March | Spotlight
Take us along!
We’ve enjoyed seeing photos from our readers on their travels with Alabama Living! Please send us a photo of you with a copy of the magazine on your travels to: mytravels@alabamaliving.coop. Please include your name, hometown and electric cooperative, and the location of your photo and include your social media handle so we can tag you! We’ll draw a winner for the $25 prize each month. Vanieca Akins and Amy and Marvolene Holloway took their magazine to River Valley Camp Ground in Cherokee, North Carolina. They are members of Tallapoosa River Electric Cooperative.
Letters to the editor E-mail us at: letters@alabamaliving.coop or write us at: Letters to the editor P.O. Box 244014 Montgomery, AL 36124
Thankful for article
I want to thank you again for publishing the article about Magic Moments (January 2022)! We have received incredible feedback and have had numerous people reach out wanting to get involved as a result of it. I truly can’t thank you enough for including us!! I have been contacted by people from North Alabama down to Mobile! If I can ever do anything for you, let me know!! Sandy Naramore, Executive Director, Magic Moments
Trouble in a small town
Jackie Henley of Prattville, a member of Central Alabama Electric Cooperative, carried her magazine on a trip to Crescent Beach, Florida.
Kathy Laney and her mother, Ivonell Sellers of Cullman, traveled to the Petrified Forest in Arizona last summer. They are members of Cullman Electric Cooperative.
Dave and Gerdy Wyatt, members of Baldwin EMC, travel every year to Colorado where they like to visit Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. “There are wonderful trails for hiking and of course the Visitor Center, with displays of many 34 million year-old fossils,” writes Gerdy. “This picture shows a 34 million-year-old petrified redwood tree stump.” Alabama Living
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I cannot speak for Greenville, Monroeville or Butler, Alabama (“Looking for a Third-Float Girl,” Hardy Jackson’s Alabama, February 2022), but a trip south to Mobile was not necessary to find trouble in Thomasville, Alabama. My Great-Aunt Jodie Jackson knew where Lucifer hung out and often warned me to stay away from the corner of West Front Street and Noble Avenue. That was the location of Clay’s Amusement Center, a slick name for the city pool hall. The musical Professor Harold Hill had nothing on Aunt Jodie. Hill was a con man and Jodie was a Southern Baptist. I ventured downtown often while visiting my Aunt, but never entered the Amusement Center. I did stand outside its only door some Saturdays, trying to catch a peek of the Serpent during all the comings and goings, but all I ever saw was men in overalls and spit cups placing silver on the table rails. Clay’s Amusement Center is long closed now and many, many years ago I came to understand what Aunt Jodie meant. Charlie Runnels, Mentone
State encourages employers to hire more veterans Gov. Kay Ivey and Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington are encouraging Alabama employers to hire veterans by applying to and participating in the HIRE Vets Medallion Award Program, an official program of the U.S. Department of Labor. The application period runs through April 30, 2022. These awards are the only federal-level veterans’ employment awards that recognize a company or organization’s commitment to veteran hiring, retention and professional development. In 2021, 37 Alabama companies received the HIRE Vets Medallion Award, and 849 employers were recognized nationally. The award is based on several criteria, ranging from veteran hiring and retention to providing veteran-specific resources, leadership programming, dedicated human resources and compensation and tuition assistance programs, with requirements varying for large, medium and small employers. There is no application fee. To learn more, create an account or update an existing account for the HIRE program, visit HireVets.gov or visit one of the 55 Alabama Career Centers. MARCH 2022 11
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