Mobile Bay July 2021
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE FOR MOBILE AND BALDWIN COUNTIES
GULF BATTLEWAGONS BY
RESMONDO BOATS
BEHIND THE LENS WITH
BEN RAINES
TITAN OF SHIPPING
MALCOM MCLEAN
PARADISE ON THE WATER
HUNTING TRIPLETAIL IN THE BAY, CATCHING SWORDFISH LIKE A PRO & FINDING THE BEST LIVE BAIT ON THE EASTERN SHORE
THE ANNUAL COASTAL ISSUE plus: DESIGNER ASHLEY GILBREATH COMES TO ORANGE BEACH
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CONTENTS | VOLUME XXXVII / ISSUE 7
JULY 2021 36
48
Inspired by the View
Writer, naturalist and filmmaker Ben Raines picks his favorite images from his stunning book, “Saving America’s Amazon”
Interior designer Ashley Gilbreath uses vibrant colors and eye-catching patterns to reinvent an Orange Beach condominium
Blackfish There’s nothing easy about chasing tripletail (alias blackfish) in Mobile Bay, which is exactly what keeps these fishermen coming back for more
AN ORANGE BEACH CONDO REVIVAL WITH DESIGNER ASHLEY GILBREATH. PHOTO BY LAUREY GLENN
Something Worth Saving
56
Bob Barnes’ state record tripletail (or blackfish), at 37 pounds, 5 ounces, was hooked in Bayou La Batre in 1976. Read about what makes this fish such a challenging, yet addicting, catch on page 56.
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CONTENTS | VOLUME XXXVII / ISSUE 7
JULY 2021
30 16
ON OUR COVER Jake Pose of Fairhope Fish House gears up as he heads to the Gulf in search of swordfish and tuna. PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN
18 CAPTAIN MORGAN OF FISHERMAN’S DISCOUNT / PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN HAVE A THAI TEA WITH LITH VINING / PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU TOMATOES AND BURRATA AT LOCAL & CO. / PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU
9 EDITOR’S NOTE 10 REACTION 12 ODDS & ENDS 15 THE DISH 16 TASTINGS Pull up a chair at Local & Company, Foley’s newest dining destination 18 BAY TABLES Talking foodways with Lith Vining of Lith’s Asian Cuisine food truck
25 AWARENESS Two Fairhope fishermen want to help you get fresh, local seafood
80 ARCHIVES A child’s cast-iron coffin helps tell the history of yellow fever in Mobile
30 AMAZING LIFE Spinning tales with a legend, Captain Morgan
82 MARITIME Historian John Sledge recounts an 18th-century standoff over European possession of Mobile Bay
43
SPOTLIGHT The name Resmondo has become synonymous with quality, local boats
76 JULY CALENDAR
87 SPOTLIGHT Author John D. McCown Jr. discusses his mentor, Malcom McLean, and the book he inspired
92 LITERATURE To Audrey McDonald Atkins, the fig is king 94 POETRY Poet Terri Kirby Erickson’s tribute to the jubilee 96 ASK MCGEHEE Is it true that Mobile’s electric plant exploded? 98 BACK STORY A 1920 photograph of the christening of the S.S. Mobile City in Chickasaw
Making his own sinkers requires Captain Morgan Henderson of Fisherman’s Discount to boil lead at more than 600 degrees. “A drop of sweat off your nose can boil the whole pot over,” he says. Read more about the captain and his one-of-a-kind Barnwell shop on page 30.
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Mobile Bay VOLUME XXXVII
No7
JULY 2021
PUBLISHER T. J. Potts Stephen Potts Judy Culbreth EXECUTIVE EDITOR Maggie Lacey MANAGING EDITOR/WEB Abby Parrott EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Amanda Hartin ART DIRECTOR Laurie Kilpatrick EDITORIAL INTERN Anna Thornton
ASSISTANT PUBLISHER
EDITORIAL CONSULTANT
ADVERTISING S R. ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
Joseph A. Hyland Jennifer Ray
ADMINISTRATION CIRCULATION Anita Miller ACCOUNTING Keith Crabtree
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Audrey McDonald Atkins, Emily Blejwas, Sonny Brewer, Emmett Burnett, Terri Kirby Erickson, Dr. Daryn Glassbrook, Lacey Howard, Tom McGehee, Breck Pappas, Ben Raines, John Sledge CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Summer Ennis Ansley, Matthew Coughlin, Elizabeth Gelineau, Laurie Glenn, Ben Raines, Anna Thornton
ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES
3729 Cottage Hill Road, Suite H Mobile, AL 36609-6500 251-473-6269 Subscription inquiries and all remittances should be sent to: Mobile Bay P.O. Box 43 Congers, NY 10920-9922 1-833-454-5060 MOVING? Please note: U.S. Postal Service will not forward magazines mailed through their bulk mail unit. Please send old label along with your new address four to six weeks prior to moving. Mobile Bay is published 12 times per year for the Gulf Coast area. All contents © 2021 by PMT Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of the contents without written permission is prohibited. Comments written in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the ownership or the management of Mobile Bay. This magazine accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photography or artwork. All submissions will be edited for length, clarity and style. PUBLISHED BY PMT PUBLISHING INC .
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EXTRAS | EDITOR’S NOTE HERE FISHY, FISHY TEASERS LIKE THIS, KNOWN AS A DREDGE, ARE MEANT TO LOOK LIKE A SCHOOL OF SQUID AND PROMISE TO START A BILLFISH FEEDING FRENZY! (FOR THOSE NOT SO OUTDOORSY, THEY ALSO LOOK LIKE A GLAMOROUS CHANDELIER!)
Reeling in the Years
I
’ve been fishing more than a time or two in my life, but I am by no means an expert. I am usually along for the ride, just happy to get out on the water and enjoy some sunshine. This past year, during pandemic lockdown and with travel restrictions in place, more and more locals got out on the water and dropped their lines, too. It was the best thing to do when you suddenly found your calendar wide open! Captain Morgan Henderson, who owns Fisherman’s Discount south of Fairhope, says it was a bumper year at his little shop, with all the locals looking for live bait, cast nets and crab traps. In honor of that, we decided to devote this annual Coastal issue to fishing our local waters — the boats, the bait and the big catches! It’s funny how my idea of a big catch has changed as I’ve grown. I once was overjoyed to reel in the tiniest of fish. We would have croaker tournaments with friends and family on the dock at Little Lagoon when we were all kids. I then graduated to landing my first sheepshead under the Dauphin Island Bridge when I was maybe 10 — that was a fight for my puny little arms! Later I went after snapper, and I finally landed my first sailfish after I was married. These days, unless the fish will feed a crowd or it has a giant bill on the front, let’s say it doesn’t make it to Instagram. A few weeks ago, my kids’ elementary school had an in-shore fishing tournament as a fundraiser, and let’s just stop right there. You’ve got to love where you live when that’s the school fundraiser. My husband took the kids and some friends out with rods, bait and plenty of juice boxes, and he came back in the early afternoon, disappointed by their catch. Just a few croakers and some catfish, he explained. But then, the real anglers unloaded from the boat with the biggest smiles you’ve ever seen. As each kid posed next to their croaker for the money shot, grinning from ear to ear, I remembered that feeling. You went out to sea, threw out your line and brought home the big one. When you’re only 6 years old, you see, even a croaker counts as the big one. Hope you all get to wet your hooks this summer and find happiness in even the smallest wins.
LOVE THIS ISSUE GEAR UP THESE DAYS, THE FISHING RODS AT MY HOUSE ARE A LITTLE LESS HARDCORE AND A LITTLE MORE MOANA, WITH A RUBBER FISH ON THE END INSTEAD OF A HOOK $10, ACADEMY SPORTS + OUTDOORS
HOT, HOT, HOT WE LOVE SRIRACHA ON ANYTHING, BUT ESPECIALLY THE THAI FOOD TRUCK FARE FROM LITH VINING. PAGE 18
RESMONDO WE TOOK OUR KIDS SNAPPER FISHING FOR THE FIRST TIME LAST SUMMER ON THE CHARTER BOAT SEA SPRAY AND ENJOYED THE SPACE AND COMFORTABLE RIDE OF THE LOCALLY BUILT RESMONDO SPORTFISHERMAN. PAGE 43
Maggie Lacey EXECUTIVE EDITOR
maggie@pmtpublishing.com
Need more fishing in your life? Register now for the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, taking place this July 16 - 18 on Dauphin Island. 30.2543° N, 88.1124° W
THE BLUES I’M IN LOVE WITH THIS SUMMER CLASSICS RATTAN CHAIR AS SEEN IN OUR BEACH HOUSE STORY. FRESH BLUE AND WHITE THIBAUT FABRIC AND SCHUMACHER TRIM FROM COTTON CAPERS WILL BE THE PERFECT FINISH. PAGE 48
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EXTRAS | REACTION
Tell us how you really feel ... CAN YOU DELIVER?
PAPA’S HOUSE
On May’s Tastings, featuring downtown Mobile’s Debris Po Boys & Drinks
On May’s feature, “Grandfathered Inn,” about Robert Brown’s renovation of a memory-filled, third-generation Bay house
I have to assume that is as awesome as it looks. I love soft-shell crabs just about any way you want to prepare them. When I lived in Baton Rouge, you could get live soft-shell crabs for $4 apiece at the Red Stick Farmers Market, a true gem. If memory serves, they are called “buster” crabs in those parts. Whatever. I call it fine eating.
FRIED SOFT-SHELL CRAB PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU
- David Dodson
THIS is what it’s all about. Keeping family and traditions alive.
Super cool house and story. I grew up with Robert. Awesome family. - Krissa Lane Mull Robert will restore it beautifully. I hope we get to see pictures when it’s completed.
- Meg Perkins Wittendorfer
- Stephanie Trosclair Teufel
We were friends with Carolyn Smith and had the opportunity to see this home many years ago. So glad to hear that it will stay in the family.
LIKE NO OTHER
- Joy Holtzman Antar Talented is an understatement. - Meg Schaffler Gavin I love that he cherished it so much to keep and restore it. Memories preserved. - Susan Marchant Monteigne, I remember a beautiful wedding reception there!
On May’s Amazing Life, a recollection of Wallace Tutt, Mobile law clerk-turned internationally renowned designer to the stars It’s so good to see your article about Wallace Tutt, a truly remarkable man. I believe the consistent message was his ability to be genuinely friendly and humble while being extraordinarily talented. It is too bad that people with his principals and ability cannot live forever. - Diane Horst
NICE JOB, MATEY
Oh, you have made me crave a roast beef po’boy dressed! Wanna bring me one, please?
- Pat Higbee Hawthorne
On April’s History, “The Pirate bore down on us,” by John S. Sledge
I’m still calling it the Big House.
That is a lot of history, but it must have been fun to research. Great story.
- Peggy Nichols Trout
- Chelsea E. Colliss
- Patricia Edington
That looks insanely delicious. Can you please deliver one to me in northern Vermont? Thanks in advance. - Kakki Hope Stenger We were here yesterday and cannot wait to go back. - Scootie Lambert Dabbs Po’boy lovers know that the bread can make or break the sandwich. - Michael K. Sullivan This place is awesome! - Kimberly Gandy Turner
MONTEIGNE AND ROBERT BROWN PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN
Want to share your thoughts and reactions to this issue? Email maggie@pmtpublishing.com. 10 mobilebaymag.com | july 2021
EXTRAS | ON THE WEB
More Ways to Connect We’re not just in print. Find us online, on social media and in your inbox. text by ABBY PARROTT
mobilebaymag.com
A FESTIVE FOURTH Happy Birthday, America! Celebrate the holiday weekend with some of our favorite fun and refreshing summer recipes. On the menu: Bourbon Peach Glazed Baby Back Ribs, Bleu Cheeseburgers with Summer Herb Aioli, Dill and Feta Potato Salad, Tomato Pie, Whipping Cream Pound Cake and more.
MAKE A SPLASH Life on the water has its perks! Explore our gallery of some of the coolest local pools, wharves and outdoor spaces. PUT A RING ON IT Share your proposal story with us, and we’ll feature your engagement announcement online and on social media.
SUMMER GARDENING If you missed the early summer growing season, it is not too late to reap a small bounty from your garden soil. Follow our late summer gardening guide for tips from local garden experts for what to plant now and how to best care for them to guarantee a second harvest in the heat of summer.
BUSHWACKED A Bushwacker from Pirates Cove is one of the tastiest ways to beat the summer heat. Go online for the recipe so you can recreate the cocktail at home! WHIPPING CREAM POUND CAKE / PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU PIRATES COVE BUSHWACKER / PHOTO BY ELISE POCHÉ APRIL AND BRAD SUMMERS’ POOL / PHOTO BY JUSTIN CORDOVA
WHAT’S HAPPENING
JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST
Looking for something to do on the weekend? Explore our online calendar of events for a comprehensive list of what’s happening around town this summer: fishing tournaments, concerts, fundraisers, movies in the park and more.
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EXTRAS | ODDS & ENDS
Some Like it Frozen text by MB EDITORIAL STAFF
KNOW YOUR CRABMEAT JUMBO LUMP: premium grade crabmeat, from the two large muscles connected to the fins BACKFIN: a blend of jumbo lump and some broken body meat
SPECIAL OR WHITE: made up of smaller pieces of body meat CLAW: picked from the legs and has a stronger, sweeter flavor
“May the sun never rise on the day of a driver’s run, When cargo isn’t a prize and freight is hauled for fun.”
- Malcom McLean
Read more about the truck-driver-turned-shipping-titan and the revolution he launched from Mobile, page 87.
9%
THE AMOUNT OF AMERICA’S MILK THAT’S EVENTUALLY USED FOR MAKING ICE CREAM. Roughly the same percentage of American adults say that strawberry is their favorite flavor.
OH, SAY! Francis Scott Key’s poem “Defence of F’McHenry,” written during the War of 1812, would eventually become the lyrics to America’s national anthem. The melody, believe it or not, was borrowed from a popular drinking song of the time.
450
The number of freshwater fish species in Alabama This represents one-third of all known fish species in the nation.
CALLINECTES SAPIDUS THE SCIENTIFIC NAME FOR THE BLUE CRAB IS LATIN FOR “SAVORY BEAUTIFUL SWIMMER.”
[JULY 18]
National
ICE CREAM DAY As designated by Ronald Reagan in 1984
Among the collections of the Library of Congress is a handwritten recipe for vanilla ice cream, the first-known ice cream recipe ever recorded by an American. The author? Thomas Jefferson.
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FOOD | THE DISH
Bite of the Bay MB’s contributing food fanatics share their go-to local dishes. SCHOEL SANDWICH AT REGINA’S “On this visit to Regina’s, I had the popular Schoel sandwich with pasta salad. The sandwich was piled high with smoked turkey breast, several strips of bacon, cheddar cheese with jalapeños and then grilled to perfection on sourdough bread. The pasta salad was the perfect blend of olives, artichokes and peppers. You can definitely tell Regina is loving her neighbors, one sandwich at a time.”
RYAN REID, Insurance Agent & Owner, Coastal Insurance Group LLC
AL WIGGINS, Electrical / Instrumentation Engineer, Hargrove Engineers + Constructors
SCHOEL SANDWICH AT REGINA’S KITCHEN / PHOTO BY BRECK PAPPAS
REGINA’S KITCHEN • 1801 15TH ST. • 438-7955
GRILLED SHRIMP AT LIL J’S SOUTHERN COOKING “My food truck of choice in the Daphne area is Lil J’s Southern Cooking. With the tough decision between grilled shrimp and baked chicken, I chose the grilled shrimp with fried okra and mashed potatoes. After devouring such a tasty and filling dinner, I rewarded myself with their fresh apple cobbler — wow!” LIL J’S SOUTHERN COOKING FOOD TRUCK CHECK FACEBOOK PAGE FOR DAILY LOCATION 229-2372 • FACEBOOK: LIL J’S SOUTHERN COOKING AND CATERING
WHITNEY BOYD, Assistant Vice President and Branch Manager, The First, A National Banking Association
PIZZA AT BUSTER’S BRICK OVEN “If you have not had a chance to eat at Buster’s Brick Oven in Old Towne Daphne, you are truly missing out. My husband wanted the Carne, and I, of course, went Supreme. The Carne, complete with meatball, prosciutto, pancetta and fresh mozzarella, had him going back for more. The Supreme hit the spot with black olives, red peppers, mushrooms and Italian sausage.”
STACEY DRISKELL, Associate Director, Mobile Opera
FRIED PICKLES AT WINTZELL’S “If there is such a thing as a fried dill pickle connoisseur, it would be me. I’ve rarely met a fried pickle that I didn’t like, and I have found that Wintzell’s serves up the best and most consistent version. They’re fried and crispy on the outside, dilly-sour on the inside and perfectly dunkable with a side of ranch dressing. Fried pickles as an appetizer? No. Fried pickles as an entree!”
BUSTER’S BRICK OVEN • 1715 MAIN ST.,
WINTZELL’S OYSTER HOUSE • 605 DAUPHIN ST.,
DAPHNE • 264-2520 • MANCISANTIQUECLUB.
6700 AIRPORT BLVD. & 1208 SHELTON BEACH
COM/BUSTERS
ROAD, SARALAND • WINTZELLSOYSTERHOUSE.COM
What dishes made you drool and left you hungry for more? Share them on our Facebook page! july 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 15
FOOD | TASTINGS
Local and Company Food+Drink text by ANNA THORNTON • photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU
L
ocal residents are the focus of this exquisite addition to the Foley restaurant scene. In a town where beach-going tourists usually receive most of the attention, partners Sylvia Smith and Ephraim Kadish decided it was time to turn the tables. Smith and Kadish set out with a vision to provide premium dining in an area with limited dining choices. They searched for two years for the right location when a dilapidated armoryturned-antique-mall captured their interest. Within minutes of stepping into the historic building, they knew this was the spot they had been searching for. After a year of intense renovations to the 87-year-old armory, Smith and Kadish opened their doors in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. Despite weathering a hurricane shortly after opening, the resilient duo kept moving forward, and today they are turning out high-quality food in an upscale-casual setting. While the armory has been given a dazzling new interior, it was important to the owners to preserve aspects of the building’s
history, including industrial steel beams, exposed rafters and an original brick arch. The venue features two dining rooms, a stunning bar, an open kitchen area and a cozy lounge — all designed to foster community. Smith and Kadish believe that quality is in the details. That’s why they personally oversee every aspect of their business, from the demolition and design to ingredient selection and staff training. Smith describes their approach to the dining experience, explaining, “The reason we didn’t want to be a restaurant that’s driven by tourism is because we wanted to cook really, really good food. In my mind, you can’t teach people to cook like we cook if you lay them off at the end of a busy season.” While you can always count on a friendly greeting from the staff, Local and Company keeps things zesty with a menu that shifts with the growing season. So, call up your company, friends, family, that new neighbor you’ve been meaning to talk to — the more the merrier — and drive on over to this Eastern Shore hot spot for superb food and even better fellowship. MB
Local and Company • 812 N McKenzie St., Foley • 201-1000 localandcompanyrestaurant.com • 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. M - Th; 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. F - Sa; closed Su 16 mobilebaymag.com | july 2021
FOOD | TASTINGS
[ON THE MENU]
PORTOBELLO AND PIGNOLI PIZZA
BUFFALO CAULIFLOWER
TOMATOES AND BURRATA
Handcrafted crust is topped with white garlic sauce, grilled portobello, onions, pine nuts, mozzarella and herbed ricotta.
Crispy cauliflower is drizzled with spicy Buffalo sauce and crushed peanuts, accompanied by creamy ranch dressing.
Light and fresh burrata cheese is paired with heirloom tomatoes, in-house mozzarella, sweet basil and a splash of olive oil.
CHILEAN SEA BASS
CHILEAN SEA BASS Bronzed Chilean sea bass rests atop creamy farro risotto with fresh tomatoes, Parmesan, romesco sauce, crispy leeks and delicate microgreens.
THE LIFE SPICE OF
From a farm in Laos to a food truck in Lower Alabama, Lith Vining follows her heart — and her heart wants to cook you food from half a world away. text by EMILY BLEJWAS local photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU
FOOD | BAY TABLES
L
Lith Vining’s life has always been grounded in growing and cooking. As a child in Pak Lay, Laos, a small town on the Mekong River close to the Thai border, Vining, right, fed her family’s chickens and pigs in the morning and after school, helped water and harvest the many plants and herbs in her family’s garden, and, along with her two brothers, learned to make rice in a bucket at a young age. Her family ate what they grew, cooked meals together and rarely bought from the store. Vining’s parents owned a farm with homegrown rice for eating and peanuts and corn for selling. It took an hour to walk to the farm when she was growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, and Vining laughs when she tells me her niece now makes the trip on her motorcycle in just seven minutes. We’re sitting at her kitchen table in Irvington, Alabama, in early May 2021, and her food truck, painted fire engine red with the Lith’s Asian Cuisine menu in a gold scroll, is parked in the front yard. Vining, her stepdaughter, Amy, and friend, Julia, have just finished the Monday lunch shift, selling to workers at Evonik chemical plant, in Theodore. Julia takes the orders, Amy assembles them and Vining cooks. They opened the food truck in October of last year and were shocked by how fast it took off. Vin-
ing had hoped to make $100 on opening day; they made six times that. Vining’s first dream was to open a restaurant, but with four kids at home, ranging from 5 to 10 years old, she hesitated over the long hours, steep overhead and inflexible schedule the restaurant life demands. With a food truck, Vining figured, she could get the kids to school in the morning, work the lunch hours and pick them up in the afternoon. It was a beautiful plan for a busy mom, and her husband, Norman, was immediately supportive and set out to find a vehicle. Vining had worked in restaurants in Thailand and crab shops in Bayou La Batre. She grew and cooked Laotian food in Laos and in the U.S. after arriving in 2007. Among her prized dishes: jeow, a spicy fish sauce made with peppers, cilantro, garlic and lime; papaya salad; and nam wan, a pudding-like dessert made with coconut milk and fruit. For special occasions, Vining makes a crispy flour dessert shaped like a lotus flower, but when I ask if it would make a good recipe for the magazine, she shakes her head and tells me it’s way too hard. Despite her Laotian roots, when Vining planned the food truck menu, she turned to Thai food. “Laos food is too strange for Americans,” she tells me. “They won’t eat the food I eat at home. It’s too many vegetables and too spicy.” But she knew Alabamians were familiar with Thai food, so she visited several Thai restaurants in Mobile, noting the dishes they served and how they prepared them. But most of all, she looked to YouTube, where she found dozens of videos by a Thai food truck operator in Seattle who shared advice on everything from ingredients to kitchen organization to budgeting. Vining watched his videos for weeks, soaking in everything he taught and feeling her excitement build. She created a straightforward menu with
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dishes Alabamians would recognize: pad thai, lo mein, fried rice, curry with rice, crab rangoon and egg rolls. And to drink, Thai iced tea, Thai coffee, sodas and water. She catered to her American customers from the start, shifting the balance of the lo mein to more noodles and less vegetables, the way her husband likes it. For the pad thai, she put the crushed peanuts in small cups on the side, to accommodate those with peanut allergies. Yet for herself, Vining remains faithful to the food she was raised on in Laos, before coming to the U.S. at age 23 to earn a better living and to send money home. Vining’s mother arrived in 2015, so now mother and daughter garden together and cook Laotian food every day, despite running a Thai food truck and raising children who love pizza rolls. Vining’s mother, Thinh, still walks almost everywhere she goes because riding in cars makes her so carsick. Vining smiles. “In Laos, she walked, too. She didn’t ride a motorcycle. Everywhere, she walked.” The family visits the Laotian temple in Irvington on most Sundays and for festivals, bringing food for the monks. The children learn ethics from the monks and enjoy picking out treats and treasures from a big bucket offered after the meal. The temple also hosts Laos New Year’s, a three-day celebration in April when everyone dons traditional Laotian dress, dances the old dances and savors Laotian food, consisting mostly of sticky rice, vegetables, spicy sauces, soups, and fruits like papayas and bananas. Like many children of an immigrant parent, Vining’s kids live in a mix of American realities and Laotian customs. They speak English in school, watch American cartoons and spend summers swimming in the pool. But they can also sing the Laos National Anthem, which
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Vining taught them while driving around when they were little. They eat sticky rice, shop for mangoes at the local “Laos store,” call their grandma Tuu (short for the Laos word for grandmother) and listen to stories when Vining’s Laotian friends gather at the house, sitting in a huge circle out back, talking and laughing, eating and remembering. It’s what Vining misses most about living in Laos: the constant community. “When we came home after school and after work, all the neighbors would be out together, talking and hanging out. All the children would play together. One night, one neighbor cooked and invited everyone to share. The next night, another neighbor. You know, when you walk by, they call, ‘Come on, come eat!’ But here, we just come home and stay in the house and don’t see our neighbors at all.” But lately, the food truck has expanded Vining’s sense of community. “I want to open every day,” she
While Vining’s food truck sells warm and hearty dishes, her home table is often crowded with fresh papaya, mango and banana reminiscent of her days in Laos.
This page, top to bottom A fresh produce market in Laos. Vining’s chicken fried rice kicked up with a splatter of Sriracha. Opposite page, top to bottom Vining’s Thai chicken curry. A hungry customer stops by Tide Marine for a quick lunch. Farm fields in Laos.
says. I ask what inspires this devotion, and she replies, “The people. The customers are so friendly. I like hearing them say to Julia how much they enjoy the food. I see them come back. We have a lot of regular customers. One time the tickets were all the way down the window of the truck. Cooking for people makes me happy.” When I ask where it comes from, that desire to cook for others, she answers immediately, “My heart!” And it comes from her parents, she emphasizes, who taught her to give freely, help others and provide for everyone during those communal neighborhood meals. Now, Vining often gives away egg rolls to the homeless and hungry. And she still works the way her dad taught her, cleaning as she goes and keeping everything organized. “So when you walk out, you just walk out.” She takes a breath and releases it, showing me how peaceful and easy it is to close up shop, when you’ve prepared for it. Preparing the food truck takes a lot of work, all the shopping and prepping and cleaning. But Vining wouldn’t have it any other way. Unless she can get a bigger truck, or a second one. Because that she would do in a heartbeat. MB
Emily Blejwas is the director of the Alabama Folklife Association and author of “The Story of Alabama in Fourteen Foods.” She would like to thank Heather Smith and Sivbrang Trang for introducing her to Lith, and Amy Lyons and Julia Taylor for joining the interview.
CHICKEN CURRY
MAKES 1 16-OUNCE SERVING 1 8-ounce can coconut milk 1 teaspoon red curry paste 1 chicken breast, precooked 8 ounces water 2 teaspoons coconut sugar 2 tablespoons fish sauce 1 teaspoon chicken soup base mix 1 whole carrot, peeled and sliced 5 basil leaves 1/2 pound sliced bamboo
1. In a medium pot, bring coconut milk to a boil on medium heat. 2. Add curry paste. Stir until boiling. Add chicken and water; boil. 3. Add sugar, fish sauce, chicken soup base mix, carrot, basil and bamboo. Stir until combined. 4. Bring to a boil again. Serve with jasmine rice.
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FRIED RICE SERVES 2 1 tablespoon soy bean oil 1 garlic clove, chopped 1 egg 1/2 chicken breast, precooked 2 ounces frozen vegetables 1 yellow onion, sliced 8 ounces cooked jasmine rice 1/4 cup soy sauce 1 teaspoon oyster sauce 2 teaspoons sugar pinch of black pepper
1. Preheat large skillet to medium heat. Add grease to pan, then add garlic and egg. Let cook 30 seconds, then scramble. 2. Add cooked chicken, vegetables, onions and rice. Turn heat to high. Cook mixture about 3 minutes. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and black pepper. 3. Cook for a couple of minutes or until mixture is hot.
Follow’s Lith’s Asian Cuisine on Facebook to see where she will be rolling next! Favorite spots include Tide Marine in Bayou La Batre, Reney’s Honey Butter in West Mobile and Dority’s on Dauphin Island.
THAI TEA Thai tea mix can be purchased from Asian grocery stores or from Amazon. It is a black tea flavored with spices and vanilla and has a deep orange color. MAKES 1 SERVING 4 tablespoons Thai tea mix 1 cup water, boiling half and half, to taste
Add Thai tea mix to boiling water. Remove from heat and let steep 30 minutes or to taste. Strain and discard loose tea and stir well. Add half and half to taste.
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GUMBO | AWARENESS
The Bottom W Line Two coastal entrepreneurs take us to a deeper understanding of our local treasures.
text by MAGGIE LACEY photos by MATTHEW COUGHLIN
hen Jake Pose steps out of his truck and onto the 33-foot center console fishing boat he keeps in Fly Creek Marina, he is fresh off an overnight shift as a bar pilot for the Port of Mobile. He was up late waiting to bring an oceangoing vessel up the ship channel into the port, but the promise of a day’s fishing soothes the pains of no sleep. Waiting for him on the dock is his business partner, Dustin Bedgood, a fellow waterman who makes a living taking out-of-towners fishing on Mobile Bay. The charter captain is loading offshore rods with big Shimano reels into the rod holders on the back of the boat in preparation for the trip. The guys are heading for the open waters of the Gulf with hopes of bringing a few swordfish and maybe some tuna back to the restaurants and discerning clients along the Eastern Shore who have come to rely on them for weekly fresh fish.
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“I decided a long time ago the only way I would get to fish as much as I wanted was to do it for a living. Now I can’t do anything else. I’ve had too much freedom for too long.” – Dustin Bedgood
Fin Fanatics The friendship between these two boat captains and fishermen started just a few years ago, about 80 miles offshore. “We were the only two people out there fishing for swordfish in the daytime,” Pose explains with a laugh. “I’d see him, he was always catching fish, and I knew I wanted to be friends with that guy.” Bedgood returns the sentiment, laughing that Pose was practicing while he was catching. “He was the only one crazy enough to be fishing that far offshore alone in his center console.” The two connected on Instagram and became fast fishing buddies. Bedgood fishes seven days a week if he can, and Pose knows the water like the back of his hand. The two make a natural partnership. The business, however, was slower to evolve. While the life of a bar pilot can be demanding, the job also offers big chunks of time off. “One week on, one week off,” Pose explains. During his down time, he fishes. “I was just fishing for fun but had more than I could eat and was giving it away. At the same time, I was frustrated that so few of the restaurants around here serve local seafood, and so few customers even know the difference.” He decided to change that, one fish at a time.
From Hobby to Business On a Thursday afternoon, customers queue up at the Fairhope Farmers Market near the library as Bedgood and Pose unload coolers full of tuna fillets. The Fairhope Fish House, as they call themselves, usually delivers their catch to customers’ doorsteps, but this week the demand was too high. Clients came to them for their fish, most of which was swimming in pelagic waters less than 24 hours earlier. In addition to having the freshest fish around, Fairhope Fish House heavily researched the best ways to handle and process each fish, saying they use Japanese quality methods for their tuna (see right). Ironically, they explain, most of the other folks around here who fish like them — and there aren’t many — sell all the catch right off the boat to distributors that supply restaurant kitchens in New York City and beyond. Very little day-boat fish caught in the northern Gulf of Mexico makes it to local plates. The hope is, they explain, that even if their fish isn’t the only fish offered on the menu, it will make an enticing special worth dining out for and will leave customers wanting to know what made that fish so much better Opposite: Jake Pose (left) and Dustin Bedgood, proprietors of Fairhope Fish House, head out of Fly Creek towards the Gulf of Mexico. Right: Bedgood lands a swordfish 60 miles off-shore.
What’s so special about how you handle your fish?
better colored and flavored fillet and prolongs shelf life.
Pose and Bedgood use Japaneseinspired methods to ensure the highest quality.
Following the spike, with tuna a thin wire or piece of filament should be passed down the fish’s spinal cord to prevent any lingering muscle movement. A 400 pound monofilament is firm enough and has the right diameter to do the job.
1. We use the Ikejime method of fish kill. This Japanese technique of instantly killing a caught fish by inserting a thin spike into the brain is not only humane, it ensures the highest quality meat. By causing instant brain death, the fish immediately stops moving, preventing further muscle stress that could cause the buildup of lactic acid and ammonia, making the fish sour, soggy and less tasteful. Furthermore, the blood contained in the fish flesh retracts to the gut cavity, which produces a
2. Bleeding the fish with a pectoral cut will immediately lower its body temperature and remove any bacteria located in the bloodstream that may foul the flesh. It will also ensure a nicely colored meat. All big-game fish should be bled for 10 to 15 minutes after iki-spiking. 3. Gut the fish within 30 minutes of catching. Remove everything, including the gills, and give the cavity a good washing with sea water. Swordfish skin should also be scrubbed and the bloodline removed. 4. Rapid chill your catch in an ice slush. Pack the gut cavity with as much ice as possible. Tuna are extremely warm-blooded in comparison to other fish and require a lot of cooling to prevent spoilage. Not every boat can accommodate a slurry or ice bath, but the colder you keep your tuna, the better it will be.
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Get Schooled by Fairhope Fish House How do you store fresh fillets? 1. We never wash our fillets with fresh water because it changes the color, texture and taste. 2. For a homemade vacuum seal, fill up your sink with water and submerge a ziptop bag of fish, then zip it closed under water. This will force all the air out and, if done right, no water should get in. 3. Try to keep all air and juices off of the fillet, as that’s what gives it that fishy smell. Check it every day, and if any juices are in the bag, remove the fish, pat it dry with paper towels, then put it back in the cleaned zip-top bag.
than anything else on the menu. If it is good enough, and sparks interest, people will begin to educate themselves on the differences between their product and the other guys’. “Swordfish used to have a bad name around here,” Bedgood says. “All the restaurants were serving South American sword — it’s not fresh, it tastes terrible. Tastes like ammonia.” Bedgood and Pose are working hard to show Bay residents what swordfish — their own fresh, local treasure — is supposed to be. The difference between Fairhope Fish House and other suppliers doesn’t end with handling and taste, however. They also have a newer way of going after the catch, a technique discovered a decade or so ago. While most local fishermen drop lines at night, when swordfish are closer to the surface of the water (within 300 feet), Fairhope Fish House looks for them in the daytime, when they’re swimming 1,500 feet down. “Daytime swordfishing is harder,” Pose says, “but that’s why I like it.” While the duo mostly goes after pelagic fish (“Hardly any commercial fishermen do pelagic
4. We don’t recommend that you freeze fresh fish. It changes the quality big time, especially with tuna.
How long will it last? Seafood is best enjoyed within a couple days of being caught, so eat fresh fish as soon as possible. While it’s best the first night or the next day, it should be good for three or four days, if not more. “I have made sushi with our tuna up to six or seven days after cleaning with no change in taste or smell,” Pose says, “but it depends on how well it’s been stored.” When fish gets that fishy smell, it’s time to turn it to crab bait.
around here,” Pose says), Bedgood also fishes the Bay when he gets the chance. He is a little less willing to disclose his inshore methods for that, saying so many people fish the Bay that he’s not seeing the supply like he used to. When the conversation turns to the Bay, these fishermen turn serious. “I am worried about the quality of our waters,” Pose says. “The population explosion, the runoff, the sewage spills.” With the oyster beds and grass beds dwindling, close to extinct he says, he’s worried it may be too late to turn the Bay around. As men who make a living off the natural resources of our area, this concern is not a passing one. It is on their minds every day as they head slowly out the channel from Fly Creek into Mobile Bay and the Gulf beyond. “Everything with nature is a delicate balance,” Pose adds. And the business, he says, is a balancing act as well. Both men have full-time jobs and are juggling their fishing schedules with work, family, weather and demand for the product. “We run a fine line with our supply and demand,” he continues. With only two fishermen, there is a limit to what they can do. But the pair have plans for a market in Fairhope very soon. Combining their fish with Mobile Bay shrimp, crab and even oysters, they envision a little retail space where tuna, sword and more will come right off the boat and onto the ice for sale. Until then, they are just walking that line between passion and profitability. MB
Above: Bedgood preps the gear. A fresh tuna fillet is headed for the Fairhope Farmers Market.
Sign up for Fairhope Fish House emails to find out what fresh catch they are bringing in each week and how to purchase: fairhopefishhouse.com
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text by SONNY BREWER • photos by MATTHEW COUGHLIN
CAPTAIN MORGAN TACKLES LIFE
THE BAIT BUFF OF BARNWELL OFFERS ALL THINGS FOR ANGLERS IN HIS SHOP, INCLUDING WISDOM.
“No, we don’t mind you bringing your little dog in. Guy running one of my boats will be in here soon, and he’s got a big dog, Boo Boo. She’s real friendly, though,” Captain Morgan says, looking around for a spot for us to chat. The captain’s place is called Fisherman’s Discount, down south of Fairhope on Highway 98 in the Barnwell community. His name is Daniel Morgan Henderson. You’ve probably seen the shop and might remember a tall pole standing outside with a long fishing net or two hanging from it. Might’ve also seen a Lafitte Skiff on a trailer outside, saw its broad beam and how the bow and transom sweep up in a graceful sheer with that telltale afterdeck hanging way out over the transom. A serious fishing boat, made for work, made for whatever the wind and water dish out, made for dragging a net that, on a good day, fills with shrimp. Captain Morgan’s got two Lafittes for catching bait. If you’ve stopped by, just curious, you open the door and right away the briny, fishy smell makes it clear you’re in a real fisherman’s supply store. My dog Bobby is all over the place looking for whatever is putting out the aroma. I, on the other hand, take a quick look around, spying crab traps and pinfish traps, cast nets, flotation devices, lures and hook-line-and-sinker displays, fishing rods and reels, floats, bait buckets, worms, dip nets and gaffs. If you’re going fishing, you don’t need to go anywhere else.
Above Readers would be wise
to save this rare shot of Captain Morgan, as there’s not much time for leaning against boats at Fisherman’s Discount.
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“Yeah, there’s lots of talk in this place about fishing. Some big stories,” Captain Morgan says. The shop is open seven days a week, from around five in the morning until sometimes six at night. “And some of the fish tales are worth listening to real close. Some of the young men who work for me really want to learn something, and I’ll pull them aside and tell ’em when and who they need to perk up and listen to.” Captain Morgan himself is a waterman who knows what he’s talking about. He’s a big man, broad-shouldered and more than six feet tall. His handshake is tough-skinned with a grip strong enough to haul in a line or wrestle the helm of a boat in a storm. “Standing on that deck, I’ll get to see the sun come up out on the water about 250 mornings a year and plenty of sunsets. And stars come out at night,” he says. This shop owner doesn’t park himself on a stool behind the counter or hole up in a back office someplace. This man sells live shrimp to his customers — shrimp that he went out on the water before daylight and dragged a net to catch. If one of the boats breaks down, the captain grabs his tools. “We try not to go out on Sundays,” he says. He’s a man whose faith has got muscle in it, as strong as his two big arms. “You see those two round signs on the counter when you came in?” he asks. He pats Bobby on the head. We’d gone into the back of the shop, past some tanks stirring with seawater and swimming shrimp, humming pumps moving the bubbling water, past Anthony Kramer, an older man like me
“YEAH, THERE’S LOTS OF TALK IN THIS PLACE ABOUT FISHING. SOME BIG STORIES ... AND SOME OF THE FISH TALES ARE WORTH LISTENING TO REAL CLOSE.” – Captain Morgan
seated on a low stool and tying a net, past God-only-knowswhat-kind of fishing stuff on the shelves, to find a seat on either side of a desk in a corner. On the shelf right behind Captain Morgan, above his right shoulder, is a stack of small trawling boards and all that you’d need to drag a net behind a recreational center console. “Yes, I saw two round disc-like signs with 14 percent on them. I figured it was a light-hearted way to spell out a fisherman’s chances of filling his coolers to the limit.” Captain Morgan lets me know there’s nothing funny about the 14-percent signs. “That’s what the doctors told me was my chance of surviv-
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ing the cancer they found in me. Lymphoma. A big mass in my chest.” And that’s when he told me that 100 percent of his chances of survival are in the hands of somebody else. “Can I just say right flat-out, Jesus?” All right by me, I say. And then he gives his wife, Rose Mary, a lot of credit for being his rock in the storm. “Right now, I’m sitting here talking to you, and I’m cancerfree,” he says. “But they don’t tell me I’m in the clear for good, just right now things look good.” And things during the past year, in his bottom line at the shop, have also looked mighty good, outdoing most years in the past. “Think about it,” he says. “What else were people gonna do during COVID? They couldn’t go to movies. Or restaurants. Couldn’t even gather up with family. So, they went fishing.” And before they headed out into the fresh air, into the sunshine or the rain, they got their bait and gear from Captain Morgan. “Don’t get me wrong, we can’t compete with Walmart and Bass Pro,” he says. “But people are willing to pay a quarter more for something here because we’ve got live bait for them. And we can make them a cast net. We can make them some crab traps.” The captain will also go outside into his parking lot and show a novice how to throw that net he just bought. And before COVID, his customers could even stop by the shop on weekends and take home a mess of hot food. The sign out front advertises Captain Morgan’s boiled, spicy crawfish — with cut-up potatoes and some Conecuh sausage. Just how spicy? “Not explosive,” the captain allows. But memorable for sure. And right now, the boiled mudbugs are themselves only a memory. “I didn’t boil crawfish during COVID, and I’m not going to bring ’em back this season,” he says. He lets it go unsaid that his hands and head have been full minding his health. But it’s about a 100 percent chance that Captain Morgan will tie on the apron next summer. Always and anytime, however, he serves his customers the benefit of an authentic waterman’s knowledge. Tips about where and how to catch fish, who to call for a guided trip. The fishermen who stop in this store can talk to the man who melts the lead himself and makes their sinkers, for heaven’s sake. “I’ve been doing this a long time,” Captain Morgan says. He tells me how he worked in high school for Phelps in Foley, a net shop like his that’s no longer there. “I stayed on there, too, out of school for more than 10 years. Then, in 1988, I came here and opened up my own place.” The captain is closing in on 50 years in the business he loves. And a man’s got to love it to handle the load of a shop like his. The captain talks about standing over a pot of boiling lead. “I work outside,” he says. When he’s melting lead, it might look like he’s frying fish, open pot on a gas flame.
“You got to get it over 600 degrees to melt the lead, and a drop of sweat off your nose can boil the whole pot over.” Risky business. In the store, he shows me bins full of all sizes and shapes and weights of lead sinkers. Captain Morgan made them all. “But I let the guys work with small ingots, melt them down to make the split shot and smaller weights.” He says he made nets right from the beginning. I tell the captain I have friends who used to hang out here and watch him tie nets. Captain Morgan nods. “Making a net might not be like you imagine it,” he says, telling me they don’t weave the net fabric itself. “We buy the net by the pound,” he says, explaining how it’s like a bolt of cloth a seamstress uses to make a shirt or a dress. “We cut the rectangle into circles and make it from patterns. We finish it out, tie on the lines and weights and such.” I ask about custom cast nets, like for mullet or bait. “Oh, sure,” he says, allowing that his customers pay more than for factorymade nets. “But they’re buying a net that they’ll use for 20 years or more.” He says some fathers want to buy their kids a custommade net to learn how to catch mullet and also how to take care of that first net as a keepsake. I ask if his dad was a fisherman or a local farmer. “Neither,” he says. “My people are from Mobile County, and my dad was in civil
From top to bottom
Captain Morgan has always made custom nets for his clientele. Morgan also makes all of his own leads sinkers. “Mister Anthony” (Anthony Kramer) builds a crab trap from scratch.
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service. He was at Brookley Field when it closed.” He tells me his dad found work in his field in Melbourne, Florida. Then, when they loaded up and came back to Alabama, it was to this stretch of Highway 98 in Barnwell. So, I ask him, you own this place, the land? “Yeah, it’s about five acres. Some on the road frontage, and it goes back a ways.” Captain Morgan tells me he had the property bought and paid for by the time he opened, just 11 years out of high school. “My folks pressed me to spend my money on something besides mag wheels and loud glass-pack mufflers for my cars. It made sense,” he says. So, when the land became available that adjoined his parents’ property next door, the captain, as a young man, made an investment in his future. “This — what I do — the boats and the water and the fishing,” he says, “it’s not a thing you can pick up reading about in a book.” I ask him about his sons. Do they have an interest in continuing his legacy here at Fisherman’s Discount? He wants them to make up their own minds about what they want to do. And has he been surprised, I ask, how fishing in our area has changed? “I think about it this way, do you remember Stauter Boats, when they were out on the Causeway?” I say that I do and that over the years I’ve owned three or four myself. “Well, those were mighty good boats. People bought ’em and worked in them season after season. They fished and shrimped out of them, and they fed their families from a Stauter. Even made some money working those boats. Now, people pay a lot of money to fix up a Stauter and keep it all pretty in a boatlift. And some of the fishing rigs that come in here nowadays are headed down to the Gulf on three-axle trailers.” Just then, Kramer gives the captain a signal that lets him know his Lafitte is coming in with today’s catch. “Come on,” he says, “you can see how we work the shrimp right off the boat.” He tells me he’s got the 25-foot and a 22-foot Lafitte. “Cap’n Mike runs the bigger one for me with a couple of different deck hands helping. Today, Joe Golden’s on the boat. The other one, the 22-footer, I take that one out myself four or five days a week.” We walk to a side door that he opens, and the boat is already parked close, right alongside the building. Baskets are handed up to Joe. The skipper, Mike, his bare skin red as a cooked crawdad, head shaved, arms big as my legs, is down on the ground rigging a PVC pipe from the boat to the holding tank inside the bait shop. I ask about that. “When I was trying to get my shop set up, I asked for advice about the sea water I’d need for the shrimp and bait, seeing as
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how I’m inland, away from the shore. An agent from Auburn Sea Grant told me I’d need to bring the water in with the catch. That’s what the pipe is for.” He tells me the boat can bring in as much as 200 gallons of water right from where the shrimp are caught down in the south end of Mobile Bay, or maybe over in Perdido Bay. The captain says they have a rig for pumping water up from about 20 feet deep, so it comes from down below whatever fresh water is at the surface. “And, of course, the man who buys fresh bait shrimp is also going to take a few gallons of water. So, we have to replace the sea water daily, just the way we drag every day for shrimp.” Captain Morgan shows me how they sort the few dead shrimp onto a floating screen in the tank, and those go into a cooler for customers who aren’t looking for live bait. Mike comes over with three or four pretty big squid he’s dropped into a plastic bag. Boo Boo didn’t come along today, but Bobby follows Mike, his tail wagging. He rolls the air out of the bag and sticks it in an upright cooler in front of the tanks. “Most people like the smaller squid,” the captain says. “They put the whole thing on the hook. Those Mike just put in the cooler would have to be cut into pieces.” Not for Bobby, I say. The captain grins.
declares he will work at his work until he can’t work anymore, and he won’t try to manage the future with a hard hand. Captain Morgan, who’s been in this business since high school, says if the day comes when he can’t take his boat out, he will still be able to sit and tell stories that are worth listening to. He sits on a stool in the back of the shop. Bobby takes up at his ankles, and the captain rubs him between the ears. “Maybe I’ll print up some pamphlets or something,” he says, looking up at me. “I might put out the word folks could be a little nicer, be a little more willing to lend a hand at the boat ramps. They could have more patience out on the water. Don’t put a three-foot wake on somebody else.” Captain Morgan has plenty of work to do. As he stands, Bobby watches him intently. “For me, fishing is a way of life, the only life I’ve ever known. I think it’s something that deserves the best from everybody who heads out to the water.” We shake hands and I turn to go, saying I’ll be back. “Bring Bobby with you,” he says. Even a little dog knows there are some people who have stories worth hearing. And Bobby’s got big ears for Captain Morgan. MB
“THIS — WHAT I DO — THE BOATS AND THE WATER AND THE FISHING, IT’S NOT A THING YOU CAN PICK UP READING ABOUT IN A BOOK.” – Captain Morgan
With at least one boat out shrimping every day but Sunday, I ask approximately how many pounds of shrimp he sells a week. “Not by the pound,” he says. “It’s by the count. But, you figure on a good day we bring in 3,800 to 4,000 shrimp. And we sell all we bring in.” Captain Morgan left me to do the math. “So, you’re 63,” I say. “Ten, 12 years from now, will you sell the place? I mean, the acreage with highway frontage will be worth plenty enough for a good retirement.” The captain and I both know every square foot of Baldwin County dirt seems bound to have a contractor build a new house on it. And there’s only so much land for all the explosion of people into the county. I suggest that a man’s got to slow down some time. “Not me,” the captain says. “All of that can happen when I’m gone. As long as the good Lord’s willing, I’ll be right here in this shop. I’ll be in that boat. I’ll be catching shrimp and sending them out the door with good fishermen.” Captain Morgan
Opposite page Fisherman’s Discount is designed
to be a one-stop-shop for local anglers, carrying everything from custom crab traps, popping corks and shrimper boots. Above Captain Morgan dishes out some live bait, which he personally catches every morning for his customers.
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LOTUS STANDS LINE THE RIVERBANKS OF THE LOWER DELTA
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SOMETHING WORTH SAVING
text and photos by BEN R AINES
Writer, naturalist and documentary filmmaker Ben Raines shares the details behind some of his favorite photographs captured during the creation of his celebrated book, “Saving America’s Amazon.” I wrote “Saving America’s Amazon” as a love letter to Alabama, to make people fall for Alabama and her landscapes, to appreciate them and understand that they are valuable on a global scale. Too often, we have been suckered into believing that the fields and forests and streams of Alabama are inconsequential when compared to other places. It is an idea forced onto us by industry and politicians looking to sell, exploit and destroy our natural places to make a little money. Nothing could be further from the truth of Alabama, which has more species of plants and animals per square mile than any other state. Think about that for a moment. There are
more kinds of creatures and plants occupying every inch of space in our state than you can find in any other state in the nation.
Alabama’s hills and valleys rank among the most biodiverse spots on Earth. Why then does Alabama rank dead last for what we spend to protect our environment? Why do our pollution laws rank among the weakest in the country? Why have more than half of all extinctions in the United States since the Civil War happened in Alabama? The answer is that we, as Alabamians, have allowed it to happen. But we can do better. We can
demand that industry and our state officials meet the standards enforced in other states. We can demand laws to protect our waterways instead of the laws we have that guarantee industry the right to use our waters no matter the ecological price. We can demand buffer zones around our streams to protect them from logging clearcuts, as required in Oregon and Georgia (the only states that harvest more trees than Alabama). The first step is for people here to realize that the landscape beneath our feet in Alabama is worth protecting.
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PITCHER PLANTS
Pitcher plant bog — an iconic vista of carnivorous plants For me, fields of pitcher plants like this represent Alabama in the same way shots of the Tetons represent Wyoming: an iconic vista that instantly calls to mind a very specific and wild spot on Earth. Think of an open meadow of carnivorous pitcher plants as a field of mouths gobbling bugs by the thousands every minute of every day. It is a magical thing
FIELD OF IRISES
that Alabama is still home to fields populated with plants that eat meat to survive.
Irises at Petit Bateau in Mobile-Tensaw Delta Irises are native to both France and the American South. That being so, it is a shame we let Louisiana and New Orleans lay claim to the fleur de lis as their symbol. The fact is, Mobile was the original capital of French Louisiana, and those irises the early French settlers
first recognized from back home in France were here in Alabama, growing in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. I took this
picture in a spot known locally as “Little Batty,” a corruption of the original name that obscures the most telling thing about the location. Originally, the spot was known by its French moniker, Petit Bateau, which makes sense if you see Little Batty from above. This small bay in the center of the Delta is shaped like a canoe, or, to translate the old French name, a “Little Boat.”
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GRASS PINK ORCHID THE EMERALD VIRGIN
The Emerald Virgin — a fly of surpassing elegance and beauty In the 1800s, Alabama was known as a place where you could see things that existed nowhere else. Indeed, the specimen collections of The British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution are full of samples of plants and fossils collected in Alabama 200 years ago. Phillip Henry Gosse, an Englishman who visited Alabama in the 1860s and would later gain fame as the inventor of the aquarium, wrote elegantly about our wild lands in 1859. Behold his romantic description of one of the Delta’s damselflies: “He who would see the Emerald Virgin must go to some such hidden brook as I have described; over which as it flows silently — in a deep soft bed of moss of the richest green, or brawls over a pebbly bottom with impotent rage — three or four of these lovely insects may be seen at any hour … a fly of surpassing elegance and beauty, whose long and slender body is of a metallic green so refulgent that no color can convey any idea of it.”
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Grass Pink Orchid — once a common Alabama species Most Alabamians, seeing the big showy Amazonian or African orchids for sale at the local Home Depot or the grocery store, never imagine that such flowers used to grow wild in their own neighborhoods. This grass pink orchid was growing in a cow pasture near Loxley. I’ve found them in roadside ditches in Stockton and coming up in a vacant lot in Tillman’s Corner. The next time you ride through a subdivision, remember that several of the 54 orchid species native to Alabama probably lived in that very spot before they were buried under fill dirt and centipede grass.
PHOTO BY SUSAN RAINES
SUNDEW DRAGON
In addition to “Saving America’s Amazon,” Raines wrote and directed “The Underwater Forest,” a film about an ancient cypress forest found off the Alabama coast. In 2018, he discovered the Clotilda, the last ship to bring enslaved Africans to America.
lenses to explore the tiny worlds all around us. The pathos of the dragonfly’s final moments, ensnared in the gooey tendrils of a carnivorous sundew, is inescapable. Imagine the dragon struggling, each helpless flutter of its wings only causing its body to become more entrapped in the plant’s death grip. And then, as seen in this photograph, the carcass is picked clean by ants crawling across its eyes and even inside its body.
Sand dollars on the river bank These sand dollars
SAND DOLLARS
BEN RAINES
Sundew Dragon — in its final moments I love using macro
Ben Raines is an awardwinning environmental journalist and filmmaker.
were my first introduction to Alabama’s ancient past and how much it has to do with the present landscape. Seeing them — millions of years old — poking out of a riverbank 90 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico set me on a course that ultimately led to my work in the Underwater Forest, the 70,000-year-old version of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta we found 10 miles offshore, 60 feet under water.
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THE SEA HUNTER IS A 62-FOOT RESMONDO BOAT OPERATED IN ORANGE BEACH BY CAPTAIN RICKY MCDUFFIE.
Battlewagons by Resmondo From Perdido Beach, they built what one local captain calls the best charter fishing vessels ever. Today, the brothers running Resmondo Boat Works are doing more than repairing boats; they’re keeping their father’s legacy alive.
text by BRECK PAPPAS photos by SUMMER ENNIS ANSLEY
E
very now and then, a Resmondo boat will come in for repairs. For brothers Joey and Ronnie Resmondo, the occasion is an opportunity to greet a couple of old friends. First, there’s the boat itself, which, depending on the year of its construction, the pair might’ve helped build. But more than anything, it’s a chance to rub shoulders with the shadow of their father, who built boats on this same patch of sand in Perdido Beach for six decades. “Sometimes you see things and you think, ‘Wow, that’s kinda neat the way he built that,’” Joey says, beneath the 125-footlong metal-roofed workshop. “I was working on a boat yesterday,” Ronnie chimes in, “and was just trying to find a spot where he had marked something
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as Buddy. Born in 1924, he grew up in Perdido Beach where his family ran a little dairy farm. During the Depression, boatbuilding was a matter of necessity, so a 9-year-old Buddy helped his father build a shallow-draft dory boat for fishing the local waterways. After serving in the Pacific as a Navy gunner during World War II, Buddy returned home and went to work building boats in earnest, picking up techniques from local crafters and eventually setting up a shop of his own in 1956. From a little pole shed on this very spot, he began building his custom wooden boats. “He designed everything he ever built,” Ronnie says. “Drew it out, drafted it out on paper. As a kid, I can remember, someone would come here and order a boat, and he’d be up late at night. I could see him in there at that table. And sometimes I’d get up the next day, and there the design was. All laid out.” As Buddy’s reputation as a craftsman grew, so did the size of his boats. From small personal vessels, he expanded into building custom, Coast Guard-certified commercial fishing boats. For the boys and their sister, Lynn, it wasn’t your typical childhood. “There was always a boat being built throughout our whole lifetime,” Joey says. “I don’t think the shop ever sat empty. It was just a continuation of one boat after another.” The work was certainly endless and not always aided by the young boys. Buddy enjoyed telling the story of the time Ronnie got his hands on a hammer and drove a fistful of nails into the stem of a boat-in-progress. But the brothers grew, along with the business, and by the time they graduated from high school, Resmondo Boat Works employed seven workers, including their mother Donna who ran Left Brothers Ronnie (left) or written something, ’cause his writing was distinct. the office. and Joey Resmondo stand But I was just thinking, ‘Man, he touched this back Over the years, local charter boat captains beside a boat built by in ’63.’ I think we take it for granted sometimes.” have found Resmondo boats to be more than their father in 1963. It was At first handshake, there’s no doubt the two men impaled on a piling during worth their salt. In fact, if you go to the beach Hurricane Sally and came are brothers, but they share much more than physitoday, you’re likely to spot a Resmondo, easy back to the boatworks for cal likeness. At just one year apart, they also share a to distinguish by the enclosed, forward-leaning extensive repairs. lot of the same memories of growing up on the site Opposite page, bridge. The brothers explain that they first creatclockwise from top of a boat-building enterprise. The first job they were ed that look in 1987, the same year they switched left Charter Captain Mike entrusted with was scraping barnacles off the metal from building wooden to fiberglass boats. Rowell’s Orange Beachrailway running from the shop and into Palmetto based Resmondo, Annie Girl, “When you lean those upper windows forgets a fresh paint job. Joey Creek, located on this side of the Alabama-Florida ward, you eliminate some glare,” Joey explains. Resmondo at work in Perdido line. Wooden boat owners prefer beaching their ves“It also gives you more room in your wheelhouse Beach. The 62-foot Annie Girl sels by rail, as moving a wooden boat by sling can — you can keep your console and all your inwas built in 2002. Juniper boards are used to make and subject the hull to potentially harmful pressure. struments forward.” repair wooden boats. “I always tell people we started at the bottom,” Aside from the opportunity to add custom feaRonnie jokes about barnacle duty. “But there was altures, charter boat captains were also attracted ways the temptation to go for a swim or jump in a boat and do to Resmondo boats for the large amount of fishing space prosomething. It was a good place to grow up.” In that regard, the vided on the boats’ deck, as well as the business’s track record boys took after their father. of building vessels that are Coast Guard-certified. “My dad — if some fish were around, he was going to go “For any boat that was to carry more than six passengers, the fishing,” Ronnie adds. “He could drop something and go. That Coast Guard had to be involved from the time we had a boat might be why he lived so long.” drawn. We’d have to send the plans over to Washington for them His name was Leon W. Resmondo, but everyone knew him to approve it, and once they stamped it, then we could build it.”
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Captain Bobby Walker of Summer Breeze Charters doesn’t mince his words about Resmondo boats: “Everybody knows they’re probably some of the best charter fishing boats ever built — anywhere.” Walker should know. The 50-year charter fishing veteran is part of a long working tradition in Orange Beach — a tradition that includes his father and grandfather. In 1983, Walker was shopping around for a new boat and thought he had settled on an East Coast builder. “Then I talked to Buddy Resmondo about building a boat, and he told me that he could build a whole lot better of a boat than what they build up there for less the price. So that’s where it started.” That first boat, Summer Breeze I, led to a second boat, Summer Breeze II — the best review a charter boat captain could give. “There are probably six, seven Resmondo boats here in Orange Beach still. A couple of them left and went to other places,” Walker says. “But any of the guys running those boats are gonna tell you the same thing. They wouldn’t want a different boat. They’re battlewagons is what they are, built tough. And the day in, day out work we put them through, they’re right there with you.” It’s been about 25 years since Joey and Ronnie bought the business from their father, about 17 years since they built their last big charter boat. These days, it’s a two-man operation fo-
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cused solely on boat repairs: fiberglass blisters, worn out bearings, hurricane scars. And while they work on vessels of every kind, it’s always a special day when an original Resmondo arrives on the lot. In the years before Buddy’s death in 2016, at the age of 91, he spent his time doing the things he loved; he continued building boats and chasing fish. “He would come down here every day, just like normal,” Ronnie remembers. “He had a jig set up to build those little boats, and here we were working on big ones, too. And he would go fishing. He’d just get in his truck, pull down there on that bulkhead, get out and take off either trout fishing or mullet fishing. He’d go by himself.” Standing still, even as an octogenarian, wasn’t in Buddy’s nature. “One time I think I made a mistake Above left Having grown up at Resmondo by telling my dad, ‘You don’t need to Boat Works, Ronnie go down there and work today.’ And Resmondo says boat I couldn’t have said anything worse to repair has always been that man because it was in his mind and second nature. Above right These his whole body that that’s what he did wooden station frames — work.” were used to build the Ask any charter boat captain pilotmold for the 62-foot Resmondo Sport ing a Resmondo through the Perdido Fisherman. Pass, and they’ll all tell you the same thing. His boats work, too. MB
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text by LACEY HOWARD photos by LAUREY GLENN
inspired by the view Nationally acclaimed Montgomery-based interior designer Ashley Gilbreath infused an Orange Beach condo with color, pattern and personality that welcomes the tranquil sea views indoors.
Setting the Mood
Interior Designer Ashley Gilbreath set the mood with a bold, graphic wallpaper (Jim Thompson) that carries from the entry through to the living area and kitchen. A vibrant, maritime painting welcomes guests and lets them know that they have arrived — even before they see the Gulf.
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“I LOVE BOLD COLOR!” There may not be a more hypnotizing siren song for an interior designer to hear. Those were the exact words the owners of this Orange Beach condo said when they approached Montgomery-based Ashley Gilbreath. “We usually don’t get that opportunity,” says the nationally acclaimed interior designer. “The owners are drawn to texture, pattern and color. But since we were working with a very small space, we had to keep in mind that too much of a good thing can be too much.” To avoid going overboard, Gilbreath stuck to a tight palette inspired by the view. “You are there for the beach and the water, so we played off those colors,” she says. Because of the nature of a high-rise condo, with its inability to expand in any direction, adding square footage to the vacation home wasn’t an option. Completely reconfiguring the floorplan wasn’t a good use of budget or time, either. Instead, Gilbreath creatively reimagined the ways an overabundance of storage space was allocated (who needs a giant walk-in closet at a vacation home?) and squared up some of the walls that were at strange angles for no apparent reason — a la 1980s architecture. Her resourcefulness made room for a bank of cabinets and wetbar near the kitchen that gained an enlarged island, as well as built-in bunks in the guest bedroom. “We were very intentional with planning every single inch,” she says. “The original builder-box condo has come a really long way!” A native of Louisiana, Gilbreath attended Auburn University’s School of Architecture before switching to interior design. She fell in love with and married a boy from Montgomery, and after stints working for designers in New York and Atlanta, the pair settled in his hometown. The Alabama and Florida beaches close to the capital city have been a constant source of inspiration for the designer who now owns retail shops in both Montgomery and Rosemary Beach. With three children of her own, Gilbreath brings a unique perspective to “livability,” both at home and while on vacation. Her unpretentious style beckons family gatherings where sandy memories can be shared summer after summer. MB
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Bold Statements The teak wall sculpture is large on personality but feels right at home along sandy shores. “When you go with a crazy wallcovering, you need art that works with it,” Gilbreath says. An accent chair in an ombre stripe offers a departure from the room’s otherwise solid upholstery. Pillows made from vintage African mud cloths introduce texture and a splash of seashell pink.
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Make it Personal Individual expression is key to creating a home that reflects its owners. Gilbreath loves to incorporate as much of a homeowner’s furniture as possible to better reflect their personality, lifestyle and family history. This client brought fun MackenzieChilds dining chairs to the kitchen (opposite) and a showstopping Abe Lincoln painting by New Orleans artist Ashley Longshore (right). “They each have so much personality and are perfect here,” Gilbreath says.
Inside & Out
The balcony and its panoramic, postcard vistas are shared by the living area and master bedroom. Alfresco lounging and dining spaces (also shown page 49) with Summer Classics furnishings, Sunbrella upholstery and Perennials accent fabrics reflect the watery views to one side and echo the interior palette to the other.
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Water Colors Blues, in varying shades and intensities, pop about from room to room, connecting spaces through paint colors, fabrics, wallcoverings and accessories. A bold blue (Commodore, SW6524, by Sherwin-Williams) anchors the kitchen island and nearby bar. A banquette sports aqua ticking, and a pale, watery blue linen dresses the sofa, page 51.
Awash In the powder room, a wallcovering featuring ovals on repeat (Scion) sets the space apart, and a beaded mirror from Gilbreath’s retail store, Parish Shoppe in Montgomery, is a perfect partner to the pedestal sink.
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Hello, Yellow! Is there any color happier than sunshine yellow? Gilbreath piled on the cheerful hue in bedrooms and baths. Yellow is used in the sleeping areas as an accent through pillows, draperies and upholstery. The suite’s bathroom vanity (Yellow Bird, SW-9022 by Sherwin-Williams) “seals the deal,” she says.
Comfortable Quarters There’s nothing better than settling into a comfy bedroom after a day at the beach. The main bedroom’s custom headboard (top) is “covered in good, inexpensive linen,” Gilbreath says. “It’s an everyday material in an impactful color, but the application is what makes it extra fun.” The guest room (left) includes both a double bed and bunks, which took over a former closet space. “We carved out every square inch and picked up enough room for twin mattresses,” the designer says. Curtains on the bunks offer privacy in this shared space.
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FROM MID-JUNE THROUGH SEPTEMBER, THE ELUSIVE BLACKFISH, ALSO KNOWN AS THE TRIPLETAIL, MAKES ITS WAY INTO MOBILE BAY.
text by EMMETT BURNETT • photos by MATTHEW COUGHLIN
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There are two types of anglers around Mobile Bay: those who fish and those who pursue tripletail. The latter is a community, united by the passion, excitement and skills to reel in a fighter. Because once you catch a tripletail, you are hooked. Hopefully it is, too. But hope is not enough to land a saltwater warrior with fins sharp enough to cut fishing line like spaghetti noodles. “Catching a tripletail is exciting but requires strategy,” notes Point Clear tripletail fisherman, Dave Stanley. “Bringing one in is a game.” Like most games, it takes practice to play it well. Stanley’s neighbor is Eric Womble, an avid tripletail fisherman who wets the hook at least weekly when the coveted game fish is in the Bay. “I’m afraid today is not a good day for it,” he remarks while preparing his 25-foot boat for a Mobile Bay Magazine tripletail reconnaissance mission. “The water looks like a chocolate milkshake. Visibility is limited.” Visibility is key because tripletail is, for many people, a sight-fishing experience. At times, you can actually see the fish floating on its side. Or you can cast at where you think it will be, under or beside a structure either natural, like plant life, or artificial, like a boat piling. Like all good fishermen who successfully land this fish, Womble knows his quarry. For the rest of us, here is a quick crash course of fish facts — Tripletail 101. Splotched in brown, black, gray and off-white, with a dental underbite only a mother could love, the tripletail is so named because its dorsal and anal fins are far back on its body. Both fins resemble the fish’s tail in shape and color, giving it the appearance of three tails. The fish favors saltier water. Heavy rains sometimes dilute Mobile Bay with freshwater, thereby lowering tripletail numbers. During winter months, tripletail live in the Gulf of Mexico. They come into Mobile Bay around mid-June through September — and so do the anglers who love to catch them. “There is nothing like it in fishing,” Womble says. “Nothing beats the thrill of seeing that cork go down. I was raised around Mobile Bay and have fished all my life. Tripletail is my favorite.”
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Lobotes surinamensis, alias blackfish, alias tripletail, is definitely unique. They lie almost motionless, floating underwater on their sides and under anything that provides shade. They are often mistaken for wayward kitchen garbage bags. In their juvenile stage, tripletail blend with their surroundings and can look like floating leaves. It is a solitary creature that does not school. It typically grows to about 10 to 20-plus pounds and about 2 to 3 feet long in the Bay. It waits very still for prey to swim by and pounces. It does the same with bait — and with a vengeance. Tripletail are usually laid-back unless provoked by a hook, which they take as a personal insult, instantly shifting to “How dare you!” mode. Womble adds, “They are unpredictable. You never know if one will take the bait. If it does, you are in for the fight of a lifetime.” The outraged fish grabs the hook and takes off like a dart. “It will try to wrap the line around a piling or any other structure,” Womble adds. “They fight all the way. You must prevent it from getting to a structure and tangling the line. Act fast. Get it into open water.” A good boat operator is a valuable asset. “Not just good,” Stanley adds. “The boat driver must be great and someone who knows tripletail behavior and can
react to it — fast.” One such person is Fairhope’s Kenny Muscat. “Everybody helps land one,” says Muscat, today’s boat operator. “If we spot one, I can’t get us too close,” he adds. “It will spook the fish, causing it to sound (go down deep) or swim away. But if you don’t get close enough, you can’t land the bait just right.” Womble agrees, and adds, “Tripletail are intelligent, smarter than most other fish. When it wraps your line around a submerged structure, it knows exactly what it’s doing.” The key is, don’t let it do that. “When we see the fish attempting to swim to pilings or other structures, I immediately back the boat up and try to get the fish into open water,” Muscat continues. That’s the time to reel it in, but even then, there are no guarantees you will. Those who have experienced the battle share a pro tip: A tripletail is not caught until it is — meaning, until it’s in the boat, don’t buy the tartar sauce. What minutes earlier was an underwater, lethargic sloth with gills is a rage-filled fighting machine when hooked. “Tripletail can battle the line for 30 minutes or more while you’re trying to reel it,” Womble says. It can break free at any time. He speaks from personal experience. “I was fishing around a structure with Dave Stanley
when I saw it,” Womble recalls about last year’s event and the one that got away. The kitchen garbage bag description was inadequate. “We thought it was a leaf bag,” Womble notes. It was not. They tossed line out to it. Nothing. Tried again. Nothing. Tried again. BOOM! “It hit and hit hard!” Womble says. “That fish skimmed across the water for Opposite page, top to bottom Eric Womble 40 or 50 yards and leaped from the Bay. and Kenny Muscat set The biggest tripletail I have caught was out in search of the elusive tripletail. Muscat, 26-and-a-half pounds and 36 inches the captain for the day, long. This one was significantly larger, the knows it’s just as imporbiggest tripletail I think I had ever seen.” tant to have the boat in the right position as it is Plunging back in the water, the the lure. scaly rascal skimmed back to where it Above, left to right originated. “I put pressure on the line to Womble prefers live keep it on our side of the structure and got shrimp for bait, the bigger the better. He it where it needed to be,” the fisherman and his son Matt show continues. “It leapt out of the water again off their tripletail haul in Mobile Bay, summer and dived back below.” Without warning, 2020. the line went slack, as did Womble’s heart. “I still don’t know what happened,” he Previous page Womble casts just past shakes his head. “We saw it, we hooked it, the shadow of a chanwe fought it, but it got away.” nel marker, hoping the wind will drift his For many, the challenge presented in bait into the grasp of a landing a tripletail is what makes it so blackfish.
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enjoyable. “You will lose two out of three when starting out as a beginner,” notes Dr. Tim Stewart, a Fairhope veterinarian. “Tripletail fishing requires being in the exact right place at the right time. You must present the bait in just the right way, tempting the fish to take it.” Sometimes it will. Sometimes it won’t. “This fish is smart,” Stewart adds, “and it is cautious. But it is a great feeling landing your first one, using your techniques on your boat and bringing it in. The best tripletail you catch is the one you finally reel in by yourself. You realize, ‘I did this. I got this.’” All agree the best way to gain the skills needed to yank a tripletail from saltwater is through the teaching of others. “I learned from Eric,” Stewart notes. He laughs, “If you remember the old TV show ‘Kung Fu,’ I compare Eric to the master, and I am the grasshopper. Above Matt “Everybody develops their own Womble displays his behemoth techniques,” Stewart says. “Their methods catch, summer are what work for them. But all techniques 2020. A perfect cast shows the include very precise positioning of the boat float just kissing and the correct way to present bait. I think the edge of the piling as it drifts what makes it special is everybody feels past in hopes of their technique is the correct technique, finding a fish. and if it works for them, it is.”
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Details, Details Although dead shrimp works, Womble prefers live shrimp as bait; the bigger the crustacean, the better. Use 30 to 40-pound leader line as Bay fish reside near structures and will often try to wrap your line around that structure. If that happens, the party’s over. A heavy lead is needed to pull the fish away from the structure and into open water. Presentation is critical. Never cast your bait directly at the fish or its structure. Tripletail know what you are doing, and if it suspects you, it will dart to the bottom of the Bay. Instead, throw 20 feet up current or up wind and let the bait float to the fish. Look for floating logs, debris or weeds. Trees can be a tripletail bonanza. Womble once pulled almost two dozen fish from a floating tree over a span of two or three weeks. It is better to fish on rising or falling tides with little to no wind. It is easier to fish the moving tides without wind complicating the process. Handle the fish with caution. The preopercule (bony plate just forward of the gill cover opening) is serrated and sharp. The dorsal spines are stiff and sharply pointed. “Don’t stick your fingers in its gill plate,” Stanley warns. “It can cut your hand slap off.”
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The rewards and pure fun of catching a tripletail continue onshore with additional benefits. Tripletail is perhaps the best-kept seafood secret on the Gulf Coast. “Sauteed and lightly battered, it is simply marvelous,” Womble notes. Regardless of their techniques, abilities and experience in fishing tripletail, the fisherman all share a concern for conservation. “Tripletail fishing was hardly talked about 10 years ago,” says Stewart. “Today, it seems like everybody is doing it or wants to.” Alabama law allows a three tripletail per person limit, 18 pounds and up. Womble and Stanley believe the rule is too lenient and should be changed. “I think it should be one fish per person, not three, and 20 pounds, not 18,” Womble notes. Stanley agrees in a telephone interview: “You can eat a lot of meals from an 18-pound tripletail.” “Two years ago, tripletail were plentiful. It was harder
to catch last year,” Womble warns. “Seems like the population was thinner by my experience. More people are fishing. More boats are out there. We have to be careful not to deplete the numbers. If we’re not careful, we are going to overfish this thing.” He wants his 2-year-old grandson to enjoy the sport as much as he and his family have. “There is nothing like watching our next generation cast at what looks like a garbage bag and catch their first tripletail,” Womble says. “I want the fish to be around for them to catch.” But on this day, Womble and Above Eric Muscat prepare their boat for another Womble casts adventure. As Stanley said, catching up wind, which tripletail is more than fishing, it is a allows the bait to float down to game. Perhaps today’s trip will once the fish. again challenge the Goliath that got away last year. MB
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[MOBILE BAY MAGAZINE PRESENTS]
NOTABLE WOMEN photos by CHAD RILEY
THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE FILLED WITH BAY-AREA WOMEN WHO ARE LEADING THE WAY IN THEIR FIELDS.
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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
ALABAMA MEDICAL GROUP, P.C.
Desiree Soter-Pearsall, MS, M.D. INTERNAL MEDICINE
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esiree Soter-Pearsall, MS, M.D., has been practicing medicine for 23 years, 10 of which have been with Alabama Medical Group, P.C. She believes resilience, social intelligence, optimisim and confidence are imperative to successful leadership. Not only does she lead by example within Alabama Medical Group, P.C., Dr. Soter-Pearsall also volunteers her time within the community by serving on the Board of Directors of the Mobile County Health Department and on the Parish Council of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church. What makes an effective leader? An effective leader knows when to be gentle and when a more direct approach is needed. The ideal handling of any given situation involves having a good understanding of the circumstances and also the temperament of the involved individual. What advice would you give the next generation of female leaders? At times it can be challenging to find the right balance between a career and a personal life. It is impossible to be in two places at the same time, so building a strong support network at home and a great competent team at work is imperative for success. What are your outside interests? I am very active and love to play tennis, go biking and exercise. I also enjoy cooking, especially trying out new recipes, playing the piano, and most of all, traveling to visit my children and grandchildren.
ALABAMA MEDICAL GROUP, P.C. 101 Memorial Hospital Drive 251-414-5900 alabamamedicalgroup.com july 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 65
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
“NEVER PASS ON A CHANCE TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW, AND NEVER THINK YOU HAVE NOTHING NEW TO LEARN.”
B’Beth Weldon ARTIST
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he expression, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” rings true for fulltime artist B’Beth Weldon. She has worn many hats through the years, from working at the Smithsonian to running a bed-and-breakfast to owning an equine breeding facility. B’Beth says it’s through her experiences and travel that she draws inspiration for her clients, paintings, classes and international workshops. What advice would you give the next generation of female leaders? Be open for change and new adventures. Don’t limit yourself. When you say, “I can’t do” something, you often prove yourself correct. Also, find your why, and constantly visualize where you want to go — let that be your path to success! Did you ever imagine you’ d be a leader in your field? I never focused on being a leader, but merely on being true to myself and to my business. Being honest and doing my best has always been my goal. How did you reach your level of success? I think whatever success I have amassed has been through consistency. I don’t always get things right, but I’ll try again and again until I do. Staying focused and positive throughout the process is the most important part. After all, if there is challenge then there is growth, and that’s positive!
B’BETH WELDON bbethweldon.com facebook.com/bbethweldonartist IG: bbethweldon
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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
FAMILY MEDICAL OF MOBILE WEST
Sarah Joiner, M.D. PEDIATRICS, INTERNAL MEDICINE
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arah Joiner, M.D., FAAP, FACP, is board-certified in pediatrics and internal medicine. She has served patients in the Mobile area for more than a decade.
What advice would you give the next generation of female leaders? My advice to the next generation is to recognize the critical roles women play in leadership. In order to reach our full potential and cultivate skills that may not come naturally to us, female leaders should take advantage of leadership courses, professional development coaching or mentoring programs to reach their full potential. What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome? My biggest challenge has been the same as many working parents. With the pressure of building a thriving practice comes occasional feelings of guilt that I am not giving my family or my practice 100 percent all of the time. To combat that, I remind myself daily to set reasonable expectations for myself. What’s one leadership lesson you’ve learned in your career? We all have our own communication styles, and I have learned to step outside of my comfort zone to meet the needs of those with whom I am communicating. Communication involves not only sharing my message but also hearing the message of others. It is important to me that others feel heard.
FAMILY MEDICAL OF MOBILE WEST 5320 Highway 90 Service Drive 251-666-8232 • infirmaryhealth.org july 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 67
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
FASTSIGNS OF MOBILE & THE EASTERN SHORE
Pauline C. McKean OWNER
“BE TRUE TO YOURSELF. DON’T TRY TO BE SOMEONE YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE.”
FASTSIGNS OF MOBILE & THE EASTERN SHORE Mobile: 251-410-7446 Daphne: 251-621-7446 facebook.com/fastsigns2068 IG: FASTSIGNS_MobileBay
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P
auline C. McKean grew up working with her father, grandfather, and uncle in their family business, Calagaz Photo. She never thought she’d grow up to own her own business. But she did, and she’s the first woman in her family to do so. Pauline is excited to continue her family’s tradition of owning and operating a business in Mobile and working with family. Her daughter, Maegan Maloney, runs the second FASTSIGNS location in Daphne. Who inspires you and why? Catherine Monson, the CEO of FASTSIGNS, is the most positive person I have ever met. She supports each franchise owner, telling us to “differentiate ourselves from others.” She encourages everyone to follow the five characteristics of highly successful people: positive mental attitude, goal-directed behavior, self-motivation,
sense of urgency, and never stopping learning. Though we are independently owned and operated, it is invaluable to have the support of a national brand with such a strong female leader. What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome? I have had to learn the financial ins and outs of the business. It is imperative to know and understand where all of your money is spent. I have always been more comfortable being on the sales side of the business, but I needed to get out of my comfort zone to grow. What’s one leadership lesson you’ve learned in your career? Trust your gut! If something doesn’t feel right then it probably isn’t. And keep looking forward, not in the rearview mirror. Mistakes are gifts for the future.
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
Sarah Thomas OWNER
OWNER
Mary-Lacey Rogers Zeiders
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wners Sarah Thomas and Mary-Lacey Rogers Zeiders know The Holiday is a special place, steeped in tradition. The boutique, set atop Old Shell Road in the heart of Spring Hill, has sold fine, contemporary clothing and accessories for women and children for more than 60 years. How did you reach your level of success? Being a leader, much like being a notable woman, is rarely about being seen or on the front lines. It’s much more about being the type of person you want those you are leading to be. The warm welcome, the inclusive environment, the judgement free experience — these are the things that make our store unique and notable. You can just feel it from the moment you walk in. That’s the magic and the power of good leadership.
What is one leadership lesson you have learned in your career? The biggest lesson we’ve learned is that planning is key, but being adaptable is paramount in making day-to-day operations successful. We could have never dreamed of a scenario like COVID-19, but we pivoted and grew our online presence quickly in order to serve our customers, even when our doors were closed. Thankfully, we survived and are enjoying dressing our customers for festivities like weddings and Mardi Gras events again! What are your hopes for the future? The Holiday is a legacy, it’s a legend; everyone knows it and has some sort of connection to it. We have no intention of getting rid of that feeling and vibe, and it is our hope that the legacy continues for many generations.
“I WANT PEOPLE TO FEEL BETTER WALKING OUT OF THE STORE THAN WHEN THEY ENTERED.” - SAR AH THOMAS
THE HOLIDAY 4513 Old Shell Road 251-345-8887 shoptheholiday.com IG: shoptheholiday
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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
“I OPENED IVY COTTAGE IN MAY 1998, TO CREATE A PLACE TO BE INSPIRED, SHOP AND LEAVE FEELING GOOD. MY GOAL TODAY IS THE SAME.”
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IVY COTTAGE & IVY COTTAGE RETREAT
Terri Gray OWNER
he way we differentiate our stores from others, both large and small, is with our service. We are genuine in our desire to help customers, and our success is a by-product.
What advice would you give the next generation of female leaders? Don’t try to do it all. Ask for help. Hire someone to free your time to do the things that only you can do. You may think you can’t afford it, but you will be amazed. It will pay off because you will be able to do what you need to do to grow your business and accomplish your goals. What do you think are important attributes of successful leaders? First and foremost, respect. Treat others as you wish to be treated. Also, leaders should be willing to try new things, knowing that failure is just an opportunity to learn. Stay in touch with what’s happening globally, as well as locally. And finally, realize success is not achieved alone — it’s a team effort. What are your outside interests? My husband, Paul, and I enjoy having friends and family in our home. I love to play bridge with girlfriends, and I enjoy all kinds of music played loudly. I also love home projects and decorating.
IVY COTTAGE & IVY COTTAGE RETREAT Ivy Cottage: 9 Du Rhu Drive, Legacy Village Ivy Cottage Retreat: 4513 Old Shell Road, Holiday Place 251-341-1731 • IG: ivy_cottage ivycottageonline.com
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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
THE PARK CLINIC
Tabitha Enfinger ESTHETICIAN
“THINK OF ME AS YOUR ‘SKIN CARE PERSONAL TRAINER.’ MY JOB IS TO ENSURE THE BEST PLAN AND CARE ARE GIVEN, WHILE ALSO PROVIDING THE KNOWLEDGE AND TOOLS TO MAINTAIN HAPPY, HEALTHY SKIN AT HOME.”
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abitha completed her training in cosmetology and aesthetics in 2006 and more recently obtained a Bachelor of Science from the University of South Alabama. She has worked closely with dermatologists and plastic surgeons for over 12 years. She sets herself apart by providing a fully focused and customized plan based on each individual patient’s goals, time and budget. She believes that with the right education and treatment regimen, patients can reflect their very best selves with the confidence and assurance they deserve. Tabitha has always had a passion for skin health. She is proud to provide patients with the latest technology in cosmetic laser and facial treatments. Years of education and commitment, along with her personal experiences, have shaped her perspective and strengthened her care for others. Having had skin cancer herself, including melanoma, she prides herself on monitoring her patients’ skin at each visit and encouraging yearly skin exams with a dermatology provider. For her, it’s not just about a youthful appearance, it’s assisting patients in maintaining truly healthy skin in all aspects through exceptional care and outstanding results.
THE PARK CLINIC The Park Clinic for Plastic Surgery is the practice of Dr. Chris Park, specializing in cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. 3153 Dauphin Street, Mobile 411 N Section Street, Fairhope 251-340-6600 theparkplasticsurgery.com july 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 71
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
REGIONS BANK
Jill Mixon Bryars VICE PRESIDENT & COMMERCIAL RELATIONSHIP MANAGER
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ill Bryars, vice president and commercial relationship manager, has 13 years of experience in the financial services industry. She received both a Bachelor of Science and Masters in Accountancy from the University of Mississippi, and she holds both the Certified Public Accountancy and Certified Treasury Professional designations. Jill and her husband, Paul, reside in Fairhope with their dog, Bella. What sets you apart from your competition? At Regions Bank, our mission is to make life better for the customers and communities we serve. We provide a wide range of financial resources and advice that many experience at a large institution. But our local approach to serve people and communities across the Alabama Gulf Coast is what makes Regions a great place to work. Our success is tied directly to the success of our communities. What contributes to your success? I listen to my customers and genuinely care, not just about them as customers, but as people. I also take ownership in my community, serving on the Board for United Way of Baldwin County as well as supporting other local charities. How did you get into banking? I grew up in a banking family, as both my dad and brother are bankers. And while I started my career in public accounting, I always had a passion for helping business owners reach their financial goals.
REGIONS BANK Regions Bank is one of the nation’s largest full-service providers of consumer and commercial banking, wealth management and mortgage products and services. 55 N Section Street, Fairhope 251-210-3528 • Regions.com 72 mobilebaymag.com | july 2021
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
SOIREE SIGNATURES
Lindsey Stiegler FOUNDER / CREATIVE DIRECTOR / CALLIGRAPHER
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indsey Stiegler never set out to be a leader in her field, she says. But as with anything worth doing, she put 110 percent into Soiree Signatures, the result of which is a successful, fullservice graphic design studio specializing in invitations and party printables. How do you differentiate yourself from others in your field? Soiree Signatures has a strong focus on creating an experience for our clients and centering our designs on custom artwork. We have several artists, each of whose influence allows us to offer a diverse line of products — we have something for everybody. And just as we don’t have cookie-cutter designs, neither is our pricing. No matter the budget, we can find money-saving alternatives without sacrificing quality and great design.
How did you reach your level of success? I think my success comes from being able to have fun with my work, not taking myself too seriously and continuing to create relationships with my customers — they’re more like friends than clients. Relationships are the most important component of success, and in the invitations and announcements industry, it’s a lifelong affair. What advice would you give the next generation of female leaders? Trust your instinct and take calculated risks to build the life that you imagine for yourself. While being in business for yourself is definitely about having a career you love, it is also a lifestyle that requires finding balance. I’ve found it takes more work to figure out how you can enjoy your time away from work as much as you enjoy being at work.
“WHEN I DECIDED TO OPEN SOIREE SIGNATURES, I KNEW THAT IF I WAS GOING TO DO IT, I HAD TO BE THE BEST.”
SOIREE SIGNATURES Mobile: 24 N Florida Street Fairhope: 8 1/2 S Bancroft Street 251-209-3265 soireesignatures.com facebook.com/SoireeSignatures IG: soireesignatures
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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
“I HAVE SPENT A MAJORITY OF MY CAREER IN EDUCATION BEING A VOICE FOR FAMILIES OF CHILDREN AND ADULTS WHO LEARN DIFFERENTLY.”
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ldridge Marks has always had a passion for education, leadership and children. While working in the University of South Alabama’s Department of Leadership and Teacher Education, she helped pioneer the Academic Support Program at UMS-Wright Preparatory School. What advice would you give the next generation of female leaders? Adaptability is the best advice I would give to the next generation of female leaders. Being adaptable is key in leadership as one must effortlessly and instinctively understand when to lead and when to follow. How do you differentiate yourself from others in your field? Through volunteering at Augusta Evans, Camp Smile, and United Cerebral Palsy in my formative years in education to teaching in an inclusive classroom in the Mobile County Public Schools, I learned determination, grit and perseverance when learning or living independently didn’t come easily for all. I discovered that it was more miraculous when a young student’s education journey was easy, versus shocking when learning was hard and/or seemed unattainable. What are your hopes for the future? Today, I feel I can continue to influence a larger population of children and empower the next generation of female leaders as I accept the role of lower school principal at UMS-Wright Preparatory School.
UMS-WRIGHT PREPARATORY SCHOOL 65 Mobile Street • 251-479-6551 ums-wright.org
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UMS-WRIGHT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
Aldridge Marks LOWER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | NOTABLE WOMEN
Teja Poosarla, M.D. MEDICAL ONCOLOGIST, BREAST CANCER
Rachel L. Hunter, M.D.
Elizabeth A. Park, M.D.
BREAST RADIOLOGIST
BREAST SURGICAL ONCOLOGIST
“WHEN A PATIENT STEPS THROUGH THE DOORS OF MITCHELL CANCER INSTITUTE, OUR TEAM MAKES SURE THEY FEEL COMFORTABLE AND HEARD.” - DR. POOSARLA
USA HEALTH MITCHELL CANCER INSTITUTE 1660 Springhill Avenue 251-410-1010 usamci.com
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reast cancer care ranges from mammogram screenings to comprehensive treatment, and USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute’s multidisciplinary breast cancer team works together to prevent, diagnose and dramatically improve survival rates by providing the best cancer care at the region’s only academic cancer research center. As fellowship-trained physicians, Dr. Rachel L. Hunter and Dr. Teja Poosarla understand that breast cancer is unique to each patient, and cancer care should be tailored to treat patients’ specific needs. Finding the best treatment for each patient is the ultimate goal, and together the multidisciplinary team develops individualized treatment plans using the most advanced treatment available. Dr. Elizabeth A. Park, a fellowshiptrained breast radiologist, works alongside
Drs. Hunter and Poosarla to provide the most comprehensive treatment possible. This team understands the importance of providing their patients same-day mammography results. When it comes to breast cancer, Dr. Park recognizes the earlier treatment starts, the better, and her patients rely on fast results to receive the care they need. Individualized breast cancer care also begins by working alongside the regions’ only board-certified genetic counselor. Through genetic testing and counseling, the team at MCI provides high-risk breast cancer patients the ability to make informed decisions about their options for early detection and risk reduction. Mitchell Cancer Institute’s team of fellowship-trained physicians and breast cancer specialists continue to innovate and transform women’s health and cancer care along the Gulf Coast. july 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 75
EXTRAS | CALENDAR OF EVENTS
HAMP AND BANKS, READY FOR FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATIONS / PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU
Julyin’ in the Sun
THROUGH AUGUST
THROUGH DECEMBER
NEW ISLAND An exhibition of work by Michelle Jones whose paintings depict predators in their natural environments.
HISTORY OF MOBILE IN 22 OBJECTS Twenty-two unexpected and compelling objects weave together over 300 years of Mobile history, from the pre-Colonial era to the 21st-century port.
ALABAMA CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER ALABAMACONTEMPORARY.ORG
HISTORY MUSEUM OF MOBILE HISTORYMUSEUMOFMOBILE.COM
JULY 1 PEPSI BEACH BALL DROP 5 - 9 p.m. Kick off Independence Day weekend with 4,000 beach balls falling from the sky! Fireworks at 8:45 p.m. Admission: Free. THE WHARF, ORANGE BEACH ALWHARF.COM
JULY 2 - 3 WATERMELON FESTIVAL Sample locally grown watermelon while enjoying local music, arts & crafts, and informative displays from area merchants. ODD FELLOWS FESTIVAL PARK GRANDBAYWATERMELONFESTIVAL.ORG
JULY 4 FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION Family-friendly activities and live entertainment. Fireworks show at 8:45 p.m. OWA • VISITOWA.COM
JULY 4 FLORA-BAMA’S FREEDOM RUN & FOURTH OF JULY PARTY The first annual Freedom Run features a 4-mile or 1-mile run/walk. Stay for barbecue, live music and fireworks. FLORA-BAMA • FLORABAMA.COM
THROUGH SEPTEMBER COSMOS 2021: ADVENTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN This experience highlights humans’ journey into the cosmos. EXPLOREUM SCIENCE CENTER EXPLOREUM.COM
THROUGH SEPTEMBER GORDON PARKS: SEGREGATION STORY IN MOBILE, 1956 Photos document everyday activities of one Black family during segregation. MOBILE MUSEUM OF ART MOBILEMUSEUMOFART.COM
THROUGH JULY 17 MARKET IN THE PARK 7:30 a.m. - Noon. Saturdays. Shop fresh produce, crafts and more.
JULY 4 FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATIONS A patriotic concert followed by a fireworks display by the Bay.
CATHEDRAL SQUARE, DOWNTOWN MOBILE FACEBOOK.COM/MARKETSINMOBILE
FAIRHOPE MUNICIPAL PIER FAIRHOPAL.GOV
THROUGH JULY 15
JULY 4
MARKET IN THE PARK 3 - 6 p.m. Thursdays. Locally-grown produce and homemade items for purchase. TRINITY GARDENS PARK SPECIALEVENTSMOBILE.ORG
SHARK RUN 5K 7 a.m. The 8th annual Shark Run 5K benefits Furrever Homes Animal Rescue. THE WHARF, ORANGE BEACH ALWHARF.COM
To have your event included in the online or print edition of Mobile Bay Magazine, email calendar@pmtpublishing.com. 76 mobilebaymag.com | july 2021
JULY 7 JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT 7:30 p.m. Jason Isbell is touted for taking big, messy human experiences and compressing them into little packages made of rhythm, melody and efficient language. MOBILE SAENGER THEATRE MOBILESAENGER.COM
JULY 7 GROWING CASCADE CHRYSANTHEMUMS 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. See what goes into producing the largest outdoor display of cascading chrysanthemums in the country! Reservations required. BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOMES BELLINGRATH.ORG
JULY 8 GLOW IN THE PARK: SUMMER MOVIE SERIES 8 p.m. Catch a flick under the stars. FAIRHOPERS COMUNITY PARK COFAIRHOPE.COM
JULY 14 VIEWING THE SUMMER SKY 8 - 10 p.m. After a presentation led by the University of South Alabama Department of Physics, visitors will walk the Great Lawn to view planets and constellations. Telescopes will be set up, and guests are encouraged to bring binoculars and flashlights. Reservations required. BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOMES BELLINGRATH.ORG
JULY 15 - 17 BLUE MARLIN GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE GULF You don’t want to miss the weigh-ins of a week’s worth of fishing. THE WHARF MARINA ALWHARF.COM
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JULY 24
ALABAMA DEEP SEA FISHING RODEO Be sure to catch the world’s largest fishing tournament.
FAIRHOPE BREWING COMPANY’S MARDI GRAS IN JULY 1 p.m. The annual event returns and will feature live music and specialty brews.
DAUPHIN ISLAND • ADSFR.COM
JULY 21 TERRA COTTA PLANTER WORKSHOP 6 - 8 p.m. Create a one-of-a-kind planter. Supplies provided. Fee: $22, members; $36, nonmembers. Reservations required. BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOME BELLLINGRATH.ORG
JULY 17 BRANTLEY GILBERT The American country music singer, songwriter and producer puts on a show. THE WHARF, ORANGE BEACH • ALWHARF.COM
JULY 20 MOBILE’S TOUR DE FOOD TRUCKS Held at a different park every third Tuesday. Great food, DJs, trivia, activities and fun for the whole family. ARLINGTON PARK THEMOBILERUNDOWN.COM
JULY 23 - 24 CHRISTMAS IN JULY Shop boutiques while supporting the girl-empowering Whatever Ministry. THE GROUNDS WHATEVERMINISTRY.COM/CHRISTMAS-IN-JULY
AZALEA CITY QUILTERS’ GUILD BIENNIAL QUILT SHOW
JULY 16 - 18
FAIRHOPE BREWING COMPANY FAIRHOPEBREWING.COM
JULY 25 SUNSET CONCERT: MO’ JAZZ Bring chairs, snacks and beverages for this jazzy concert on the lawn, beginning approximately 90 minutes before sunset. WEST END BEACH, DAUPHIN ISLAND TOWNOFDAUPHINISLAND.ORG
[AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS]
JULY 28 LIFE IN MOBILE DURING THE CIVIL WAR 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. Paula Webb will discuss her research on Mobile’s history during the Civil War. Reservations required.
AUGUST 21 DAUPHIN STREET BEER FESTIVAL Grab your friends, grab your mug and get ready to taste a bevy of brews.
BELLINGRATH GARDENS AND HOME BELLINGRATH.ORG
DAUPHIN STREET, DOWNTOWN MOBILE SPECIALEVENTSMOBILE.ORG
JULY 31
AUGUST 13
LUKE BRYAN The “American Idol” judge and country music crooner takes the stage.
THOMAS RHETT The GRAMMY-nominated country crooner takes the stage.
THE WHARF, ORANGE BEACH ALWHARF.COM
THE WHARF, ORANGE BEACH ALWHARF.COM
* Check event websites for most current status.
AUGUST 20 - 21 AZALEA CITY QUILTERS’ GUILD BIENNIAL QUILT SHOW Admire the artistry of over 300 quilts handmade locally. Admission: $8.
DAUPHIN STREET BEER FESTIVAL
ABBA SHRINE CENTER, HITT ROAD AZALEACITYQUILTERSGUILD.ORG
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AUGUST 21 COMMUNITY SAFETY DAY Greet some of the brave professionals who keep our community safe. OWA VISITOWA.COM
THE ARTYS AT THE STEEPLE
[AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS]
AUGUST 26 17TH ANNUAL ARTYS The awards acknowledge those who have made contributions to the arts and cultural community. THE STEEPLE ON ST. FRANCIS MOBILEARTS.ORG
AUGUST 27 - 29 VINTAGE MARKET DAYS This upscale market features original art, antiques and more. THE GROUNDS VINTAGEMARKETDAYS.COM/MARKET/MOBILE
AUGUST 28 GEORGE LOPEZ George Lopez’s multifaceted career encompasses television, film, stand-up comedy and late-night television. MOBILE SAENGER THEATRE MOBILESAENGER.COM
AUGUST 28 - 29 209TH ANNIVERSARY OF FORT MIMS The weekend commemorates the battle between Creek Indians and settlers. FORT MIMS FORTMIMS.ORG
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HISTORY | ARCHIVES
A History of Mobile in 22 Objects An airtight coffin is the ominous symbol of a city paralyzed by a fearsome disease. photos courtesy HISTORY MUSEUM OF MOBILE
CHILD’S CAST-IRON COFFIN text by DR. DARYN GLASSBROOK
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his ornate cast-iron coffin was made to be used by an affluent family to bury an infant in the mid- to late-19th century. Patented by Almond Dunbar Fisk in 1848, this type of coffin was sculpted to fit the body and had a glass window so that the face could be viewed during the funeral. Its airtight design enabled the body to be transported long distances and prevented odors and germs from escaping. A Fisk coffin would have been especially desirable for interring a victim of yellow fever, one of the most common and fearsome communicable diseases in Southern coastal cities throughout the 19th century.
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Caused by the Flavivirus that is found in some mosquitoes, yellow fever can result in jaundice, severe vomiting, hemorrhaging, organ failure and death within six days of infection. For centuries after it was first reported, physicians were unable to agree on its origin or method of transmission. The disease spread rapidly and traveled far inland, frustrating many attempts by public health officials to contain it. It is generally accepted that yellow fever originated in Africa and was introduced to the New World through the Atlantic slave trade by Christopher Columbus in the 1490s. The virus crossed the ocean on Columbus’s ships inside desiccated (but still viable) eggs of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. It adapted to other mosquito carriers and flourished in the rainy, temperate subtropics of the Caribbean and the Gulf Coast. Yellow fever was one of many communicable diseases of the Columbian Exchange that proved devastating to Native Americans. For the next 350 years, outbreaks
shaped the history of Mobile. In 1704, the French ship Pélican arrived at Fort Louis. On board were 23 unmarried women who were to be matched up with male settlers at the request of Governor de Bienville. Tragically, the ship was contaminated with yellow fever. The virus ravaged the colony, killing 40 of the 225 settlers, including Henri de Tonti (“Tonti of the Iron Hand”), the Italian soldier and fur trader. One hundred years later, a yellow fever epidemic in Saint-Domingue (present-day Hispaniola) discouraged Napoleon Bonaparte from following through with his planned conquest of North America, instead selling the Louisiana Territory to the United States at a bargain price of $15 million. As Mobile grew, outbreaks of yellow fever became more frequent and intense. In addition to smaller outbreaks nearly every year, there were 11 epidemics from 1819 to 1853. It was during the 1819 epidemic that the city hastily purchased land to establish the Old Church Street Graveyard, in which many yellow fever victims were
laid to rest. In 1853, an epidemic in New Orleans killed as many as 9,000 residents and spread across the Gulf Coast region. When the epidemic hit Mobile in August, it claimed 1,191 lives, about seven percent of the summer population. Such outbreaks gripped Mobile with fear. Crew and passengers on trains arriving from other southeastern towns were often not allowed to disembark, and those who did spent time in a quarantine station while cargo was fumigated. Individual houses or areas within the city might be forcibly quarantined, too, and houses with yellow fever victims often displayed a yellow flag to indicate the presence of the disease. In 1841, a small group of physicians led by Dr. Josiah Clark Nott (1804 – 1873) formed the Mobile Medical Society to address the growing threat of epidemics. The City appointed the members of this organization to a new Board of Health, an appointment that was affirmed by the General Assembly in the 1841 - 1842 session. The Society’s efforts to contain yellow fever focused on improving sanitation. The prevailing view among physicians was that the disease spread through “miasmas,” poisonous vapors that emanated from decomposing refuse. Quicklime was spread in the streets and barrels of tar were burned to disinfect the night air. Elite families migrated to summer homes in rural settlements such as Spring Hill, where they believed they would be free of disease. Others stayed in the city and formed the Can’t Get Away Club, which provided food and medical care to yellow fever patients. After studying yellow fever for years, Dr. Nott began to diverge from the views of his colleagues. For treating the disease, he recommended an antiseptic made from creosote, rather than the purgatives calomel or quinine that were most often prescribed. In an 1848 paper, he mused that yellow fever might be carried by an insect such as a mosquito. This was the
first time that any physician had proposed vector transmission. Nott’s hypothesis was roundly rejected. But subsequent work by Louis-Daniel Beauperthuy (1854) and Carlos Finlay (1881) independently identified the Aedes aegypti mosquito as a yellow fever vector. In Nott’s later years, he became better known as the founder of the Medical College of Alabama in Mobile — and as a leading promoter of now-discredited theories of scientific racism — but he continued to study and debate yellow fever through the 1850s. Yellow fever reached its peak in Mobile with the 1853 epidemic, which was depicted in Augusta Evans Wilson’s novel “Beulah.” The virus spread to Citronelle and Spring Hill, challenging the widespread belief that these areas were safe. Nott’s family became infected while spending the summer at his father-in-law’s home in Spring Hill, causing the deaths of four of his children and his brother-in-law. In the later 19th century, epidemics were somewhat milder and more sporadic due to improved methods of quarantining and vector control. However, despite the development of an effective vaccine in 1937, yellow fever has been difficult to eradicate in an age of air travel and rapid urbanization. Strains of the virus are still endemic in Africa and Latin America. While yellow fever may have receded permanently from Mobile, it still poses a grave public health risk to more than 80,000 people around the world every year. MB
Above To accommodate the many victims of yellow fever, the city established the Church Street Graveyard. IMAGE COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Left In 1841, a
small group of physicians led by Dr. Josiah Clark Nott formed the Mobile Medical Society to address the growing threat of epidemics.
“A History of Mobile in 22 Objects” by various authors. Available for purchase at the History Museum of Mobile and at shoppmtpub.com. Released in conjunction with the History Museum of Mobile exhibit, this photoheavy compendium delves into the city’s history through the analysis of 22 artifacts by Mobile’s leading researchers.
Daryn Glassbrook, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Mobile Medical Museum. Born and raised in New York’s Hudson Valley, Dr. Glassbrook has lived in Mobile with his family since 2011.
Stay tuned each month as we continue to delve into the history of objects from this fascinating exhibit.
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HISTORY | LEGENDS
The Wreck of the Saint-Antoine An 18th-century maritime mishap provoked a tense Franco-Spanish standoff over who controlled Mobile Bay. text by JOHN SLEDGE • illustration by ANNA THORNTON
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e have it by the pen of a shipwright. André Pénicaut was born around 1680 in La Rochelle, France, and in 1699, joined Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville’s second Louisiana voyage as a skilled carpenter. Upon arrival, he settled in Mobile (originally located upriver at 27-Mile Bluff ) and traveled extensively throughout the colony. Between then and 1721 when he returned to France, he witnessed many remarkable things that he recorded in a series of journals, or annals, published much later. According to an entry for the year 1707,
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though it was actually autumn 1705, Pénicaut accompanied two dozen men commanded by Antoine Le Moyne de Châteaugué, the second-youngest of Iberville’s many brothers, to ferry some flour over to Spanish Pensacola. If a presumed portrait of Châteaugué is to be believed, he had a pudgy face and the merest curling wisps of a moustache at the edges of his upper lip — he was only 22 — but he was a decisive leader, as events would soon prove. On their return to Mobile, the French spied a vessel aground at Sand Island. Châteaugué feared it might be English and cautioned his men to be on their
guard. “Approaching nearer,” Pénicaut wrote, “we saw some people signaling us to help them. M. de Chateaugué had the traversier [a larger boat] close up to calling distance. Then we heard them shouting distinctly enough in French for us to have pity on them and to please come and save their lives.” Châteaugué immediately steered alongside, where his men began offloading the crew into a longboat and transporting them the short distance to Dauphin Island. When the boat’s prow grated onto the shelving sand, the grateful survivors staggered onto shore, where according to Pénicaut, they “kissed the
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ground.” They were so weak that they could barely stand. Pénicaut and the others gave them food, “but only a little at a time, for fear that much would make them sick.” The distressed vessel turned out to be the Saint-Antoine, a Martinique merchantman commanded by one Capt. Maurice. Safely on shore, Maurice related what had happened. His ship was on a run from Veracruz to Havana, he said, when disaster struck off the western tip of Cuba. The ship was becalmed for 18 days, and the food supply steadily dwindled. By Pénicaut’s lights, it was a morality tale. Rather than “imploring the aid of heaven,” he declared, the “heathen” sailors “began to blaspheme and utter curses against God. They hurled overboard a little wooden image of St. Antoine with a stone tied to its neck.” The following day, a violent storm smashed into the vessel, sweeping eight “blasphemers” overboard, snapping masts and crushing the prow. Massive waves and lashing winds drove the helpless wreck to the very mouth of Mobile Bay, where Pénicaut and company found her. The crew rescued, Châteaugué turned his attention to salvaging the Saint-Antoine’s cargo. This was a juicy prospect, given that there were at least 70,000 piasters of gold in her sand-filled hold. Capt. Maurice promised the coins to Châteaugué as a gesture of thanks, but the latter was more inclined to haul it upstream and let officials there disburse it. Even as the French scurried over the wreck in a race against the weather, two Spanish longboats each loaded with 30 armed men hove into view and pulled alongside. News sometimes traveled surprisingly fast in the 18th century, and Pensacola’s governor, Don Joseph Guzmán, decided to use the wreck of the Saint-Antoine as an opportunity to assert his authority. He and Bienville had intermittently squabbled over exactly where the dividing line between French Louisiana and Spanish Florida lay. Guzmán believed that a rhumb running down the center of Mobile Bay
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Above A portrait of Antoine Le Moyne de Châteaugué. PAINTING BY JEAN BAPTISTE JOUVENET (1644-1717)
was the most logical boundary, whereas Bienville claimed both sides of the Bay. Since the Saint-Antoine was conveniently lodged on the eastern side of Sand Island, Guzmán demanded salvage rights. It must have been a tense scene, 60 Spaniards and two dozen Frenchmen seated in their bobbing longboats in the Gulf sun, staring at one another and wondering what would happen next. Outnumbered or not, Châteaugué was unintimidated, held his position and stated in no uncertain terms that all of Mobile Bay belonged to the French. He denied the Spanish any right of salvage and suggested they leave at once. It was a dangerous bluff. The Spanish might have won a fight at the wreck, but they did not desire a shooting war over the matter. Pensacola was too poor and needed French Mobile’s help if it was to survive, as indeed Mobile needed Pensacola’s. Sanity prevailed, and the Spanish withdrew. There was no longer any dispute about who controlled Mobile Bay. From Bon Secour to Fort Louis, and Ecor Rouge to Dauphin Island, all of its waters were under the fleur-de-lis. MB
John S. Sledge is the author of “The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime History.”
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PEOPLE | SPOTLIGHT
“GIANTS OF THE SEA”
Ships & Men Who Changed the World From his home in New York, Mobile native John D. McCown Jr. discusses his mentor, shipping titan Malcom McLean, and the book that their relationship inspired. interview by BRECK PAPPAS
JOHN D. MCCOWN JR.
I
n the preface to his book “Giants of the Sea,” John D. McCown explains that he simply never grew out of his boyhood obsession for enormous machinery. “This was kindled by a father who would load five pajama-clad children into his 1962 Impala convertible and, after an ice-cream cone stop, tour fire stations in Mobile, Alabama,” he explains. This fixation would eventually lead McCown, a Mobile native, to a 40-year career in the shipping industry and a close relationship with Malcom McLean, the celebrated “Father of Containerization” with a Mobile connection of his own; convinced that he could create a container that could be transferred between trucks, ships and railroad cars, McLean purchased Mobile’s Waterman Steamship Company and set out to bring his revolutionary idea into existence. On April 26, 1956, container shipping was born when McLean loaded and launched the SS Ideal X at Port Newark, New Jersey. “In less than eight hours of cargo activity,” McCown writes, “the new process had loaded the same amount of cargo that it would have taken some three days to load with the traditional breakbulk loading process.” The ramifications of McLean’s breakthrough has since been compared to the invention of the steam engine. As McCown set out to tell the life story of his mentor, he realized that the story of the shipping industry at large is one that is seldom told or celebrated. With this entertaining yet informative book, McCown sets out to change just that.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and your career in the shipping industry? I was born and raised in Mobile and educated at St. Ignatius and McGill. After graduating from LSU with a business degree, I headed north to work for a bank in NYC and a couple of years later made my way up to Boston to get an MBA at Harvard Business School. Towards the end of my first year, a professor started class by holding up a Business Week magazine. Malcom McLean was on the cover with an article titled, “Malcom McLean’s $500 Million Gamble.” My professor said that this is the sort of risk-taking entrepreneur we hope to make you think like here at HBS. I knew Malcom had a Mobile connection, and it piqued my interest. Reading the article, I was inspired and ditched my plans to work for an investment bank the summer between business school years. Instead, I took a summer job in financial analysis at U.S. Lines. After graduation, I joined the McLean Securities parent company. I’ve been broadly involved in shipping for over 40 years since then.
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The book’s preface includes some wonderful memories of your childhood in Mobile. Tell us about some of those memories, and how did the city foster your interest in large, moving objects? My father, who had been in the Navy and had worked for Waterman Steamship, shared his love for vessels with me. Once he read his Navy League magazine, he would always pass it on. He would also take me to the state docks where we shared an admiration for the ships we viewed, at the time, as giant. When I was 14, I accompanied him on a Navy League outing to Pensacola for a cruise on the aircraft carrier Lexington. I’ll never forget the size of that ship. I was extremely fortunate to grow up in a port city with a father who nurtured my fascination for most things maritime. Though this book tells the stories of “nine visionary titans” of global trade, it is dedicated to one of them: Malcom McLean. How did you come to work with McLean, and how would you describe your relationship with him? My book is a broad sweep of the modern cargo shipping industry, but the person who had the most profound impact on that was Malcom. I had the benefit of an extraordinary education at Harvard Business School, but it hardly compares to what I learned about the shipping and transportation business from my mentor. I went from Harvard to McLean Securities and worked closely with Malcom for two decades. As our professional relationship grew over those years, so did our personal relationship. Just as almost every meeting with Malcom had you learning something new, every social encounter was also memorable. Malcom was both a wonderful teacher and host. If you were to meet Malcom by sitting next to him at a dinner party and not know anything about his background, the overriding impression you would have was that he was a pleasant and polite Southern gentleman. An industry colleague hit the right chord when she referred to him as a “gentle giant” in one of the many articles published following his death in 2001. 88 mobilebaymag.com | july 2021
This is the most detailed telling of McLean’s life I’ve ever come across, full of stories from his early days working at a gas station to his rise as a titan of industry. Did the stories come from McLean himself? Yes, they all did. I’d encouraged Malcom to cooperate with a professional writer to get the full story of his remarkable life out there. I got close to making the case, but in the end Malcom didn’t believe, as he would say, in “tooting his own horn.” Malcom did say that when he was gone, maybe I should write the book. My initial focus was on a book just about Malcom. But as that expanded into the story of the impact of his innovations, a broader narrative began to take form. In your opinion, what exactly made McLean such a visionary? He had an insatiable curiosity coupled with the uncanny ability to not just “look” at something, but to really “see” it. He took in information like a sponge, separating the wheat from the chaff and focusing on the key items that could make a difference. The big picture came to Malcom because he knew how to break things down into key components and put them back together in a better way. He constantly had a yellow pad and pencil within arm’s reach. Is there one anecdote about McLean from your book that sums him up best? I’ll always remember spending one Saturday morning with Malcom sitting in a car in Port Newark and watching a container ship being discharged. The company was in the process of being sold, and after looking at the numbers, we wanted to observe firsthand its unloading process and productivity. We were intrigued with the possibility of buying this company and transitioning it to be more like the company we already controlled. Coincidentally, the ship was being worked just a few hundred yards away from where the Ideal X launched containerization more than 40 years earlier. As we sat together, much of Malcom’s observations were related to that historic day four decades ago and his vision that containers would be handled just as we could see them now being handled in
front of us. At one point, after a number of minutes intently watching in silence as a series of containers were discharged, he turned and asked, “So, do you think this new system is going to work?” We both smiled broadly. Although McLean is recognized throughout Mobile’s GulfQuest Maritime Museum (which includes a replica container ship named the SS McLean), why don’t more people in Mobile know his name? That question goes to something I hope my book will help rectify. Malcom would be better known if shipping got the recognition it deserves. Malcom was a private person focused on his business with little interest in promoting himself in the media. He let his accomplishments speak for themselves. Malcom received many accolades during his life, but he would usually brush them aside while crediting other people and saying that if he hadn’t done it, somebody else would have. But an award he was posthumously given last year would have moved him. The Human Progress project was started by a large think tank a couple of years ago to chronicle and share data related to the improvement in human well-being. As part of this effort, they published a series of profiles referred to as “Heroes of Progress.” In those, they recognized individuals whose lives have
Above, top to bottom Korea’s Hyundai Merchant Marine vessel is one of the world’s largest ships. Malcom McLean at Port Newark, 1957.
significantly improved human well-being. People like Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press, and Jonas Salk, the discoverer of the polio vaccine, were so profiled. The 17th Hero of Progress recognized by Human Progress was Malcom. They accurately said his invention of container shipping was the key to growth in world trade that has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. Malcom was effectively the only businessman that was included in the 50 people profiled by Human Progress. That is quite a legacy for anybody, but one I think the facts support as being well deserved by Malcom. july 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 89
When and why did you decide to write this book? This book has been some 20 years in the making. I knew after Malcom died that I would eventually write something about his remarkable life. I first started putting pen to paper around eight years ago. I would take it up and put it down, as time allowed between work and various projects. The pandemic gave me the time I needed to pull everything together and complete the book. In addition to telling the story of Malcom’s life, a broader goal of mine was to tell the story of just how vitally linked the modern shipping industry is to everyone on the planet. It’s a story that everyone should be more aware of. In one way or another, this powerhouse industry is linked to the daily lives of just about everybody. It is literally the invisible industry that delivers the world economy. The impact of this irreplaceable service also goes well beyond the economy. The trade, made possible only because of these efficient ships, has helped reduce world poverty. That same trade has also made the world more peaceful than it otherwise would have been. There is a direct link between the most important part of the shipping industry today and Mobile. That link is Malcom McLean, and it should be a point of pride for all Mobilians. By writing this book, you took on a massively technical subject. How did you walk the line of writing a book that would appeal to both industry insiders and outsiders? The audience I had in mind for the book evolved. From a book targeted at shipping folk, it transitioned to one aimed at the public. With that broader focus came a need to stay away from technical aspects and industry jargon and focus just on explaining things in easy-to-understand layman terms. While my book is targeted at the public, I’ve been gratified by the feedback I’ve received from shipping industry insiders and descendants of the people profiled. Where do you live now, and do you ever make it back to Mobile? I live with my wife Kathleen in Pound Ridge, New York, a bucolic town that is an 90 mobilebaymag.com | july 2021
hour north of New York City by commuter train. We moved there from Manhattan a little over 20 years ago to raise our son, Jack, and daughter, Caroline, in open space. All of my friends in Pound Ridge are aware of my Alabama connection, and it is reinforced with my frequent wearing of an Alabama T-shirt. Indeed, I’ve bonded with our local police chief who happens to be an Alabama Crimson Tide football fan. On the other side of the spectrum, it turns out my next door neighbor, former White House press secretary Ari Fleisher, is a diehard Auburn fan. Bragging rights have been solidly on my side recently, but it doesn’t stop Ari from bringing up the “Kick Six.” While I’ve now lived more that twice as many years up north compared to the years I lived in Alabama, Mobile will always be home. I visit as often as I can. When I’m there, my time is spent almost entirely with family. Both Jack and Caroline, now in their 20s, love becoming acquainted with their Southern heritage. My Boston-born bride has always loved Mobile, and each time we’re down there, if I listen closely I can hear a slight Southern accent that she has picked up after a few days. How can people find and buy the book? It is a hardcover, large format book available on Amazon and other popular reseller websites and can be accessed by searching for “Giants of the Sea.” MB
John D. McCown Jr. has four
decades of maritime experience, including 15 years as CEO of a container shipping company he co-founded. He lives in Pound Ridge, New York, with his wife Kathleen.
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THE ARTS | LITERATURE
Long Live the King! Step aside, peaches, and make way for writer Audrey McDonald Atkins’ favorite fruit. excerpt from the book THEY CALL ME OR ANGE JUICE by AUDREY MCDONALD ATKINS
I
come from a land where the peach is queen. There are peach parks, peach festivals, a real live peach queen, and even a water tower devoted to her luscious, ruddy being. For several months in the summer, every magazine, cooking show, and commentary is devoted to recipes for peach cobblers and peach ice creams. We are regaled with tales of eating peaches over the sink, while the juices run down your arms, and equally sappy, syrupy nostalgia, for our Southern sovereign and the barefoot days of old. I, however, must profess my allegiance to another: the noble fig, the oft-ignored fruit of the gods, the redheaded stepchild of Southern culture. In my world, the brown turkey fig is king. As the proud owner of the mother of all fig trees, my anticipation begins when I see the first tiny green shoots of leaves heralding the end of winter and the coming of warmer days. With surprising alacrity, the tree leafs out,
and soon little green droplets begin to appear. That is when time stops. For months, I wait. And watch. Was there a slight color change? Are they bigger? Are they growing at all? Then, one day, all of a sudden like, I see the telltale dark purplish brown peeking out from behind a leaf! Oh, frabjous day! Forget that floozy, the tawdry peach. The queen is dead; long live the king! Silently, unheralded by the press and stars with spatulas and catchy phrases, in all of its dusky glory, the fig has arrived to share with me its succulent, honeyed goodness. I take what I can reach, eating them directly from the tree while the birds, bees, and wasps take the rest. I envision hot jars and pans of sugar syrup, a steamy kitchen boiling with candied delicacies. The old fuzzy peaches become but a distant memory. My summers will always be about the fig. At least until it’s time for scuppernongs. MB
Born and raised in Citronelle, Atkins shares stories about growing up and living in the South in her book, “They Call Me Orange Juice,” and at her blog folkwaysnowadays.com.
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THE ARTS | POETRY
Jubilee! Jubilee! cries the barefoot boy,
splashing through the bathwater-warm surge of high tide. People carrying buckets, nets, gigs, and washtubs rush toward a mass exodus from the murky deep,
of blue crab, shrimp, flounder, stingrays, and more,
to the sandy shores of Mobile Bay.
Crustaceans by the hundreds, pinchers waving, are climbing over teeming piles of slippery carapaces, only to wind up
steamed, ice-cooled, and swallowed
by tourists and locals alike.
And for days afterward, the oily odor of
deep-fried flounder will hover over Mobile in a thick, lip-smacking haze.
What a gift to receive the earth’s bounty
with such little effort on our part, though some might say
a starved soul is not so easily filled.
For now, however, we won’t speak of hungers left unsated by fresh seafood seasoned with paprika, salt, and bay leaves,
served on platters with a lemon wedge and sprigs of forest green parsley, or straight from the pot or pan — not while our barefoot herald is harvesting fist-sized shrimp, his face still radiant
with joy and the roseate blush
of a Jubilee dawn. poem by TERRI KIRBY ERICKSON photo by MEGGAN AND JEFF HALLER
From “A Sun Inside My Chest,” Press 53, © 2020 by Terri Kirby Erickson. Erickson is the author of six collections of poetry. Her work has received multiple honors, including the Joy Harjo Poetry Prize and a Nautilus Silver Book Award, and has appeared in numerous literary journals, magazines, newspapers, anthologies and other publications.
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HISTORY | ASK MCGEHEE
Is it true that Mobile’s electric plant was once destroyed by an explosion? text by TOM MCGEHEE
In the late 19th century, Alabama Power Company’s current location in downtown Mobile was the site of a plant that provided the area’s electricity. In 1884, a crowd of Mobilians gathered in the offices of the Mobile Register as the city’s very first incandescent bulb was demonstrated. That bulb was powered by the Mobile Electric Company, located at 65 North Royal St. on the northwest corner of St. Louis Street. At first, electricity was considered an alternative to gas or kerosene lighting. By the start of the 20th century, it was being used to power a variety of equipment in manufacturing plants. It also made buildings such as the new Battle House and the towering Van Antwerp Building possible with their “high-speed” elevators. Mobilians would soon take electricity for granted, as well as the black smoke billowing from the great smokestack down at the power plant. On the evening of February 21, 1919, at 8:25 p.m., the city was thrown into what the Register termed “inky darkness” when two boilers at the plant exploded.
Indescribable Awfulness A witness described “a slight cracking noise like the splintering of a dry piece of wood followed by a moment of silence. Next came a deafening detonation, which could be heard for blocks.” The main boiler room was briefly thrown into darkness only to be illuminated by a flash that ignited gases, sending a roaring flame skyward through a gaping hole where the roof had once been. Several other surviving boilers were cracked, allowing steam to escape, which produced a screeching sound that could be 96 mobilebaymag.com | july 2021
Above On February 21, 1919, two boilers exploded at the Mobile Electric Lighting Company, located at the northwest corner of North Royal and St. Louis streets.
heard for miles. Blocks of masonry weighing hundreds of pounds were lifted by the force of the explosion and dropped into nearby streets while heavy pieces of machinery were thrown clear of the building. Rooftops surrounding the site were littered with bricks and timber. Fortunately, the worst of the blast went toward the east into an industrial section. Kahn Manufacturing had its western windows shattered by flying bricks and pieces of lumber. Had the disaster struck during working hours, the space would have been filled with dozens of seamstresses producing overalls. Other nearby structures were pummeled with flying debris, smashing windows. A news account described the scene as being one of “indescribable awfulness.”
Miraculously, the residential area to the immediate west was spared the force of the explosion. Three homes that backed up to the plant on St. Joseph Street had no damage beyond very frightened occupants.
Finding the Dead and Dying Some victims were thrown through windows by the blast. Many were terribly scalded by the steam, and their moans attracted rescuers brave enough to enter the noisy inferno. Volunteers, including a number of young men just back from World War I, rushed to the site along with the fire department. They had to use axes to free employees trapped beneath piles of “bricks, coal, timbers, iron girders, sheets of iron and portions of the roof.” Security
at the power plant was apparently quite different back then since the news account noted that the victims of the blast included two “tourists” who had walked in to take a tour. Saturday’s newspaper featured a list of the building’s known occupants and, shockingly, stated their names, ages, condition and their possibility of surviving the ordeal. Ages ranged from 16 to 65, and the chilling account described a 53-year-old male with “leg broken, seriously scalded. Expected to die.” A 16-year-old boy had this sad prognosis: “Horribly burned about face and head. Eye specialists say he will lose one eye.” A 50-year-old woman who was bringing her husband a late dinner was “horribly burned about the body, eyes and head. Will die.” Her husband: “Horribly scalded, not expected to live.” While the victims were being treated at local hospitals, a second fire broke out at 1:20 a.m. and destroyed the remainder of the building, making it a total loss. The final death toll was set at four, with seven being seriously injured. Had the blast occurred during the day with streets and nearby buildings full of pedestrians and employees, the tragedy would have been far worse. The disaster was ultimately blamed on a corroded drumhead on the older of the two boilers. A temporary plant was quickly built, and most of Mobile had electricity restored in a little over a week. In 1925, Mobile’s Electric Lighting Company became a division of Alabama Power Company. The rebuilt plant down on North Royal Street has been repurposed over the years, but architectural elements that survived the 1919 disaster are still visible. MB july 2021 | mobilebaymag.com 97
END PIECE | BACKSTORY
Let’s Do Launch Photo courtesy Erik Overbey Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama
“These launchings were festive community occasions. Politicians, executives, dignitaries, citizens and children all clad in their Sunday best jammed the ways and cheered the awesome spectacle of a big ship sliding into the water with a mighty metallic groan and a huge splash.” – excerpt from “The Mobile River” by John S. Sledge
THE S.S. MOBILE CITY shoved into the water on May 27, 1920, just six months after production began at the Chickasaw Shipbuilding & Car Co. The unidentified woman, pictured below, held the honor of christening the steamship, presumably with water, juice or cider, given its occurrence during Prohibition. One of six vessels launched from Chickasaw that year, Mobile City was specifically designed to carry odd-shaped cargo and liquids in bulk. According to a November 25, 1945, article in the Mobile Register, Mobile City “survived almost two years of U-boats and an almost certain sentence to a watery graveyard after Armistice.” The ship would go on to sail under three different flags (Panama, Costa Rica and Lebanon) and was reportedly scrapped in Greece in 1962, under the name Elpis. Before closing in 1983, the Chickasaw shipyard had produced nearly 100 ships for the U.S. Maritime Commission, the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy. SIP, SHIP, HOORAY Launching ceremonies — the joyous occasion marking a boat’s inaugural transfer from land to water — date back to at least the Babylonian Empire. In the centuries since, people have chosen various ways to celebrate (or appease the sea). Turks sacrificed sheep; Vikings sacrificed humans. But around the 15th century, sprinkling wine on the boat’s deck, instead of blood, became the more palatable tradition. The following are just a few notable commemorations: USS Constitution: The launching of “Old Ironsides” is the first recorded instance of an American warship being christened. Captain James Sever broke a bottle of Madeira wine on the bowsprit, October 1797. USS Hartford: The sloop-of-war from which David G. Farragut proclaimed, “Damn the torpedoes,” was doused with water from the Atlantic Ocean, the Connecticut River and Hartford Spring, November 1858. USS Maine: Champagne wet the bow of the Navy’s first steel battleship, November 1890. USS Kentucky: Much to the crowd’s chagrin, the battleship was christened with spring water gathered from Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace. After the ship’s launch, spectators threw bourbon bottles against its sides, March 1898. USS Akron: Lou Hoover, President Herbert Hoover’s wife, didn’t break a bottle of spirits. Instead, she released a flock of pigeons, 1931.
Do you recognize the woman in this photo? Let us know! Email ahartin@pmtpublishing.com. 98 mobilebaymag.com | july 2021
