45 minute read
INSPIRATIONS
DRUHAN HOWELL
Advertisement
HOW I MARDI GRAS
1. DRINK OF CHOICE
Bloody mary’s and screwdrivers are the only way to start Joe Cain Day. Our cousins Danielle and Allen Williams have the most epic bloody mary bar for the day. Otherwise, a way to go! Then, during Mardi Gras balls, my go-to drink
2. WHAT TO WEAR
I go for comfortable but fashionable for parade-watching. Think trendy jeans and fashion sneakers. You are going to be outside, so dress according to weather for sure. We are real Mobilians (aka we don’t like the become a must-have on those really cold parade nights.
3. SNACK TIME
There is only one answer to this a bag of fresh roasted peanuts. It is my go-to parade snack. It brings me right back to being a kid at Mardi Gras. Also, I always feel obligated to have at least one funnel cake during the parade season.
4. BAG YOUR LOOT
We bring our reuseable grocery carabiner can secure your bag to the barricade so hands are free to catch more throws.
5. GOOD COMPANY
We watch most parades with the kiddos and grands. Joe Cain is an adult-only endeavor always watched at Moe’s BBQ or The Bike Shop and out-of-town guests.
6. FAVORITE THROW
I love to throw what I love to catch, so all the light-up things. I also love to throw things that match the year’s animal or trinket and seeing a kid’s face light up and want it so bad and throwing it directly to them. THE BEST!
7. FAVORITE SPOT
We almost exclusively watch parades at Bienville Square. I grew up watching parades at and it has just stuck as a mostly watch from the Athelstan Club now.
8. DON’T MISS
I love the MOTs because the dragons are always entertaining, and KOR is our Fat Tuesday favorite!
8. PARADE TIP
drinks and snacks because everyone inevitably ends up hungry and thirsty, even if you ate before the parade. Make friends with those around you.
9. MARDI GRAS MEMORIES
As a kid, Mardi Gras was more of a family event than even Thanksgiving or Christmas. I miss a few things about the parades of my childhood, like no barricades. It was so cool to walk right snapping pops.
10. RIDE OR DIE
I am in two women’s my husband is in two know what they say about secret.
JAMES V. CORTE
HOW I MARDI GRAS
1. DRINK OF CHOICE
Spicy bloody mary in the morning, ice-cold Miller High Life during the day and a properly made old fashioned in the evening.
7. FAVORITE PARADE 9. MARDI GRAS MEMORIES
2. WHAT TO WEAR
blue jeans and boots with a classic navy blazer. This durable enough for abrupt weather changes. The boots stompability. I love to watch them all, especially when the maskers seem to be enjoying themselves. But there’s nothing worse than a wagon of drunk mannequins rolling past or the idiot with the one giant teddy bear that teases everyone with it. I used to spend the day driving my grandfather on his parade several other places to grab lastminute throws, then over to the auditorium where they would Always the best day for me.
3. SNACK TIME
When traveling from across the Bay, it’s great to stop at The Bluegill for some oysters shrimp loafs are the best.
8. PARADE TIP
Get there early, dress appropriately, and most importantly, have a are looking to have a great
10. RIDE OR DIE
Of the parades I ride in, each is special to me for
4. BAG YOUR LOOT
I use a monogrammed canvas bag to hold my throws that was a
5. GOOD COMPANY
I watch parades with my family, even though my kids aren’t kids anymore. (Corte is pictured at a recent Mardi
Gras with his daughter,
6. FAVORITE THROW
I love long beads that are by the bag or by the dozen only, except to smaller children. four gently. I also love full which are the only real
PHOTO BY KEYHOLE PHOTO
RONALD “ROCKY” HORNER
HOW I MARDI GRAS
1. DRINK OF CHOICE
My personal drink of choice is vodka it is one of the younger or newer been around for a minute, or you
and cranberry juice with a splash of orange juice. During a brunch you may need one of those giant laundry bags made of tarp material.
2. WHAT TO WEAR 5. GOOD COMPANY
What I wear to the parades depends on our weather. I have been to a parade where I have only had to wear a light jacket, but I have also stood in cold weather layered up in thermal pants, a pair of jogging pants and comfortable jeans on top. I do a thermal shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, and my MAMGA (Mobile I like to watch the parades with my wife, Sabrina, my brother Jonathan, my dad, Ronald Sr., and Aunt Yvonne. It takes me back to being a kid again.
6. FAVORITE THROW
and cap to cover my ears. In all of anything thrown my way!
3. SNACK TIME
Best place to eat before a parade I love to throw boxes of Oatmeal a child catch their very own box when I toss it to them is priceless!
7. FAVORITE PARADE
My favorite parade to watch is The are always so colorful and vibrant.
is the food vendors! I always go nachos and French fries.
4. BAG YOUR LOOT
The bag I bring depends know people riding in that “OUR CHRISTMAS TREE QUICKLY TURNS INTO THE TRADITIONAL MARDI GRAS COLORS OF PURPLE, GOLD, AND GREEN, AND OUR FESTIVE JESTERS SIT ON OUR MANTEL.”
8. FAVORITE SPOT
Standing across the street from the Mobile Carnival Museum on Government Street, you eventually get to see the parade twice. Once when it goes down, and once more when it comes back to go to the Civic Center to disband.
9. PARADE TIP
Get there early, and always try to stand in the same spot. Some people I only see during Mardi Gras season, and they have been standing in the same spot on the parade route for almost 20 years now.
10. RIDE OR DIE
My favorite parade to ride in is the Conde Explorers make sure that the night goes off without a hitch, and then we get to enjoy hearing the people yell for you to “Throw me something, Mister!”
BIXLER CUNNINGHAM
HOW I MARDI GRAS
1. DRINK OF CHOICE
A screwdriver to start the day on Mardi Gras day, followed by water, Miller Lite or Maker’s Mark.
2. WHAT TO WEAR
Whatever keeps you warm while the wind swirls in downtown Mobile.
3. GOOD COMPANY
I always watch with my family and
friends at “the spot.” I am also excited about introducing my baby girl to her
9. DECORATE
4. FAVORITE CATCH
I reach for beads, footballs, sandwiches! Mardi Gras wreaths on the door, we decorate the mantel, turn the Christmas tree into a Mardi Gras tree and have a Mardi Gras
5. FAVORITE THROW
My throws are silver bells (Hershey who would dump them on us during his parade. I also love footballs and bags of popcorn.
6. FAVORITE PARADE
I enjoy watching the MOMs, MOTs, Joe Cain Day, IMs and everything.
7. INSIDER TIP
Always stand close to somebody You’ll get bombed.
I feel everyone should visit Joe Cain’s grave on his day to watch the Merry Widows and then enjoy the
10. MARDI GRAS MEMORIES
When I was a kid, before barricades, I remember running started blowing smoke.
PHOTO BY KEYHOLE PHOTO
LAURA MCLEOD
HOW I MARDI GRAS
1. DRINK OF CHOICE
During the day, I like a mimosa or screwdriver (for the extra night parade, a canned beverage is easier.
2. WHAT TO WEAR
I dress for comfort at parades shoes since you may end up walking several blocks. Gloves are great in cold weather so that your hands are protected as you’re grabbing for
4. BAG YOUR LOOT
plan to catch a lot. Don’t count on shoving everything in one huge bag or you’ll be weighed down by the end of the parade.
5. GOOD COMPANY
Gathering with friends and family makes parade-going special. There are also certain “Mardi Gras Museum for one of its expertly curated exhibits.
8. INSIDER TIP
catching from riders on the back
chilly night air.
3. SNACK TIME
House Hotel is a crowd-pleaser with easy-to-order pizza and parade route access. Get there early to snag a table! friends” that we don’t see regularly throughout the year but can count parade route every season.
6. FAVORITE THROW
I love to throw cups, but they are too lightweight to go beyond the barricade if you’re throwing into the wind. I learned some tricks of the trade from my mom, an expert on this a cup. Then it’s weighty enough to throw and get out into the crowd.
For learning about Mardi Gras, the Mobile Carnival Museum is a great spot to soak up the history cold weather!
9. MARDI GRAS MEMORIES
In 2008 my husband and I decided to have a “Mardi Gras” wedding. We knew we’d have lots of out-of-town guests rehearsal dinner was the Conde Cavaliers from the balcony. The next day we had the went to the Carnival Museum for an night’s parades!
10. RIDE OR DIE
I was fortunate to have the honor of
something new about Mardi Gras or ever will surpass that experience
PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU
BETSY GREER
HOW I MARDI GRAS
HOT CHICKEN AT SQUID INK
1. DRINK OF CHOICE Jameson and ginger ale!
2. WHAT TO WEAR
because you never know what you may be stepping in Downtown during Mardi Gras. And dress in light layers that can be thrown on and the sport of catching anything and everything starts, you might have to ditch a layer!
3. SNACK TIME
I always love hot chicken from Squid Ink, but this year Reuben Greer’s on St. Louis will be my go-to before the parades!
4. BAG YOUR LOOT
5. GOOD COMPANY
I watch parades with my friends and family with a cocktail in hand.
6. FAVORITE THROW
7. FAVORITE PARADE
love those crazy cats. I watch them right by the Civic Center and head
8. PARADE TIP
Make sure to keep your eyes peeled so you don’t get knocked out with something you didn’t see coming your way.
9. DECORATE
Mardi Gras swag around our front door and hang a wreath. But last That was awesome to see the city that founded Mardi Gras keep it rolling somehow.
PHOTO BY CARMEN SISSON
10. MARDI GRAS MEMORIES
A few years ago, Joe Cain fell on my dad’s birthday, so we brought the whole family Downtown, just adults. We ate brunch together and spent the day walking up and down Dauphin Street. It
For the youngsters living at the Catholic Boys Home in Mobile, secondhand was second-nature. The orphanage, which occupied the long, low structure on Dauphin Street that most Mobilians would identify today as the Mobile Gas building, was a well-known destination for hand-medowns and leftovers. Day-old bread rolled in by the truckload from Smith’s Bakery. Milk that had slipped past its expiration date arrived in 5-gallon cans from Barber’s Dairy. (If it was fresh enough to drink, it’d go to the boys. If it was sour, it was mixed in with the chicken feed.) The basketball team sweated through jerseys emblazoned with “Spring Hill College,” and the marching band played castoff instruments.
But those band uniforms: those dazzling white pants, those cardinal red jackets, those white shoes. Those were bought new, thanks to a little creativity. Brother Roy, the firm but beloved prefect at the Catholic Boys Home (CBH), paid a visit to a scrapyard on Dauphin Island Parkway in 1961, where he found boxes and boxes of decommissioned fire hose doing nothing but taking up space. He asked the proprietor if he could find it in his heart to donate the tattered canvas to the Boys Home. It took some convincing, and five trips to haul
Faway all of the boxes, but before dark, Brother Roy owned enough fire hose to lasso the moon. It took so long for the boxes of hose to burn that one boy was made to stay up all night monitoring the inferno. The next morning, all that remained were the charred brass hose nozzles. Brother Roy could sell those and put the money toward band uniforms. New uniforms. The city’s favorite marching band deserved as much. The Keepers of the Strut If you attended a Mobile Mardi Gras parade anytime from the 1920s through the 1960s, here’s how it likely played out. First, you probably heard them before you saw them; the Catholic Boys Home Band was an ear-splitting bunch, as if they took silence as a personal affront. “Here come those struttin’ boys,” the parade-goer next to you might’ve said, and the crowd would’ve stretched its neck. Then, he’d come into view — the head drum major. The strutter. Dressed in white from his shoes to the tall plume on his head. With a whistle in his mouth and a baton in his clutch, the strutter would’ve sidestepped and zig-zagged, foot-dragged and shuffle-hopped. The crowd would’ve whooped. Next would’ve come the little strutters, seven or so of the Home’s younger residents dressed in their red uniforms and mimicking the head drum major’s strut, step for step. The crowd
would’ve awwed. And of course, the band of about 50 would’ve followed, blasting their used instruments, marching straight and proud in their tailored jackets and military-style hats.
“The band director at McGill used to always tell me, ‘Well, we were much better than the CBH Band,’ says Doug McEnery, a former Boys Home resident and band member. “I said, ‘Yes, you were. But we were much louder.’”
Doug, now 76, remembers with amusement that there wasn’t much choice about being in the band, let alone what instrument you played. That was up to longtime, no-nonsense band director Walter Holmes.
“‘You’d be good on the clarinet,’ he’d say, so I learned how to play the clarinet. Then after a while, we needed a saxophone player because somebody graduated, so he put me on the alto sax.” When Holmes walked into the band room one day with a donated baritone sax, Doug changed instruments yet again.
Doug’s brother Jim, on the other hand, didn’t find his niche in the band room. “I strutted for 7 years because I couldn’t play an instrument,” he says, to the laughter of his big brother across the room. “Mr. Holmes tried his best.”
“But Jim got to be a famous drum major,” Doug interjects. “He developed his own strut.”
“Well, my own brand of it,” Jim says sheepishly. He credits a boy named Jose Roca, the head drum major before him, for bringing some unique dance steps to the role. “The crowds loved our strutting, and we drum majors loved the attention and applause they gave us,” Jim says. “The company we bought our shoes from must have loved us, too. We wore these white shoes with soles that weren’t meant to be strutted for 5 miles in a parade. So they would wear out. I mean, I’d march in maybe three or four parades, and my shoes would be worn out. Brother Roy, who could do anything, came up with a way to put taps on the bottoms and all along the sides of my shoes. And that helped with the wear and tear. But as the taps wore out, they’d get pretty sharp, and as you kicked your feet back, you’d cut the bottom of your pants.” It was nothing that Mrs. Rudder couldn’t handle; the seamstress hemmed and stitched all the boys’ clothes from her house across the pecan orchard.
Aside from strutting, the head drum major’s job revolved around his whistle. With a blast, he could strike up the band. “Or tell ‘em to move over because we had some mule droppings comin’ up,” Jim adds. Mules pulled all the floats in those days, and remember, those boys were wearing white shoes. Barricades weren’t yet a feature of parades, setting the scene for some memorable encounters with the liquored masses.
“The best memory I have is when people would just jump out there with us and try to do the strut,” Jim says. “Some had their wits about ‘em. Others did not.”
The CBH Band members straddled two worlds — dancing to the direction of a drum major’s whistle at 9 p.m., then waking to the shrill pierce of a whistle at 6 a.m. Life was far from easy at the Catholic Boys Home. It was regimented. Strict. Every hour of the day was accounted for. Brothers doled out punishments, sometimes with a leather barbershop strap. If you were caught smoking — clean out the chicken coop. If you were heard cursing — 1,000 lines on the chalkboard. By
Top Barefooted CBH students work in a classroom on Dauphin Street. The boys were educated at the Home from the fourth to eighth grades. Beginning in ninth grade, they were shuttled to McGill Institute in a red and white bus with a large cardinal bird painted on the side. Above Walter Holmes, band director at CBH for over 30 years, learned much of what he knew about music while growing up in an orphanage himself. The experience would inspire him to devote his life to the boys of the CBH Band. Opposite The CBH strutters take to the streets of Mobile. “There were certain spots on the parade route where you’d really turn it on,” says former head drum major Jim McEnery, “because you might have WKRG out there filming, or you’d pass by the Bishop’s house.” Outside Barton Academy was a popular place for the band to go all out.
Top An undated photograph shows the CBH Band outside the Lafayette Street home, with some members hanging out of a nifty bus with “Boys Industrial School Band” on the side. Above Babe Ruth poses for a playful photograph with the CBH Band in 1929. Ruth, likely in town playing an exhibition game for the New York Yankees, wasn’t an orphan, but he spent some years attending school at a very similar home in Baltimore. sheer coincidence, every former CBH resident interviewed for this story went on to serve in the military, and every one of them said the same thing: After CBH, basic training was a piece of cake. “There was no meanness to us,” Doug explains. “There were 100 boys there at a time, and only five Brothers to look after them — it had to be regimented. If you did something you shouldn’t do, you got punished, and you deserved it. There’s no fence around that gas company today, and there wasn’t around the Home either. If you didn’t like it, leave. They didn’t run you down or anything. So every once in a while, somebody would run away.” Across the room, Jim raises an index finger. “You ran away?” Doug asks. “You dirty dog …” “Me and a couple other guys decided to run away,” Jim says. “We had a code we’d tap on our metal beds when we were gonna do it. We had left a door ajar going out the back, and we took off in the middle of the night. Got as far as the railroad tracks between the Boys Home and UMS. We stopped in the pitch black and asked ourselves, ‘Where are we going now?’ So we turned around and went back in. I don’t even know to this day why we ran away. It was just something to do.”
The truth is, for boys like the McEnery brothers, the Catholic Boys Home was the best option they had. Doug and Jim were just 5 and 4 years old, respectively, on the day in 1950 that their parents walked out of the apartment in Mobile and didn’t return. “Our situation was never explained to us, and I didn’t know how to ask about it in those early years,” Jim would later write in a memoir. “But how do you tell children that their parents don’t want them?”
Tuning Up
The origins of the Catholic Boys Home can be traced back to 1847 when, following a series of yellow fever epidemics, Bishop Michael Portier sought help from the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in France for the care of local male orphans. A boys facility was established at the intersection of St. Francis and Warren streets, and the Brothers began their work with 18 orphans.
In 1856, farmland was purchased on North Lafayette Street to produce food for the orphans, and as the operation grew, it became known as “The Male Orphan’s Farm and Industrial School.” An early 1900s aerial photograph found in the Archdiocese of Mobile Archives tells the story; the new boys home, a grand four-story stone structure on Lafayette Street, sits on a tract of farmland, where the boys toiled to grow food for themselves and the public. Greenhouses and rows of crops occupy the land where St. Mary’s Church and McGill-Toolen sit today.
It was around this time that one Brother is said to have come into an inheritance. He used the money to purchase band instruments,
and within a year, the boys were marching in a Mardi Gras parade. Though little is known about the band’s earliest days, a few photographs survive. One shows the troupe outside the Lafayette Street home, posed around a bus with “Boys Industrial School Band” lettered on the driver’s door. Another shows the boys surrounding a visiting Babe Ruth, who wears a Yankees hat, a half-smile and a tuba. Though Ruth wasn’t an orphan, at age 7 he was sent to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Orphans, Delinquent, Incorrigible and Wayward Boys in Baltimore. Whatever the story behind this photograph from 1929, Ruth no doubt felt a kinship to these lads he met in Mobile. Four years later, the band would even travel to Washington, D.C., to march in the first inaugural parade of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Yellow fever had created the need for an orphanage; the Civil War, the Great Depression, two World Wars and alcoholism helped keep it full. After almost 50 years of use, the Lafayette Street building was deemed inadequate, and construction began on the Home’s final Dauphin Street location. The 37-acre stretch of rich farmland, which now makes up Sage Park, was well beyond city limits when the building was completed in 1949. Across Dauphin Street, cows grazed at Graf’s Dairy, and crops grew in overflowing rows; some say that even today, after a hard rain, a faint smell of cabbage lingers in the air.
And so the Brothers packed and transported their unique brand of care and discipline to the western end of Dauphin Street. Walter Holmes, meanwhile, brought the music.
Making a Little Magic
“Walter Holmes, the band director for 30plus years, was my father,” an 85-year-old Rose Sawyer-Grimes says sweetly over the phone. “So the Catholic Boys Home Band was all that I knew.”
Sawyer-Grimes remembers standing on Bienville Square during the parades, listening for her father’s band and looking out for his cream white suit. Holmes was known to keep a bag of confetti in his pocket, ready to sling its contents on his family. The band director, donning a white cap and black bow tie, is easy to spot in grainy parade footage. He always marched alongside his boys, rain
or shine. (Although in his later years, Holmes granted himself the right to slip off into the crowd and cut a shorter parade route.)
Sawyer-Grimes also remembers a good number of those boys in the CBH band. “When I got to be a teenager, I was in love with one of them,” she laughs over the phone. “Something about a man in a uniform, you know. Daddy put a stop to that.”
Born in 1909 and raised in Prichard, Holmes had a special place in his heart for the boys at CBH. Not many band members knew then, or even now, that their director had lived for some years at the Alabama Boys Industrial School in Birmingham after his father abandoned the family. “The only time he was not working at CBH was when he was drafted into the Army during World War II,” Sawyer-Grimes says. “I had a man tell me that had been on the ship with Daddy coming home from the Philippines — and he’s the only one that has ever told me this — he said, ‘I talked to your dad a lot, standing outside and smoking on the deck. And he said that he wanted to give back what had been given to him.’ So I think his time in Birmingham at the Boys Home informed his life’s work.”
The band’s acclaim is universally credited to Holmes, who insisted they play catchy, popular tunes: “Green Onions,” “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “Red Sails in the Sunset,” “Rock Around the Clock.” Other marching bands were stiff, conventional, proper. Not the Catholic Boys Home. Holmes’ group, however, was by no means the first to march with attitude and flair; William P. Foster, founder and celebrated director of the “Marching 100” band of Florida A&M University, is considered the father of the modern marching band. In 1946, Foster’s first year at FAMU, the once-staid world of militaristic bands was upended by his group’s high-energy, high-stepping performance. As Foster’s new, dazzling approach rippled across the South, the CBH Band became one of the movement’s earliest local adopters, in both the way they swaggered and the songs they played. “Other bands played beautiful music,” Doug McEnery says with a laugh. “Good music. But not popular music.”
Sawyer-Grimes remembers her father writing the arrange-
Top The boys of the band meet legendary TV personality Ed Sullivan in this undated photograph. Above The CBH Band poses for a photograph in 1962. Band director Walter Holmes stands at the far left, beside a 16-year-old Jim McEnery. Head drum major Jose Roca holds his white hat at far right. The pecan orchard, where CBH boys could gather pecans for five cents a gallon, is visible in the background.
ments for those songs himself, dotting out the parts for each instrument by hand in the family’s Prichard dining room. Some were original compositions; one song, “Broy,” was named for Brother Roy, the prefect and firehose burner.
“Any time we wanted Brother Roy, Mr. Holmes said we never said ‘Brother Roy.’ We all said ‘Broy,’” remembers Tom Lewis, who lived at the Home from 1954 to 1962. Lewis, now 80 years old and living in Pennsylvania, arrived at CBH in the fourth grade. Like most boys there, Lewis wasn’t a “true orphan” but rather the child of a single mother who simply couldn’t afford to raise her children. “It turned out to probably be the best thing that ever happened to me,” he says. “I loved all my years at the Boys Home.” At 6-foot-1 and almost 200 pounds as a teenager, Lewis earned himself a spot behind the hulking bass drum. “I beat that drum up and down all the streets of Mobile, and that became my job — maintaining the rhythm for the whole band.”
The band practiced every afternoon before supper. Mr. Holmes, positioned up front with a conductor’s baton, didn’t suffer fools; his band received $25 for marching in a Mardi Gras parade, so this was serious business. The boys marched in about a dozen Carnival parades a year, but they cut their teeth all over town: McGill football games, the annual Blessing of the Fleet in Bayou La Batre, the Junior Miss Parade. “When we were on the street, we knew what we were doing,” Lewis says. “There weren’t many sour notes. If Mr. Holmes heard something he didn’t like in the middle of practice, he’d stop us, scream and yell and holler. Not mean, you know, just to make sure we were doing it right. We may practice the same song all day long until we got it right.”
Even during the summer, when the boys relocated to the Home’s waterfront cottage in Coden, the band members were never far from their music. “We’d be out on the pier playing our instruments and people would stop, park and just stand out on the road, listening to us play,” Lewis remembers.
The hours of practice paid off. “You could feel the tension as our band came by,” Lewis says. “We were loud and proud.” And they succeeded in attracting the attention of one key demographic: Girls. Female admirers sometimes followed the band for the en-
tire parade route. “There was a lot of that,” Lewis says. “Girls would chase the boys in uniform, that was true.”
Jose Roca, the head drum major whose dance steps inspired Jim McEnery, calls from Hoover, Alabama. “Girls used to write letters,” Roca says, still amused after all these years, “telling you they wanted to meet you.” He suspects that a lot more of their letters failed to make it through the Brothers’ mail monitoring process.
Roca was born in Guatemala but followed his mother to Mobile when she secured a job working for a local Guatemalan family. He arrived at CBH in 1958 knowing only a few words of English but more than a few dance moves. “I took over as head drum major from Tommy Wilson. He took over from John Boy.” Sure, the previous drum majors strutted, but Roca added a little rock ‘n’ roll shuffle. “I started doing some steps, and everybody liked it.”
Six years after Roca’s last strut, the music came to an end. The boys marched in their final parade in 1969, and the Home’s doors were shut for good in 1970. Nationally, a growing preference for foster care rendered large facilities for orphans obsolete. Today, the Catholic Boys Home Band is largely wiped from the collective Mardi Gras memory, but it’s still alive for those who witnessed the strutting boys in person. “I hear really good memories from people, and I really don’t understand it to tell you the truth,” Doug McEnery says. “My wife tells me that when her grandfather would see us coming, he would just start cheering. And I say, ‘Why?’”
His brother Jim offers one theory. “The boys who played the trumpets, clarinets, saxophones, trombones, tubas, cymbals, drums, and the strutters made a little magic under the direction of Walter Holmes.”
If you go to a Mardi Gras parade today, you can still see them. The uniforms are different, maybe the songs, too. But keep an eye on that drum major and the way he stops and slides his foot across the asphalt. When you’ve seen that, you’ve seen a little William P. Foster, a little Jose Roca, a little Jim McEnery. You’ve seen a CBH strutter, or at least his ghost. Give him a whoop. MB
THE WEIRD, WONDERFUL
AND SOMETIMES BOTH
text by EMMETT BURNETT
A castle. A dental implement. A submarine. What do all of these things have in common? Absolutely nothing. Unless you live in Lower Alabama.
Roadside attractions reflect the people living in a particular place, so it’s no surprise that the Mobile Bay area has some oddball, surprising and downright fascinating artifacts lining its roadways. Some are inspiring, others strange and a few just flat-out weird. Here are nine unusual sites that are quite a sight — within two hours of Mobile.
BRUCE LARSEN’S SCULPTURE “HOME RUN” PHOTO BY BROCK LARSEN United States Sports Academy, Daphne | The Art of
Sports and Spare Parts
Poet John Keats was right: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” But so is scrap metal with the right touch. Fairhope artist Bruce Larsen has that touch. On the campus of the United States Sports Academy at One Academy Drive, Daphne, he has transformed junk into metallic masterpieces.
His work includes an Olympic swimmer, professional baseball player, gymnast and other famous titans of sports. Each is made of metal scraps: tractor parts, automotive engines, flywheels, chain drives, plumbing fixtures and more. A favorite is “The Iron Bowl,” unveiled by Nick Saban and others on May 18, 2010. Look closely at the football that two helmeted warriors are fighting for. “The ball is actually two headlights, back to back, from Model A cars,” Larsen says with a smile.
Oak Avenue, Fairhope | Home
Sweet Castle
Yes, the Eastern Shore has castles. Three are in Fairhope, regally embedded on Oak Avenue: Mosher, Sheldon and Boom Hobbit. Collectively they are awesome castles, by day or knight.
“Some children claim it’s the tower of Rapunzel. Others say Cinderella lives here, and some call it home to Hansel and Gretel,” says Pagan Mosher who, with husband Dean, designed and built the whimsical neighborhood. “The castles are whatever you want them to be.”
Exploring exterior grounds is free. Visitors stroll seemingly enchanted paths and a bridge over goldfish waters. Artwork and wonders await every turn. Mosher Castle is full of renowned artist Dean Mosher’s paintings, sculptures and family memorabilia. Interior tours are available by reservation.
The fortresses have been featured on HGTV, Alabama Public Television, syndicated broadcasts and thousands of selfie photos. However, Fairhope’s castles are residential homes — no backyard visits, walking on porches and decks, and no peeking in windows. King Arthur is not here.
For more information, visit fairhopecastle.com.
Montrose | Tolstoy
Park’s Hermit
In 1923, Nampa, Idaho, resident, Henry Stuart, was diagnosed with tuberculosis and advised to move to a warmer climate. He purchased 10 acres in what is now Montrose, built a 14-foot diameter domed hut and named it Tolstoy Park.
Surrounded by an office park on 22787 U.S. Highway 98, Stuart’s hut still stands. Visitors can enter the tiny one-room structure, which includes period furnishings, a wood-burning stove and a guest book.
For those feeling claustrophobic standing in this tiny dwelling that could fit in a two-car garage, consider Stuart. He resided in the diminutive dwelling for almost 20 years before moving to Oregon to live with his son. Stuart died in 1946.
Lucedale, Mississippi | Palestine Gardens:
Replica of the Holy Land
Behold, Lucedale, Mississippi, where thou shalt visit Palestine Gardens, The Holy Land. Beside tranquil paths and shady trees are miniature replicas of the Bible’s most renowned sites, crafted in miniature. “It’s folk art,” Director Don Bailey says about the displays at 201 Palestine Garden Road. “The pieces are not exact miniature models. But The Holy Land and other areas’ topography and distances are scaled to its real counterparts. One yard equals one mile.”
Replicas of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, Nazareth, and other cities and villages are installed in the Districts of Judea, Samaria and Galilee.
Admission is free but donations are accepted. Amen.
Chickasaw | The Motor Driven City Displayed in Chickasaw’s Maritime Park, adjacent to City Hall, is the city’s centerpiece, a large red motor, bigger than a minivan. No, it does not drive the exhibit. It is the exhibit.
In 1912, the mammoth machine ran the pump that drained the swamp, allowing Chickasaw’s first shipyard to be built. Workers supplied maritime vessels for World Wars I and II.
Brochures from the October 2013 dedication of the pump motor noted the machine helped make Chickasaw a bustling town of shipbuilding for the war effort.
Today, the 101-year-old mammoth motor sits in silence at 224 North Craft Highway. It is a reminder of the early days when Chickasaw boomed and so did the motor. Allegedly, when cranked up to speed, the kerosene-fed motor sounded like cannon fire.
Spanish Fort | Dental
Check
Retiring in 2020, after 54 years practicing dental medicine, Dr. Barry L. Booth of Montrose left behind an effigy of his profession — a dental explorer and mouth mirror that can be seen from Google Earth.
The monument, named “Piknmera” by the dentist, depicts a mirror about 8 feet in diameter and 16 feet long. Its 2006 dedication plaque reads: “To Honor the Visionaries-Faculty-Staff of the University of Alabama School of Dental Medicine,” in Birmingham. So why is it in Spanish Fort?
“The University of Alabama School of Dental Medicine asked me to commission and design the work,” the dentist recalls. “It was fabricated in Mobile and placed at my Spanish Fort office for movement to the Birmingham campus.”
When a new administration took control, the project was put on hold. “Piknmera” was placed by Dr. Booth’s office on 6424 Spanish Fort Boulevard in 2006, and it remains there today.
Daphne | Daphne’s Veterans Memorial
One of Alabama’s most unique monuments is Daphne’s Veterans Memorial. It depicts a hand clinching the American flag at Veterans Pointe on U.S. Highway 98, south of exit 35.
It has a weathered green patina, but its message never faded, as inscribed on the statue’s base: “Dedicated For Those Who Answered the Long Roll.”
The monument was commissioned by Dr. Barry L. Booth — yes, the same Dr. Booth responsible for the previously mentioned dental artwork in Spanish Fort. “I was inspired by my son, Justin, who at age 12 in 1982, led the Dedication Parade in Washington D.C. of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Wall,” Booth says.
In its May 11, 1993, dedication ceremony, Marine Commandant Four-Star General Carl E. Mundy Jr. said, “This impressive sculpture will long be recognized and appreciated by local residents as well as visitors passing the site.” He was correct.
Telegraph Road, Mobile |
We All Live in a Yellow Submarine
What’s a submarine doing on the side of the road? Glad you asked.
In the early 1960s, Charles E. Adams and Ken Martin salvaged a World War II troop transporter submerged in Mobile Bay. They decided to build a submarine from the 20,000-gallon water tanks removed from the wreckage.
The two-person submersible was fitted with a vacuum device. In theory, it would suck lobsters off the ocean floor, trapping them in the sub. The duo also planned to use the vessel for treasure hunting in the briny depths.
The homemade submarine — 42 feet long, 15 feet wide and 10 feet tall with welded steel plates a half inch thick — was built at Three Mile Creek. “But Dad and Martin had a disagreement,” recalls Ed Adams, son of Charles Adams. “Martin wanted to immediately take the sub to the Cayman Islands and launch it,” Ed notes. “Dad wanted to test it in the Gulf first.”
They never agreed. According to Charles Adams, the sub never touched water.
In the 1980s, Jordon Pile Driving purchased the vessel from Adams for about $10,000. It sits in front of the company’s 1754 Telegraph Road location in Mobile and is painted yellow in honor of The Beatles’ 1960s hit album and movie, Yellow Submarine.
Blakeley State Park | The
Hiding Tree
On the grounds of Blakeley State Park, 34745 State Highway 225, Spanish Fort, is a storied live oak. Its root system extends out of the earth and separates, forming a large hollow space. Legend says Confederate soldiers sought refuge in the tree’s root cave, the ultimate branch office.
“That’s not likely,” says Blakeley State Park Director Mike Bunn. “The tree was probably not here during the war. If it was, it was not big enough for someone to hide in the roots.”
He adds, “But it’s a popular spot in the park and a natural attraction. The story has taken on a life of its own. Lots of people take pictures of the root system and kids love to hide in it.”
And there it is: the weird, the wonderful, and sometimes both, perfect for a road trip with someone you love — preferably also weird, wonderful and sometimes both ... MB
RESTORING HISTORY
Take a walk in Sydney Betbeze’s shoes
text by JAIMIE MANS • portrait by CHAD RILEY
Take a stroll through Mobile: on your right, people gather in Bienville Square; on your left, a divine scent of seafood fills your nose, engulfing your body in a salty embrace; you keep walking, admiring the local plant life, reveling in the fact that your city is stunning. You think to yourself, What makes Mobile dazzle more than others? Minutes pass by until you finally realize, Aha! The architecture is what does it for me!
Sydney Betbeze, Restore Mobile’s sixyear-and-counting executive director couldn’t agree with you more. For her, Mobile’s historic architecture is what makes her heart beat. Join MB in our conversation with Betbeze as we delve deeper into the movement to save Mobile’s original infrastructure.
What is Restore Mobile?
Restore Mobile is one of the organizations responsible for the superbly preserved architecture throughout the city of Mobile. Since its founding in 1992, Restore Mobile has preserved everything from commercial buildings to homes. The organization has helped restore over three dozen buildings and homes, ranging from exterior stabilizations to full renovations to new construction infill housing. We have worked in the Lower Dauphin Historic District, Church Street East Historic District, Old Dauphinway Historic District, Oakleigh Garden Historic District and are currently active in the Oakdale National Register Historic District. Restore Mobile aims to save homes and other buildings from demolition, all in hopes of restoring the city to its original charm: brimming with antebellum architecture.
How did your upbringing prepare you to take on Restore Mobile?
Having grown up just an hour and a half away from New Orleans, I knew I needed to work toward preserving another historically rich city. Historical preservation is just rooted in me. Growing up, my family always went to New Orleans, so driving on a street filled with beautiful architecture became what I expected — what I knew. So, when I moved to Mobile, it felt like coming home.
What drew you to the organization?
When my husband and I relocated to Mobile from Washington D.C., I fell in love with a historic home set to be demolished. This house was a beacon of light in the neighborhood. It used to be an apartment building during the war, so it had such rich history running through its foundation; I just couldn’t let it die!
After failed efforts to persuade the family and the City of Mobile otherwise, I knew I needed to come up with some-
thing to get everyone’s attention. And so, I decided to get a group of people together to write love letters to the house. It was something I’d heard about before, but I had no idea if it would work!
I posted the house’s story on Facebook and asked my friends to help me save it. The story got way more exposure than I thought: In less than three days, it had been shared over 2,000 times! After arranging a date, crowds of people showed up to the home with pen and paper in hand. We set aside a few hours and started writing. Every time someone finished their letter, we attached it to the chainlink fence, showering the house with love.
Much to my and the people of Mobile’s delight, the house’s demolition was halted and eventually cancelled altogether. I received permission from the owner to purchase the home and move it to another location for its total preservation and restoration. To this day, you can still find the “Heart Bomb House” in the Oakdale National Register Historic District.
With such an impact to signify my arrival in Mobile, I was determined to keep my momentum for historical rehabilitation going. I was able to connect with Restore Mobile, joining their team and eventually becoming their executive director. Even six years later, I’m as adamant about restoring Mobile to its original bustling, historical city as when I first started.
Looking ahead, how do you plan to prepare for the work to come?
At its core, Restore Mobile will always be a brick-and-mortar, boots-on-the-ground organization, saving as many of Mobile’s historic homes as we can. However, as we grow, we envision education and advocacy to become larger parts of our everyday operations. Our architecture does not exist in a vacuum. It exists in a neighborhood with people and families living within it. We want to engage with the community and be a helping hand and a resource when it comes to neighborhood revitalization and preservation.
458 GEORGE STREET
BREAK IT
How does Restore Mobile choose its houses?
We look for vacant homes, and usually they are threatened with demolition. Then we go through whatever channel we can to get it and save it. The houses are rarely on the market. A lot of times it’s tax sale properties, or houses are donated to us by the family, and sometimes we buy directly from the property owner. Houses on the market are priced too high for us and we are a nonprofit. It’s a house that nobody wants, and we want to stabilize it, fix it up and get it back into the community for someone to live in.
How do you get your funding?
We have a lot of different sources. Events, fundraising, donations, private foundations, city, state and federal grants. We can recycle funds — we take the proceeds from other houses that have sold and reinvest them in the next property.
What do you pay for each house?
That number has changed over time. When we were working in Texas Hills and Oakleigh in 2008 and 2009, the acquisition budget was $2,500. It was a recession and people weren’t buying and selling. Now we are a little bit challenged to find houses we are able to afford. In this neighborhood, Oakdale, we are actively looking for properties in the $25,000 range.
Are profits the goal of the renovation and sale?
Obviously, we want to be good stewards of foundation dollars. But we are also very aware of the markets where we are working. They are usually areas with so little investment that in order to attract a buyer, we often price the home below our investment. We want the price to be accessible so that the potential homeowner will be someone who has been in this community for decades or generations.
How do you choose your neighborhoods?
We look for a neighborhood with zero investment, a lot of vacant houses and a lot of demolitions happening. If we don’t go in and work on this district, nobody is. Oakdale is sandwiched between Oakleigh and Brookley, so it is primed for some type of investment in neighborhood revitalization.
How much do you invest in each project?
It takes about $150,000 - $175,000 to turn a vacant house back into use. But for some houses, we raise the funds to do just an exterior stabilization. We are stabilizing the house, preventing further deterioration and finding a buyer. That might take closer to $60,000.
How many properties has Restore Mobile preserved?
About 35 properties have been brought back to life through this organization. It’s an amazing impact.
1105 TEXAS STREET 1017 OLD SHELL ROAD
1017 OLD SHELL ROAD
Of course, I want to ensure Mobile stays a beautiful, historic city; however, Restore Mobile knows that the preservation of our historic architecture isn’t just sustaining something pretty to look at. It spurs economic development, promotes tourism, connects with our past, bolsters a sense of place and cultural identity, repurposes valuable building materials, and contributes to the creation of livable, walkable communities. Basically, the hope to restore Mobile is the first step in preparing this city for the population growth it deserves.
Now, to physically prepare for the future of Mobile’s economic and societal surge, we’ve learned to approach one residential area at a time. Rather than do what’s called “shotgunning” — or scattering our resources over multiple districts — we are most successful when we concentrate our efforts in a multi-block area, investing in homes that are clustered in a few blocks in a particular historic district. Doing so attracts attention from funders, homebuyers, realtors … and neighbors as well!
What can members of the community do to contribute to the process of restoration and the development?
The best thing our community can do is engage and ask questions. Cities like Savannah and neighborhoods like the French Quarter were famously saved by everyday people who just asked questions, engaged with their city governments and organized because they saw value in their historic past. It’s crucial that the public stay plugged in and informed. We have a resources page on our website where visitors can easily access links to meeting agendas for the City Council, Architectural Review Board, Planning Commission and others. They can also find helpful links to city departments and neighborhood organizations and watch our informative “Preservation Talks” video series!
If you could leave people with one piece of information that sums up Restore Mobile, what would it be?
Everybody loves the architecture, charm and culture of Mobile. We have to preserve it — and we do that together.” MB
