clair County – make up the unit. Nearly 30 of the members are chaplains, said Pender and Ben Chandler, director of missions for St. Clair Baptist Association.

Depending on the field of service they have chosen, the members might operate chainsaws, a Bobcat skid steer, bucket truck or shower trailer; give assistance with mud-out, cleanup and recovery, or provide administrative services, explained Chandler and Pender.

Some on the St. Clair volunteers have trained to care for children or to work in mass feeding. Both of those services are provided through the state-level organization, Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief.

Mel Johnson, disaster relief and construction coordinator for Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions in Montgomery, said members of St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief number among the state’s 7,000 Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers.

These volunteers are included under the even larger umbrella of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“We are actually volunteer missionaries with the North American Mission Board,” Pender said.

In the United States, 65,000 Southern Baptists are trained disaster relief volunteers, said Beth Bootz, disaster relief communications coordinator for NAMB. That makes Southern Baptists “one of the three largest mobilizers of trained disaster relief volunteers in the United States.” The other top mobilizers are the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

Ellen Tanner, director of St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency, pointed out that St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief has a crucial role in emergency response in the county. The team provides “vital” services, such as “debris removal on private property, which the county and cities cannot do.” Plus, the unit bears the responsibility of registering and directing volunteers and serving as coordinators in the Emergency Operation Center.

Tanner said the team members “are committed to serving God by serving others. Their actions and the love they show for people is often the act of unselfish kindness that can turn a person’s life around.”

During its 11 years, the disaster relief team has ministered in a long list of places, helping fellow Alabamians after floods, hurricanes and tornadoes. Just last year, the group spent three weeks working in Bessemer after a tornado.

In addition, the unit has assisted after natural disasters in Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois and New York, according to James Dendy, a team chaplain from Cropwell.

When leadership of Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief is asked to help after a crisis in another state, “St. Clair is usually one of the first to mobilize,” Johnson said.

Ron Warren of Steele, a member of St. Clair’s unit, said its volunteers worked a total of eight weeks in damaged areas after

Glenn Pender of Steele, left, talks with Jim Thomas of Clay

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The WaY

Hurricane Katrina, 11 days following Hurricane Rita and two weeks on Staten Island, N.Y., after Hurricane Sandy.

At times, they have been in areas of martial law with no electrical service for a 100-mile radius. A mob would gather at the arrival of a vehicle loaded with food and supplies. People were so hungry that the situation was dangerous, said Warren, who is also state chainsaw coordinator for Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief.

“It is a stressful ministry” on many different levels, Dendy said. Seeing the despair of the suffering people and magnitude of destruction “gets to you. It can overwhelm you, especially for the new guys. It’s one thing to see it on the news. It’s another thing to see it on the ground.”

Their hearts ache, and they weep for the people in crisis, Pender said. “It’s not an easy task.”

Because it is such an emotional ministry, Warren said chaplains are embedded in every team the St. Clair unit sends into a storm-damaged area.

The chaplains are present to attend to the volunteers, who hurt deeply for the people they are trying to help, Warren said. The chaplains minister, as well, to those affected by the storms – talking to them, addressing their needs, praying with them and, most importantly, telling them about Jesus.

Often, when the disaster relief team arrives and goes to work, property owners ask how much the services will cost. When the owners hear that it is free of charge, the answer almost always is met with surprise, Dendy said. The people find it difficult to believe that individuals will travel such a long distance to help strangers … for free.

As volunteers, the disaster relief members receive no pay. They cover the costs related to their training, as well as the expenses of traveling to an area of

21 November, 2012

Staten Island, New YorkSouthern Baptist Disaster Relief-

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There is no adequate way to thank you for what you have done and what you continue to do every day. I am so grateful that you came to Staten Island to assist us in our time of need. You will forever be in our hearts and our minds. May God Bless you and keep you safe.

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help is on

The WaY

need. Often, they take time off work to assist in affected communities.

“If you ask why these volunteers travel such long distances, spend their own money to get to these locations and put themselves in harm’s way to help those suffering through the horrible circumstances brought on by disaster, they will respond, ‘God loves you; so do we. And that is why we are here to help,’” said Johnson.

“Our main goal is to carry the word of Christ – to let others see Christ in us,” said team member Jimmy Pollard of Riverside.

“The greatest pay is when we see someone come to know Jesus Christ (as Savior),” Pender said.

It is about “helping folks and being there when they need us,” said Ron Culberson of Springville, coordinator of St. Clair’s chainsaw-cleanup-recovery crew.

“This,” said team member Jim Thomas of Clay, “is what God wants me to do.”

Prepared and readyBecause of the financial support it receives from

churches within St. Clair Baptist Association and from individuals, the disaster relief team has become one of the best equipped in the state.

Of the 54 cleanup-recovery-chainsaw units manned by Southern Baptists in Alabama, “St. Clair is one of the larger, well-organized teams,” said Johnson. “St. Clair has invested in equipment that allows them to serve in difficult areas with heavy equipment, such as a bucket truck, skid steer and shower unit.”

Warren said St. Clair was the first unit in the state to have a Bobcat skid steer and is the only one with a bucket truck.

As for the shower trailer, it is a “Cadillac” unit, Chandler said. It was the first of three built by the St. Clair team. The other two now belong to Southern Baptist disaster relief groups elsewhere in the state.

Designed by Pender and Warren, the trailer features six shower stalls, each with a locking door. One stall is handicap accessible. A laundry room boasts two pair of commercial washers and dryers.

Generally, the shower unit and laundry facilities are for volunteers to use. However, they also are made available to people in affected areas.

Like the team’s equipment, the capabilities and willingness of the members have garnered a positive reputation.

“The skills and abilities of the St. Clair unit are a testament to their ongoing training and commitment to respond for crisis mitigation,” Johnson said.

Even though the team’s focus is on ministering during a disaster, it stays busy throughout the year with community service projects.

The chainsaw crew frequently cuts trees that are deemed unsafe or are threatening nearby structures.

Also, during the summer months, the shower unit is in great demand as mission teams, such as World Changers and Mission Serve, come into the area to work.

David Smith of Shoal Creek and

Jim Thomas of Clay work from the bucket of a truck.

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help is on

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Mission hits homeApril 27, 2011 …That 24-hour span was filled with sadness from beginning to

end.When early morning straight-line winds ripped through

Moody, Pell City and Riverside, two lives were lost.St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief quickly went to work in the

Moody area, cutting trees and moving debris.Hour after hour, tornados cut paths all over the state. More

than 60 of them crisscrossed Alabama, leaving hundreds dead.Then, just before nightfall, an EF-4 tornado tore through the

Shoal Creek community of St. Clair County.Under normal circumstances, the disaster relief volunteers

— who had just gotten home from working all day in Moody — would have been sent into Shoal Creek at first light the next morning.

This time, however, the situation was dire. It could not wait.Damage was so widespread and debris so thick that team

members were sent immediately.Through the night and well into the next morning, they

cut a path for first responders to get into the valley to free the trapped, treat the injured and locate the missing.

Around 3:30 a.m. April 28, the chainsaw crew finally reached the end of the storm’s track.

Eleven residents had perished in the tornado. Two more – including a preborn baby – died in the next few days, said Carl Brownfield, chief of Shoal Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

Broken were the hearts of the residents.Broken, as well, were the hearts of the disaster relief team

members. All the past crises in which they had worked could not have prepared them for one so tragic. This time, team members were helping their very own. These were St. Clair people who were hurting; they were “family.”

Pender grows emotional talking about that night and the days that followed.

He chokes back tears and says there are some images from that time he just cannot allow to come into his mind because they are too painful.

“We don’t like to relive that,” Pender said of himself and other disaster relief volunteers who witnessed the death, distress and devastation the tornado left in its wake. “It was difficult for all of us.”

Some team members worked nine days straight, breaking only to eat, shower and sleep.

The unit continued its cleanup-and-recovery efforts for another four weeks after that. While some of the team remained engaged in those endeavors, other members moved into the rebuilding phase.

That June, the volunteers worked another three weeks.“We had people rebuilding in there up until a year or so

ago,” Warren said.

Giving backAfter the tornado, Brownfield exited what was left of his

house and entered a “nightmare.” He and volunteer firefighter Mike Blanton looked for survivors and cut through trees while trying to reach the rescuers they knew were working to get into the valley.

Several times in the weeks after the tornado, members of St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief visited Brownfield. They talked to him; they prayed with him.

Those simple acts “lifted me back up and got my faith going again,” Brownfield said.

Time and again during those weeks, he encountered different team members and found them all to be “wonderful” people.

“I had seen how much they were doing in our community,” Brownfield said.

Although he had heard of the team previously, he had not realized the size of it or the scope of its ministry.

Two years ago, he joined the unit, starting out on the chainsaw crew and then learning to operate the skid steer.

This past spring, Brownfield completed training to become a disaster relief chaplain. He wants to comfort others in crisis.

Within a year after the tornado, Shoal Creek resident David Smith joined the disaster relief team.

For Smith, a volunteer firefighter as well, being involved in St. Clair Baptist Disaster Relief is his way to give to others in return for all that his community received. l

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SIXTY YEARSAN IOLA ROBERTS LEGACY

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Story by Carol PappasPhotos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.Photos courtesy Pell City Library Archives

Iola Roberts Elementary seems more of a tradition than simply a school. And its namesake would probably applaud that notion.

After all, Miss Iola Roberts more than earned her name on the school that has since seen generations pass through its doors. She set the standard that is still valued six decades later.

Present-day Iola Roberts School celebrated the legacy she left with an anniversary reception in late April, remembering 60 years of the school’s history.

Iola Roberts will always be a part of the school beyond the name. Her portrait hangs in the school’s lobby, seeming to keep a watchful eye on the school she loved and the students she nurtured and encouraged as if they were her own.

But step out of line, and the whack of a ruler across the palm or a tiny chin caught in her signature thumb and forefinger pinch weren’t far away.

Strict disciplinarian and cultivator of cultural arts were her hallmarks. And many a graduate will tell you those two seemingly opposite characteristics are what shaped their later lives – for the better.

It has been 60 years since Iola Roberts School opened on Pell City’s main thoroughfare, US 231. It was formerly known as South St. Clair School. Before that, it was the Avondale School, serving the Mill Village. Miss Roberts actually came to Pell City at the request of mill executives who wanted her to run their school.

And run it she did.“Miss Roberts made sure we had music and art and good manners,” said Julia

Skelton, a former student, who attended the anniversary celebration along with more than 100 others.

In a video tribute to the anniversary, Gaston Williamson underscored the recollection. “Miss Roberts’ emphasis was on 1. Behaving, 2. Manners, and 3. Culture,” he said. The school had a choir, and plays were standard fare.

Andrew Wright, who was principal at the school and a former student, said during his tenure, he tried to continue what Iola Roberts began. His administration offered

Crowd turns out for celebration


SIXTY YEARSAN IOLA ROBERTS LEGACY

Current and former faculty, administration pose together

Marion Frazier, a

former teacher

The Iola Roberts pin

Gym with stage played host to Miss Roberts’ cultural offerings. Today, it is a library.

Principal Elizabeth Grimes ‘pins’ Supt. Michael Barber

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a well-rounded education that included the arts, and faculty taught students how to understand the world around them.

Dr. Michael Barber is an Iola Roberts alumni who has a unique vantage point when it comes to Iola Roberts. He served as principal at the school, and he is now superintendent of the school system.

The values he learned at Iola Roberts as a student are the principles that guide him to this day – “making a difference in the lives of children every day.”

While his approach as principal was a little more unconventional than Miss Roberts’, he got students’ attention just the same. He focused on reading at the school, and when students met their goals, he rewarded them with feats like jumping out of an airplane, getting arrested by the faculty, shaving his head and kissing a pig.

“Iola Roberts has always been a magical place that seems to transport former students back to their childhood,” Barber said. “I am always amazed how accurately students from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s can with great detail recollect fond memories of the school. When a grandmother or grandfather of a current student pauses by a classroom door, lunchroom or staircase, you know they are visiting a very special memory of their own childhood.

“I still do the same thing today. I cringe when I walk into Iola’s cafeteria because that is where students received their vaccinations from the county health nurse, Ms. Zachy. All students lined up against the wall and received their shots in front of each other. Many of us fell to the floor writhing in pain.”

Barber also remembers field day, a highlight of the school year. “I relive the greased pig chase each time I walk onto the playground. We actually chased greased piglets during field day. If you caught the critter, you won a big candy cane. My brother, Kinsman, caught a pig and we ate the candy cane for a week.”

For Barber, he has seen the school from different angles over the years, but the conclusion is always the same. “The employees of Iola have always carried on the wonderful atmosphere found at the school. From the time of Ms. Roberts to today, they welcome children daily. For me, it was Millie Ann Lawley in the first-grade and wonderful teachers each year after.”

The school has traditionally been a mainstay of the community. “The people who attended Iola as students feel an ownership and special connection to their school. I don’t fuss when my own grown children want to go by Iola when they are in town. I feel so blessed to have attended and worked at such a special school.”

Although the anniversary celebration was an opportunity to look back at the legacy. It also was a time for new traditions. Faculty unveiled specially designed Iola Roberts pins, and former faculty and present faculty were “pinned,” forever linked by a common bond.

And when children leave Iola Roberts and continue their school career all the way through Pell City High School, faculty pledged to be back at their graduation to let them know how special they are with a pin of their own. It signifies a kinship shared by all those who pass through Iola Roberts Elementary.

“It was wonderful to see former teachers and students share their common love for Iola Roberts Elementary School at the 60th anniversary celebration,” Barber said. “I saw and listened to people who qualify for senior citizen benefits become children again.”

And that’s a tradition that seems to continue year after year. l


Story by Carol PappasPhotos by Michael CallahanSubmitted photos

On a cool, spring morning in April, offering only a slight hint of warmer weather ahead, hundreds of people gathered at Pell City Lakeside Park in memory of Zachary Mason.

The next day would have been his birthday. Music from loud speakers echoed throughout the park, a celebratory prelude to the Fourth Annual Chicken Head Run. Zack would have liked that. Music was his first love. Friends and family were his passion. “Chicken Head” is what he playfully called most everybody. It became his trademark.

And on this weekend each year, they come together to raise money for the Zachary Mason Memorial Fund, which provides music scholarships to deserving students at Pell City High School.

Zack would have liked that, too. He walked at graduation from Pell City High School to a standing ovation in 2012, a tribute to the accomplishment of their fellow classmate who was born with Down’s Syndrome.

The son of Randy Mason and Melinda Pierce, Zack had a knack for making friends – plenty of them. “Anybody who had any contact with him fell in love with him,” said Tanya Osborne, his eighth- and ninth-grade teacher, who came up with the idea for the run. “He was my gentle giant. He was the sweetest thing possible. He played with my kids. He has a special place in my heart, and I will never forget him.”

In August the year he died, she saw information on Facebook about a Down’s Syndrome run in Gadsden. She and others formed a team for Zack. They donned T-shirts with a “kissy face” picture of Zack and dubbed themselves, “Zack Attack.”

About 30 people ran in that race, and it was the catalyst for a run every year since in Pell City near his birthday. “He called everybody Chicken Head. It was the perfect name for the race,” Osborne said. Now in its fourth year, the Chicken Head Run attracts nearly 200 runners and has awarded thousands of dollars in scholarships.

It’s a way to remember Zack and to keep the music alive. His aunt and Randy’s sister, Cacky Berlin, comes each year from her home in Clyde, N.C. “This is his element,” she said as she motioned toward the crowd, the music and the runners. “He touched so many people

AND THE MUSIC LIVES ON‘His heart overflowed with love and

music to all who entered his life.’— Inscription on the monument of Zachary Mason

A runner crosses

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in his short life. It’s unbelievable. It’ really great that this race can help other students. He would be so happy.”

Rhonda Purdy, Melinda’s best friend, echoed the sentiment. “The music lives on,” she said. “It’s a way to continue to share what Zack loved most – music.”

His mother, Melinda, called it “exciting” and a testament to Zack. “He touched so many lives.”

Rhonda’s son, Adam, was one of those whose life was particularly touched. When Zack died, “I was heading down a path I didn’t need to go down. He changed my life. He was my best friend and my little brother. It was so sad to lose someone so close to us, but he inspired every life he met. He touched more people than most of us will touch in our life,” he said.

“As tough as it is, it makes it all worthwhile to see all these people,” Adam said.

Stepfather Todd Pierce concurred, recounting stories of “how much he loved people. He would be in the middle of all of it. He loved everybody.”

Zack was especially close to his brother, Austin, who was running the time clock at the race. Photos of them together over the years reflect the bond the two shared.

Shelby Weaver, a student at Jacksonville State University, won a music scholarship from the memorial fund. “It helps me to know I have a community scholarship like I have. It’s support from home. Because Zack loved music like he did, it helps me continue what I’m doing.”

Zack’s fa-ther, Randy

Mason and Aunt

Cacky Berlin


His father, Randy, is known for his civic leadership. You could always count on spotting Randy involved in countless worthy causes throughout the city. And you could always spot Zack right alongside him.

Randy made it a point to make sure Zack was involved, too – at Chamber of Commerce events, Civitans and at Pell City Center for Education and the Performing Arts, where Randy acts as stage manager for shows.

“Both Randy and Zack are such a blessing to our community,” said former executive director of the Chamber of Commerce Erica Grieve, as she distributed packets for runners. “It is great to be able to come together in memory of Zack.”

“He came to all the rehearsals,” said CEPA Artistic Director Kathy McCoy. “He sang with Steve Shafer in the Christmas production. He would sit in the audience, and he knew every song, every word, so we started putting him on stage. He was our real sweetie.”

Unlike most teens surrounded only by peers, Zack’s reach transcended age demographics. At his 18th birthday celebration, 70 to 80 adults showed up, his grandmother, Sara Bain recalled. Four singers donated their time to entertain. When the classic, “My Girl,” was performed, Zack knew all the words. Barely masking her surprise, she said. “I didn’t know he knew the moves!”

Zack spent a great deal of time with his grandparents, and music was usually at the center of it, Bain said. He had baskets of cassettes and CDs at their home, and in the last few months of his life he took particular interest in the Gaithers Homecoming music video, featuring Singing in My Soul. “He played it over and over. All of it ministered to him deeply and therefore to me, too, because I watched and listened through Zachary’s eyes, ears and heart.”

What reminds her most of her grandson is a saying that seems to fit perfectly. “Live Simply. Love Generously. Laugh Often. Live Freely. That was Zachary.” l

AND THE MUSIC LIVES ON

Aunt Cacky Berlin; grandmother Sara Bain; and mother, Melinda Pierce

Zack and his brother, Austin.

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Clay Allison paints to calm his anxiety and relax after work. But his excitement about Springville’s pre-1932 houses is clearly seen in his face and continuous talking when he shows others his paintings of these structures. But what excites him more now is that his paintings will benefit the Springville Preservation Society and its goal of acquiring, restoriwng and preserving the old buildings that make up Springville’s unique character.

Allison has donated all printing rights of his paintings to the Society. On May 3, the Society displayed Allison’s work at the Old Springville Masonic Lodge Hall and sold prints of Allison’s paintings. Society President Frank Waid said they netted about $2,700 that will support the Society’s preservation work.

About the artistThe story starts with a man who has talent. Clay

Allison, who moved to Springville in 1996, has a degree in history and a degree in commercial art. He made a 37-year career out of doing commercial art work for the Woman’s Missionary Union at its national headquarters in Birmingham.

He also used to run a small home business of painting decorative wooden items that he sold through consignment shops. But the demand for these items caused an increase in cheaper imports of these types of objects, and he found the process was monotonous and not creatively challenging. “I got burned out,” he said.

Ten years later, Allison picked up a paintbrush again, this time using watercolors to paint a portrait of a black Labrador Retriever that had expressive eyes. As would be expected for someone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, for which he takes medication, Allison then painted about 12 of his friends’ and coworkers’ pets. So, his next subject was a Presbyterian church in Springville. He painted it with snow around it as one might see on a Christmas card image.

But then there was another old building in Springville that caught his eye, and then another, and then another. After just starting his new hobby in December of 2014, Allison had painted over 83 of Springville’s structures by the end of April this year. When asked if he’s painted them all, he says he is still discovering more. “Just last night, I found another house built in 1872,” Allison said in April.

Allison sticks to the older homes, business structures or buildings that have been destroyed because of his lifelong interest in history. “My biggest sense of pleasure has come from the countless stories I have heard people talk about concerning these historic structures,” said Allison.

But the older structures also appeal to Allison’s visual bent. “There’s more color and more architectural detail,” said Allison, contrasting older structures versus newer ones. Where he used to just drive through Springville focused on the task at hand, he says he now notices all the architectural details in the buildings as he passes by them.

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Unusual painting techniques“There are people with better skills and techniques,” said

Allison. “But no one else is painting the town of Springville.”Allison first takes a current photo of the structure, if it is

still standing. And he also searches for an old photo of the structure, many of which he has found in the collection owned by Donna Cole Davis, a fellow Preservation Society member. But he also tries to find out some history of the structure and the family that lived there or operated a business there. His plan is to add elements based on that knowledge. As an example, if the business owner had an entrepreneurial spirit, then Allison’s painting of a former mercantile store includes an ice and coal truck out front because a man with that personality would include a money maker in all seasons.

With some knowledge of the history of the structure and its former owner and a period photo — if he has one — Allison then goes to the computer for the next step. Starting with the current photo as a basis, he uses his commercial art skills and through Photoshop takes away or adds to it to make it into what he thinks it should be.

“I paint it like it might have been back then,” Allison said. “Every drawing tells a story.”

This process is more satisfying because he learns more history and uses some imagination and creativity in addition to technical painting skills. He’s learned Springville used to be somewhat of a tourist attraction and that there used to be lots of gas stations in the city. He also learned that the Pearson and Forman families have connections to about 50 percent of Springville’s structures.

When the image is right on the computer screen, Allison prints it out. This serves as his guide in the painting.

Anyone watching Allison paint will notice an upside down plate with blue slithers stuck to it on the table. It looks like the plate has short but stiff blue hair in a thin crewcut style. This is painters’ tape. Allison, in harmony with his OCD, needs to have the straight lines absolutely straight in his paintings. He has no tolerance for accidental wiggles in the window pane dividers, lattice or wall edges. So he uses thinly cut strips of painters’ tape on the cotton paper canvas.

Watercolors are easy to work with, Allison said, allowing him to paint slowly or quickly. But it is not forgiving. What’s on the canvas cannot be removed.

Painting for therapyAlmost every evening, Allison sits at his kitchen dining

table and paints. After accomplishing a few domestic duties, the painting session starts at about 6 p.m. “Within 20 minutes, I’ve forgotten everything about the day,” said Allison. “I find myself still painting by 10 p.m.”

This has been a great help to Allison’s struggle against anxiety. “It’s Xanax in a paint brush,” he said. In a way, that’s almost literal because he’s greatly reduced how often he takes anti-anxiety medicine.

As he works, he is engrossed in another time and place, partly of his own making. While he likes most aspects of it, he does have a preference. “My favorite part is the sky,” Allison said.

Being mentally absorbed in his painting also helps him control his weight, another health problem Allison deals with. “It keeps me from eating,” he said.

Impact on the communityIn addition to the personal benefit, Allison’s newfound

hobby is benefiting the Springville community. Allison’s paintings have created a renewed interest and pride in Springville’s history and the value of historical buildings. “I didn’t know it was here,” said Martha Black, in reference to seeing her own home, the Springville Academy Will Jones House, in a painting at the art show. “He does great work.” Of course, she bought a print. Allison first shared his paintings on Facebook where people in the community gave rave reviews and started making requests. He then took a binder of them to a meeting of the Springville Preservation Society and offered to give them printing rights.

Allison said he has received a lot of emotional support from his fellow Springville residents while his wife continues her 11-year fight against ovarian cancer. “I felt appreciative to the community, so I wanted to give back in a lasting way,” Allison said.

The Springville Preservation Society owns three historical properties and is working on restoring each of them. So a boost in funds will allow them to achieve these goals more quickly. Waid said restoring structures to harmonize with period styling costs more because some items must be custom-made.

In addition to the financial benefit, Waid said, “It has created more interest in our Society, and we’ve gained new members; we’re real excited for that.” They just expanded their museum on Main Street after the library moved to City Hall. Waid says he’s noticed more enthusiasm, possibly due to the paintings. While volunteers were cleaning the museum, getting it ready for the art show, he said he looked around and noticed a lot of new faces among the helpers.

Allison’s alteration in his paintings to what he imagined the structure would have been like years ago has motivated at least one homeowner to make a change. A house Allison painted had an awning across the front. But Allison painted it without the awning to show more of the house. A week after it was posted on Facebook, he noticed the homeowner removed the awning.

Where to find themTo view Allison’s work online, go to the Facebook group

titled Springville’s “Paint the Town.”To order 8-inch by-12-inch or 10-inch-by-12-inch or

postcard prints of the paintings, contact the Springville Preservation Society or visit the museum on Main Street in the Old Masonic Lodge Hall, also known as the former library building. l

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St. Clair Alabama

Business Review

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Standard Furniturecomes to Pell City

Standard Furniture recently opened its new location in Pell City, and already people from across the region — particularly from around the lake area — are bringing their business to the store.

Manager Steve Spencer said the company, with 14 other stores, including Leeds and Talladega, felt Pell City would be an ideal location in which to expand.

“There has been a desire to branch out, and the corporate office had been looking at different areas — Pell City was one of them. They felt that, because of its proximity to Birmingham and the growing population, that it would be a good place to expand, and so far it looks like it will be,” he said.

Standard Furniture specializes in home furnishings, with a focus on helping customers find affordable décor to fit their needs, and even offers financing, Spencer said.

The new, approximately 20,000-square-foot store, officially opened April 1, and held a special grand opening April 10 and 11.

“Public response has been very good,” Spencer said. “We have had a lot of people come in and tell us they are glad we are here. We have stores in in Leeds and Talladega, and we are seeing people come in here who have shopped at those stores.

“Customer traffic has been very good. We are pleased with that. We have hit all our goals for initial sales. There are some good people in Pell City.”

Standard Furniture currently has five employees in the new store, with plans to expand the workforce as the business grows.

“We hope that will happen very soon,” Spencer said. “When we started taking applications, we had a great response from the local workforce, a very good turnout and very qualified applicants.”

He echoed what a number of other business owners in the area have said, praising the help Standard Furniture received from the city and Chamber of Commerce.

“The city and chamber have been fabulous. Just in the part since I have been here since we opened — several local officials were here for the grand opening — they have been very supportive of us, getting us anything we need.

“Our vice president said he has opened lots of stores in many communities, and he says this is an excellent city to do business with.”

Spencer says Standard Furniture plans to return the support to the community and be a good corporate citizen.

“At Standard Furniture, our corporate philosophy is to become active in local events, participants in area events. Standard will be a very good addition to the local corporate community,” he said.

Story by Graham HadleyPhotos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Though Spencer said many of their contemporary furniture items are popular at the local store, furniture with a more rustic look appears to be a little more sought after, something he attributes to people looking to decorate their lake homes.

“We see a lot of our more rustic looks in our dining and bedroom furniture selling. That may be because of the lake crowd; they like that look out there.”

Aside from the successful business launch, Spencer said he has been very impressed by the customer response to the store and the decision to locate in Pell City.

“I have been very pleased with the people I have met — customers, local business people, city officials. It is just a wonderful community. It has been exciting to see the customers coming in and how complimentary they have been about the store and how excited they are that we are here,” Spencer said.

“I have to give credit to the corporate office — they are doing things right with these stores to get that kind of public response,” he said. l

You can find Standard Furniture online @ www.standardfurniture.net

or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube


Business Review

D3 AthleticsBringing the competitive edge to Pell CityStory by Graham HadleyPhotos by Michael Callahan

When it comes to competitive sports, a good training facility can mean the winning edge for athletes.

Now, thanks to D3 Athletics, players from Pell City and surrounding areas have the perfect place to hone their skills and their bodies.

The 8,000-square-foot building houses everything players need to get in shape and train for whatever sport they are playing, with batting cages, pitching mounds, areas for strength and agility training, and more, all under one roof.

And that means training can go on, rain or shine, freezing or sweltering outside.

D3, which stands for “Dedication, Determination, Drive”, is the brainchild of Tracy Nunnally, her husband Chris Nunnally, and Bart Terry.

“We have been friends for 17 years, and both families have children who participate in travel-ball series. We have been playing travel ball, going to all these towns and cities, and these other communities had state-of-the-art training facilities. We did not have that in Pell City. We started talking to people here and saw a need,” Tracy said.

“We said, ‘Hey, lets bring something like that to Pell City, where people can bring their teams and their children in and get training, even individual training.’ Travel sports are the new wave, the thing of the future.”

They broke ground in January — and getting the land cleared and the slab poured for the facility were slow going because of the rain. But once the slab was down, things took off, and D3 held its grand opening April 3.

Coaches and athlete interest in the facility was almost instantaneous,

D3 Athletics has severalbatting cages inside.


especially in the diverse offerings D3 has for training — throwing; speed and agility; weekend camps for softball and baseball; batting, pitching and fielding lessons; private lessons; group lessons; and team membership opportunities, just to name a few.

“We can do individual training or team memberships. We get a lot of calls from coaches who want to bring the entire team,” Tracy said.

“Right now, we focus on baseball and softball, but we are looking at other sports. We have even been approached by wrestling coaches, student agility programs for volleyball — not just softball and baseball. We want to have all sorts of kids come in here and train so they can compete on that level.”

Chris and Bart are the key trainers at D3. Both men have had a lifelong love of athletics, playing ball themselves and working with local coaches over the years.

D3 also offers morning yoga classes. And Beyond Fitness is partnering with them to create a boot-camp-style training program. They also provide personal fitness training.

D3 can accommodate such a diverse range of athletic training because its founders designed the building with flexibility in mind. Internal spaces can be rearranged to meet the demands of different sports.

“It is a very versatile space. The cages can be folded up and the netting moved, opening it up even more. We can move things around to configure the building to meet different training needs,” Tracy said.

Like the building, the business is also flexible in its hours of operation.

“We are pretty much open whenever to meet client needs, for the morning yoga and boot camp and then in the afternoons for instruction. We are flexible,” she said.

“We are very client focused. That is a core philosophy.”D3 is already drawing a crowd of coaches and athletes from

around Pell City.“We have had great community support. It has been

humbling. It went beyond our expectations. People keep coming by just to see the facility, then they thank us for doing this,” Tracy said. l

You can follow D3 Athletics on Facebook or check them out online @ www.d3sportsfacility.com

The interior can be configured for different needs.

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Business Cards Business Directory

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Business ReviewOld is new again at Vintage

TouchStory by Graham HadleyPhotos by Mike Callahanand Jamie Parker

Where you see junk, they see a table, a chair, a bench, a lamp, even a work of art.

Jamie Parker and her fiancé, Travis Reed, run Vintage Touch in Pell City’s historic downtown area — a store that carries home furnishings and décor items that are truly unique.

And by “unique,” they really do mean absolutely one-of-a-kind.“My fiancé and I create repurposed furniture. We just sold a sofa

or entry table that was made out of an old porch column and part of a gate. We built around that, added some wood, made it look like old barn wood — look old and new at the same time,” Jamie said.

“We are a store of all things. You never know what you are going to find in here.”

Vintage Touch opened Dec. 21, 2014, in the building that once housed Pell City Grocery “years and years” ago.

And since then, business has been growing steadily as more people are rediscovering Pell City’s historic downtown district as a walking and shopping area.

The couple had run booths in other places around Birmingham, but picked Pell City for their first store.

“We decided to open here because we live here, and I love this downtown area,” Jamie said.

“We have truly been blessed. We were a little worried, coming from places like Vestavia to a little town, but sales have been increasing every month. Pell City has really showed us a lot of love. People are so friendly.

“Our customers want to see downtown make it; they want to see downtown rise back up, and I want to see that, too.”

That walking-and-shopping atmosphere is proving to be almost a perfect combination for the kind of business Vintage Touch does. Much of what is sold in the store is made in the store, and customers can see the process of turning junk into treasures firsthand.

“They see that we are in here doing the work. When people see you putting your time into something, it makes it that much more special to them,” she said.

It’s a process Jamie and Travis love — all of it — from “picking” items from old barns and yards, combing flea markets and similar venues, even finding discarded furniture set by the street, to rebuilding it into something new.

Their designs cover the spread. They have an old tractor steering wheel made into a lamp hanging in the window and have made a bench they created from an old truck tailgate that was sold for more than they paid for the truck. It now sits in an office entrance at a firm in Birmingham.

“We can look at something that someone else thinks is trash and turn it into something that is so beautiful, so unique, that people just fall in love with it,” Jamie said.

“It’s something my fiancé and I can do together, he has a full time job, and this is a lot of hard work, but it is fun.”

Travis’ full-time job is as a farrier — a horseshoer — and a blacksmith (“He’s really good at it,” Jamie interjected), and along the way, working on farms, he has found all sorts of treasures for the


vintage charm

A modern boutique

with

2635 Martin Street SouthPell City, Alabama 35128

[email protected]

shop, including old watering troughs that get repurposed into things like benches to chairs.

“Those are some of our most popular items. We have people waiting for furniture made from old watering troughs,” Jamie said.

The prices in the shop are as varied as their designs — you can always find something you can afford.

“We strive to be extremely affordable,” Jamie said. “We even sell to other stores to resell for more, and we all make money. We want people to be able to walk in here and see what we have that they want and be able to afford something,” Jamie said.

In addition to selling their artistic furniture, the store sells some accessories Jamie and Travis have found along the way, vintage items like lunch boxes and advertising signs and promotional materials.

The couple will also take on special-order jobs, but say things turn out the best when they still have some room to be creative with their designs.

Vintage Touch does sell merchandise for a few select vendors, but what they sell has to follow the business rules of being unique and special, just like the store. l

Follow Vintage Touch on Facebook.

Jamie Parker sees her designs as artwork.


Business Review In Brief

COOSA ISLAND UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT

One of Logan Martin’s favorite waterside destinations for good food and a relaxing environment is under new management.

Bo Schatz took over Coosa Island Bar and Grill April 1, and hopes the business can become a mainstay for residents — and musicians — in the coming months.

“We have been working cleaning and refurbishing the place, and we are really now just getting rolling,” Schatz said.

Coosa Island Bar and Grill is open for business now Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. and on Sundays from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

The new manager plays bass guitar and was looking for a place to play.

“The guys I play with, we played here at Coosa Island a couple of years. I approached the owner about playing here, and he was not opening it,” Schatz said. One thing led to another, and “here we are. The love of playing music brought me here.”

The restaurant end of the business focuses on good, simple food — “hamburgers and chicken fingers, something quick you can grab, jump in the boat and take off,” he said.

Or stay, and eat at the restaurant in the perfect lakeside spot.“We have a big shade tree on the deck. It’s a good

atmosphere, laid back, where you can watch the boats go by,” he said.

And, of course, live music will be a big part of the venue. “We play all kinds of music, mainly bluesy rock kind of

stuff. We are trying to push for big jams on Saturdays — Saturday afternoons to closing time.

“We want it to be not just a place for people to relax, but a good venue for local musicians. We are considering holding an open mike night,” Schatz said.

Follow Coosa Island on Facebook.

ANDI NEAL RELEASES NEW BOOKAndi Neal, 2004

graduate of Ashville High School, has launched her newest novel, THE REFUGE.

The book — her fourth — is an action and adventure thriller. As a scientist, Dr. Griffin Maddox has spent his life dealing in facts, not legend or myth. But when a longtime friend recruits him to help track down a mysterious creature supposedly haunting the Okefenokee Swamp, Griffin can’t seem to say no. Intrigued and always game for a little weird and crazy, photographer Nick Dawson quickly agrees to accompany the quirky professor on his quest to find the elusive swamp ape of Okefenokee. But what started out as a simple game of hide and seek quickly turns into a deadly hunt.

Neal is an action and adventure thriller author. She currently lives in northern Georgia as an enthusiastic and passionate University of Alabama fan. A fall Saturday will undoubtedly find her parked in front of the TV cheering fervently for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Her love of reading led to a passion for writing while she was attending Berea College. She enjoys traveling and experiencing new people and places. While at Berea, she had the opportunity of traveling abroad to four countries in Europe, as well as two in South America. Since then, work has taken her to several cities in China.

Learn more about her writing at www.andineal86.wix.com/andineal. Or follow her on Facebook. Other books by Neal are: Unraveled, Race Against Madness and Angel’s Isle.

O’REILLY AUTO PARTS OPENS IN PELL CITYConstruction is finished on the O’Reilly Auto Parts store in

Pell City, and the new business held its soft opening April 25, with grand opening scheduled for June.

O’Reilly Auto Parts, which started with a single store in 1957 and has grown to a chain of more than 4,000, is one of the major auto parts suppliers in the region.

The new store at 902 Martin Street North, is open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and on Sunday from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m.

You can find them online at www.oreillyauto.com.

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