Cullman Good Life Magazine - Winter 2017

CULLMAN COUNTY

Santa grants a rare interview to talk about magic and the job he loves After winter goes away, you might want to think about ... Flyboarding WINTER 2017 COMPLIMENTARY

A Vietnam vet recounts hairy missions and his wounded-warrior bond today

LOOKING

FORWARD TO MORE PLACES

TO REST YOUR HEAD 30-bed expansion. Opening 2018.

Cullman has big things ahead, and so do we. We’re adding new rooms to provide more care for our growing community.

So when you need to stay over, you’ll be able to rest easy.

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NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

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Find your happy place at Smith Lake!

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NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY

Augusta’s Augusta’srib ribeye eyesteaks steaks......they theyjust justcan’t can’tbe bebeat. beat.

Sink your teeth teeth into into aa grilled, grilled,bone-in bone-in porkchop. pork chop.

Sink your

SamScott Scottand andMaria MariaGonzalaz Gonzalez, Sam arepart partofofthe the“family” “family” that ensure you enjoy your experience at Augusta’s. tha ensure you enjoy your experience at Augusta’s Sports Grill.

Customers, employees ... all love the fresh food, great atmosphere One … … OK, OK, two twoof ofthe thereasons reasons One folks love Augusta’s Sports Grillare areitsits folks love Augusta’s Sports Grill always-fresh food and its family-owned always fresh food and its family-owned atmosphere.Those Thoseare arealso alsotwo twoofofthe the atmosphere. reasons Samantha “Sam” Scott and Maria reasons Samantha “Sam” Scott and Maria Gonzalez have worked at Augusta’s almost Gonzalaz have worked at Augusta’s almost from day day one one in inMarch March2015.

2015. from Maria, with extensive experienceatattwo Maria, with extensive experience two local restaurants, was quickly restaurants, was quickly hired at thehired newat the new Augusta’s.

Augusta’s.

“I like like itit here herebecause becausewe weprepare preparethe the “I food fresh each day,” she says.

She’s proud food fresh each day,” she says. She is proud of the the compliments complimentsthat thatbrings. brings. of Maria works in prep, fixing salads, Maria works in prep, preparing salads, making ranch dressing, cutting meat.The The making ranch dressing, cutting meat. burgers are 100 percent meat, she notes. hamburger is 100 percent meat, she notes.

And though though people peopleask, ask,she shewon’t won’treveal reveal And owner Deb Veres’ secret ranch recipe. owner Deb Veres’ secret ranch recipe.

“Deb is is like like my myfamily familyand andnot notlike likemy “Deb my boss,” Maria says.

“She is a very boss,” Maria says. “She is a very sweet lady,

sweet lady, I like herinexperience in and I like herand experience restaurants. restaurants.

Deb is very smart.”

Deb is very smart.”

Sam worked worked at ataaFairview Fairviewrestaurant restaurant Sam when, a few days after Augusta’s opened, when, a few days after Augusta’s opened, she was hired on the spot as a waitress. she was hired on the spot as a waitress.

Now she she also also enjoys enjoysbartending. bartending.

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“It’s a good place to II like like working workingfor foraaclose closefamily familybusiness business better than than aacorporate corporateplace. place. better “I try to have repeat customers,”she she “I try to have repeat customers,” continues.

“I try to ensure they have continues. “I try to ensure they have proper proper service.”

That effort good service.”

That effort earns herearns goodher tips, and tips – no doubt helped by serving fresh, serving fresh, delicious food helps. delicious While food.

Maria loves Augusta’s chicken While Maria loves Augusta’s wings, Sam’s go-to is the Hawaiianchicken rib wings, Sam’s go-to is the Hawaiian rib eye. “But I have not had anything I don’t eye.

“But I have not had anything I don’t like, she adds. “I like everything. It’s all so like, she adds. “It’s all so good.” good.”

Hmm ... ... Sounds Sounds like like what what amost nearly every Hmm everyone who eats at Augusta’s says.to say. everyone who eats at Augusta’s has

Friedgreen greentomatoes tomatoesare arepopular popular a reason!

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Welcome

Christmas comes wrapped in assorted perspectives

Y

ou remember how it used to be, waiting for Christmas as a kid. Dirt turned old faster than time passed leading up to the big day.

Actually, one of the things I loved about Christmas did not have to wait until Dec. 25 finally arrived. I could enjoy it as soon as Mom and Dad got the centerpiece of our decorations up – the Christmas tree.

I always enjoyed dousing the living room lamps at night, scooting up underneath the tree and gazing up through the maze of branches aglow with dazzling colored lights and sparkling ornament reflections. Back in those days, we draped shiny icicles on the tree, which added to the dazzle and to my delight.

I loved that perspective, lying there on

the floor. That memory returned to me last December as I crawled under the branches of Libby Crider’s Christmas tree to capture some of that perspective for the picture we have on the cover of this issue.

It brought back a lot of memories, only I don’t remember it being so hard to get off the floor as a kid ...

As this issue of Good Life came together, I realized it offers several different – and to me that means interesting – perspectives on Christmas.

Libby’s tree, for instance, has a completely different look than does the tree on the following page, which Santa Claus leaves up year round at his second home in Holly Pond. (I suspect he leaves Christmas trees up all year at his home at

the North Pole, too; I just haven’t been there yet to verify that.)

Another perspective on Christmas is captured in Steve Maze’s story on page 60 about how the late Harold and Ruby Swindle used to decorate their yard in Simcoe. I stopped at their old home site recently and happened to spot a tangled string of old lights hanging there.

In doing an Easter story earlier this year on the late Mother Mary Angelica, I visited the creche “cave” at the Shrine (page 78).

It offered another perspective, a meditative one on the reason Christmas is celebrated in the first place. Merry Christmas to ya.

David Moore Publisher/editor

Contributors Besides a sleigh full of customers for her Deb’s Bookstore, Good Life book review writer Deb Laslie presented this as her letter to Santa Claus: “I’d like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmastime, filled with the wonder of our Savior’s birth and the blessings of those we love around us. As for this coming year? Prosperous!”

It wasn’t a Christmas present, but free-lance photographer/writer Patrick Oden got something for this “Christmas” issue of GLM ... not one but three stories. Plus some layout duties. He’s pretty agreeable to any assignments that come his way, but he really put himself into the story about Flyboarding at Smith Lake.

As ad/art director and partner in MoMc Publishing, Sheila McAnear is especially pleased with the winter/ holiday issue of Cullman Good Life Magazine. It is – so far, she likes to say – GLM’s largest issue to date. If that meant dealing with more ads than usual and having more work than usual, well that’s just fine with her.

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Steve Maze’s basement at his house in the New Cannan community is packed with tons of memorabilia, making it tough to find him a Christmas gift. He doesn’t need a sense of humor, either. He visited doctors and medical facilities 64 times in 12 months, but he can still talk about it and make you laugh.

During the summer and fall, Regional Extension Agent Tim Crow spent countless frustrating hours – years, it probably seems – struggling to get the irrigation system up and going at the community garden.

Finally, out of duct tape, he’s taking his plea for a new system to the powers that be: Santa Claus.

It’s good to go through life with a sense of amazement, says GLM publisher/editor David Moore.

Which is a big reason he enjoys his work so much. “I’m continually amazed at the people who share such interesting stories with us,” he says. “We thank them for sharing – and for being amazing, too.”

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Inside 12 Good Fun

Veterans Day is a serious holiday, but it’s also big doings in Cullman County

20 Good People

Santa is about as good as they get

24 Good Reads

“Stillhouse Lake” and ... “Wonder Woman”

On the cover: Libby Crider’s Christmas tree glows with a dazzle (without any red).

This page: As you might suspect, Santa’s tree, at his second home in Holly Pond, is awash in his favorite color. Photos by David Moore.

27 Good Cooking

The First Lady of Cullman loves cooking, besides, it sure beats doing laundry

36 Good ’n’ Green

The story of The Christmas Plant

40 Libby Crider’s home

The decorator tells how she came to find and understand herself and her style

50 Good Eats

Locally owned Buenavista Mexican Cantina makes you feel at home (in Mexico)

52 Go Flyboarding

It’s not James Bond, or the Jetsons ... it’s Patrick Oden, he’s having a blast

60 Glory City

Harold and Ruby Swindle are gone but their glow shines on in memory

62 Camp Liberty

Building confidence, ability and leadership

70 Father and son in arms

Cullman native Sonny Morrow shares a special bond with his wounded warrior

78 Out ’n’ About

Visit a scene 2,000 years old

David F. Moore Publisher/editor 256-293-0888 david.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com

Vol. V No. 2 Copyright 2017 Published quarterly

Sheila T. McAnear Advertising/art Director 256-640-3973 sheila.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com

MoMc Publishing LLC P.O. Box 28, Arab, Al 35016 www.good-life-magazine.net

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NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY

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‘Good Morning, Vietnam ... Today’s top news is that Veterans Day will make a new city at the airport’

T

he Cullman Elks Lodge is dubbing its Nov. 11 Veterans Day commemoration “Good Morning, Vietnam.” Admission is free.

The annual event drew 10,000 visitors last year. The same or more is expected this year, which, for the day, will transform Folsom Field into the second largest city in the county. Atmosphere-wise, the airport will be transformed, at least in part, into a Vietnam military base, complete with a sandbag bunker (built by high school ROTC students and inmates), military equipment and aircraft from the war, re-enactors and, with a nod to Nam DJ Adrian Cronauer of “Good Morning, Vietnam” fame, loudspeakers will broadcast music of the era interspersed with service announcements familiar to veterans of the day.

“That will really bring it back for the guys,” says retired USAF Col. Ken Brown, an Elk member and one of the event planners. “While all veterans will be honored, the focus this year is on Vietnam veterans.”

Live interviews with: • John Casper, F-105 pilot in Vietnam • Mike Rose, a Green Beret recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor • Bill Korwatch, Marine veteran of Vietnam • Robert Turner, Cullman, and Steve Larson, Holly Pond, Marine recipients of Purple Hearts Among the many attractions are purchased rides in a Huey or Cobra attack helicopter or a vintage Ford Tri-Motor, the first commercial airliner, sponsored by Eckenrod Ford.

Among the many other events will be: • A Ford car show with vehicles from 1920 to the present • Free lunch for veterans and spouses • Food trucks • 20th century re-enactors • Living history Civil War camp with artillery firings • 2 p.m. demonstrations by Skydive Alabama and military parachutists • 2:30-5 p.m. closing fly-overs and aerial demos, including a huge C-130 cargo plane For more info: Ken Brown, 256-507-1121.

– David Moore 12

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

At the left are Cullman veterans retired Col. Ken Brown and retired Major Bob Stevens, a Purple Heart recipient who flew Huey helicopters – like the one pictured above – in Vietnam.

Below is a Ford Trimotor on display in Washington, D.C.; photo credit 350z33 at English Wikipedia.

‘Tis the season ... so get out and enjoy it •Through Nov. 15 – FIFTEEN MINUTES Pop culture icon Andy Warhol is getting more than his 15 minutes of fame at the Evelyn Burrow Museum at Wallace State Community College. The two-month exhibit “FIFTEEN MINUTES: Homage to Andy Warhol, an Exhibition of Sight and Sound” has been extended to Nov. 15. It was unknown at press time if six of Warhol’s works (represented at right) would also be extended. (They’re on loan from the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Huntsville Museum of Art, and the Booth Western Art Museum.) Curated and produced by artists Jeff Gordon and Path Soong, “FIFTEEN MINUTES,” features silkscreen prints and original recordings – from speaking and music to sounds – created by a diverse roster of artists, writers and performers with ties to Warhol. Among the artists are: Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Soong and Gordon. The artists’ recordings – heard through headsets – accompany each 12x12-inch, album-sized image. Museum hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.

For more info: 256-352-8457; or www. burrowmuseum.org. Admission is free.

• Nov. 10 – Window Display Contest If you haven’t decorated the windows of your business for Christmas, you need to get it done if you want to enter the Window Display Contest sponsored by the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce. Judging for the contest starts at 5 p.m. on this date.

The contest has three categories: retail, restaurant and service-oriented.

Rules are simple: you must use a Christmas theme that incorporates lights. You can be located anywhere in Cullman County, but to be eligible for a cash reward, you have to be a current chamber member. To register or for more info: call 256-734-0454; or visit: www.cullmanchamber.org.

• Nov. 16 – The Nelons The Cullman Community Concert Association will be featuring The Nelons on Thursday, November 16. The group

Good Fun

Warhol painted “Moonwalk” in 1987, commemorating Neil Armstrong’s iconic moment. He died shortly after completing it. A screenprint of this and five other Warhols may continue to hang until Nov. 15 in the Evelyn Burrow Museum as part of the “FIFTEEN MINUITES” exhibit.

The Nelons’ southern gospel legacy spans three decades, and members Kelly, Jason, Amber and Autumn are adding to the success. Founded by patriarch Rex Nelon, the group has garnered three Grammy Award-nominations, six Dove Awards, 14 Singing News Fan Awards, a People’s Choice Silver Telly Award and an induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

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Interested in being part of the two-day Vinemont Band Boosters Arts and Craft Show Nov-17-18? “This is the largest fundraiser that the band hosts each year,” says spokesperson Valetta Baker. “Our students assist vendors with loading and unloading, serving vendors complimentary coffee, and with any other needs that arise.”

For an application and more info: vinemontbandboosters@ gmail.com. has recorded more than 35 albums with chart-topping southern gospel classics. This concert will feature tight family harmonies, timeless songs and a passion for worship with hit songs from multiple musical genres, including southern gospel, country, bluegrass and Americana. Their vocal excellence and

stunning live performances have been featured on the Gaither Homecoming recordings and at The Grand Ole Opry.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. in the Betty Leeth Haynes Theatre on the Wallace State Community College Campus. Single tickets $30 at the door; students free with a

paid adult. For more info, call: Kathy Scruggs, 256-339-4447; or visit: www. cullmancommunityconcertassociation. com.

• Nov. 17-18 – Vinemont Arts and Crafts The annual Vinemont Band Boosters

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Arts and Craft Show will be held at the Cullman Civic Center 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Find more than 70 local and regional vendors with handmade jewelry, children’s and women’s clothing, UA/AU items, woodworking, metal art, candles, inspirational framed art and more great Christmas ideas.

Win a door prize or buy a ticket for a drawing for $1,000 at noon Saturday. Concessions are available for purchase and local musicians provide free entertainment.

• Nov. 22 – Good Hope Pre-Thanksgiving Meal The town of Good Hope holds its eighth, free, community-wide preThanksgiving meal starting at the Good Hope High School lunchroom.

It starts at 11 a.m. and lasts until the 1,200-1,500 meals run out. Drivethrough and sit-down dinners will be served by town employees, officials and volunteers.

Councilman Greg Brown, who

is over community services, is organizing the event, which was started by Mayor Jerry Bartlett when he was a councilman. Along with seven or so other annual community events, the dinner is funded strictly by $1,000 donations from five town businesses and numerous other small donations. Food for the dinner is purchased through the lunchroom and costs about $1 per plate.

The meal is not limited to people in need but is open to everyone, the mayor says.

• Nov. 30-Dec. 3 – Antebellum Christmas Only few tickets remain for the “Antebellum Christmas” road trip to Natchez, Miss. Costs range from $670 to $1,105 per person and include motor coach transportation, great accommodations, seven meals, admission to historic sites and more.

Sponsored by the WSCC Alumni Association. For more info: www. wsccalumni.org/Natchez17; or call 256-352-8071.

• Dec. 1 – Ugly Christmas Sweater Party This is the second year of this novel and fun party presented

by EPIC (Emerging Professionals Impacting Cullman). Enjoy live music, an ugly Christmas sweater contest (of course), Christmas games, donations for local charities and more. Sponsors are Drinkard Development and St. John and Associates. Time and location had yet to be determined by magazine deadline, but you can get more info from the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce: 256-7340454; or www.cullmanchamber.org.

• Dec. 1-23 – Night of Winter Wonderland Pack up the family or friends and drive through the annual Christmas light display at Sportsman Lake Park.

Admission is $5 per vehicle. See Santa at the concession stand with hot cocoa and candy canes. Take a horse and carriage ride for $5 per person or hop the park train for $4.

Unless it’s raining, the lights

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will be on, 5-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 5-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday (except for Dec. 4-5 and Dec. 11-12, when the park will be closed). For more info: 256734-3052.

• Dec. 1 – Christmas in Cullman Parade and Festival Rolling at 6 p.m., the Christmas in Cullman Parade will move up First Avenue from Busy Bee Café to Festhalle Farmers’ Market. Floats will be decked with Christmas lights and decor. A free festival will follow the parade at Depot Park with live Christmas caroling, pictures with Santa, free kids’ games, horse rides, a petting zoo and more.

The day actually kicks off with the Hollymarket Christmas Arts and Crafts Show 9 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Cullman Civic Center. The more than 80 vendors will return 9a.m-3 p.m.

Saturday, offering unique handmade items. Admission is free.

As part of the holiday weekend – brought to you by Cullman Parks and Rec – downtown businesses will offer sales and other specials. For more info: Kelly Pulliam, 256-734-9157; or kpulliam@cullmanrecreation.org.

• Dec. 7 – Christmas Concert The Wallace State Fine and Performing Arts Department’s annual concert features the jazz and concert bands, concert choir and singers in a 90-minute-plus performance of Christmas music. An open preview is at 9:30 a.m.; the concert 7 p.m. Both free events are at the Betty Leeth Haynes Theatre. For more info: 256352-8277.

• Dec. 7-9 – Sheriff’s Rodeo The 19th Cullman County Sheriff’s Office Jimmy Arrington Memorial Rodeo will bring bucking thrills and spills to raise thousands of dollars for special needs children and students at schools across the county. It will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Cullman County Agriculture and Trade Center on U.S. 31 North, beginning with a salute to local WWII veterans before the national anthem. A show for special 16

needs kids will be held Thursday, followed by a sponsors’ dinner that evening.

Top talent from the Professional Cowboy Association season will compete in bareback riding, barrel racing, bull riding, cowboy tie-down roping, cowgirl breakaway roping, saddle bronc riding and team roping. Rodeo clowns will keep you laughing.

Advance tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for children 6-18; 5 and younger get in free. Tickets will be available at the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office, Jack’s Western & Outdoor Wear and all locations of Traditions Bank.

Tickets at the door are the same price, but with last year’s rodeo drawing big crowds, come when the gates open at 5:30 p.m. to get a good seat.

Sheriff Matt Gentry and the rodeo committee donated $15,500 from the proceeds of the 2016 rodeo to the county and city school systems.

• Dec. 17 – Community Band Christmas Part of the Cullman Community Concert Series, the Community Band’s annual holiday show is always popular and fun. It’s at 2 p.m. at the Betty Leeth Haynes Theatre.

Admission is free for concert association members and Wallace State students, faculty and staff.

General admission is $30.

• Dec. 27-29 – Christmas Break Camp Similar to the Camp Cullman program in the summer, Christmas Break campers will swim in the indoor pool, play games and relays, make crafts, watch movies and other fun activities. Held at the Cullman Wellness and Aquatic Center for ages 5-12. Cost is $75; registration opens Nov. 1. For more info: Cullman Parks and Rec, 256-734-9157.

• Dec. 30 – Stony New Years Eve Night Ride Ring in the New Year – well, one day early – on your four-wheeler.

Stony Lonesome OHV Park on Ala.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

69 in Bremen is holding a night ride 6-11 p.m. in conjunction with its New Year’s Eve Bash.

Also that day RZRaid.com will sponsor a hill climb race. For more info on all of the fun: 256-287-1133.

• Jan. 6 – Community Wellness Day and Polar Bear Plunge It will be a great day to start on your health and wellness for 2018.

Toward that end, CP&R is holding its annual Community Wellness Day at the Cullman Wellness & Aquatic Center. Admission is free 5 a.m.-7 p.m. to use the fitness center, indoor pools, basketball courts and other amenities. A community health fair will offer classes and booths to help get your New Year’s goals accomplished.

CP&R will hold its annual Polar Bear Plunge in the outdoor pool at 10:30 a.m. Participants will have a chance to win a free one-year membership to Wellness & Aquatic Center.

For more info: CP&R: 256775-7946; or email wharbison@ cullmanrecreation.org.

• Jan. 12-May 11 – Friday Night Drop-Ins Similar to Camp Cullman and the Christmas Break program, activities will include movies, swimming in the indoor pool, relay games and sports in the gym and other fun activities for kids 5-12. Held 6-10 p.m. Fridays at Cullman Wellness and Aquatic Center; $20 per night. For more info: CP&R:, 256-734-9157.

• Jan. 8-Feb. 26 – Kayak and Roll Clinics Cullman Parks and Recreation will hold kayaking clinics at the wellness and aquatic center 7-9 p.m.

Mondays.

Use the indoor pool to learn and practice river rolls and other whitewater skills with a CP&R instructor, certified by the American Canoe Association. Bring your own boat and the cost is $5; use a CP&R boat and the cost is $10. Open to all ages. For more info: CP&R: 256-7757946.

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• Jan. 11 – Relay For Life Kickoff A Hero of Hope cancer survivor (the person was not finalized at press time) will be guest speaker for the kickoff for the 2018 Relay for Life.

The kickoff starts at 5:30 p.m. in the fellowship hall at Cullman First Baptist Church.

The event is open to all Relay team members and anyone interested in the fight against cancer.

Food will be provided. The Relay is set for May 4. For more info: 256709-4019; or www.relayforlife.org/ cullmanal.

• Jan. 15-20 – Missoula Children’s Theater Auditions for the annual musical production will be held 3:30 p.m.

Jan. 15.

Selected actors will practice the remainder of the week with shows at 2 and 6 p.m. Jan. 20. All activities will be held at the Cullman Civic Center.

Open to ages 5-18; cost is $35 (if selected for a part). For more info: CP&R, 256-734-9157.

• January – Signup: Germany and the Alps Travel to Austria, Germany and Switzerland through Wallace State Community College and the Evelyn Burrow Museum. The trip is tentatively set for May 17-27. “We prefer people sign up by January, but we will book people as long we can find a flight for them,” said museum administrator Kristen Holmes.

Package covers all transportation,

hotels with private bathrooms, breakfast daily and select dinners, daily activities, tours and entrances to attractions, including Schönbrunn, Dachau, Neuschwanstein Castle, Heidelberg Castle wine barrel. Subtotal rates are $3,740 for students (anyone under 30); $4,055 for adults. Sign up early and make six monthly payments. For more info, contact Kristen: 256-352-8118 or kristen.holmes@wallacestate.edu; or visit: www.efcst.com/1959102YS.

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Snapshot: Santa

FAMILY: Parents unknown. Married Mrs. Claus once upon a time.

EARLY LIFE: Had white hair; later a white beard.

CAREER: COE (chief operating elf) of North Pole Toys, the largest toy and electronics developer and delivery service in the world.

Paisley had eyes for Santa when she visited him at Carlton’s Italian Restaurant last December. Almost a Christmas baby, Paisley will be 19 months old Dec. 5. Her parents are Austin and Ashley Parker Jolley of Vinemont.

Good People

5questions Story and photo

by David Moore

“H

o, ho, ho!” Santa loves to exclaim.

And he has good reason to laugh, to shake that belly like a bowl full of jelly.

“I’m always in a good mood,” he says. “I learned long ago there are a lot of things better than being in a bad mood. That just makes you feel bad and makes everyone else feel bad.

“So I stay in a jolly mood. That’s what Santa is – jolly.”

Santa, a rather busy old elf, is graciously giving this interview from a secret, second home he and Mrs. Claus keep in Cullman County.

“I sneak into Cullman and Holly Pond, too, to check to see that all of the children are being good,” he explains. “Plus I need to warm up every once in a while. The North Pole is cold.”

Santa comes to Cullman County to shop locally, of course, but he has other reasons.

“I have to pick up feed for the reindeer,” the jolly one says. “It’s hard to grow anything at the North Pole. Plus, I pick up groceries for Mrs. Claus and myself. We get tired eating fish and whale blubber, and she needs things from the store for baking cookies and candies for the kids’ stockings.”

He’d like to stay here longer, but alas work piles up at the Pole if he’s gone long.

“But a few time a year we visit our place in Cullman County,” Santa

Santa Claus

The busy (very) old elf takes some time to talk about being jolly as well as good says. “I use my red truck-sleigh when I’m here. It has reindeer on it and a red nose on the front.

“Of course, I don’t have to come here. I could go to places like New York, but it’s just too big. Here it’s nice and quiet. Mrs. Claus and I can go out to eat without having a lot of people notice us. We have other places we visit, but I’ve always liked Cullman.”

When he says “always,” that means back to the founding days of Col. John Cullmann.

“Remember, Santa is very old.

I’ve been around a long time … ho, ho, ho!” he laughs.

“I met Col. Cullmann when I was traveling through this area in the 1870s. He was a nice fellow, and it looked like Cullman would be a nice town.”

And so it is that Cullman became part of Santa’s job. And because he needs to get back to work, it’s time to get on with his interview …

1.

. Why do you do this job, Santa? And is “job” even the correct word for working with elves making toys all year and delivering them around the world on Christmas Eve?

It’s not a job. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s something I love to do, just like the elves love making toys.

I love to see the look children have when they get gifts for Christmas. So this is a joyful occupation. I’m not sure I would call it a “calling,” but I just love being a part of the joy of the season,

the joy children and adults get from receiving – and giving – gifts.

2.

. How do you do this year after year? And how does Mrs. Claus put up with you?

When you do something you enjoy and it’s a lot of fun, it makes you want to do it year after year.

For some reason, I have the magic that keeps me the same age all the time. And I never get sick – that also comes with the magic of being Santa – so I don’t get sick and tired of being Santa. Ho, ho, ho!

Besides, Mrs. Claus takes real good care of me, helps keep me going. And I am so jolly she has no problem putting up with me.

One thing in Cullman that I really enjoy is when I go to the Child Development Center every year. I enjoy all of my visits everywhere, but that’s the one I enjoy most.

You should see the faces of those children! That helps keep me going.

I also get recharged when I talk to children in December. I get a real ho-ho-ho when one climbs in my lap and says, “Momma! It’s the real Santa! I know it is!”

‘Course I do get little kids that cry. Sometimes I let their mothers sit in the chair, and I talk to them in their mother’s lap. We do what we have to do. Anything to bring peace and make folks jolly.

But crying kids are just part of it.

I’m so big and have a beard and a red suite. I’m so different, some of them get scared. But everyone that cries always comes back the next year. So it doesn’t upset me.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

21

One year I was visiting a church in Cullman and a lady said, “Santa, all I want for Christmas is a cook stove.”

I checked around and she really didn’t have a stove. She had to cook with an electric skillet, toaster oven and a griddle. But I worked it out so that lady got a stove for Christmas.

I got to deliver it personally. Some people came and brought food for her and toys for her children.

Those kinds of stories make me feel warm down in my bowl of jelly belly.

Sometimes I do hear things that make me sad. One little girl sat in my lap and said, “All I want for Christmas is for my momma to be happy.” Another said, “I wish my Daddy would come home for Christmas.”

Santa hears stories like that, but I hear so many more good stories.

They are certainly out there, and they keep me jolly, keep me going … that and a little magic.

power of Santa. It’s magic … there’s no other way to describe it.

People wonder if my sleigh is magic. It’s not. I’m in the sleigh, and my magic makes it lighter, even with a big old guy like me. And the reindeer are magic, too.

So it’s not a magical sleigh, but it is special. And I can make it so it flies like the reindeer.

But those things are the extent of my magical powers. I can’t wish for just anything and make it come true.

I wish I had the power to stop the hurting and pain for people, to do away with hunger and hatred. But I don’t have the power to do those things. If I did, I would.

But I believe everyone has some magic in them. It may not be magic, magic, but everyone has the ability to make others happy if they would just work at it. A lot of people don’t try, but I think everyone has the ability in them to make other people happy.

If everyone would do that, it would certainly be magical.

. Where do your magical powers come from, and do you know how and why you were chosen to receive them?

. What’s a year at the North Pole like for you, your wife, the elves and the reindeer?

3.

I don’t know why I was chosen or ended up with them. And I really don’t know where they came from.

I simply have them. It is what it is, as my favorite football coach likes to say.

I don’t think there was ever a time I didn’t have them, but it’s hard to remember over the centuries.

When I was a kid – once upon a time – I was chubby. Santa has always been chubby! But even as a chubby kid I knew this is what I was supposed to be. I had white hair even then, and later a white beard.

And I’ve never lost that.

As I got older I discovered I have the power to go around the world.

Make reindeer fly. Go into houses.

Help elves make toys. That’s the 22

4.

After Christmas Eve, of course, for a little while we all slow down and rest; take it easy.

In February, we start planning for next Christmas. We watch to find out what the most popular toys and electronic games are and decide if we have any ideas for new ones to make. We set up production schedules and then get to work.

There’s a lot of work when you realize I go to children’s homes all around the world. We have to have millions of toys.

When the weather gets a little warmer – which is not real warm at the North Pole! – the reindeer start playing and working off their winter doldrums. The elves are still making toys, of course. They make them almost all the way up to Christmas.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

About October we start feeding the reindeer real well so they will have the energy to pull the sleigh all the way around the world. Then, in November, Mrs. Claus and the cooking elves start making candies and cookies for children’s stockings.

We try to have everything completed by the first of December so we can package it all and be good to go on Christmas Eve. That’s a Santa year, ho, ho, ho!

5.

. What’s something people don’t know about you and Mrs. Claus?

I’ve lived so long it’s hard to have any secrets.

To be honest, in the hundreds and hundreds of times I’ve been around the world, nothing exciting ever happened. I have never gone into a house where I got burned by a fire in the chimney. I’ve never even been caught by kids. Some of them hear the reindeer on the roof, but the smart ones know to stay in bed.

There is one thing people might not know … I don’t wear red all the time. Like when I’m out and about in Cullman, I wear pretty regular clothes so I won’t be so recognizable.

Boys and girls, you might want to remember that and be very, very good. You never know where Santa and Mrs. Claus may be. We might see you in Cullman or Holly Pond or anywhere in Cullman County.

I will say this: I hope children eventually learn to be good whether they are rewarded or not. Being good is its own reward. And being good keeps everyone happy. If I can help one child learn that, it makes it all worthwhile.

I also hope children and grownups, too, remember that Santa Claus is a great part of Christmas, but the real reason for it is the birth of Jesus. That’s serious magic.

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23

Good Reads

‘Wonder Woman: Warbringer’ – a fun read for almost any age

Caine’s serial killer-thriller keeps you up long into night

eally? Wonder Woman? Seriously? You betcha!

This is not your 1970s TV Wonder Woman. In “Wonder Woman: Warbringer,” Leigh Bardugo has written an exciting prequel to everything we think we know about Diana Prince.

Weaving history and mythology, Bardugo’s “You may well be my story of the Amazon female equal in strength,” warrior and her entrance into our world of computer she said. “But you are hacking, conventional no match for Nim’s and not so conventional ingenuity, for Theo’s weapons and modern resilience, for Ale’s sensibilities is a rip-roaring, action-packed adventure of bravery. Might does not the best kind. make a hero. You can Never having contact build a thousand soldiers, with mortals before, and not one will have a Diana’s learning curve is sometimes humorous. Her hero’s heart.” new friends, rare blends of intelligence and heart, are fascinated by the circumstances that bond them. Together they join forces, bring out the best in each other and, yes, save the world.

The bad guys have cloned the blood of ancient warriors and are preparing to wage world war with the ultimate soldier. Can mere mortals battle immortals? Who can withstand the “lasso of truth”?

I enjoyed every minute of this book and can recommend it to virtually any age. What fun! I can’t wait for the next one.

– Deb Laslie

ina’s perfect life is upended when a freak car accident reveals her husband to be a sadistic serial killer.

“Stillhouse Lake” by Rachel Caine is her story of putting the pieces back together. Another new name and new place for her family.

Despite all her Gina never asked about the precautions, internet garage. That thought would stalkers discover her new location, forcing keep her awake every night her to flee once again for years after, pulsing hot with her family. In against her eyelids. “I should remote Stillhouse Lake have asked. Should have she believes they may have finally found known.” But she’d never a home – until the asked, she didn’t know and threatening letters from in the end, that was what her incarcerated exdestroyed her. husband find her.

And when the body of a woman is found very near her new home, local authorities take a closer look at Gina – again.

Can she really trust anyone? The elderly couple up the road? The handsome newcomer to the area who lives next door?

Will Gina move her family and change identities yet again or stay in Stillhouse Lake and finally put an end to the terror?

From first page to last, this thriller will keep you up long into the night.

– Deb Laslie

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Good Cooking

Cooking in the kitchen with the First Lady

Story and photos

by David Moore

C

ullman First Lady Connie Jacobs. It’s been more than a year since her husband, Woody, was elected mayor. But Connie’s title hasn’t really sunk in yet. If it ever does, it’s not likely to change her.

“My friends call me ‘First Lady,’ but, no, I’m just Connie,” she insists.

She’s much more likely to answer to “cook” than her formal title. And those in the know say she’s a great one.

She learned to cook growing up on the Hanceville farm of her parents, Herman and Betty Voigt.

“I was always in the kitchen with Mother,” Connie says. “She was adamant that you needed to learn to cook. And to wash clothes. I said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’”

Betty even insisted that her sons, Craig and Joe, now of South Carolina and Kansas, respectively, learned to cook and do laundry “so they could survive if they had to,” Connie laughs.

Betty, 85, still cooks today. In fact, she takes her cakes, breads, cinnamon and orange rolls and homemade pies to the Festhalle Farmer’s Market, where Connie helps her sell them.

With her dad now 87, Connie and Woody help him out Saturdays and Sunday afternoons in his Hanceville garden. In turn, they also get fresh vegetables, which Connie loves to cook with and to can, another skill learned as a child from Betty.

“They just taste better than out of a can when I make vegetable soup,” Connie says.

The First Family gathers in the kitchen around Connie Jacobs – and her cooking.

Pictured clockwise from the center are Connie, her daughter Hannah, husband and Cullman Mayor Woody, son Tyler and his wife, Jennifer.

In many households grilling is the male’s domain. But ever since getting a grill shortly after she and Woody got married, Connie has loved cooking out as much as he does.

“We do it year round,” she says.

C

onnie graduated from Hanceville High in 1975. She got her first degree from the former Wallace State Technical School and later earned an associate degree in business after Wallace became a community college.

Connie’s a long-time friend of Gloria Williams. Back in the day, Woody played softball with Gloria’s husband, Raymond. After a tournament in 1980, the Williamses introduced the two, and Connie and Woody married the following year.

Woody, who has an accounting degree from The University of Alabama, worked 20 years for the family business, Jacobs Accounting, before selling it and joining Eidson and Associates. After 20 years there, he left when he was elected mayor.

Beginning in 1978, Connie worked in the offices of several deans at Wallace State. After Hannah was born, she transferred to the financial aid office where she got summers off to spend more time with their young children.

Born in 1991, Hannah works with the receptionists at Cullman High School. Tyler, born in 1988, has a business/marketing degree from UA. Like his mom, cooking has grown to play a big part in Tyler’s life. He and his wife, Jennifer, own Grumpy’s Italian Grill in Cullman. He’d worked there in the 11th grade, and Tyler bought the business seven years ago.

“He cooks a mean pizza,” Connie beams. She and Woody had helped a lot in the early days, but now Jennifer has taken over for them.

C

onnie retired from Wallace in 2008. That gives her time to make desserts for Grumpy’s, notably her Ooey-Gooey Butter Squares.

Most of her and Woody’s extended

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

27

SQUASH CASSEROLE 1½ lbs. cooked squash 2 medium onions, chopped, cooked with squash 1 can cream of celery soup 8 oz. sour cream 1 jar pimentos, small drained 1 to 2 sticks of butter 1 pan cooked cornbread family meals are served under the Jacobs’ side of the tree, but Connie does a full-press Christmas breakfast for her immediate family. Sometimes she “lets” her mom make biscuits, which are Betty’s specialty.

“And the gravy,” Hannah interjects.

“She’s right,” Connie confesses.

“My biscuits are good, but they’re just not like mother’s.”

28

Crumble cornbread (I use mostly the center, not the outer crust) in bowl. Melt butter and pour over cornbread and mix. Pat part of cornbread in bottom of casserole dish.

Mix all other ingredients and pour over the cornbread mixture. Put the rest of cornbread on top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

On the other hand, Woody notes, Connie’s cake and especially her sweet potato dumplings were a hit at last year’s Christmas meal at Cullman City Hall for employees.

If Connie announces she’s cooking a “country meal,” the family knows to expect fried okra and squash, creamed corn and potatoes and probably meatloaf or country fried steak.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

Whatever she cooks, Woody’s not picky. His favorite, he says, is “whatever is in front of me.”

Though her mother taught her well, given a choice the Cullman First Lady by far prefers cooking than doing laundry.

“I love,” she says, “to cook.”

Above and on the following pages are some of Connie’s recipes ...

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VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP 1 can corn (I use corn that I have frozen) 1 can tomatoes (I use tomatoes that I have frozen) 1 to 2 cups butter peas, pre-cooked 1 to 2 cups carrots, pre-cooked 1 to 2 cups okra 1 large onion 1 large bell pepper, seeded 1 to 2 hot peppers, seeded, deveined 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. sugar 1 to 2 cans tomato sauce 2 pounds ground beef.

Mix all ingredients and cook on stove top until vegetables are tender, add cooked ground beef and serve.

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NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

MEXICAN CORNBREAD 2 cups self rising corn meal 3 eggs 1½ cups milk 1 Tbsp. sugar 1 tsp. salt ½ tsp. black pepper 12 oz. can whole kernel corn (Mexican or regular) 2 jalapeño peppers, cut in small pieces (I use the peppers already in a jar) 1 cup oil 1½ cup onions, chopped Beat eggs, add milk, sugar, salt, pepper, meal, oil, corn, onions and jalapeño peppers. Grease pan. Add cornbread mix. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes in a 9x13 pan.

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WEST INDIES SALAD 1 lb. lump crab meat 1 medium onion, chopped fine 4 oz. oil 3 oz. cider vinegar Salt and pepper to taste 4 oz. crushed ice Combine all the above ingredients together and stir. As you stir the ice will melt. Serve with saltine crackers.

BACON SWISS DIP 8 oz. cream cheese 1 cup of Swiss cheese, shredded ½ cup mayonnaise 7 slices bacon, cooked, crumbled 2 Tbsp. green onions, chopped ½ cup Ritz crackers crushed Softened cream cheese and add all ingredients except crackers.

Top with the Ritz crackers bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. Serve with your favorite crackers.

SAUSAGE ALFREDO 1 pkg. of bow-tie pasta 1 pkg. Conecuh Sausage 1 red bell pepper 1 yellow bell pepper 1 orange bell pepper 1 cup English peas, frozen 2 cups heavy whipping cream 2 tsp. Cajun seasoning Corn starch, enough to make whipping cream somewhat thick Grated Parmesan cheese

SWEET POTATO DUMPLINGS 2 cans crescent rolls 1 pkg. of sweet potato patties 2 cups of sugar 2 cups water 1½ sticks butter 1 Tbsp. vanilla 1 Tbsp. cornstarch Cinnamon for sprinkling on top Preheat oven at 350. Cut each patty in half and roll in crescent roll.

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Place in a 9 x 13 glass baking dish with pointy end of the crescents facing down.

In a saucepan combine the water, sugar and cornstarch, mix well.

Add butter and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Add vanilla; pour over sweet potato patties and cook about 25 minutes until rolls are done.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

Prepare pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside. Sauté sausage for five minutes then add the peppers and English peas. Sauté until peppers are a little tender. In saucepan add whipping cream and Cajun seasoning, bring to a boil and add cornstarch. Stir until cornstarch is dissolved. Add vegetables to pasta then pour whipping cream over pasta and vegetables. Stir to mix.

Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over each serving.

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COCONUT CAKE 1 pkg. yellow or butter cake mix 1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding mix ½ cup Crisco oil 4 eggs 1 cup water Sift dry ingredients together.

Add oil, eggs and water. Mix well after adding each ingredient.

Bake at 350° in three 8 inch pans or two 9 inch pans. Cool and set aside.

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FILLING 12 oz. frozen coconut, grated 1½ cups granulated sugar 8 oz. sour cream Combine filling ingredients. Split layers of cake with a thread and spread filling between each layer.

TOPPING 1 to 2 tubs Cool Whip. After Cool Whip is all over cake, sprinkle with Baker’s coconut flakes to taste.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

APPLE SNICKER DESERT 1 bag mini Snickers 1 tub Cool Whip, 8 oz.

5 Granny Smith apples.

Cut the mini Snickers in 4 pieces.

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Good ‘n’ Green

‘The Christmas Plant’ has grown a colorful story Story by Tim Crow Photos by David Moore

E

ver wonder how a beautiful plant of vibrant reds and green became so prevalent with the Christmas holiday? Obviously its color patterns fit a traditional theme known throughout the holiday season.

But how did this beautiful plant known as Poinsettias become The Christmas Plant?

Luckily for us, a special envoy to Mexico in 1822-1823 by the name of Joel Roberts Poinsett, whose background was in medical science, had a true passion for botany. Poinsett maintained hot houses on his Greenville. S.C. plantation, and gathered plants from his travels to grow back home.

On one of his travels to Mexico, he came across a plant with brilliant red leaves and became enchanted with it. He brought several of the plants back with him and began to grow it in South Carolina.

Poinsett began to send the new plant to family, friends and botanical gardens across the states. One recipient of the plant was Pennsylvania nurseryman Robert Buist. Buist is known to be the first person to sell the plant under its botanical name, Euphorbia pulcherrima.

Around the 1830s, the plant began to be called by its popular name of poinsettia, giving credit to the man that first brought the plant to the states. Because the plant was so popularly embraced, Dec. 12 was declared National Poinsettia Day to commemorate Poinsett’s death.

A

Not without good reason is the Poinsettia called “The Christmas Plant.”

36

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

story about the plant that gives it holiday meaning is the legend of a little Mexican girl known as Pepita and her cousin Pedro.

The story goes that a poor girl was headed to a Christmas Eve service at a

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37

“Even the most humble gift, given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes,” Pedro told her.

So Pepita gathered a handful of weeds from the side of the road and formed a modest bouquet of flowers. Still, as she approached the altar, she was saddened by what little she had to give.

As she laid her humble gift of weeds at the altar of the Lord, the bouquet burst into brilliant red blooms. And all who witnessed it believed they had seen a Christmas miracle.

From that point on the plant was known as Flowers of the Holy Night. And so the legend of the Christmas Poinsettia was born.

Poinsettias are only mildly toxic to cats and dogs. A 50-lb. child would have to eat more than 500 leaves to reach a potentially toxic dose. local chapel and had nothing to offer as a gift to the Lord. She was saddened by this and didn’t know what to do.

W

hatever story you believe, over the years the poinsettia has become one of our favorite holiday plants. Its colors provide beautiful arrangements that provide even more brightness to the holiday season.

Poinsettias not only come in the usual red and green colors, but all types of beautiful color patterns. You can find pink, white, orange, cream and even marbled, variegated and speckled varieties.

When picking poinsettias for your home, choose those with full and richly colored bracts. Bracts are the colorful leaves that people most readily associate with the plant.

Try to keep the plants by a window in the home as often as possible, but they can be moved for display as needed. Poinsettias thrive in bright sunlight with moderate temperatures no higher than 70 degrees.

Don’t over-water the plants. Poinsettias do not tolerate high moisture.

The average lifespan of poinsettias is two-four weeks. With exceptional care this can be stretched to about six weeks.

A

s we near the time to start digging into our attics and storage areas to find Christmas decorations, don’t forget to stop at a local grower or nursery to pick up some Christmas plants for this season.

Poinsettias are a great choice.

As you visit family and play traditional holiday games, don’t let the burden of expensive gifts get you discouraged.

As Pepita would tell you, “Even the most humble gift, given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes.”

Good Life Magazine

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39

Libby’s home It’s a reflection and an extension of her and her kids

Libby Crider decorated her house in Terri Pines for last year’s Share Club Christmas Tour of Homes using the same approach she uses year-round.

Her decorating palette leans heavily to neutral and earthy tones.

You’ll find a lot of joy in her Christmas and natural greens, certainly, but there is little in the way of seasonally typical red.

High in 1988, she continued her education at Wallace State where she also was a cheerleader. After she got ibby Crider likes to decorate her married, they built a house in Cold home for Christmas. Anyone who saw it Springs and began a family. as part of Share Club’s 2016 Christmas At the time, Libby had yet to tap into Tour of Homes surely noticed. her true self.

They “I didn’t probably know who I noticed, too, was, much less that unlike most what I wanted people who my home to revel in the reflect,” she season’s typical explains. “I red, green and just went sparkly themes, with a kind of Libby’s holiday contemporary decorating trend, which is palette weighs not me, really.” heavily – and Later they tastefully – on built a house on neutral and Smith Lake. earthy tones.

“You learn “I’ve every time you always loved build,” Libby Christmas,” says. And the Libby says. lake house “And for the captured some Gathered in the Criders’ family room this fall are, from left, Willie Bowman and holidays I just of the rustic feel Libby’s oldest son, Austin, who are engaged; Libby and daughter Sydney; son carry out the that perhaps same style I got under her Garrett and his girlfriend, Megan Mullins. Austin is a graduate of The University have in my fingernails on of Alabama, where the other young adults, all from Cullman, attend. Willie, house year her parents’ coincidentally, is the daughter of Missy and Cullman County District Attorney round.” farm. Plus, she Wilson Blaylock, who owned the house the Criders rented “I think less began to get for two years when they first moved to Terri Pines. is more, but I’ve a true feel for always put up decorating. multiple trees,” But she’d she adds. “And I did go a little over the to home decorating, she says, evolves not evolved into her full self yet, her full top for the tour.” with understanding just who you are. potential. Correspondingly, neither had She decorated a tree in her bedroom her style of her home. as one addition last year. Libby also t heart, Libby says, she’s a farm added a set of four small trees on girl. he Criders next moved to the front porch, live cedars in boxes The youngest daughter of Charles and Cullman, where they wanted their around the pool and decorations for her Evelyn Easterwood, she grew up on the children, Austin, Garrett and Sydney, screened-in porch, including a driftwood family farm in Brushy Pond. to attend school. The west side of town Christmas tree.

“We worked in a chicken house, hoed interested them.

In her garage, she set up a partition a garden,” Libby says. “I used to Bush “A lot of my friends taught at West of six or seven live trees, concealing Hog in a big cab tractor. We always had Elementary, and Syd was going there,” storage and vehicles from tour visitors chores to do before we could do other Libby says. Garrett was in middle school walking from the house to the decorated things.” and Austin in high school. game room out in a small barn.

Sister Lisa Allen still lives in Cold With intentions of building in the near Libby’s house is located atop a Springs and has chicken houses; sister future, the only rental they liked was in wooded hill at the end of a cul-de-sac in Lynn Muggeo lives in Birmingham.

Terri Pines. A big attraction was the golf Terri Pines, built in 2011.

“Lynn’s always been the city girl course. So they moved in 2009.

“People may look at the house and among us,” Libby laughs. “I’m kind of in Next year they found the lot on the think it looks fancy but, when they step the middle.” wooded hill and began construction. in they feel the comfortable and inviting After graduating from Cold Springs “I fell in love with the neighborhood, Story and photos

by David Moore

L

vibe it offers,” Libby says. “It portrays what my kids and I are comfortable with.”

A professional decorator, Libby says comfort is key to creating the look and feel people want in their home, at Christmas and year-round. Another key

A

42

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

T

The foyer, upper left, is an exercise in earthtoned textures.

Decorations are simple and real.

The white-lit tree on the landing and the wreath above it, cast a pleasant glow on the stairwell up to the kids’ bedrooms.

Libby’s Maltipoo, Steeley, borrows a seat at the kitchen island.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

43

Last year, decorating for the Tour of Homes, Libby decided to put up a Christmas tree in her bedroom. and the kids liked it,” Libby says. “It was close to town but away from everyone up on the hill. We were used to being out in the country where we didn’t have many neighbors.”

Having learned from previous homes, Libby had an idea of what she did and did not want. A formal dining room was on the “not” list.

“I wanted to be on one side of the house, have a huge open entertainment area in the middle with the kids on their own side. I wanted everything comfortable, livable, so everybody feels at home.”

The Criders did much of the construction themselves.

“I’m still a country girl,” she laughs.

“That’s how I learned to do a lot of things.”

44

B

ut the stay-at-home mom active in her kids’ lives still had deep depths to plumb in discovering herself. Divorce steered Libby’s path in a different direction. Additionally, the kids were starting college.

“I needed something to do for me,” Libby says.

She’d done office work before so she felt comfortable enough when a friend, Mark Hall, opened Cullman Auto Mall and asked her to manage the office.

“It was great for me to get back into the working world and I was thankful for the opportunity,” Libby says of the job that went from part to full time, but it wasn’t what I was meant to do.”

A year later new opportunity

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

presented itself via Carrie Taylor. Carrie, a friend who owns Three Pears boutique in Cullman, asked Libby about starting a new business. She had a small shop available downtown on Fourth Street SE. Carrie kept Three Pears, but they decided to do something they both love – open a furniture and home decorating store. They named it White Willow.

Libby would run it, and they opened in March 2016.

With her farm work past, Libby was unfazed by shipments of furniture requiring assembly. Not only could she put it together but she unloaded the truck and later loaded a U-Haul to deliver the assembled furniture to her clients. They not only help pick paint colors for clients, they’ve been known to help paint rooms.

When the Criders built their house, a small barn was erected across the driveway for the boys to make into a game room.

The screened back porch is a favorite of Libby’s. It has a large swing on the other end of it. “It’s one of the most peaceful rooms,” she says. “You can hear the water flowing into the pool, have a fire going and watch football.”

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

45

“Having a furniture store is hard.

For one, furniture is very heavy,” Libby says. “But it’s not like work – it’s a whole lot of fun. I love what I do.”

Business grew and so did the need for space. This past April they moved around the corner to a store on First Avenue with three times the space. Libby hired Amanda Franklin to help her in the store.

“That’s a God thing,” she adds, “putting Carrie and me together and coming up with the store. It happened at the perfect time for me.”

O

pening White Willow opened Libby’s eyes. She finally saw the atmosphere she wanted to create in her house at Terri Pines, the style she wanted to express.

She became her own customer, decorating her home with items from White Willow.

She repainted much of the main floor of the house. She installed light fixtures. She replaced most of the main-floor furniture.

Libby loaded her color palette with neutral colors and earth tones.

She mixed cloth and building material textures, creating contrasts, achieving a look she defines as timeless rustic comfort.

“It’s somewhere my friends can come over, relax and feel at home as opposed to feeling they have to be careful with everything they touch, or feel they can’t touch,” Libby says. “It’s livable and inviting … and it can withstand herds of children and dogs that always seem to congregate here.”

At the store she encourages customers to discover their style.

“I find out what they like, what they’re comfortable with,” Libby Libby set out to create a feel of timeless rustic comfort for her 5,500 square-foot house.

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47

The unique, kidney-shaped pool has a stone-sided hot tub above it with a spillway that lets warm water into the pool.

A nice place for a party, and the kids love it, too. “When the boys played football, they wore the hot tub out,” Libby says. “They used it like it was going out of style.” Which of course it wasn’t. says. “Sometimes they think they don’t know what they want, but after a while you can figure out what they envision and work it from there. Everyone knows. ‘I love this’ or ‘I don’t love that.’”

I

nitially Libby thought White Willow would be a glorified hobby.

“It’s pretty much turned into consuming a whole lot of my life – in a good way,” she says. “It kept growing, getting busier as word got out about our quality and services.”

To make her business work, Libby had to be open and accept the changes that came her way. She had to step out, take the risk of possible failure.

“Much of the key to my success is being blessed with great people in my corner, with a great upbringing that keeps me grounded and gives me a level head for level decision making,” she says. “I attribute much of that to my 48

parents and the little southern Baptist church (Ryan’s Creek Baptist) where we attended every time the doors were open.”

Libby sees parallels between decorating her home and her life, and she believes similar parallels exist with many people.

“Your home is an extension of you,” she says. “It’s a reflection of you and what you want it to portray to the outside world.

“My house is, I think, a reflection of me. Everyone’s home reflects what they like, even if they think they don’t have a ‘style.’”

A

s for defining oneself, Libby thinks the answer is a sort of sum of all the things you experience in life. And from these experiences, you figure out who you are and what’s important.

“I found myself when I had to become independent, quickly,” she says.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

“I had to figure out what was going to happen next to me. It turned out to be a career I never thought I would have.”

While that career opened a new phase of her life, another stalwart phase is, well, phasing out. Garrett and Sydney are off at college. Austin is back home for now but has wedding plans.

Still, the house remains a reflection, an extension of Libby and of the kids.

“We love this house,” she says. “It continues to fit the ever-changing stages of our family. It is the place for us all to come back together, even with our crazy schedules.

“Everyone has a story, and sometimes the stories stay on the path you expect, but other times they take a surprise turn. The turns are not all bad,” Libby adds, “and I think my story is still being written.”

Which means she just might someday redecorate. Again.

Good Life Magazine

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49

Good Eats

Buenavista Mexican Cantina’s authentic flavors and décor feels like a trip to ol’ Mexico without leaving Cullman.

A few of their dishes are, below from left: Street Tacos, Fanny’s Special and Xango, a sort of Mexican Cheesecake.

Donde te sientas como familia (Where you feel like family)

Story and photos

by Patrick Oden

S

itting proudly on the corner of Ala. 157 and St. Josephs Drive in Cullman, Buenavista Mexican Cantina is one in a small chain of Buenavista restaurants owned by the Cortes family of Cullman.

Despite the attention to detail and colorful branding that gives Buenavista

50

the atmosphere of the nicest of national chains, it’s anything but corporate. It’s a family restaurant through and through.

But it’s the labor of love and attention to detail that make Buenavista both stunning and special.

The staff working in a family restaurant tends to be like, well, family.

You can sense it, and it makes you feel more at home. And the food just tastes different. Not because it isn’t prepared,

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

prepackaged and preheated, but because of an intangible ingredient … pride.

“We have some employees that have been with us since the beginning,” says Giovanni “Gio” Cortes. “More than 20 years.”

In fact, Gio would have been just a boy when some of them began working for his parents, Juan Carlos and Gladys Cortes. Now the face of Buenavista, Gio tells his parents’ story well. It’s a story of

Buenavista is a visual feast – as satisfying to the eyes as the large portions of great Mexican cuisine are to the stomach. sweat, determination, persistence … and, naturally, family.

O

riginally from a little ranch in Mexico called Buenavista de Canedo in the state of Jalisco, Juan Carlos and his siblings were the first in his family to move to the United States, settling in the Lake Tahoe region of California.

But Lake Tahoe proved more expensive than expected, and even working two jobs, seven days a week Juan Carlos was unable to save. He returned to Mexico.

But this wasn’t the return of a man beaten, rather the regrouping of a determined soul and a pit stop for fate.

It was upon his return that Juan Carlos met Gladys.

There was talk of opportunity in Atlanta, and Gladys’s family intended to find out firsthand. Juan Carlos followed his heart to Georgia, and the two unknowingly embarked upon what would become their legacy.

Juan Carlos found work in the kitchen of a local restaurant, and Gladys got a hostess job at the same place.

“Atlanta is where it all started,” Gio says. “

A

fter a year in the kitchen and about seven months of running food and serving tables, Juan Carlos landed a manager position. Working his way up through the restaurant had allowed him to

learn the ins and outs of the business, and he eventually found himself overseeing four restaurants owned by the family he and Gladys worked for.

“If you work harder than everyone for longer than everyone, you’re going to get ahead of everyone,” Gio says, proudly quoting his father.

Life is a winding road, and you don’t always know the destination when you set out, but when you are following opportunity, you stop where it does.

The Cortes family arrived in Cullman in 1996 and opened their first restaurant across from Sportsman Lake Park on U.S. 31.

“This was my family’s first big hit,” Gio says.

Truth be told, it was a springboard for several other restaurants, some which are now owned by other family members, some which have vanished from the landscape.

But the idea was never to settle. It was to attempt, to learn, to evolve.

T

oday’s Buenavista Mexican Cantina in Cullman – which opened three years ago in March – features amazing light fixtures and other unique décor elements. This new “branding” for the atmosphere of the chain is modeled on a design envisioned by Gladys’ brother, Glen Garcia, who built the pilot location in Scottsboro.

The fixtures and other décor elements are handmade in Tonala, Mexico, a town known for its art, and imported through a collaboration of Juan Carlos and other family members. Other Buenavista restaurants with new unique interiors were built in Hampton Cove and Madison and are run by a different member of the family. Gio is technically the manager of the Buenavista in Double Springs.

Buenavista in Cullman is Juan Carlos’s home restaurant. And while there are no plans for more restaurants, he recently built nearly 12,000 square feet of retail space to be leased next door to his Cullman restaurant.

“Retirement is not in my dad’s vocabulary,” Gio says. “It comes up every now and then, but he says as long as he’s healthy he’ll stay and run the business.”

W

hen the day finally comes that Juan Carlos decides to put his feet up and enjoy not working harder and longer than everyone else, he knows the values he bestowed in Gio will ensure his legacy.

“Everything we’ve done and everything we have is due to hard work and determination,” Gio says.

For the guests of Buenavista Mexican Cantina, this translates quite simply into an experience. An experience that will engage all the senses in concert, with an emphasis on authentic Mexican taste.

Good Life Magazine

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

51

Flyboarding A futuristic idea takes off with a blast of adrenaline on the waters of Smith Lake

Writer Patrick Oden, left, risks having too much fun doing “research� for a first-person account in Good Life Magazine of the thrills, spills and good wet fun of flyboarding.

Story by Patrick Oden Photos by David Moore

F

actually happening. And anticipation began running through my head.

Flyboarding seems like the sort of thing that would freak out a guy like me who’s afraid of heights, but it didn’t so much.

Mostly because I would be over water.

Wait … the water.

“Oh crap, it’s going to be freezing,” I

knee injury began to flare up from the weather.

I was doomed.

N

loating there on my chest in the chilly waters of Smith Lake with a jetpack onetheless, I couldn’t back out. strapped to my feet, I had two thoughts That’s not me. fighting for my undivided attention. How I might however, be able to convince did I get talked into this, and how do I get David this wasn’t a great idea. my feet underwater?

But when I mentioned the cold It was too late to be worrying water to David he just laughed: about the first. I was already “With the cold wind, it will floating at the end of a fire hose, probably be warmer in the water.” attached to a supercharged beast of Yeah, that made sense, it’ll be a Jet Ski, completely at the mercy … wait, I have to get into the cold of its operator. water to be strapped to something Any moment I was going to that will shoot me up into the air? be thrust 10 feet into the air … or Dripping wet? propelled straight to the bottom of I might have fought a little the lake, depending on whether I harder if I really wanted out managed to figure out the issue of of it. And David would have my floating feet. understood. But there was still But that moment didn’t begin a part of me that couldn’t resist to compare to the whirlwind of the opportunity. I remembered emotions associated with the something I once heard: Pain goes anticipation of this event. away, but glory lasts forever.

It all started a few weeks In my case, it was more earlier when magazine publisher being chilly versus a unique and David Moore called me about a memorable experience. I was few assignments for this issue. doing this, no question about it, That is normal enough and is but I still lingered in the dread … always an exciting call for me. the anticipation.

But this call bore an unusual The day came and was request. Instead of asking me to pleasant but for a brief photograph and write a story as thunderstorm. Upper 70s and I usually do, David wanted me partly cloudy. to write it, but he would take the But friends, I’m here to tell pictures … because I was going to you, the water felt great. have to be in them.

And suddenly, as I lay there Now I’ve never been a fan of on my chest, waiting for the ride The Flyboard is a raised platform with a pair of being in photos. I chose my side of my life, all the stimulation of attached boots. A 60-foot fire hose sends the output of the camera long ago. But the anticipation gave way to the thrill water from a personal water craft thrusting through same injury of David’s that put me of the moment. two down-pointed jets. Wile E. Coyote on the back of a horse for the first never had it this good. time in 20 years (an assignment labama Flyboard owner for a story in Marshall County Good Life Magazine) was still bothering him enough not to risk human flight.

So …

I

had also seen Flyboarding on social media. It was the kind of thing where you think, “Wow, that would be so cool.” One of those things you think you’ll never have the opportunity to try.

I agreed without hesitation.

A plan was made to be at Trident Marina. The date was set. This was 54

A

thought in a brief panic. “Forget how cool it is, it’s going to be cold.”

As the temperate, rainy days passed, I began to dread it more. I dreaded the idea of becoming an unguided human rocket, my chattering teeth accidentally biting off the tip of my numb tongue as it flapped from the side of my mouth on my maiden flight.

The movie in my mind was vivid enough, and it was turning into a horror film. And to make matters worse, an old

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

Blake Harper sat atop the mean, green Kawasaki. It growled on the water as his finger squeezed the throttle. Anticipation was over. Suddenly I was up in the air.

And just as suddenly I was right back down.

But the issue of the floating feet turned out to be no issue at all, and within a couple of attempts I worked out the balance and was airborne.

With the Flyboard, all the water expelled through the impeller of the Jet Continued on page 58

It didn’t take Patrick Oden long before he was up, and in a short while he was flying. But as the old saying warns, what goes up, must come down. Sometimes his landings were graceful ... other times not so much. But even his splashes were fun.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

55

Blake Harper, accompanied by his girlfriend, Sherrie Moore, offers some basic instructions to first-timer Joanna RouLaiue of Tuscaloosa, right, on how to work – and have fun on – a Flyboard. Joanna, along with her daughter, Emma, 16, below, was enticed to go Flyboarding by her boyfriend, Chad Smith of Alabaster. Chad, lower right, had flown with Blake before and told the girls they had to try it.

A good wet time was had by all.

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57

Blake Harper demonstrates a series of moves called the porpoise dive: Fly up, arc and dive down underwater, arc back out of the water, repeat. While Flyboard is a brand, the sport is actually known as hydroflying. With practice, Flyboarding stunts can get insane. A pilot can soar to heights of 49 feet, dive to depths of eight feet and even do loops. For more on Blake’s company, visit: www.alabamaflyboard.com.

Ski is redirected through what amounts to a 60-foot fire hose connected to the Flyboard. The input is divided into two “jets” basically aimed out of the bottom of your feet.

This tremendous amount of directed hydro-propulsion is more than sufficient to shoot a person into the air, keeping in mind it’s enough to take the Jet Ski and two riders to a blistering 70 mph.

With Blake directing me from the Jet Ski, I learned that by changing the angle of the jets during flight, I could actually steer the Flyboard. This is done by slightly bending your knees, thus changing the angle of your feet to move forward and backward.

But dip those toes a little too low and you’ll get to experience a high velocity high dive. (Which, in full disclosure, is really fun.)

M

ore surprising than the water temperature was the ease of the whole 58

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY

experience. The board was simple to operate and there was virtually no stress on the body or exertion of energy required.

Low impact, high adrenalin.

And though it looks like something strictly for the extreme sports crowd, it turns out to be something almost anyone can do.

In fact, it was so easy that within about 10 minutes Blake not only had me flying around but ready to learn a few tricks. He wanted to turn me into a Porpoise.

“I’ll get you about 10 feet up in the air,” he said. “When I do, lean forward and dive into the water. Then arch your back up, let it shoot you out of the water, then dive back in.”

By the third attempt I was breaching like Flipper.

But all good things must end.

Anticipation had given way to thrill, now thrill gave way to disappointment as I removed my feet from the Flyboard boots.

It was really that much fun.

Back at the Trident dock, Blake asked me what surprised me the most. It was how I felt. I didn’t feel sore; I didn’t feel tired; I felt accomplished.

T

hanks to Blake, you can try it for yourself come warm weather when Blake again has his equipment on the water and is booking flights.

Blake, who lives in Hoover, bases his business, Alabama Flyboard, out of Trident Marina on the shores of Smith Lake.

With a restaurant right at the dock and the picturesque setting, it would be easy to make a day of it.

For those of us who grew up watching The Jetsons or James Bond, the idea of a jetpack was a super cool, super futuristic idea that has always seemed to linger somewhere out there on the horizon of time.

With Alabama Flyboard, that horizon seems a lot closer.

Good Life Magazine

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59

Harold and Ruby Swindle are long gone, as is their spectacular display of Christmas lights that once brought people to Simcoe to share in the joy of a blind girl’s dream – what a foreign visitor once dubbed ...

Story by Steve A. Maze Photo by David Moore

I

A deserted string of tree-tangled Christmas lights sways gently in the breeze, a last remnant of joyous nights when the glow of Glory City was visible for miles.

s anything more dazzling during the Christmas season than a magnificent display of outdoor colorful lights?

There was a time that Harold and Ruby Swindle decorated their home in Simcoe with more than a quartermillion Christmas lights … and they shone brightly for many years. So bright that a visitor from Argentina christened the grand display Glory City.

My family made Christmas pilgrimages to the Swindles’ for more than a decade.

As we’d drive toward Simcoe, the night sky would begin taking on a multi-colored aura even several miles from the house. Soon we’d see what appeared to be a kaleidoscope of red, yellow and green stars twinkling in the cool night air.

When we finally pulled into the Swindles’ driveway the magnificence of the Christmas display overtook us. It looked as if someone had taken handfuls of sparkling jewels and tossed them on the house, up in the trees and across the barn, chicken house and other outbuildings.

The property resembled a winter wonderland as the reflection of flashing lights bounced from building to building and tree to tree. Observers couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with the magical sense of Christmas as they gazed at the lights.

I was awestruck but also curious as visitors walked the property gazing at the colorful spectrum. I wanted to know why the Swindles would labor hour after hour, day after day, and month after month to prepare such an exhibit.

I got my answer when I stopped by Harold and Ruby’s house one summer day in 1994.

T

he couple’s inspiration was their daughter – also named Ruby – who was born blind and weighing 1.5 pounds.

When Ruby was a little older, the Swindles took her to a large Christmas light exhibit in North Alabama. She was unable to see different colors but could vaguely make out the lights. Desperately, Ruby wanted to hold the lights in her hand, but the insensitive owner of the display refused her request.

Ruby was around 5 years old when her parents brought home a single strand of 25 Christmas lights. The young girl then made a Christmas wish ... “I want other people to see what I can’t.”

The Swindles decided to put up a Christmas display at their house. They continued adding more lights each year, just as their daughter had requested. The number of lights increased so much that their home became a major Christmas attraction across North Alabama, then the South and even the world.

“We had a group here from Japan that saw us on CNN,” Harold told me that day I visited. “They filmed for about six hours and gave away prizes to anyone in Japan who could guess the number of lights in our display.”

Harold then pulled out a keepsake from the visit. It was an unopened jug of saké that the Japanese delegation left him in their appreciation.

Many newspapers and television

stations featured the family’s Christmas light display. Even the National Enquirer ran an article on it.

While thousands of people enjoyed the display, the enormous chore of annually putting up the lights, nativity scenes and other displays fell to Harold, his wife and their son, Ricky.

P

reparations for the impressive exhibit began in August. For starters, each set of lights was individually checked, a tremendous undertaking in itself. Getting the strings of lights into the trees was an interesting chore.

“I tie the lights to a string weighted down with a metal nut, then I shoot them up into the trees with a slingshot,” Harold laughed.

Even with an August start, the Swindles were barely ready by Thanksgiving Day. The lights were cut on at 5 p.m. each day from then through New Year’s Eve. The couple added approximately 10,000 to 15,000 new lights per year.

On top of that expense, when I visited in ’94 their power bill for November and December ran about $1,800.

The couple initially discouraged donations, but people would leave money on the ground. They eventually put up a contribution box. Though it helps, the contributions never covered the power bills, much less the cost of new items each year.

“One year,” Harold chuckled, “we got 75 pounds of pennies.”

The couple sometimes found wallets

and other personal items people lost while walking the property. But once Harold found something out of the ordinary in the contribution box.

“It seemed this young boy and girl had gotten into an argument and he had taken the ring he had given her off her finger and put it in his pocket,” Harold said.

“When he reached into his pocket to leave a donation, he accidentally put the ring in the box with his change.”

A day or two later the sheepish couple came by and asked if anyone had found a ring. The ring was returned to the grateful lovebirds.

T

he 325,000 lights and fixtures began coming down each year on Jan. 1.

It took until the end of March to get the lights, nativity scenes, Santa Clauses, and snowmen all packed up. Each set of lights was placed into separate storage bags to keep them from tangling.

The Swindles offered personal tours to everyone, but they had a soft spot in their hearts for the handicapped.

“People come here in wheelchairs and we are always glad to show them around,” Harold told me with a sparkle in his eye.

He and his wife have since passed away. The empty shell of their home still rests on the property that brought so much joy to both children and adults alike.

But while it lasted, the sweet couple was thankful that they could fulfill their daughter’s request that others could see what she could not. And it was at a place called Glory City.

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61

Teens from around the globe converge on Battleground community for a few tough weeks at ...

CAMP LIBERTY

Story and photos

by Patrick Oden

“W

hat’s the matter with you, recruit?” screams a towering drill instructor. Veins bulge from his thick neck as he leans into the 15-year-old.

The teen, wearing a modified military uniform, and with a fresh haircut, is standing neatly in line on his third day of training. Sweat pours down his tender face.

“Request permission to hydrate, sir!” He attempts to yell as taught, but his breath labors between each word.

Recruits, exhausted from a morning on the obstacle course, stand stiff, two by two, wrapping a line around the mess hall, waiting with forced patience for the group ahead of them to finish eating.

Knees weak and faces dripping, some probably wondered why they volunteered for such a grueling experience.

These young people are attending the summer program Extreme Military Challenge! at the 75-acre Camp Liberty, located in the northeast Cullman County community of Battleground.

The entry-point for the program is Cadet Basic Training, a two-week “boot camp for good kids” who push themselves to earn the transformation from “recruit” to the coveted title of “cadet.” Once a cadet, the camp offers advanced programs that range from three-week engineering and medic courses to one-week scuba certification and the five-week Cadet Ranger School.

I

n Patriot Hall – the dining facility – a platoon of 30 young men and women are given the all clear to file in quickly for their choice of a hamburger or two hot dogs, beans and fruit salad.

“I better not see anyone throw any food away,” another voice of authority barks from across the room. “Don’t get up until you’ve eaten every last onion.”

The drill instructors explain in a raspy voice that 62

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

Drill instructors strive to strike a balance between assertive teaching and offering genuine care for the wellbeing of each recruit and cadet.

The goal is to make recruits and cadets stronger men and women and perhaps one day good soldiers.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

63

Above: Ravished cadets file in for lunch. Below: Cadets learn fundamentals of the military life, like chain of command. they aren’t “yelling,” rather “speaking with a tone and volume so as not to be misunderstood or ignored.”

To a civilian, it just seems loud and constant. But there is a method to the barking, one that has served the U.S. military well.

In fact, all of the drill instructors at Camp Liberty are or have been bona fide drill instructors in various branches of the armed services.

The camp staff – “cadre” in military-speak – includes a firefighter, law student and even a Catholic school gym teacher.

They travel from as far away as California, Germany and the

64

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

Middle East to help execute this unique program that has called Cullman County home for two seasons.

Most of the staff are parents, hired for their ability to balance the strict military regimen with genuine care for the wellbeing of each young person in their charge.

The 35 members of the summer staff have 400 years of combined military experience. Their experience serves them well, in both knowing when to be aggressive and assertive.

O

ver the course of summer 2017, nearly 200 young men

A cadet in the advanced program crosses a field while on patrol. She and the others in the program don’t stay in the barracks. They pitch tents in the woods. Some 18 percent of the cadets and recruits are young women.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

65

After two weeks of basic training, recruits advance to cadets. Here two advanced cadets practice hand-to-hand combat. and women from 34 states and 13 countries called Camp Liberty home. France, Germany, England, Canada and even Middle Eastern royalty were represented by these young men and women – and all equal but for the ranks they earned.

Camp Liberty was started and is run by Joseph Land, Sr. A former sailor who has served in uniform, or supported the Department of Defense in uniform for 30-plus years, he is known as “Colonel Land” to his staff.

He transformed a former religious retreat into an internationally-known and respected military youth camp. During the non-summer months, the 75-acre camp also hosts weddings, retreats, reunions and other large events.

To every extent possible, he has designed Camp Liberty to simulate the basic and some of the advanced training recruits experience in the U.S. military.

“Our obstacle course is built to exact Army standards,” Land says. “This is almost exactly how the obstacle course would be on any military installation.”

Land emphasizes that the teens who are accepted at the camp are good kids.

“We do not accept delinquents, and we are not a ‘turn-around’ program by any means,” Land says.

To date, he says, 63 percent of the cadets have gone on to serve in the military, or as police officers, firefighters or other service careers. Nearly half of them return to take advanced programs or 66

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

to make an offered five-day behind-the-scenes trip to Washington, DC.

T

here are many reasons young people attend Camp Liberty.

One of the most common is to get a taste of the military life before heading off to serve in one of the armed services.

Cadet Nolan Stark, 16, hails from Estero, Fla., where he’s active in the ROTC program at his high school. The senior cadet at Camp Liberty, with over 20 weeks of training experience under his belt, 2017 is his fourth – and probably last – summer here.

He plans to spend next summer in boot camp through the Army’s delayed entry program.

At face value it would seem pretty clear why Nolan is at Camp Liberty, but his story, like every cadet’s, is a bit deeper. He lost his mother when he was young, but remembers the values she instilled in him before she passed. And though he says he struggles from time to time, he always harkens back to those values – the values he found reinforced at Camp Liberty.

“That’s why I keep coming back … to not lose what I am now,” Nolan says. “I didn’t expect I would carry the values and friendships coming back.”

Why the military in the first place?

When Nolan was 5 years old, an overcrowded plane separated him from his family on the way to see his grandparents. He was seated next to a stranger wearing an impressive uniform.

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67

A soldier in the Special Forces, the imposing man spent the entire flight talking with and comforting Nolan. Ever since that day, Nolan says, he’s known he wanted to be in the Special Forces.

F

or Kennedy Chambers of Grosse Ile, Mich., the story is similar but different. She hopes to find her way into the medical field through service in the Navy, supporting the United States Marine Corps.

Kennedy didn’t want to jump into something without being sure she was making the right decision so she asked her aunt to help her find a military camp.

“I wanted to see if there was a camp that would help me see if I would like the military … not a disciplinary camp, a true military camp,” the cadet says.

Originally slated to have already returned home, Kennedy asked to stay an additional two weeks to take the camp’s Cadet Field Leadership Course.

Now in the midst of her leadership training, her smile speaks as loudly as her words.

“It’s more intense than I expected, but it’s helped build my confidence and personal courage to lead,” she says. “We set limits but we can get past those with a mindset … the one weapon we always have is our mind.”

As the summer afternoon heat pours thick over the rolling, grassy hills of Camp Liberty, dirty and tired Cadets are scurrying about.

The sun will set soon, but the day isn’t over yet. The barracks still need squaring away.

There are showers, the evening meal, maybe a letter home.

Finally it is lights out to the sounds of “Taps” on the camp’s PA system. Another long day behind them.

Tomorrow will be much the same at Camp Liberty. It will be hot. Cadets will be pushed and challenged, and when they lay their heads on their pillows, they may sleep like babies but they will awake a little stronger and more confident than the day before.

Good Life Magazine Top to bottom: A senior drill instructor offers guidance. In the field, cadets navigate the camp’s rope course. In the barracks, they learn how to make a bunk to military standards. For more on Camp Liberty and Extreme Military Challenge, visit: www.Camp-Liberty.com and www.

XMCCamp.com.

68

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

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A mine exploded under Sonny Morrow’s foot while serving as an artillery forward observer in the Vietnam War. Surviving, he did recon work on the Ho Chi Minh Trail for “The Company.”

On his second tour, he flew first-generation stealth spy planes and, as a Huey pilot, he basically had his helicopter shot out from under him.

Taken alone, those chapters of his military career would qualify Sonny, a retired Army colonel, as a fitting Veterans Day representative for the hundreds of thousands who made sacrifices over the centuries on behalf of the United States of America. But …

The aftermath of Col. Sonny Morrow’s Vietnam war stories continues today He and his son, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, share a special bond, not only as brothers in arms … but as wounded warriors to boot.

Story by David Moore

A

bandoned by locals in the jungles of Laos, Army First Lt. Sonny Morrow evaded capture by the North Vietnamese Army and death in the wilds for 18 days before swimming across the Mekong River in his underwear to reach safety in Thailand. During those hairy days of Vietnam War survival, thoughts of his time at Cullman High School never crossed his mind – he was too occupied applying the life-saving skills he learned in Ranger School. Sonny states that he is alive because of the skills he learned at Ranger School.

It was 1968. For seven months Sonny had been running long-range recon patrols for Air America, the cover company for the CIA. Working with a team of four hired Laotian tribesmen miles from friendly forces, his mission was to bury a series of seismic intrusion sensors along the Ho Chi Minh Trail 70

to detect rumbles of North Vietnamese Army soldiers and vehicles and relay the locations to an Air Force electronic control center where they launched many forms of munitions against the enemy.

“One day my tribesmen crossed the trail with 4,000 NVA soldiers walking down the trail,” Sonny recalls. “I couldn’t cross the trail, and my guys didn’t come back for me. It did not take me long to realize I was in deep trouble.”

On his own, he had to return to Thailand, 200 miles to the east. His silk survival map gave general walking directions but few details.

“I had no food and no water,” Sonny says. “I became a thief in the night. I’d find a village. They kept raw rice in barrels on the side of their hooches. I’d fill my pockets with rice and keep going.

“I laid low. If I saw two legs, I avoided them. I didn’t want to be seen or found. It was really a lot of E and E – escape and evasion,” he says. “I traveled at night … hiding.”

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

O

nce, as Sonny made his way down an animal trail, the jungle grew eerily quiet.

“When the jungle quits talking to you, you’ve got trouble,” he says. “So I stepped off the trail. In a few minutes this big black cat came walking up the trail. He was in hunt mode, and I thought I was supper.

“As he came toward me, he stepped across a log, and the log came alive. It was a huge snake, and it wrapped up that cat. If I had been walking, it would have wrapped me up.

“That is just an example of how you could die and no one would have ever known,” Sonny adds. “The snake didn’t care if it was a cat or a person.”

Finally, he reached the Mekong River, 100 yards wide, its current stout. He stripped down to boots and underwear, pitched his rifle in the water and swam across.

Friendly forces found Sonny four

Sitting in his “game day” house in Auburn, retired Army Col. Sidney “Sonny” Morrow poses proudly with his classic Cavalry hat, medals and his son – a wounded-warrior brother in arms – retired Army CW3 Patrick Morrow. Patrick, his wife, Nikki, and their family also live in Auburn. Sonny and his wife, Peggy, have a daughter, Courtney. Married to LTC Justin Colbert, she works for the U.S. Dept. of State and lives in Alexandria, Va. Sonny and Peggy have three grandchildren along with a second home, a 16th-floor condo in Alexandria. The U.S. Capitol is visible from their balcony. “I sit down and have a morning cup of coffee,”Sonny says. “As long as the Capitol dome is there, I know the world is OK.” Photo by David Moore. days later. His near-nakedness bothered him not.

“It was a sense of relief,” he says, “to be in Thailand in boots and underwear.”

A

long with his sister, Leanna Green, now of Jackson, MS., Sidney “Sonny” Morrow was raised in Cullman County’s Grandview community on a 40-acre farm with cows. His dad, Dr. Sidney H. Morrow, was a dentist; mom, Sarah, started Morrow Nursery, which at one point had 10,000 boxwoods. Sonny once had to count them.

In his young heart beat twin desires: joining the military and flying.

J.C. Sapp, a neighbor, kept a small Luscombe plane on his dairy farm.

“I used to sit in his airplane and pretend I was flying,” Sonny, 73, recalls.

“I always wanted to be in the military. I thought it was exciting. My uncle, an Air Force colonel, encouraged it. My mother despised the military, literally; my father was all for it.”

At Cullman High, Sonny threw shot put and discus on the track team and was a manager for the football team. He graduated in 1962.

At his beloved Auburn University, he studied chemical engineering on scholarship but graduated with a degree

in aeronautical engineering. He also participated in the Army ROTC flight program and became a civilian pilot. As a distinguished ROTC military graduate, he left Auburn in March 1967 for 22 days of leave in Cullman. After that, his military career was off and running.

Assigned to the field artillery branch, he went through officer basic training, airborne training then Ranger School.

He ended up in December ’67 assigned to the Division Artillery, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. But there was never any question of his real destination.

“Nam was always in the background,”

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Though its engine was plagued with problems and four of the total eleven YO-3As crashed, none of the extremely quiet night-flyers was ever shot down, much less hit by a bullet. From an audible standpoint, its stealth was achieved in part by a belt drive lowering the prop’s spin to under the speed of sound. The prop’s six blades, visible in the photo with young Capt. Sonny Morrow at right, helped compensate for lost lift. The prism-

Sonny says. “I was looking for excitement.

The military was my calling, and I loved every minute of it.”

E

ven if he seems to relish hazard, there was plenty not to love.

Late December 1967 found Sonny assigned as a forward observer (FO) for B Troop, 2/17 Calvary, a 101st Airborne unit on the enemy lines in Vietnam – a unit which he says “liked to get into trouble.”

His task was to call in artillery while in enemy contact. Being an FO is one of the Army’s most dangerous combat jobs.

Of the 21 FOs assigned to the unit when deploying to Nam, Daddy Spotter 51 – Sonny’s call sign – was one of three who wasn’t killed during the year.

“It was blind, dumb luck,” he says.

“Ranger School makes you think you’re invincible, but you learn real quick what 72

you can and cannot do.” Besides, you do not worry about the bullet that has your name on it, you worry about the one that is addressed to whom it may concern.

Sonny lost three radio operators, leaving him to carry his own radio.

“One day I heard this ‘zip’ and my antenna folded down,” he recalls. “That bullet could have hit my head or neck just as easy.”

While crossing a rice paddy once, a bullet ripped through his backpack, shattering his prized bottle of Tobasco sauce.

“It took six weeks to get a replacement,” Sonny laughs. “You could not eat C rations without Tobasco sauce.”

Serious disaster struck Jan. 15, 1968.

Sonny stepped on a land mine. The explosion deflected off his right leg – messing it up, as he puts it – and killing four guys in front of him.

NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | JANUARY 2017-18

After three weeks in an evac hospital, he was declared fit for duty and returned to combat. The incident, which earned him the Purple Heart, would later come back to steal his ability to walk without crutches.

A

fter five months as an FO, Sonny was singled out from his division for a mysterious interview. All of the interviewees had engineering degrees.

Sonny stood out because of his extensive combat field experience.

Interviewed at 7 a.m., he was selected and en route to Thailand by 10 that morning. Hustled onto a beat-up boat with a puttering diesel, Sonny was taken 25 miles up a river then ushered to a Quonset hut for, finally, a briefing. He learned he’d be working for “The Company,” leading long-range reconnaissance patrols.

equipped, night vision aerial periscope, visible at left as the bubble under the nose of the plane, along with an infrared illuminator, enabled the observer to spot an enemy soldier lighting a cigarette from a mile away on a night with just a quarter moon.

“Thanks for volunteering,” his contact told him.

“I didn’t,” Sonny replied.

“Well, it’s too late now.”

Sonny operated in and out of Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam, burying sensors on the Ho Chi Minh Trail so the Air Force could take out troops and equipment.

Working with patrols of four CIA-hired Laotian tribesmen, Sonny was in the field for months at a time. Armed with a map, 45-caliber pistol, M-16 rifle, bayonet and an entrenching tool, he carried no ID card, no dog tags.

“If I got caught, I’d probably be shot on the spot,” he says. “Nobody would know where I was or that I was gone.”

Sonny would go months with little contact with his own troops, and the tribesmen spoke little if any English. They’d get him to a location, and he was on his own. Afterward,

he had coordinates for his next delivery of sensors and a new patrol.

“I never spoke a single word for months, other than cussing,” he says.

In addition to escaping Laos in his underwear, Sonny once had a clandestine contact with a Frenchman who hid him under the trapdoor in a hooch floor until Air America flew in beer and other supplies.

Once he made a prisoner snatch.

Often he found himself in jungles crawling with enemy troops. Once he got stuck in an enemy truck parking area for three days.

“I couldn’t eat or drink,” he says. “If I moved, they were going to see me.”

Another time, one of his patrol tribesmen proved to be an infiltrator. The other three Laotians dispatched him in front of Sonny.

S

onny returned to the states in December 1968 ready for a change. When he’d return to Vietnam after the mandated 18-month break between tours, by-golly he would not be walking. He was determined to fly.

So he put in for fixed-wing and rotorwing training, graduating with honors.

Then, at Fort Ord., Calif., he trained in the Army Otter planes. His flight commander, however, soon made Sonny project officer for a secret silent spy plane being developed there: the YO-3A. Sonny headed up training for the only airplane Lockheed Missiles and Space Company ever built. A two-seater with long glider wings and a small, stealthengineered engine and exhaust, the plane was uncannily silent, designed to fly undetected, low-altitude, unarmed night

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missions over enemy positions, which were spotted with a high-tech night vision prism.

Ten YO-3As were built for service at Long Thanh North Army base in Nam. Lockheed might be good at missiles, Sonny says, but it was apparent this was the company’s only airplane design.

The plane had numerous problems. One crashed before they even left California.

“I saluted the last plane out for Nam and said, ‘See you! I’ll never see you again.’”

Sonny’s farewell proved untrue.

He left for tour two in Vietnam in August 1970. Reading his record, the assignment officer in Saigon noted his involvement with the YO-3A and sent him to, of all places, the YO-3A’s base at Long Thanh North. Sonny was now the operations officer for what would become the predecessor of the U-2, Blackbird and other spy planes.

It was far from Sonny’s top choice, but at least he wasn’t walking.

S

onny gave YO-3A pilots intelligence briefings, assigned them missions and now with the call sign Knight Rider 07 – he also flew the YO-3A. “I did not even fit in the plane,” he laughs. “I was 6’ 3” and overweight for that aircraft specifications and not experienced flying the required airplanes. I was perfect for the job.”

On top of that, the YO-3As were complex to fly. The cockpit workload was tremendous. While flying, the pilot had to navigate in total darkness, plus he was responsible for calling for fire if the enemy was spotted. What’s more, the planes were prone to overheating and engine failures – which happened to Sonny while returning from a mission once.

Fortunately, YO-3As had glider wings, but Long Thanh North was out of range for Sonny’s engine-dead plane. Giving a “Mayday,” he turned to a base he could see in the dark, a seven-minute glide away.

Other U.S. pilots flying intelligence missions in twin-engine turbo props responded by radio to the “Mayday” with typical dark humor.

“Sonny, if you don’t make it, can I have your air-conditioner?”

“What size boots do you wear?” asked another.

“Can I have your room?”

74

The YO-3A was a bit of a strange looking bird, with its large canopy. But the Capt. Sonny Morrow pilots this plane over Vietnam “The guys had already divvied up all of my stuff,” Sonny says. “But when it was time to go in, they all wished me good luck.”

Sonny barely cleared the perimeter fence and berm at the end of the runway.

The emergency release had to be used to lower the landing gear. Nonetheless, he set the plane down without a scratch. The feat earned him the prestigious Broken Wing Award, given to crew members showing extraordinary skill during inflight emergencies without causing further damage to their aircraft.

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S

onny is proud of his Broken Wing.

He’s also proud of the dubious distinction of holding the YO-3A altitude record.

He and his observer were returning from a night mission during the monsoons when the little plane got caught in a massive updraft, rocketing it in two stormy minutes from 1,500 to 14,500 feet – well past its tested limit and past the 10,000-foot ceiling at which the military requires crews to be on oxygen. They had no oxygen.

“I was just trying to keep the wings

B

design provided good visibility for the observer, who sits in the front seat. during a very rare daylight flight. US Army photo. level,” Sonny says. “Our airspeed indicator showed from zero to 120 miles per hour. I had no idea what our speed was.”

Between the pull of positive and negative G’s, it felt as if the plane would be torn asunder.

“My observer was saying the Rosary so fast,” Sonny says, “I thought his beads were going to melt.”

After two harrowing minutes at 14,500 feet, the plane suddenly dropped just as fast, back to 1,500. Ten minutes later, Sonny safely landed the plane.

After seven months with the spy planes, the YO-3A program was terminated and he was transferred to Pleiku Air Base as a platoon leader and pilot in a Huey helicopter assault company. They helicoptered troops and supplies in and out of fire bases – a new kind of hairy for Sonny. On one mission, his Huey was riddled with 178 hits.

“It didn’t fly far, about 20 feet,” Sonny says. “We set it down and ran like hell.”

He got to do that for five months.

ack home, Sonny flew into Huntsville planning to visit his parents in Cullman, only they had moved to Florida. He never got the memo, he laughs, and not knowing then that fortune was smiling upon him.

His sister lived in Huntsville and picked him up at the airport. There, as he stepped off a curb, a passing car hit him.

“A girl got out to see if I was OK,” he says. “She was good looking. I made her back up to get off my briefcase. I was OK, but I got her number … just in case. The next day I called her to go out for supper.”

Six weeks later he married the former Peggy Murphy, who worked for Huntsville Aviation.

“She says it was the uniform,” he grins.

Whatever ignited the union, it has worked for what will be 47 years in March.

For the next 14 years of his 19-year military career, Sonny, Peggy and later siblings Patrick and Cortney lived overseas for 10 years. Sonny ended up visiting 28 countries, serving as chief of safety over 106 airfields and helipads from England to Saudi Arabia; staring at Russians across the border through his binoculars as the commander of a battery of nuclear-tipped Lance missiles; and pulling a duty at the U.S. Embassy in London.

His last assignment was with Stinger missiles at Redstone Arsenal. While at the Pentagon on business, talking to a general, Sonny’s leg, wounded in 1968 in the mine explosion, suddenly gave out. He crumpled to the floor.

“That was the start of my downfall,” he says.

He was examined at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. To keep tabs on him, Sonny was assigned to the hospital chief of staff and lived the last six months of his military career at Walter Reed.

A full colonel when retiring at 42, Sonny worked another 16 years with Lockheed. Meanwhile, his leg continued to deteriorate. Today he can’t walk without crutches. The soldier who once ran longrange recon patrols through the jungles of Southeast Asia today seldom hobbles beyond his porch.

T

he year after Sonny fell down in the Pentagon, Patrick, at age 29, joined the Army. Sonny proudly presented his senior aviator wings to Patrick when he earned his senior aviator wings during a 2012

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During his time as a MEDEVAC pilot in Iraq, Alaska and Afghanistan, CW3 Patrick Morrow flew a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, similar to the one pictured here. U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Chad A. Dulac. ceremony at Fort Hood, Texas. For some 11 years, Patrick served as a Black Hawk pilot for a MEDEVAC helicopter team.

His team evacuated wounded soldiers from Iraqi battle zones in 2008-2009. They then flew evacuations together in Alaska, still as a unit, in Afghanistan in 2011-2012.

During that time, Patrick and his team rescued 387 wounded warriors.

On July 5, 2011, a heavy price was levied on that dedication.

Dad fills in details Patrick passes off as “a lot of stuff going on.”

Trying to land to extract wounded soldiers, Patrick’s Black Hawk was immobilized. He held on as the aircraft made a “hard landing” – basically crashing upright.

With the impact, Patrick whacked his head, blacking out momentarily. His wits quickly returned. The team, still under fire, loaded the wounded on board. Patrick took 76

off and managed to get the copter back to a field hospital and his base.

The maintenance crew determined the Black Hawk was totaled, destroyed.

Patrick came close to the same – he broke his neck, sustained spinal cord damage and required screws in his hips.

“I continued to fly another five months, then I physically could not fly,” Patrick says. “The flight surgeon grounded me.”

He was discharged October 2014 with 100-percent medical disability. That includes traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic syndrome.

P

atrick and his family live in Auburn today. Sonny and Peggy have a condo in Alexandria, Va., and a “game day” cottage in Auburn. As much as they love being close to their Tigers, it allows them closeness to assist their wounded warrior son.

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“Actually, we are all kinds of help to each other,” Sonny says of Patrick.

Every Thursday they attend the Vet to Vet program at the VA facility 26 miles away in Valley. It’s a round-table discussion of issues among 25 or so disabled veterans.

The rest of the week, if needed, father and son have each other.

“When he has a bad day, or I have a bad day, we can relate,” Sonny says. “I can tell him things …

“I have good friends, and he has good friends. But most of them did not serve in the military. We can’t talk to them about some things,” Sonny says. “They are not brothers in arms.”

But the wounded warrior father and wounded warrior son are. And as good soldiers everywhere, they have each other’s back.

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Out ‘n’ About

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