Cullman Good Life Magazine - Summer 2021 by The Good Life Magazine

CULLMAN COUNTY

Tony Glover overcame adversity to pursue his love of gardens, people

Miss Alabama USA Alexandria Flanigan advocates for community, philanthropy SUMMER 2021 | COMPLIMENTARY

How can you go wrong building and selling what’s more fun than jet skis?

Cosmetic and Family Dentistry Featuring: Porcelain Veneers, Dental Implants, Crowns, Bridges, Zoom Whitening, and Full Smile Rehabilitations. Dental Arts has provided high-quality dental care to our area since 1981. In 2015, Dr. Kari Bartlett took over Dental Arts continuing the tradition of dental excellence. With the old office on 2nd Avenue growing crowded, Dr. Bartlett built a state-of-the-art office on 4th Avenue to better serve her patients. She and her growing staff – complimented by her associate, Dr. Abby DiLuzio – remain committed to providing top-quality dentistry and friendly, personal service for you and your family. We’d love to have you visit our new office and help you smile more!

Dr. Abby DiLuzio, associate Dr. Kari L. Bartlett, owner

Dental Arts is located in the new North Alabama Wellness Center on 4th Ave NE, across the street and a half block south of the Folsom Center.

205 4th Ave NE Suite 101 Cullman, AL 35055 2

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256-739-5533 www.dentalartscullman.com

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Welcome

In case you didn’t know, you guys are really interesting – here’s proof

n 2013, I left my newspaper job, along with Sheila McAnear, to start Cullman and Marshall County Good Life Magazines. Even today, I still run into folks who ask how I like retirement. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to answer them with any first-hand knowledge, but occasionally I do think about retiring – after all, I’m scheduled to hit 70 this year – and sometimes lazy sounds tempting. But honestly, doing nothing would drive me bonkers – not to mention Diane, my wife of nearly 39 years. Besides, I like what I do. Well, duh, I ought to. I wrote my own job description – which basically says go find interesting people and things, then tell their stories in words and pictures. Just in case you didn’t know, all of you guys are really interesting. This issue is full of more proof ... I met Tony Glover as I started on the first issue of GLM. I’m saddened by the loss of his son, Luke, but I was captivated by the story of Tony’s early life, which I knew nothing about until interviewing him for the Good People feature in this issue. Bill St. John I met in 2016, doing a story about his motorcycle and “lemon” car racing. He engineered two lunches for me at his office for a story and photos as our guest cook. Smart and most interesting guy. Then you have Don and Adele Hungerford who live at the lake. It’s always interesting, the dominoes that topple and lead people here. They’re as gracious a couple as they are creative. And there’s the crew behind Rooster’s Corner out in Bremen. Kat Daddy Watson, the ringleader of the restaurant might as well wear a T-shirt emblazoned with “I’m a character.” Neat people. Alexandria Flanigan was a joy to meet. I would not be shocked if she’s the next Miss USA. I met Tim Butts when I visited his poultry farm in Fairview. Solar chicken houses? Cool as grits. It’s not mandatory that you be wild and crazy to be interesting, but it helps. Rob Beckman and Jeremy Williams are all three .... and so are the mini jet boats they build. Meeting them was a trip and a treat. Retire? Boy howdy, I’d miss a lot.

Mo Mc PUBLISHING LLC

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Contributors

Deb Laslie reviews two historical novels in this issue. “I prefer historical novels because they’re about real events,” she says. But she also likes a variety of other novels for a variety of reasons. “I love westerns ‘cause the women are strong, the good guys always win and the bad guys die badly.”’ Writer Steve Maze of the New Canaan community fearlessly tackles any topic of memorabilia, history or folk lore. In this issue it’s revivals of yesteryear. “What I remember most about those old-fashioned revivals is long-winded preachers, insects, a little summertime mischief and a dip in the creek.” With farming in his blood, Wallace State English instructor Seth Terrell was impressed with the solar powered chicken houses he writes about in this issue. He recently built raised bed gardens for flowers and veggies. “No solar panels,” he grins. “But they do use solar energy – and that comes free.” David Myers grew up in New Orleans where good food is a way of life. He and his faithful sidekick, Rose, are happy to find interesting cuisine in the community and relay their discoveries. “It gets to be a tough job,” he says, “but we’re willing to sacrifice for the common good.” Bon appetit!

By the time this magazine is out, advertising/art director Sheila McAnear excitedly proclaims, she will be fully vaccinated against Covid. Parade? Not quite, but she’s already making plans with vaccinated friends. “We used to go hiking once a month with friends,” she adds. “Tell me to go take a hike!” Writing has been called a solitary endeavor. GLM editor/publisher David Moore doesn’t agree. “I write in my office at home, and Porter is nearly always with me.” Porter is David and Diane’s rescue dog. “He sleeps on a doggy bed under my writing table. I can wake him any time to help me with spelling.” David F. Moore Publisher/editor | 256-293-0888 david.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com

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

Make The Switch To Mitch 1655 Cherokee Avenue SW — Cullman, Alabama Erik Harris

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BDC Manager MAY |F JUNE | JULY 2021 7 & I Manager

Inside 10 | Good Fun

Rock the South is back along with lots of other summer activities

16 | Good People

Retiring Tony Glover reflects on his adversity, work with farmers

22 | Good Reads

For your reading interest: ‘West with Giraffes, The Four Winds

25 | Good Cooking

Bill St. John spent much of Covid times cooking lunch for his staff

34 | Good Getaways

Everything changes when you take a walk through Mooresville

38 | Home to creativity Hungerfords created homes from Michigan to Florida to Smith Lake

46 | Good Eats

‘Rooster’s Corner/Fugly’s Pizza cook up good grub, good times

48 | Old tent revivals

Revival week left folks tired, but looking forward to the next one

50 | Miss Alabama USA

Have a chat with the delightful, philanthropic Alexandria Flanigan

56 | Solar chickens

Tim Butts is on the cutting edge of using solar power on the farm

64 | Jetstream boats

Local men building the next great toy for those who love water fun

74 | Out ‘n’ About

Those fun Second Fridays events expected to resume this summer On the cover | Rob Beckman skids across the water in his mini jet boat named Skid Vicious. Photo by David Moore. This page | Bill St. John took a picture of how he finishes off a steak initially cooked in water using the sous vide method .

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Rock the South 2021 10

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t’s back. After Rock the South 2020 was canceled because of the Covid pandemic, the big music festival returns this summer – Aug. 13-14 – with a hot lineup of country and Southern rock. Headlining will be: • Luke Combs, proclaimed by The New York Times as “the most promising and influential new country star of the last five years.” • Miranda Lambert, the most nominated female artist in history of the American Country Music Awards. • Lynyrd Skynyrd, the classic Southern rock band. Also on the bill are Nelly, Ashley McBryde, Jordan Davis, Ingrid Andress, Flatland Cavalry, Alex Hall, John Kiser, Laine Hardy and Dee Jay Silver. As it was in 2019, Rock the South will be held on the 140-acre field 1872 County Road 469. If you bought tickets for last year’s show, you should have received tickets already for the 2021 festival. Through May 18, save on twoday, super early bird ticket specials with general admission $99.99; platinum $169.99; VIP $329.99; and ultimate VIP $629.99. After May 18, the first three categories go up by $20. You can also get RV parking, car camping and weekend parking passes online with the other tickets at: rockthesouth.com.

Heading the show will be Luke Combs, center, Miranda Lambert, top and Lynyrd Skynyrd, at left.

From strawberries to fireworks – tons to do

Good Fun

• Now thru Aug. 1 – Register for Autumn in Branson, MO The trip is Sept. 13-17 and includes roundtrip deluxe motorcoach transportation, four nights at the Grand Oaks Hotel, 11 meals, College of the Ozarks lunch and tour, Wildlife Tram and picnic lunch at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park. Plus, you’ll see five shows: Grand Jubilee, Billy Yates Hit Songwriters Dinner Show, Clay Cooper’s Country Express, Absolutely Country-Definitely Gospel and the Oak Ridge Boys. The trip is sponsored by the WSCC Alumni Association but is open to nonmembers. Depending on occupancy, cost per person ranges from $925 to $1,235 ($1,025-$1,335 for nonmembers), and includes tour guide, luggage handling, all taxes and meal gratuities. Deposit of $200 due at reservation; deadline to register and for final payment is Aug. 1. Register online under events at: /www. wsccfuturefoundation.org. For more info contact LaDonna Allen: 256-3528071; ladonna.allen@wallacestate.edu. • May 1 – Strawberry Festival Centered around First Avenue and Depot Park, Cullman Strawberry Festival is sponsored by Cullman Parks, Recreation & Sports Tourism. It starts with the farmer’s market at 7 a.m. and is wide open from 10 to at least 10 p.m. with a beauty pageant, kids carnival, craft show, local food vendors and strawberries galore. Entertainment includes the Cullman Community Band, a magic show, Cullman High School Jazz Band and Singers, “Alice in Wonderland” by the Cullman Civic Ballet, Wallace State Dancers, The Humdingers, Cullman Middle School Jazz Band, Loriraynemusic and, starting at 7 p.m., the Avenue G Band. Laken Pitts will be DJ between sets and after hours. Other events include the introduction of the Miss Strawberry Festival contestants, strawberry baking competition, a Doggie

The largest in Alabama, Cullman’s Strawberry Festival dates back 80+ years. Paw-geant, cornhole tournament, a strawberry eating contest, a strawberry soda throwdown and a strawberry bucket hoisting contest. For more info: cullmanstrawberryfest.com. • May 8 – Stony Lonesome Mud Run This event is rain or shine – since you’ll be sloshing in the mud anyway, rain can only help. Hundreds of crazies are expected to brave the fun and muddy obstacles for the annual 5K or one-mile walk/run at Stony Lonesome OHV Park on Ala. 69 in Bremen.

The 5K starts at 8 a.m. You might want to go ahead and register. Fees to participate are $30 for the 5K (for those 13 and older) and the fun mile run/walk (all ages). Teams of three can run for $80; four for $100. It’s free to come out and watch the mud fly. You can register the day of but there’s an added fee. For more info and to register online: http://www.cullmancountyparks.com; or call: 256-287-1133. • May 29 – Smith Lake Memorial Day Usher in the summer at Cullman MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

County’s Smith Lake Park with its annual music festival from 9 a.m.–6 p.m. on the Saturday before Memorial Day. Live music will be going on all day as well as craft and food vendors along with fun contests, bounce houses and such for the kids and the decorated golf cart parade. The water balloon toss and other events take place between music the decorated golf cart. The pool opens and – of course – there’s always the lake. Admission to the park is free. For more info, call the park: 256-7392916. • June 5 – Garden to Table Cooking for Kids Not your average kids’ cooking class. Youngsters will pull veggies right out of the soil and learn to make a fresh and yummy meal. Part of the Farm Kid’s Club at the North Alabama Agriplex, 9-10:30 a.m. Ages 5-13. Enroll by June 4. Cost: $5 per parent/child pair; $5 per additional child. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation.recdesk.com.

• June 6-30 – Garden Camp Kids get to work 9-11 a.m. Wednesday in raised garden beds at the Agriplex and take home projects to continue learning. Ages 3-11 (kids 3-5 must be accompanied by an adult). Cost: $35 per child (or child/parent pair). To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation. recdesk.com. • June 7-10; 14-17 – Summer Science Camp A four-day session of fun science at the Art Park building, taught by a local science teacher. Includes a trip to the McWane Center. Daily 8 a.m.-noon for kids 5-7; 1-5 p.m. for kids 8-12. Cost is $100 per session. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation. recdesk.com. • June 10-11 – Farm tours for kids Two days of farm tours in Cullman County. Food and T-shirts will be provided. Parents must pay to attend, but must drive separately. Meet at the North Alabama Agriplex, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Ages 7-13. Cost: $25 per child; $25

per if a parent is required to attend. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation.recdesk.com. • June 12 – Hanceville Antique Tractor and Engine Show The show’s 23rd edition will be 9 a.m.-3 p.m., at Wallace State Community College. Charles Allen, one of the organizers, says he had commitments for 65 tractors before last year’s show was canceled a few days beforehand because of Covid. He usually gets about 50 or so commitments. There will also be a traveling grist mill, a knife sharpener, knife maker, tractor parade (about noon), tractor races, a skillet-throwing contest, food and homemade ice cream and more. There is no registration fee, and admission is free. Bring a lawn chair for the races. For more info, call: Charles Allen, 205-616-4173; Bonnie Hamrick Brannan, 256-590-2478; or Hanceville City Hall, 256-352-9830. • June 28-July 1 – Summer Music Camp

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For young musicians 8-12 who want to play some music. Led by Brian Kirk, camp features lessons on guitar (bring your own!) and provided keyboards. Fee: $100; 8 a.m.noon daily in the Art Park building. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation.recdesk.com. • July 4 – Smith Lake fireworks Lots of folks missed Smith Lake’s annual Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza last year, canceled because of Covid. But it’ll be back this year with a bang. Plans were incomplete at press time, but entertainment, games, fun, food and arts and crafts vendors are expected at the park during the day with a 30-minute fireworks show thundering in at 9 p.m. Admission to park for the day is $5 per person. For more info call: 256-739-2916. • July 7-Aug. 6 – Camp Cullman Cullman Parks, Recreation & Sports Tourism’s favorite summer day camp returns for 2021 with arts and crafts, camp games, sports, swimming in

the outdoor pool and water park and field trips. Open to ages 6-13, camp is 8 a.m.- 8 p.m., Monday-Friday, based at Cullman Wellness & Aquatic Center. Cost: $540, with $200 due at registration. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation. recdesk.com. Note: register soon – The June session of Camp Cullman was filled as of press time. • July 10 – Make and Take Worm Bin Grow worms! Cool! Kids will make their very own vermicomposting bin (one per family) and learn all about the care of these great composters. A Farm Kid’s Club activity for ages 5-13: 9-10:30 a.m., North Alabama Agriplex. Cost: $20 parent/child pair; $5 for a second child. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation. recdesk.com. • July 14-15 – Nature Day Camp Day camp exploring the natural world and Native American heritage. Adventures include hiking, canoeing, heritage crafts and storytelling. For

kids 10-14; 8 a.m.-3 p.m., North Alabama Agriplex. Cost: $35 per child. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation.recdesk.com. • July 19-22 – Photography Camp Learn the basics of photography and the skills needed to take young shutterbugs to the next level from local Cullman photographer Jamie Kirk. Open to kids 8-12 years old. Fee: $100; 8 a.m.-noon daily in the Art Building. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation.recdesk.com. • July 19-23 – Sewing Camp 101 Children can learn the basics of hand-sewing and take their projects home. Open to kids at least 8 years old (those under 9 must be accompanied by a parent); 9 a.m.-noon at the North Alabama Agriplex. Cost: $40. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation.recdesk.com. • July 26-30 – Sewing Camp 102 Children who have completed Sewing 101 will review sewing by

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Be an Ambassador We enjoy a great quality of life and quality job opportunities. We have dynamic people working to promote Cullman, but you are the perfect ambassador. This is your home. You love it too! We need you to…

Talk up Cullman with all non-residents you know and meet!

At Wallace State, I decided Cullman is where I’d help my dad grow our company. Literally, these are the nicest, most genuine people you will ever meet. – Paul Knetter, co-owner, Tradition Roofing &Construction MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

Barbie Jeep racing at Stony Lonesome is not something Barbie would enjoy. But lots of folks do. Image from a video, courtesy of Matt Myrick and Busted Knuckle Gear/Films.

hand and move on to machine sewing. Bring your own machine and make easy projects to take home. Open to age 9-18; 9 a.m.-noon at the North Alabama Agriplex. Cost: $40. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation.recdesk.com. • July 26-29 – Technology Camp Four-day sessions of fun technology at the Art Park building that will introduce kids to coding, robotics, engineering, video, graphics

and more. Includes a trip to the Space and Rocket Center. Fee: $100; 8 a.m.noon daily for kids 5-7; 1-5 p.m. for kids 8-12. To register, click “programs” at: cullmanrecreation.recdesk.com. • July 24 – Barbie Jeep Races and “24Hour” Night Ride Stony Lonesome’s previous Extreme Barbie Jeep races have drawn 70-80 participants and 1,500 spectators who get to see grown-ups (“Hey, y’all, watch this!”) rumble and tumble

• Dec. 7-10 – Holly Jolly Christmas Tour Register now for this trip to the Smoky Mountains where Dollywood and its 7 million-plus lights, numerous shows and rides and other attractions will help you celebrate Christmas. Package includes three nights lodging at the Mainstay Suites at Ogle Farm in Pigeon Forge, seven meals, deluxe motorcoach transportation, baggage and handling, taxes and most gratuities. The trip is sponsored by the WSCC Alumni Association but is open to nonmembers. Depending on occupancy, cost per person ranges from $575 to $799 ($675-$899 for non-members) and includes tour guide, luggage handling, all taxes and meal gratuities. Register online under events at: /www. wsccfuturefoundation.org. For more info: 256-352-8071. 14

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down steep four-wheeler trails on non-motorized Barbie Jeeps. Google it to get an idea of the insanity level involved. Usually in the summer the park is open for trail riding 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. But this Saturday and Sunday, for the regular admission price, you can ride until your arms and legs drop off, your wheels drop off, or midnight rolls around. Call the park for more info: 256287-1133.

The Robert F. Thomas Chapel at Dollywood. The theme park won the Amusement Today Golden Ticket Award 10 years straight for Best Christmas Event.

We’ll reveal a new menu this summer ... But you can still love your favorites now!

Five of our customers’ toprated dishes are, clockwise from upper left: hand-cut ribeyes cooked to perfection; delectable coconut shrimp; seasonal homemade cheesecake; our grilled salmon; and mouthwatering ribs. Be watching for our new menu, but don’t worry ... your faves will still be on it! Open Tues.-Thurs, 4-9:30 / Fri.-Sat. 11-11

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MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

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Good People

5questions Story and photo by David Moore

ony Glover started his career with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System on April 1, 1984. He retired as the Extension coordinator for Cullman County on April 1, 2021 – and that’s no April Fool’s joke. Between those bookend dates with the Extension System, he sandwiched eight years of running the family business, Glover’s Plants and Produce in Cullman. Both jobs required intelligence, communication skills and a knack for working with the public, not to mention an outgoing personality. So it’s no joke that the life he led would have never occurred had Tony – an extreme introvert in high school ultraconscious of wearing steel leg braces – not had a serious talk with himself while working in his parents’ chicken house after dropping out of high school. And had he not loved horticulture – the art of gardening. “I grew up on fruit and vegetable farms,” he says, taking a retrospective retirement view of his life. “We were very poor and my dad worked hard to put food on the table.” Born in Florida, Tony was a secondgrader when his father, the late John Glover, settled his family in Water Valley near Jones Chapel. Tony was afflicted with Charcot-MarieTooth, a neuromuscular disease that today requires him to wear carbon fiber leg braces, but back then he wore steel braces. Kids at school in Jones Chapel grew used to them, but moving on to West Point High where many classmates were strangers, made Tony extremely self-conscious. He reverted into a shell of introversion every bit as hard as his braces. “I blame it on me,” he says, “not other people.”

t 14, Tony found an isolated bright spot when he accompanied his mom, 16

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Tony Glover

Overcoming early adversity to pursue a love of horticulture and helping people Bernice, to a horticulture class Bobby Joe Thomas taught for adults at the vocational school in Vinemont. Propagating plants fascinated Tony. In 10th grade, he attended a parttime vocational horticulture class there. Tony was smart, and Bobby Joe – his instructor again – counseled that he’d be better served remaining all day at West Point, taking advanced math and science, preparing for college – preferably Auburn. But Tony was absolutely miserable in high school. Braces barred him from sports. He felt strange, isolated on an island of self-consciousness. “I hated school,” he says. “And … my parents needed help on the farm.” He said if they’d let him quit school, he’d work on the farm until he turned 18, then get his GED and go to Calhoun State Community College. He’d be the first on either side of his family to go to college. “My mom had enough faith in me to believe I would do what I said I would do,” he says. So he dropped out his junior year.

ony found that gathering eggs from eight poultry houses twice a day on the farm offered lots of time to think. In his mind he devised cool inventions, like egg harvesting machines (only to later learn they already existed). He also did lots of self-reflection, questioned what he wanted from life and how to make it happen. “I decided I could choose in which direction my life would go,” Tony says. “I made up my mind that I would not be this extreme introvert anymore. I would seek out friends, be less self-conscious and more outgoing. I knew I was a good student. I knew what I wanted to study and learn about. Bobby Joe Thomas had planted a seed in me – no pun intended – that my goal should be to get into Auburn.” And there he could study about his love – horticulture. At 18, a newly emerging Tony earned

his GED, and got accepted to Calhoun, even landing a small but exciting scholarship his second year from the Cullman Garden Club. More excitingly, he then got accepted to Auburn and not only got scholarships from the garden clubs of Alabama and Orlando but one from the National Garden Clubs for $2,500. “That was when tuition was $325 per quarter,” Tony says. “But I was still dirt poor and had to have a job the whole time I was in college.” One of the first places Tony went at Auburn was the Baptist Student Center, where he not only earned respect for his mean ping pong game, but also met Celina Butler, a student from Daphne. He tried to impress her with his 1977 Mustang Cobra. “It wasn’t new, but I thought I looked pretty cool in that Cobra,” he grins. “I don’t know if my personality won her over or my really cool car.” Either way, they married soon after he graduated in 1983.

uring summers at AU, Tony interned for Marlin Hollingsworth at the former North Alabama Horticultural Substation in Cullman. He hoped the Alabama Agricultural Experiment System might name him director if Marlin retired, but retirement was not in Marlin’s cards yet. The economy was frozen at the time, as was Extension System hiring, so Tony went to graduate school at AU while Celina finished her education degree. While working as a graduate assistant, he applied for any Extension System job that might open in Mobile, where he could temporarily live with Celina’s parents. Unbeknownst to him, his name had gone into an Extension System job pool, so he was shocked a year later when he was offered a horticulture position in Jefferson County. “I got a job,” Tony grins, “that I never applied for.” Though he hated the sulfur smell then permeating Birmingham’s air, Tony loved

SNAPSHOT: Tony Glover

Second youngest of Bernice and the late John Glover’s five children, born Oct. 10, 1960, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Lived for two short spells in the Bakersfield, Calif., area; grew up mostly in the Water Valley community near Jones Chapel. • FAMILY: Married Celina Butler, 1983. Grown children: Wes (Sarah), the late Luke (Jessica), Drew, Meg and Julie Martinez; seven grandkids. • EDUCATION: Attended Jones Chapel then West Point High until 1977; 1978, GED; Calhoun State Community College; 1983, B.S. in horticulture, Auburn University – top 5% of class; 1989, M.S. in horticulture, AU; 2014, Graduate Certificate of Extension Educator, AU; 2014, EdS in adult education, AU. • CAREER: 1984-1998, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, county agent (Jefferson County); home horticulture specialist (AU); instructor, AU Horticulture Department; area commercial fruit and vegetable specialist (Montgomery region); county horticulture agent then interim county agent coordinator (Mobile County); county agent coordinator (Dekalb County). 1998-2005, owner/president, Glover’s Plants and Produce, Cullman; 2006-2011, regional Extension agent/home and commercial horticulture (Birmingham Botanical Garden); 2011-2021, Extension coordinator (Cullman County). • PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND AWARDS: Member of various state and national agricultural association. Recipient of the Alabama Master Gardeners “Appreciation and Achievement Awards” (twice); Alabama Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association “Appreciation of Service Award;” National Association of County Agriculture Agents “Distinguished Service Award for Excellence in Education Programs and awards and recognitions in NACAA’s categories of posters, audio recordings, publications and websites. Authored or co-authored dozens of Extension System publications and the manual on commercial and home composting; edited initial, 600-page Master Gardener Handbook; wrote hundreds of newspaper/ magazine articles, appeared on scores of TV/radio programs and frequently speaks on horticulture topics. • CHURCH: Northbrook Baptist; taught or co-taught Sunday school class most of his adult life.

the new job he started in 1984. And it turned out the former introvert also liked something else he never imagined in his worst high school nightmare. His first day on the job he was sent to the Birmingham Botanical Garden to observe channel 13 meteorologist Mike Royer’s weekly shoot at his personal garden there. Mike spotted Tony and cried out, “Let’s get the new guy in here.” “That first week I was doing live TV, radio call-ins, writing for newspapers … I was thrown right into the middle of that,” Tony laughs. “I have to admit I am really a bit of a ham and enjoyed a lot of the attention you get doing media work.” So it started, for the once extreme introvert, this public career of helping farmers and gardeners. Then the guy who loved horticulture also quickly found himself involved in probably the most enjoyable and certainly the longest running experience of his decades with the Extension System – Master Gardeners. The program started in 1981 in Huntsville and expanded to Jefferson County the year after. As Tony’s first job, he was assigned to teaching the fruits and vegetables segment of the program. “When I found out what Master Gardeners was, I got really excited about its potential,” he says. But at the time it was partnered with Jefferson State Community College, and he taught his courses through the school’s horticulture department. But, in Tony’s view, the program identified too heavily with Jeff State, reducing its potential as a volunteer organization in support of the Extension System. The direction of Master Gardeners needed changing to expand and reach its potential for assisting communities, and after five years Tony was recruited to Auburn to do that.

t Auburn, Tony called for using Extension specialists, county agents and area experts to teach the classes, emphasizing that after participants graduated they would do volunteer work in the community. “It was not just to make people better gardeners, but have them do projects that would better their communities through gardening and horticulture,” Tony says. In his three years at Auburn, Master Gardeners expanded from five to 20 18

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counties. Tony also developed the program’s first training manual, a 600-page how-to epic now in its seventh edition. From Auburn, his career path led him to become the Extension agent for commercial fruit and vegetable growers in Montgomery’s 13-county region for two years. He then moved to Mobile County for five years, where he and fellow agent James Miles started the county’s first Master Gardener program. The Extension System next marched him to Fort Payne, where he might well have stayed had his parents not called him in 1998. They made him an offer he could not refuse: taking over the family business. His father’s health failing, Tony left the Extension System and returned to Cullman to operate Glover’s Plants and Produce. The business provided him a new outlet for helping people through his expertise in horticulture, fruits and vegetables. During his eight years there, Tony grew the business, expanding from the former KFC restaurant into a vacant car lot behind it. But his former career beckoned – and his legs were wearing on him – so he left to become regional Extension agent at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, concentrating on home and commercial horticulture. Fittingly, his last assignment was a 10-year tour of duty as the Extension coordinator for Cullman County. He began his new job right before the tornado breakout in 2011.

illie Nelson is Tony’s new boss. Well, sort of. Tony now works two days a week as a Farm Aid hotline operator, taking calls and giving advice to farmers in crises. Farm Aid was started in 1985 as a concert organized to raise money for struggling family farms across the U.S. It was organized by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young – who remain on its board – and continues today as a huge, fundraising music festival. “I haven’t met Willie yet, but I tell people I work for him,” Tony laughs. “Though the people who hired me are from Massachusetts, they are not too biased. They hired an old, bald guy from Alabama. “But I enjoy the training, and the job’s right up my alley – talking to farmers who need help. I look at that as a ministry.”

As for the former introvert’s career with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System … “The administrative part of the job, I won’t miss,” Tony says. “But the important part of the Extension System – helping people – I’m really going to miss that.”

At the end of your 30-year career with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, how do you view the agency’s role in the agriculture industry? Things have changed a great deal since I started my career with the Extension System. Most county offices had at least one agriculture agent and many had multiple ag-oriented agents. Due to cutbacks, many offices today have no agriculture agents. The system has changed the way it serves the ag community. Now, rather than county agents, the Extension System employs regional agents who serve multiple counties. In many ways this is an improvement because rather than being served by a county agent with a very general agriculture background, the farmer is served by much more specialized agents that focus on just one area. For instance, we have regional horticulture agents, livestock agents, agronomy agents, etc., whereas, when I started, the county agent was expected to know something about all these areas. It was a difficult task, especially since farmers have gotten much more educated. Many farmers we work with now often have some sort of agriculture degree themselves and may be better educated than the average county agent of the past. Regional agents usually have a master’s degree or higher and have much more specialized training.

Master Gardeners was a major chapter in your career. Do any aspects of it stand out as highlights? I was involved with the Master Gardener program for 37 years in nearly every position. Even when I was not working for the Extension System, I volunteered as an MG speaker. I am very proud of this program because I believe that – outside of Extension System work directly with farmers and youth through 4-H – it has

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had the greatest impact of any program we have ever had. MGs volunteer over 150,000 hours per year, and a conservative estimate for their service is valued at over $113 million. The most important project I was personally involved with through Master Gardeners was Harvest for Health. The effort, which I helped start about 11 years ago, was jointly led by the Extension System and the University of Alabama at Birmingham and initially funded as a pilot program by the National Cancer Institute. While I was working in the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, I got a call from a medical researcher at UAB who was organizing a project and thought Master Gardeners could help. The idea was to pair MG volunteers with cancer survivors for one year of trial gardening therapy. The MGs acted as one-on-one mentors to cancer survivors. UAB documented the benefits of those who participated and compared them to a control group that did not garden. The results showed the gardening benefited the survivors on multiple levels – dietary, emotional and medical health. Harvest for Health eventually grew to be a statewide program that is still ongoing. I was honored to speak about it at an international Extension System conference on a cruise trip to Alaska.

Farm Y’all was another chapter in your Extension System career. Would you share your thoughts on that? My good farmer friend Trent Boyd came to me with an idea about starting a giant pumpkin and watermelon contest. With the brainstorming of one of our most creative Master Gardeners, Ben Johnson, we eventually worked with the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce and several other organizations – including the Alabama Farmers Federation – to host the “Farm Y’all” festival. In addition to the festival and contests, we also had a farm-to-fork dinner that featured locally grown food and some well-known chefs that Trent knew because he sold them produce. This was a very successful festival and dinner that was, unfortunately, dropped. I hope someone will restart the festival in the future because Cullman farmers are worth celebrating. 20

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After this story was written, Tony’s son Luke died. The cause was a rare autoimmune disease likely brought on by Covid-19, which Luke had last summer. “It’s an extreme blow to his wife, Jessica, their children, Sam 9, Lucy, 5, and Jude, 18 months, and our entire family,” Tony says. “My son’s funeral was on Resurrection Day, and our hope is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that we will one day be reunited with Luke.” You can help Luke’s children at: www.gofundme.com/f/HelpUs-Love-on-Luke-Glovers-Family.

Outside of the Extension System, what has played a big part in your life? My work has always been important to my identity as a person, but my relationship to God, church and family are the most important things in my life. Celina and I raised five children in this community and now enjoy seeing them raise their own children. We have seven grandchildren with six of those living in the Cullman area. My hope and prayer as a parent was to see each of my children serving the Lord through a local church. While they have scattered to other churches, they are all faithfully serving and raising their children to learn about the Lord. Regardless of anything I may have accomplished in my career, these are the things I am most pleased by because they have eternal consequences. I am also thankful that I have been able to use my agriculture knowledge on a couple agriculture mission trips to South and Central America. When I finished college I wanted to become a full-time agricultural missionary, but the muscular disease that has plagued me most of my life disqualified me for full-time service. When they train missionaries, they expect them to be in the field for 30 years. Like any good farmer, they have to do a lot of hard physical work. I might could have done it in my 30s, but not by 40.

The Lord humbled me and said, “You can be a missionary wherever you are, at whatever job I allow you to do. You do the best job you can and be a missionary where you are planted.” So I had to find other ways to serve, and one of those was to teach Sunday school – which I have enjoyed doing since I was about 18. Just like my horticulture teaching, I found that the best way to learn and grow in my faith is to study to teach others. I learn far more than any of my students during the preparation process. With the Extension System, I always felt I worked for Auburn University, for the government. I am not a minister of the gospel. But I constantly worked with people and had opportunities to demonstrate my faith through the way I treated and helped them. That’s how I live out my faith – they see it from my actions. I want to serve them and help them achieve their goals. That reflects my Christian belief.

What’s something most people don’t know about Tony Glover? Most people who only know me from work and don’t know my family, may be surprised to know that our five children were totally homeschooled. When we started that process three decades ago, homeschooling was not very well known, and only a relatively few “very strange” parents attempted it. Celina’s degree is in education, and before we had children she taught in two private, Christian schools. She did most of the teaching with our children, but I helped, too. All five of them went from kindergarten through 12th grade at home and have all grown into successful adults. Those who now have their own children are homeschooling the next generation, or plan to. Maybe they won’t get as many strange reactions as we did back in the early days of homeschooling. Another thing about me … my full name is Tony Allen Glover. I always thought it would be cool to be called by my initials – Tag. That never happened, but our daughter Meg’s name is actually Melissa Ellen Glover. We go by her initials, and I really like that. Good Life Magazine

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Good Reads

Trekking with giraffes, being changed by love of animals

The hardship in ‘Four Winds’ demonstrates our greatness

istorical fiction is a story based on actual events, and with “West with Giraffes” Lynda Rutledge has given us one of the best historical fictions I’ve read in a very long time. Fact: September 1938, two young giraffes survive a hurricane off the northern Atlantic Coast, then are People look at you driven from New York to peculiar if you talk about San Diego – in a pick-up truck. Fact: During 1938 the feeling you got for the Great Depression animals, saying animals lingers and refugees from have no souls, no sense the Dust Bowl scatter of good or bad, no value across the country by any up next to humans. I means possible. don’t know about that. This is the setting for the story of Woodrow Sometimes I think Wilson “Woody” Nickel, animals are the ones who who, at age 17, “hoboes” should be saying such to New York (for that was things about us. where the freight train was headed) then survives the New York hurricane and lands amid the rubble with two giraffes. Thus begins his adventure to the land of milk and honey: “Californy.” What he (and we) discover on his journey is what it means to be changed by the love of animals, the kindness of strangers and the devil in some humans. Woody tells us his story “before it’s too late.” What an amazing country we live in. You will smile and maybe shed a tear as you enjoy your trip “West with Giraffes. ” – Deb Laslie

t is impossible to understand who we are as a people (in this case, Americans) without understanding our history – our failures, successes, tragedies and triumphs. In “The Four Winds,” Kristin Hannah (“The Great Alone and “The Nightingale” – both highly Love is what remains recommended), brings history to vivid life when everything else is using her magnificent gone… Jack says that I prose to tell the story of am a warrior and, while Elsa Wolcott. I don’t believe it, I know In 1921, Elsa is this: A warrior believes in unloved because she an end she can’t see and is unlovely. Further showing the terrible fights for it. A warrior power of our words on never gives up. A warrior children, Elsa is alone. fights for those weaker She learns that than herself. It sounds like to survive she must motherhood to me. disappear. As profoundly sad as that seems, Elsa is, as her grandfather reminds her, brave. Her love, once experienced in the face of her tiny, perfect infant daughter, knows no bounds. Through hardship that we in our comfort find hard to imagine, Elsa becomes everything that is great about our country. She never gives up hope and loves her new family with an intensity matched only by the winds that attempt to, again, make her disappear. Being a warrior is not about combat. It’s about love. – Deb Laslie

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Lunch at work with Bill St. John

The St. John staff, lined up for a lunch: Dale Bright, David Haynes, Jesse Partington, Luke Benefield, Heath Hyde, Jack Keller, Lindsay Lawrence and Bill St. John. Not pictured is Ethan Flack, unfortunate enough to be doing field work that day.

Good Cooking Story and photos By David Moore

ver the past year, around lunchtime, if you were downtown near 508 First Avenue SE – especially on the downwind side – you might have caught mouth-watering whiffs of grilling meat. Had you looked up at the second-floor deck at St. John & Associates, you may have spotted the smoking source. Prior to Covid-19, Bill St. John usually took his eight-person staff at the engineering firm out to lunch several times a week at one of Cullman’s numerous restaurants. They believe in supporting local businesses, but when safety protocols put a lid on eating out, Bill devised Plan B – cooking for the crew using the grills on the deck. This particular day in March, cooking means racing the rain, but Bill and Jesse Partington, another on-staff cook, bring it off with aplomb – a menu that includes spicy red curry chicken

sandwiches and skewered pork on grilled flatbread. “Oh, this is awesome!” exclaims David Haynes, bellying up to the foodline counter in the office kitchen. Being an engineer and systemic planner, Bill has streamlined these lunch spreads, making preparation as efficient as possible. For example, using 20-year-old starter yeast at home, the night before he made pizza-style dough balls for the flatbread and he carried them to the office today in specialty crates stamped “Strada.” (That was the name of his wood-fired pizza restaurant at the former Mae’s Food Hall in Cullman’s Warehouse District. “I love it when you see Strada boxes,” says Lindsay Lawrence. “You know lunch is going to be good.”

o about three times a week Bill and Jesse cook for the staff. Some carry lunch back to their desks, some

eat on the deck in nice weather, some congregate in the conference room. “He comes up with the good ideas, and I execute them,” says Jesse. Pizza is his fave, he adds, recalling Strada days but noting that Bill has been known to haul his wood-burning oven to work with him. Lindsay has her phone out, taking pictures of her pork sandwich. “I have to put it out on Snapchat,” she explains. “All of my friends are jealous of our good lunches.” “We have plenty of good things to eat,” David agrees, pulling up a chair. “There is no shortage here. The kabobs are my favorite.” “Bill’s hamburgers are the best, hands down,” votes Dale Bright, a 28-year employee. “You can’t find one anywhere that good. As long as I can remember he’s enjoyed cooking. It’s a passion.” And the source of that passion? “I like to eat,” Bill grins. “These guys work their tails off. I’m glad to feed them.” MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

DINER-STYLE HAMBURGERS 80/20 ground chuck Kosher salt Purple onion American cheese Plain white buns We use the flat top griddle for these most of the time although they are also dang good on the grill. You can get the same result with an iron skillet. Here’s my method … Loosely form meat into 1/3 lb. patties. Besides Jesse, David and Dale are good cooks, too, the boss adds. “I’m the tester,” Lindsay beams. “I cook at home every night. Here, I like to sit back and let others cook.” “It’s about to play out,” Bill says, breaking news that’s not totally unexpected with more and more places reopening and people getting vaccinated. “No, no, no!” Dale protests. “Say it isn’t so. This is our quality time together,” Lindsay argues. “Lunch will never be the same.” 26

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You want a loose patty so you get some good char and crisp parts. Salt them liberally. Slice onions very thin and get them on the griddle first as it warms up. They will need a head start. Looking to caramelize those until they are almost jam. When they are getting close, and the griddle is fully heated to max temp, put the patties on. Don’t mess with them for longer than you think – you want a good crust

ooking back, Bill later says, he and his staff have been very fortunate compared to so many whose lives were turned upside down or worse by Covid. “Our business was deemed essential due to our public works engineering, so we continued to work throughout,” he says. “We’re lucky to have some cooking options at the office, including a gas grill and a large flat top griddle. “I am an engineer, so I do what we do – try to make something the best we

formed before the flip. While that is going, toast the buns and set aside. Cook the second side of the burger for a bit and then add cheese, some of the onions, and the top bun on each patty. Cover with a big hotel pan or such and pour a half a cup of sweet tea under to steam the bun tops and get the cheese completely melted. Spread a little mustard and pickles on the toasted bun bottoms, then add the burgers with tops. can, and then try to make it better the next time. We’ve had a lot of practice now!” Lunches at St. John & Associates roughly fell into three categories: quick and easy, such as hot dogs or hamburgers; preplanned and elaborate with prep done at home, such as BBQ ribs or carnitas; and – most popularly – grilled, marinated meats for sandwiches or tacos. Above and on the following pages are samplings of what you missed by not working for Bill … Good Life Magazine

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GRILLED PORK SKEWERS ON GRILLED FLATBREAD 1 small red onion chopped 6 -8 garlic cloves chopped 6-8 red chilies chopped (without seeds unless you like really spicy) ½ cup soy sauce ½ cup rice vinegar ¼ cup light brown sugar 1 tsp. crushed peppercorns Sprite to taste Pork shoulder Kosher salt Slice pork into strips about ¼ inch thick, 1 inch wide and 2-3 inches long. Combine first seven ingredients in a blender and buzz till smooth. Add the Sprite, and marinade the pork strips in this mixture in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Remove and bring to room temp for an hour. Boil and reduce leftover marinade and use to baste while grilling. Thread strips onto skewers, season with salt, and grill on high heat. Serve on grilled flatbread or pita with a tart slaw and siracha mayo. This one’s a winner! GRILLED FLATBREAD You can use your favorite pizza dough for this quick and easy wrap, maybe adding a little extra hydration. On the other hand, if you have scales and feel adventuresome, try the authentic pita recipe below. I use a very wet pizza-style dough for this wrap. I stretch it very thin and lay it directly on the oiled grill grate on high heat. This is excellent with grilled meats or veggies of any sort. Pita sponge 80g bread flour 62g water 10g instant dry yeast 5g sugar Mix this pre-ferment first 28

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and let sit for 30 minutes before mixing it with the rest of the dough ingredients. Final pita dough 156g pitta sponge 450g bread flour 280g water 5g salt Pinch of sugar 18g butter Mix with bread hook until smooth, maybe 5-6 min on low. Rest covered for 1-½ hours. Divide into 115g balls, right. Let rest for 30 more minutes. Roll out very thin and cook directly on hot grill. Brush lightly with olive oil before flipping. Cook till lightly charred but still soft. (Photo by Bill St. John.)

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SPICY RED CURRY CHICKEN 1 Tbsp. red curry paste ¼ cup gochujang (red chili paste) ¼ cup Siracha ¼ cup brown sugar ¼ cup lime juice 1 can coconut cream 1 knob of ginger, grated 5-6 garlic cloves, grated Chicken breasts, small and knife-scored

Kosher salt Combine first eight ingredients to make marinade. Marinate chicken for a couple of hours. Salt meat before grilling. Boil some of the marinade to reduce and thicken. Cook meat until done on a hot

grill, basting with some of the boiled marinade. The hot grill and the sugar will give a nice char to the chicken that really makes the flavors meld into a dynamite sandwich. Serve on a toasted bun with crunchy Romaine and pickles, drizzled with marinade.

ST. JOHN’S SECRET FOR ENGINEERING A GREAT MARINADE (HE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW) We never had any kind of recipe, until I tried to write this down for the magazine. But in looking back, I find that the marinated and grilled meats all have a common master “recipe,” if you will. The marinade usually has four things: • Something sweet • Something acidic • Something with big flavor • Something with heat We were always 30

willing to experiment with something new, or something we found in the back of the grocery store shelf. Here are the most popular and successful ingredients we found for making marinades. My advice? Choose something from each category, mix to taste, marinate some chicken or pork for a few of hours then throw it on the hottest grill you can find.

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Bill St. John’s Marinade Matrix Sweet

Acid

Flavor

Heat

Brown sugar

Lime juice

Coconut milk/cream

Gochujang

Sprite/cola

Pickle juice

Red curry paste

Siracha

Honey

Rice vinegar

Soy sauce

Gochugaru

Sweet tea

Sprite

Teriyaki

Sambal olek

Ketchup

Kimchi

Coco amino

Chilis

Molasses

Greek dressing

Mojo sauce

Hot sauce

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RIBS SOUS VIDE For this pork rib lunch, I do most of the work ahead of time. I use an immersion circulator and cook sous vide, or “under vacuum.” The circulator is a gizmo that maintains a very specific temperature in a water bath. The food to be cooked is sealed in plastic, with spices or other ingredients, and left in the bath. The ribs are covered with this BBQ rub: Rub 1/3 cup sweet paprika 1/3 cup dark brown sugar 1/4 cup kosher salt 2 Tbsp. whole mustard seed 1 tsp. black pepper 1 Tbsp. oregano 1 Tbsp. whole coriander seed 1 tsp. red pepper flakes After rubbing the ribs, vacuum seal them and cook SV at exactly 140 degrees for 28 hours. This leaves a perfectly cooked rib that is tender but not falling apart. Remove ribs from vacuum bag, pat dry with paper towels and finish on hot grill till lightly charred. 32

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Good Getaways

Mooresville Step back to a place with the feel of a different time and a different pace

Story and photos by David Moore

ot much changes during the 35-mile drive north on I-65. A few county lines pass by, you cross the Tennessee River, you turn east on I-565. But as soon as you take the first exit, cross over Ala. 20, park, and walk into Mooresville, everything changes. It’s as though you stepped back in time, into a quaint quietness, a place with a reverence for authenticity – no flashing neon here – and a deep appreciation of a refreshingly slow pace of life. It’s 9 a.m., smack dab in the middle of the two-hour rush at the Mooresville Post Office. “Rush” is a loose term here, but the facility is only open from 8-10 a.m. and there is no street delivery. Everyone comes to the post office. Postmistress Lisa Crane steps outside to hand Kevin Crumlish his mail. Mayor Nikki Sprader is on the brick sidewalk chatting with Councilwoman Rush Mitchell, who came to the PO with Rae, her 2-1/2-year old daughter. Inside are 48 glass-fronted and numbered post office boxes. Lisa laughs when asked if she knows everyone in Mooresville. “I know all of their dogs’ names,” she laughs. “It was so

MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

A scene that passes for “rush hour” in Mooresville – from left, visitor Diane Moore, Postmistress Lisa Crane, Mayor Nikki Sprader, Councilwoman Rush Mitchell, Rae Mitchell and Kevin Crumlish. The post office is located at the corner of Lauderdale and High Street. Across from the Stagecoach Inn and Tavern on High Street is Aunt Mandy and Uncle Zack Simmons’ cottage, today home of Lyla’s Little House, far left. The effervescent Mooresville mainstay Lyla Peebles, center in the photo at left, bought and restored the cottage in 2011 and operates it as a candy and ice cream shop. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

Clockwise from upper left: florists prepare for a wedding in The Brick Church; Peebles-Zeitler-McCrary House, circa 1826, is today the home of G. Laurence McCrary III, his wife, Natasha – owner of 1818 Farms in town – and their children, who are sixth generation to the house; trees add shade and character to Mooresville; even newer homes in town fit the feel, such as the Sneed House/Blacksmith Shop House with the state flag (1986) and the Underwood-Price House (1988). refreshing when I came here. It was like a step back in time.” Indeed. The whole town of Mooresville is on the National Register of Historic Places. Its 65 male residents petitioned the Alabama Territorial Legislature – prior to statehood – for incorporation in 1818. The population today is 51, down from 53 in 2010. Nikki says several of the families there are multigenerational residents. In March, there was one house for sale. That, of course, could make a large change – percentage-wise – in the population.

he town is sometimes referred to as the Williamsburg of Alabama. Other than size and national recognition, a big difference in the two is most all of the homes are private residences. Mooresville may be 36

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small, but it’s much more “ville” than museum. There are several interesting businesses. Public buildings include: • U.S. Post Office, maybe built about 1840 but perhaps older because of the handmade bricks in the chimney; • Stagecoach Inn and Tavern, built prior to 1825, which today doubles as the town hall; • The Brick Church, built in 1839 and available to rent from the town as a wedding venue. Mooresville covers about 1/4 square mile, laid out in seven blocks on a grid of six tree-shaded streets. You can drive through, but the most fitting way to see and appreciate this historic jewel is to leave your vehicle parked and absorb it all with a refreshingly slow paced walk. Good Life Magazine

One idea for a bite to eat is The Brick Deli, on Moulton Street in Decatur – 10 minutes and a world away from Mooresville

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Home is where the heart of creativity dwells for this former Michigan couple

Don and Adele Hungerford moved into their “cottage lake house” in the Hidden Shores development on Smith Lake in 2018. It was the third house they built during their marriage, plus they heavily remodeled five others. Each project was a creative outlet for them. Plus Don loves wood and stone work. Adele does pottery and ceramics as well as paints, not to mention her work over the years as an interior designer. Their creativity lends their homes truly personal touches that don’t come off showroom floors with price tags.

Adele and Don have a lot of personal input in their house, for instance he made the table, above; she did the painting. The bump-out dining room and kitchen reflect some trademark looks of builder Seth Hammer. Story and photos By David Moore

on and Adele Hungerford are retired educators, having chalked up careers on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula and, in Don’s, Marco Island and Apalachicola in Florida. They are not, however, retired from lives of creativity. Adele started interior decorating while still in Michigan. Today, she makes amazing clay-fired pottery creations, sharing the basement shop of their house on Smith Lake with Don, whose creativity flows mostly through his woodworking saws and sanders. It’s fair to say, however, that the Hungerfords have another creative outlet, one on a scale as large as … well, houses. Their lake house is the eighth home they’ve built or heavily remodeled during their 53 years of married life. “It’s a bug that bites you,” says Adele. Their joint creativity is apparent in 40

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certain architectural aspects of their homes and, even more so, in the atmosphere created through interior design. Infusing their personality into their homes creates a personal sense of warmth hard to buy off a showroom floor. “We want to have things here that mean something to us,” Adele says, pointing out driftwood treasures discovered on the beaches of Cape Sand Blas, a table Don made from a cypress stump exhumed from tidal river muds and a collection of gorgeous black and white images photographed around Apalachicola by Richard Bickel. Then, of course, there’s Don’s enviable woodwork and her unique ceramics. “We are not doing anything to be showy,” Don says. “We have a great appreciation for the things we buy, build or make for our house.” Their first creation – or re-creation, as it were – was remodeling a 20x20 log cabin near the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula with a view of Lake Michigan.

“It is,” he says, “an extremely gorgeous area.”

on was born in Detroit but grew up on a small farm in rural Michigan. Adele was born in small-town Ludington, Michigan, and grew up in Detroit. Their polar beginnings converged at Central Michigan University; they married in 1968 between their sophomore and junior years. “I was very … attracted to her,” he laughs. “It was just cheaper living in married housing,” Adele deadpans; but it’s also a nod to modest backgrounds. Don says a lot of his relatives are teachers and educators, so pursuing a career in education was fitting. “It’s our family business.” As a pre-teen Adele wanted to be an artist, but her blue-collar father nixed the notion. “You can’t make a living being artist,” he said. “You gotta pay the bills. You’re

going to college because I don’t want your hands looking like mine.” Her high school swim instructor and hero predicted she’d become a teacher, and it came to pass. After graduation, the Hungerfords were fortunate to find jobs at the K-12 Northport Public School, serving the tiny Michigan village of the same name. He taught social studies and coached PE; she juggled English, speech and drama. They were thrilled to buy the one bedroom cabin nearby for $7,500 and discovered how much they enjoyed hanging wallpaper and putting up barnwood siding, long before it was popular.

hile they were thrilled to buy the cabin, they were more thrilled – “flipped” out, one might say – to sell it a few years later for $12,000. Don and Adele went on to buy, remodel and sell – for thrilling profits – three other houses in and around the touristy

quaint towns of the Leelanau Peninsula. The flipping bug had bitten. Plus, they absolutely loved living on or near Lake Michigan. During their Michigan years, they raised their daughter, Mindy, born in 1973. Don taught and coached and was in administration for 30 years at Northport. “I was your typical jock, then became a principal and that,” he says, “fits right in with my family’s background.” The family eventually moved to nearby Suttons Bay, where Adele continued teaching at the local high school, then middle school; but she grew dissatisfied when her favorite principal – other than Don – left. One day, at a store that sold furniture, wallpaper and flooring, she was buying a rug and wistfully commented to the owner that she’d love to make a living at interior design. “She said to come work for them in the summer and learn the trade,” Adele says.

“Everything I needed to know about design was in that store.” She worked there until the store sold two years later. Then she did freelance design work for four years. During the latter part of that time, they built their last house on the picturesque Leelanau Peninsula in the village of Lake Leelanau.

n 2000, the Hungerfords visited Marco Island for a spring break from the Michigan cold. Little did they suspect they’d start a new chapter in life – thanks to what Don always does when traveling. “I make a habit of looking in the local newspaper to see what’s happening there,” he says. What was happening is that the director of Marco’s charter middle school had resigned. “They’re going to need to hire someone,” Don told Adele, sunning by the pool. “You’re going to walk in there and get a job? Yeah, right,” Adele laughed. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

Undeterred, he bought a coat and tie, visited the board president and breezed the interview. Then they awaited a decision. Back in Michigan, a May Day snow sealed their desire to move south. When he was invited back for a second interview, Adele grabbed a local paper and found a designer job, and Don was hired as dean of the school. They found oceanfront lots in Marco started at $2 million, so they applied their creative minds to a house on the canal and settled in – or tried to. It was a great place to vacation, but they found it was too flat, murky and salty for their living tastes. In two months, Adele was too homesick to eat. Don found the school board politically charged – “hoity-toity,” Adele says. It crushed his soul, he adds, but they tolerated it three years. “Then,” he grins, “we went on another vacation.”

on had read in the Marco paper about a new charter school in Apalachicola. He eagerly set up an interview, and “vacationing” they went, finding there a folksy, family-resort atmosphere not unlike Leelanau Peninsula. “We fell in love with Apalachicola and the people,” Adele says. “‘You’ve got to work your magic on this,’ I told Don.” The coat and tie he brought for the interview were overkill. “In Apalachicola, you needed shorts and a Hawaiian shirt,” he laughs. “The president of the board owned the Piggly Wiggly, and I interviewed there. “It’s kind of weird that you’d do this twice on the road,” he adds. But it paid off. Two weeks later he was offered the job as CEO/principal of the school. They settled in, and Adele did freelance designing. “Don was an outstanding principal and his staff loved him,” she says. “One of his teachers warned me, ‘Don’t ever take him on vacation anywhere they are looking for a principal!’” They loved Apalachicola, but it had its downsides. On top of stiff property taxes, hurricanes had blown insurance sky high, and one storm brought flood waters within seven inches of the house they had created on Apalachicola Bay. The recession starting in 2007 knocked the bottom out of real estate and killed Adele’s designing business. With Don’s retirement on the horizon, the 42

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Hungerfords sought a less expensive place to live.

indy was married and in Tampa, so Don and Adele looked for a “halfway point” between there and Michigan, the must-have factor being water. They had been water people since kids, and had lived together on or in sight of water. They looked at lakes in northern

Georgia, South Carolina and Guntersville. Computer searches, however, kept bringing up Smith Lake, so they decided to vacation here – but not for a job. In 2008, they rented a cottage near Big Bridge, brought their boat with them and began exploring. They were taken by the deep water with no murk and weeds. “And it didn’t have one ounce of salt in it,” Adele beams.

The house has 1,500 square feet on the main floor, including the master bedroom, upper left, with an attached bath. It’s accessed through a foyer as are the stairs to the basement. A guest bedroom and second den are located there, along with a large workroom where Don does projects, such as the chevron door to the shop. Adele’s kiln is there, too, with which she creates unique ceramics. They found a house near their rental. It had buckling, vinyl siding and other issues, but they could fix that. The price was great for 245 feet of lake frontage. They bought it and drove back and forth until Don’s school contract ended in 2010. Then they moved into a guest cottage on the property for a year as the house was rebuilt from the foundation up, a story-anda-half with 1,750 square feet.

Mindy later lived in the guest cottage a year or so before moving to take a job in Huntsville.

ll was rosy in their new lake house until one day in 2017 when Don and Adele were out exploring sloughs. Around a bend in the lake they spotted a tantalizing piece of property for sale at the end of a peninsula with easy access

to the water. Creative wheels turned in their minds … “It’s that bug that bites you,” Adele grins. So they called real estate agent Justin Dyar, who gave them promising numbers, and another dream began to solidify. Impressed with some of the fine homes Justin’s brother-in-law, Seth Hammer, had built, they also contacted him. When Don is doing woodwork – or MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

stonework, as the case choices of furniture, shiplap might be, and Adele is and floors. In addition firing ceramics in her kiln, to her ceramics, she’s an they’re pretty much in their accomplished painter and a own creative worlds. But number of works decorate the house. It was their their creativity does work priority to creatively infuse together – well, sometimes. their home with a personal “You should see us try to sense of warmth. hang pictures together,” she “I want things that mean laughs. something to us,” Adele Don, it turns out, has the says. “We both put ourselves analytic personality for lines, details and such. Adele is through college and did not more holistic, the big picture grow up with a lot of things. person. On a big project, I think it gives you an “she’ll take charge or I’ll appreciation for things when take charge,” he says. you have to work for them.” Adele took the lead on “We’ve been fortunate The house has a cottage look about it, especially from the front, the new house – sort of. to live in wonderful places,” above. The lake view from the upper deck is gorgeous and brings to Don adds. “Details are important to me because they have to “This is such a beautiful the Hungerfords’ mind views of their home state, Michigan. fit into the entire picture,” lake, and I’m so content,” she says. “Being a designer, Adele says. “I hope to be I worked around a lot of taken out of here feet first!” ‘design whisperer’ in his ear,” Adele says. builders who just did what they wanted to So … is this the last home they’ll “There were a few times when you said do.” create? no,” Don reminds her. “We don’t say that,” Adele laughs. Don’s input was mostly in the form “I’m superstitious.” ith Seth, the Hungerfords of unique woodworking, doors, tables, To which Don adds this bit of history: respected his capabilities, did not want cabinets he’s built. He also built the twin “We said that for our last few homes.” to offend him and gave him a good bit of stone columns at the driveway entrance. free rein. “He was the boss, and I was the Good Life Magazine Adele’s decorating touches go beyond

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Good Eats Story by David Myers Photos bu David Moore

Rooster’s Corner – fun in the ‘barn’

ot long after transferring from New Orleans to North Alabama, I grew to love driving through the countryside looking at the hilly scenery. This comes from a guy who was born and raised below sea level. But I admired the beauty of pastures full of grazing horses and cows; the rustic architecture of barns, especially red ones. As much as I enjoyed the look of a red barn in the fields, I never thought about having dinner inside one. That changed when Rose and I drove through the backside of Cullman County looking for a popular local eatery. We knew we had arrived when a huge bright red barn appeared with a sign declaring it to be Rooster’s Corner. We walked in and took in the ambiance, which consisted of a lot of roosters – not real ones, no livestock allowed in this barn – tailgates and old signs on the walls of rusty tin. A balcony upstairs was fenced off like a hog pen under the high metal roof. Right away, we knew we were in for a down-home good time. Being new to the place, we asked the server to recommend some good grub. She started us with a smoked chicken salad and pasta salad, which struck me as highbrow dining for a barn. I was pleased though with my first bite of heavily smoky chicken, accompanied by grapes, cheese and a light, creamy dressing. Rose and I are both big on pasta so we both found the salad pleasing. From there we got serious. A giant platter of some of the best fried catfish and homemade chips landed in front of Rose while I was the happy recipient of a generous Philly steak sandwich loaded with tender meat, peppers and onions. Crunchy onion rings were piled on the side.

he sandwich was so moist and flavorful, I hated to stop halfway through when my sweet but demanding wife insisted we trade platters. What could I do? Oh, but that catfish was good, yeah. Crispy with a thick coating of batter, it was hard to say which was better – the 46

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Patrick “Kat Daddy” stands with his daughter Hannah, son-in-law Rooster McClendon and grandson, Blaze inside the big, open restaurant. The family also owns Kat Daddy’s BBQ & Grill, does a brisk catering business, and has obtained the Old Cotton Gin in Good Hope and plans to reopen it as The StashHouse. Kat Daddy and his wife, Kat, have two other grandchildren. fish with the slightly mustardy tartar sauce or the crispy, slightly sweet hushpuppies. The homemade slaw was the perfect accompaniment. I’ve had Philly cheese steak in Philadelphia and fried catfish across the south and I can testify that the Rooster’s brand was among the best. The star of the place, Patrick “Kat Daddy” Watson, was happy to regale us with the backstory of the place. His sonin-law, Rooster McClendon, and daughter Hannah, started the restaurant. When it was destroyed by fire, the determined young entrepreneurs – they are the proud owners of other local businesses – rebuilt it. “I’m impressed with them,” he says. “They went through fire and came back.” Rooster’s, with its walk-up window out front, has a booming pizza business. Fugly’s pizza is well known in the area. Your choice of original crust, thin crust, calzone or take-and-bake can be Meat Lovers, Hawaiian, Supreme, Steak, Chicken Bacon Ranch, Veggie and Spinach

Alfredo. No decision making on the size – they all are a whopping 16 inches. “We hand roll the dough so it’s better than the frozen stuff,” said manager Penny Lee Self.

ose and I were stuffed, but that’s no excuse for walking out without tasting the pizza and Kat Daddy’s signature dessert. Kat Daddy sent a meat lover’s pizza as big as a truck tire home with us and ordered us to dig into a transformation of his grandma’s apple pie. This version of the pie features a big, crispy fried portion decked out with caramel and ice cream. It’s decadent and delicious. Tip: You may not see it on the menu. Ask for it. You’ll be happy. Stuffed is the only reason we regretted not sampling the burgers, chicken or Boom Boom Shrimp. Ten flavors of milk shakes – including Oreo, Butterfinger and peanut butter – are hard to resist but we did. But, hey, there’s always another day. Good Life Magazine

Clockwise from top: a supreme pizza, hamburger, homemade fried pie, Philly cheese and fried catfish. Rooster’s is located just off Ala. 69 at the corner of County Roads 222 and 110 in Bremen, about 20 minutes from Cullman. It’s open Wednesday through Sundays for lunch and dinner. Hours are 11oon-8 on weekdays and 11-9 on weekends. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

Those good ole summertime revivals Story by Steve A. Maze Photo of a 1930’s baptism from the author’s collection

he second week of August was set aside for revivals in most Southern communities in days past. These spiritual services were a welcomed intermission from the backbreaking work in the fields that took place after crops had been laid by. Revivals normally ran for a week, and included morning and evening services. A minister from one of the surrounding communities was brought in to preach most of the time. If the evangelist were married, his wife would accompany him. The couple would visit church members during the daylight hours and return home at night if they lived nearby, or stay with one or more church members throughout the week. The morning services would be dominated by singing and personal testimonies. Congregations sang old gospel favorites like “Amazing Grace” and “Rock of Ages.” Many got “happy” while testifying and would shout. After the morning service, the minister and his wife would go home with one of the church members to eat dinner – the noon meal. The women of the church took great pride in preparing meals for the visiting preacher. Ladies proudly displayed their best china and linen for visiting evangelists. The standard meal would consist of fried chicken (the great gospel bird) or 48

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ham, as well as fresh garden vegetables. Dessert consisted of mouth-watering cobblers, homemade pies or a coconut cake made from scratch. Grandma always fixed chicken for the minister when he visited their home. The preacher and adults would eat first while the children impatiently awaited their place at the smaller dining table. My dad, Marlon Maze, said it wasn’t until after he married that he discovered a chicken consisted of more than wings and backbone.

ost people traveled to services by mule and wagon. A few would walk. Walking to the revival on a moonlit night gave the older boys and girls a chance to do some courting. It also gave some of the tow-headed boys an opportunity to get into a little mischief, and one of those boys was my Dad. Dad and one of his friends were familiar with a large watermelon patch a short distance from the church. The patch belonged to a one-eyed man who let it be known that he would shoot anyone caught stealing his melons. In fact, he had built a small building near his patch where he stayed during the week of the revival to ward off potential thieves. The temptation for Dad and his friend was too great, however. More than anything, they wanted to see if the man was serious about shooting people. The pair sneaked up a narrow cattle lane and reached the barbed-wire fence around the melon patch.

Dad took his hand and pulled down on a strand of the rusty barbed-wire. A loud squeaking noise was emitted, imitating the sound of someone climbing over the fence. There was an immediate crack from a .22 rifle as rapid-fire shots began knocking the tops out of nearby pine trees. Even though revival services weren’t due to begin for another 30 minutes, Dad and his buddy frantically began praying. With tree limbs and twigs falling around them, the not-so-fearless duo managed to escape by crawling down a ditch that led to the main road. Some men would stand outside the church each night as women and children made their way inside. A few went inside when services began, but others remained outside to smoke and occasionally peek through the windows to see what was happening. The intense heat inside the church was their often-used excuse to remain outside. There was no air-conditioning in the building and the sweltering August temperatures took their toll on many. To combat the hot temperatures, doors and windows would remain open, allowing a little air to circulate as church members further stirred it with cardboard fans supplied by the local funeral parlor.

ost ministers back then were of the fire-and-brimstone variety and quickly worked up a sweat while preaching. A glass of water was placed by the pulpit for the minister to keep his throat moist. But there was another reason to keep a glass of water handy … to wash down the insects that flew into the preacher’s mouth.

The bugs were no match for a long-winded preacher, however. Evangelists wore down the insects, as well as the congregation, with long sermons. Many ministers claimed they only preached as long as the Lord led them to, but the Lord never seemed to lead them to shorten a sermon. There would be an altar call when the sermon was completed so lost sinners could come forward and accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. The evangelist would kneel and pray with all of the lost ones who made their way to the altar. After closing prayers, parishioners placed the church hymnals and funeral-parlor fans into the back of the pews. They gathered the children and all loaded into wagons for the trip home.

evival week officially ended with dinner on the ground – a celebration reserved for the last day of services. Women prepared home-cooked dishes and spread them out on sawhorse tables underneath shade trees. The ladies also stood around the tables to shoo flies away with peach tree switches. A baptism service would be held a few days later for those who had been saved during the revival and wanted to join the church. Insects buzzed the parishioners’ heads as 25 or more people were baptized in a nearby creek or pond. Sounds of “Shall We Gather at the River” or “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks We Stand” would echo along the sun-splashed creek banks as new church members were immersed under water. Everyone would be tired by the end of the week, but spirits would be lifted as they looked forward to the following August when they would once again be “revived.” Good Life Magazine

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Alexandria Flanigan

Enjoy a chat with the young Cullman woman representing Alabama in the 2021 Miss USA competition Story and photos By David Moore

n conversation, Alexandria Flanigan is refreshing, bright, thoughtful and sincere. Funny, even. And a little mysterious. In motion, she is a tall, wispy breeze, but don’t let that fool you – she shears the stereotype of a beauty queen like a tornado. That’s but a quick snapshot of the 24-year-old woman who was crowned Miss Alabama USA 2021 in January and who’ll proudly represent her hometown of Cullman as well as her state in the Miss USA competition this fall. If Alexandria wins Miss USA, she’ll be the first Alabamian to wear the crown since Sylvia Hitchcock of Tuscaloosa in 1967. She’ll also represent the nation in the Miss Universe competition. For now, she is interning at the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce.

Daughter of Renee and Jeff Flanigan, Alexandria was born in Birmingham, raised in Cullman. She’s studying a pre-law curriculum at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, loves singing, hiking trails at Hurricane Creek, composing personal poetry and is writing a novel she hopes to have published. And now, suddenly, she has a platform that has opened doors that include singing the “StarSpangled Banner” at the final game of the SEC Baseball Championship. “Being Miss Alabama USA is an opportunity, an opportunity to take a platform and use it the way I feel it should be used,” she says during a question-and-answer interview at the chamber offices. “For me that platform looks like philanthropy, helping the community I’m from, the state I am representing, to the best of my ability ...”

Q: How will you use the platform help people and better the community. friendships and more confidence in of Miss Alabama USA and, if you win, Not to be cliché, but I am sincere about myself. I am growing. I am becoming Miss USA? this and wanted to do this before I ever better. I’m not sure lots of people would A: I’m not sure I can say what I applied to Miss Alabama USA. think that, but I am 100-percent sure of would do if I win. But what it. I want to do now is continue I’ve heard stereotypes of to do what I was doing pageantry. But once you are before I won Miss Alabama in this world, you see that … philanthropy. To invest those stereotypes are not true. in people. Invest in the From the outside looking in, community. Invest my time, people might say pageantry is efforts and passions into about what you look like. Or helping others. they could assume you only That may look like care about beauty. But that is working with nonprofits not what I have experienced. on a statewide scale and, I believe that this is hopefully, on a national scale. about embracing your true In April of 2020, when self, being confident in we were shut down and had who you are, using your to leave school and couldn’t passions to help people. work, I decided to get more Using your platform to involved. I had been involved educate people. Using your with the community and my platform to advocate for your church and school, but when community. Covid closed everything Also, all of the women down, I felt I could be doing I have met through this are more with the free time I had. so intelligent, so driven; I found an ad for Filter beautiful, bold, passionate, of Hope on Instagram and leaders. I can go on and on. read their vision and mission I identify with those and felt led to apply. It’s a things. I believe that is why nonprofit that helps build I chose to do the Miss USA water filters in countries pageant, because of what it without clean water, in places represents to me. And that’s they don’t have plumbing. what I want to be a part of. Most of these communities are poverty stricken. Water Q: How has this changed is a basic need, a huge your life so far? necessity. Our body is, what, A: It turned my life upside 60 percent water? People in down. I went from being a A glamorous crown requires a glamorous mask, right? these countries don’t have student who worked three good water and are dying jobs to a student who works because of that. There are lots of health but is also Miss Alabama USA. It’s issues. Q: Why did you apply? crazy. So I applied to volunteer with Filter A: I did the pageant because, number I got approved to sing the national of Hope. There was an interview process. one, I struggle with the fear of stepping Anthem at the SEC baseball tournament. I didn’t believe they would choose me out of my comfort zone. I love my I have been to two baseballs games! That but they did. comfort zone. is such an amazing opportunity. That will They have several different types of But life does not make any promises. be at the championship game on May 30 “ambassadors.” They chose me as an In the blink of an eye it can all change. at the Hoover Met. advocate ambassador. I raise money for I didn’t want to walk into 2021 afraid of They didn’t even know I could sing. I Filter of Hope. I am currently raising anything, still in my comfort zone and just said, “Yes!” money for a trip this summer to the not growing and challenging myself. The I’m blown away. A couple months Dominican Republic, where we’ll pageant was an opportunity to overcome ago no one knew who I was, and I was physically assemble these filters. I am so fear, to grow as a person and to challenge fine with that. Now I am discovering excited. myself – because it is well out of my who I am as a woman, professionally and There are other organizations and comfort zone! non-professionally. It’s great experience. groups I am beginning to work with to In doing this pageant, I gain I love it. 52

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Q: You want to go to law school and study corporate law. Why? And what are your career goals at this point? A: Most people would not match that choice with my personality. But I feel it would give me a broad perspective on multiple types of law. This summer, hopefully, I can work with some programs that will help me understand different parts of law. My career goal after law school is to work in the corporate world, whatever that looks like. Eventually, I would like to be a judge, or a congresswoman and create policy that, at the end of day, brings unity to people. Unity is so important. Say you are on a team, and the leader of this team is a great leader and does everything right. You have five people on the team with different jobs that are all correlated. But if one person does not want to do their job to benefit the team and make the team better, what do you do? What happens? Agreeing upon what you are wanting to do, what you are willing to do to make the team better is important. If you have something that is causing disunity and causing the team to fall apart, no progress is going to be made. That analogy comes from being in sports my whole life. Q: What else do you do in college? A: I am the treasurer of the prelaw honor society. I am a member of the UAH chapter of the NAACP. I miss being on campus. When I was part of a UAH community group, I wanted to get more involved. And then Covid happened. We were shut down at first, but they had a basketball game recently that I went to. The setup now allows people to be on campus who need to be, but you can stay home if you want to and Zoom. They give you the opportunity to make your own decision about that, to decide what is best for you. Q: What entertains you? A: I love basketball. When I just want to have some alone time I will shoot basketball at a park or gym. Being outdoors gives me life. When I was a kid I used to lie on the trampoline in the sun just to be outdoors. I would

Miss Cullman Alexandria Flanigan is crowned Miss Alabama USA 2021 by Miss Alabama USA 2020 Kelly Hutchinson during a pageant in Auburn in January 2021. Application is open to single women who have never been married and are not mothers, who are citizens 18-27 years old. If chosen as contestants, they are scored during the pageant in three equal categories: personal interview, swimwear and evening gown by judges from the entertainment and modeling industries. They consider contestants’ personal successes, talents, goals, poise, charm, selfconfidence, communication skills, facial beauty, physical fitness, overall appearance and sense of style. Photo by Stage Media Group. MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

Miss Alabama USA 2021, Alexandria Flanigan is interning at the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce. “It is exciting to be able to share this experience, this adventure, in her life,” says Peggy Smith, interim president and CEO of the chamber. “Alexandria was already very community-minded, and this is helping broaden her awareness of Cullman. We wish her only the very best as she goes on to represent us in the Miss USA competition.”

sleep on it at night. Outdoors, enjoying a beautiful day, that was my favorite place. I love hiking. I want to go to Hurricane Park. That’s my favorite place in Cullman. I’m actually writing a book. That’s the first time I have said that to anyone … Good Life Magazine coming at you live! Poetry is my own personal outlet. I don’t share it. But the book is maybe a series starter. This summer I am going to focus solely on writing. I would love to finish that book this year. I just have so many ideas I want to get them out. I write anyway, so why not get them out? This would be a comingof-age story about a young girl and her life going through high school. I feel it would relate to a lot of people, male and female. I don’t care if anyone reads it except that one person, if it inspires them to go chase their dream, lights a fire under them, a passion. That’s what this is for. 54

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I’ve always had a wild imagination. As a kid, we didn’t have iPhones, iPads and tablets. We were outside entertaining ourselves every day. I loved that, because every day I was allowed to have an imagination, to have my own little world. It was fun. Every day it was a new day, a new game. My siblings were there with me, and my imagination really grew. And now I write.

I don’t want to. I can text you, call you, leave a voice memo. I did go on social media to find Filter of Hope … I know social media has created careers for people. I know it has connected people who would not have been connected otherwise. But we can’t just leave relationships there. We have to engage with each other. We have to have face-to-face relationships outside of social media. Social media is not real life.

Q: You did not mention social media. What’s your thinking on that? A: I am not big on social media. I am too busy living in the moment to take photos. Growing up without social media, without those things, left room for my imagination, for activities and face-toface relationships. And now, I’ll admit, there are days I will be on my phone all day and not come into direct contact with a single human being. Not because

Q: What do you hope your position as Miss Alabama USA will mean to your community and state? A: I think I will be able to benefit Cullman and Alabama with my perspective on giving back to the community, with my perspective on being a leader in my community and state. This is in my goals, and I have been given the opportunity to do it. I am excited about the prospects. Good Life Magazine

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Solar powered chicken houses

The future looks bright judging from the test program at this Fairview farm

Story by Seth Terrell Photos by David Moore

ave you heard the one about the farmer, the professor and the aerospace engineer? No? If the collaboration of Tim Butts, Dennis Brothers and Larry Bradford continues along its current path, then the result will be no laughing matter – their visionary efforts will revolutionize poultry farming forever. If you were to see it now from the clouds, soaring high above the Cullman County hills, your first impression would be self-evident – this is no ordinary poultry farm. The two poultry houses, 54 x 500 feet run north to south on farmer Tim Butts’ Fairview property, parallel stretches of metal buildings with metal roofs, wherein some 73,000 chickens are settling in to feed for the evening. But it’s the curious shapes just to the east of them that draws the eye from the sky. Much smaller, and much shinier, seven sections of solar panels emerge from the otherwise bucolic landscape. Silent and sleek, three parallel to the chicken houses, four perpendicular, these solar panels transform a traditional poultry farm into an energy-efficient, virtually self-reliant, agricultural dream. The vision of a non-grid reliant, solar-powered poultry farm began with imagination, a hope to make poultry farming more self-sufficient, and was supported through a grant from Tyson Foods Inc. But the success of this solarpowered farm in some ways began much earlier with the relationship forged among the farmer, the professor, and the engineer. 56

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The three men, Tim, Dennis and Larry, all have Blount County roots. Dennis, the associate extension professor, grew up in Susan Moore and now mans his Auburn University/Alabama Cooperative Extension Service office in Oneonta, while Tim and Larry both have ties to Blountsville. The men’s lives and careers have taken them all over the South, with Larry having worked for NASA and traveled the world. But all

paths have led back to Fairview where Tim’s poultry farm has become a one-of-a kind operation.

he three men stand just beneath the surprisingly cool shade of the solar panels while the ventilation exhaust fans of the poultry houses hum along quietly in the spring sun. “It’s never been done quite this way,”

Tim Butts’ two arrays of solar panels at his chicken houses in Fairview make his farm stand out, even in a satellite photo. The four rows of horizontal panels above are part of the program funded through a grant from Tyson Foods. Tim had previously installed the three rows of vertical panels, left. He sells the power they generate back to Cullman Electric Cooperative, which further reduces his bill.

Dennis says, pointing to 120 kilowatts of solar panels that supply power to the barns. “There have been other dieselfueled models of poultry farms, but the solar model is more cost effective. And these are truly off the grid.” Tim and his wife Selena have been farming for 26 years, many of them devoted to the more conventional ways of growing chickens. Tim has known

Larry a long while; in fact, they are distant relatives. Before devoting his life to the economic and environmental research aspects of farming as an Extension System professor for Auburn University, Dennis worked as a field man for Goldkist in the 2000s. He got to know Tim through his visits to the Butts’ family farm.

When the Tyson grant was distributed to Auburn University a few years ago, the three men reunited to make the solar dream a reality. After a long aerospace engineering career, Larry retired and began the Southern Solar Systems company. The idea of transforming a conventional poultry farm into a solar-powered one was something he wanted to do for MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

many years – his company was already devoting 90 percent of its work to poultry farms.

hrough the partnership with Auburn, Larry designed a solar system and installed it to fully power one of the houses in which Butts grows birds for Tyson. Auburn, through Dennis, handles all the data work that gives the entire project a great sense of credibility in the poultry farming community. “And it has turned out better than we ever expected,” Larry says. Tim agrees: “I haven’t spent one cent for maintenance and very little for any utilities.” Herein lies the beauty of the solar model. While Dennis admits that the more self-sufficient approach does have its environmental advantages, the more crucial success for Tim and future farmers is its ability to cut costs. “Covid has brought chicken growers’ hardships to light,” Dennis says, “So, especially now, farmers need ways to manage their risks and improve profitability by cutting their utility overhead.” “It’s the only way,” Tim adds, laughing. With his power bill now down significantly, Tim knows how reducing current costs or redirecting costs toward long term assets offers a huge advantage over other more conventional farms. “If it works, it pays for itself,” Dennis adds, “And it works.” The hope, too, is that as more farmers employ solar power to make their farms more efficient, the solar plan will become more and more affordable. “It can pay for itself in half its lifetime,” Larry says, “So why not do it?” The Alabama poultry business is swiftly approaching economic impact to the state to the tune of $20 billion annually. Cullman County has the highest density of poultry farms in the state. And with poultry farming catching on as a worldwide staple of agriculture, there is a vast incentive to make it more accessible and efficient – especially for farmers in countries around the globe where being connected to “the grid” is neither feasible nor, in some cases, even possible.

he solar-powered chicken houses give such would-be farmers new opportunities to do what they love – feed the world, and still make a living.

Larry Bradford, Tim Butts and Dennis Brothers, from top left, remain excited about the now 2-year-old solar project. Dennis says they appreciate Tyson’s investment in the project as a means to improve sustainability in farming and improve profitability for their contract growers. Top photo by Seth Terrell. 58

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Tim is aware that his farm is in some ways historical. As it sets a new precedent and vision for poultry farming, though, he is encouraged by what it means for other farming families like his. “It gives the farmer more control over his business,” he says. Inside a small industrial shed on Tim’s farm, Larry points to what he calls the “brains of the outfit,” a series of batteries, chargers and inverters that all work to keep the barn running. A poultry farm is no simple operation. There are the tasks of keeping chickens fed and watered and the temperature regulated. Moreover, the task of keeping the barns livable, clean and properly dehumidified for the chickens often requires a sizable connection with local sources of electricity. The solar model cannot only make these tasks more efficient but also greatly reduce overhead. “Variable costs then turn into long term assets because power costs are now constant,” Dennis explains in his professorial, yet accessible manner. “That’s why we need Dennis,” Tim grins, “to help people understand.” “I’ve had a close association with farmers and an ongoing understanding of farms,” Dennis nods. “And I think that aspect helps makes this all work.” Standing in the “brains of the outfit,” both Tim and Dennis acknowledge that Larry is the real “brain” behind the vision. It is Larry – an Auburn graduate like Dennis – who took his education and training in the field of aerospace engineering and applied that deep learning and common sense to solar energy. When he designed the first system five years ago, his focus was not only on the economics but also on optimal design. “If the optimal design makes the operation more affordable, then we’ve accomplished our goal,” Larry says.

fter two years of running smoothly on Tim’s farm, Larry and Dennis are confident the solar design can become even more efficient. “Technology and capability are increasing by the day,” Dennis says. He and Larry have even added pieces to the puzzle by installing heat pumps that utilize excess solar energy that would otherwise be wasted when the system 60

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Tim Butts works in the solar building – the “brains of the outfit” – right of center in the top photo. Behind him are batteries that can power the chicken houses through the night about 80 percent of the time, Dennis says. When the batteries go low, Cullman Electric Co-op’s grid kicks in to recharge them until they get back up to speed or solar takes over. Tim has traditional chicken houses elsewhere on his farm.

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generates more electricity than needed to run the houses. The heat pumps help recoup some of that lost value by capturing wasted solar and converting it to heat to save on gas costs during cool weather. And, during warm weather, the heat pumps introduce cool, dry air that can reduce the number of ventilation fans needed. Such resourcefulness essentially “fools” the poultry barns’ temperature regulation, resulting in “air conditioned chickens,” as Dennis puts it. “This has the potential to change the whole way we raise chickens,” he adds. Sorting through the data of cost analysis and sophisticated technological systems of solar powered chicken farms

is quite the task for the layperson; a task, perhaps best left to a professor and a rocket scientist. But the tangible success of a solar powered farm is only as good as the farmer who keeps it going day to day: Larry and Dennis agree that collaborating with their friend, Tim, has been the perfect partnership to fuel the success. Farming, at its core, is inherently communal. Since humankind first put plow to the ground or first cared for animals, there has been a steady evolution and personal exchange of ideas. “If we can educate people about food and farming along the way,” Dennis says, “then we’ve done something right.”

The sun sets on solar panels at Tim’s poultry farm in Fairview. Located 93 million miles away, the sun is an ongoing thermonuclear fusion reaction. On a sunny day it produces enough energy in an hour to power 2,880 trillion light bulbs – enough bulbs to give earth’s 7 billion people 60 watts of continuous light for life. Point is, there’s a lot of power there to harness, and solar panels are a step toward doing that.

So … a farmer, a professor and an engineer stand in the meager half-light of a setting Cullman County sun. The excitement is still palpable as their discussion comes to a close. They could talk for hours, each feeding off the other two. Nearby, chickens flutter and squawk, their entire worlds shaped in comfort by the solar panels just outside their walls. These panels are not simply the emblems of a futuristic, forwardthinking endeavor, but are reminders that collaborative relationships in farming ultimately culminate around the supper table where the fruits of the labor are best enjoyed. Good Life Magazine

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Story by David Moore Photos provided by Rob Beckman

t started with a 9-foot “Frankenstein-ed” boat Jeremy Williams created in 2012 from scrapyard aluminum and a cannibalized jet ski engine. He’d been inspired by an internet video made by some crazy New Zealand guys experimenting with designs for small, ultrashallow-drafting mini jet boats. In other words, “toys.” Jeremy and his brother Jason, who helped build it, named 64

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their boat Skittle, but folks who saw it on Smith Lake called it Frankenboat. Either way, they eagerly begged rides in the unique little two-seater. A few years later, Jeremy, an acetylene torch artist, ordered a set of plans from a mini jet boat builder in Utah. He had the pieces of aluminum cut to spec and welded the 11-foot boat together around a donor jet ski engine. He slapped a Punisher skull decal on the foredeck and dubbed it The Punisher – apt, too, because the seats had no cushions. Riding it on the lake was one thing, but some folks thought

Up the creek in a mini jet (with no paddle) Built at Smith Lake, these ultra-shallow-draft boats launch the next generation of wildly fun toys Backwater Boats founder Rob Beckman of Cullman and his wife Becky run upstream in the rapids on the Sipsey Fork, a tributary to Smith Lake. The 10-foot, two-seater aluminum boat has a 160-hp jet ski engine and will run on flat water at 56 mph. “Fast enough,” Rob laughs .

Jeremy was crazy because he’d run The Punisher far up the shallow, tight reaches of the tree- and rock-clogged creeks that feed the lake. “Crazy” might be partly right, but Jeremy buffers that with lots of smarts and knows well that which he builds. He lives by Crooked Creek in the Crane Hill area and operates Williams Tree Service and Excavation with Jason. It was Jason who put his brother and Rob Beckman together. Rob, a certified residential property appraiser in Cullman, has an insatiable outdoors yen with a kayak for a heart. “You’re crazy like my young brother,” Jason said when he met

Rob. “I think you’d like his jet boat. A lot of people are scared to ride in it because he can take it up white water.” “No way can you take a boat up white water,” Rob retorted. “That’s impossible.”

o his sheer delight, Rob was wrong. Jeremy took him for the ride of his life in the spring of 2015, zipping up Crooked Creek – without a paddle – taking The Punisher where only canoes and kayaks dared to venture. “To be in the forest in a jet boat like that, shooting rapids, having MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

Collin Partain rode with Rob on famous wake jumps. “He was a guy who begged a ride from one of the support boats. We’d never met. I told him we might die.” That obviously did not happen, but “I took him to the moon in that thing,” Rob continues. “We did three jumps and almost hit the drone on the second one. The third launch was best. We landed just right.” At the right, Skid Vicious sits at the base of small waterfall on Smith Lake deep in the Bankhead National Forest. “Taking a Jetstream into the national forest is OK,” Rob says. “It’s not illegal, not harming. We’re leaving no trace. We’re really respectful to wildlife and give canoes and kayaks the right of way.” They don’t, he adds, take mini jet boats into the Sipsey Wilderness Area.

a blast … it’s a hell of a feeling,” Rob says. “From a kayaker’s perspective, I’d say it’s like hitting the Star in the Mario game.” Like Mario and other video games, riding the jet boat carried an addiction factor. That became apparent one day when Rob was out on his tri-toon with his family and friends and they flagged down Jeremy in The Punisher. One at a time, Jeremy took them skimming across the lake like crazy, the quick little boat, drafting mere inches of water, jumping and skidding over logs, spits of land, doing flat-spin donuts, kicking up a rooster tail and slinging spray like speckles of glittering confetti in the sun. “The attention it brought was crazy,” Rob says. “I had fun on the creek – and even more fun on the lake.” Rob was hooked. He had to have a toy 66

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like that. Within a year he had sold his Polaris RZR and ordered a Jetstream kit . Capitalizing on the fun, Jetstream Adventure Boats – a 2016 startup in British Columbia – had just begun selling mini jet boat kits. An early customer, Rob ordered one and had it shipped to Jeremy’s shop. Jeremy finished the assembly that November. It was a beauty, much sleeker than The Punisher, not to mention Frankenboat. They vinyl-wrapped it in yellow and black. Contemplating a name, Rob looked over the parts on his Jetstream, eyes settling on the skid plate. Thinking of music that rocks, Sid Vicious came to mind. Ah-ha. He christened it Skid Vicious.

ob and Jeremy got a huge kick out of Skid Vicious.

“When we started, we were the only ones doing it, and we were going into places where no one else could go,” Jeremy says. They took their boats to the Buffalo River in Tennessee and were stopped by game wardens – they wanted their pictures made with the mini jetboats. An old fisherman under a bridge had looked at them critically as they blew by him. On the way back, they stopped, apologized for disturbing his fishing and offered him a ride. “Before we got out of sight of his fishing spot, he was clapping his hands in euphoria,” Jeremy says. Wherever they went, they could spend the day giving eager kids rides. Then, in June 2020, Rob arranged a stunt with two Mastercraft wake boats running parallel and creating a huge, double wake behind them. Rob drove Skid at and then

between them, hitting their wake at 40+ miles per hour and launching insanely high out of the water. “After that stunt, I became inundated with questions,” he says. “‘Can I buy that?’ ‘Can you build me one?’” A light bulb flashed in Rob’s mind. He could order kits from Jetstream, buy jet skis for their engines, incorporate Jeremy’s welding artistry and sell turnkey toys people would love. “The demand was already there, but now it had grown twofold,” Rob says. “I saw an opportunity – a no-lose situation is what it looked like to me. How can you go wrong making something that is more fun than a jet ski?” Jeremy was agreeable. So Rob formed Backwater Boats, they announced their plans on Instagram and went into

business July 2, 2020. They sold four boats the first day.

ob, who’s 38, isn’t giving up his appraisal business, but his new gig with the Jetstreams is perfect for him. “Boats are my passion,” he says. “I grew up a kayaker, started at 13 when I bought an Old Town Otter from Werner’s Trading Company.” For his first outing he paddled from Grand View Bridge four or five miles down the light rapids and shoals of Ryan Creek to the lake. When his mom learned Rob did the trip solo, she made his dad buy a kayak and start going with him. Son of Richard and Margie Beckman, Rob attended Sacred Heart before graduating from Cullman High in 2000. That summer he began doing survey work

for Joe Conn while going to college off and on. “I just wanted to be outdoors. That’s what surveying was to me,” Rob says. “I saw beautiful private land you would not normally be able to see.” But surveying was tough. Besides the physical labor, he got trench foot during the Duck River Project, spider bites and his boots chewed on by snakes. After five years, he followed his dad’s career path and went to work with real estate appraisers Bill Grimmett and Donnie Maner. In May 2007, Rob married the former Rebecca George. “We met when we were 10 or 11 years old on bicycles and dated as kids and a little in high school,” he says. “We did not see each other for years, then we got back together after high school.” MAY | JUNE | JULY 2021

Rob started his own business in 2010, Beckman Appraisal & Valuation. The money is good, but the guy who loves the outdoors stays “extremely busy.” Still, he’s able to look on the bright side. “I’m lucky,” he laughs. “I own a boat company and have blond yoga instructor for a wife. Not to mention awesome kids, too.” Grant is 11, Aubrey, 7.

Jeremy is working on a boat built with a kit ordered from New Zealand, a first of its kind in the U.S. It’s bigger than the Jetstreams, measuring 12 feet 8 inches and has an insane 400-hp engine. By comparison, the engine in Skid Vicious, above, generates 160 hp. Top photo by Mizuki Williamson. 68

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nother lucky break was Rob getting to know Jeremy, an artist at welding who got started at age 8. It happened because he and Jason broke a Tonka toy loader. “We told Grandpa we needed to weld the piece back on,” Jeremy recalls. So Grandpa Ivan Williams showed them how to do it. Sons of Wayne and Pauline Williams, the two kids worked weekends with Ivan at his sawmill. “He was a big influence,” says Jeremy, who now lives on Grandpa’s land. “When the sawmill or tractor broke, he said, ‘If someone else can fix it, we damn well sure can fix it ourselves.” It wasn’t all work. Using his old bass boat, Wayne, a vocational teacher, taught his young boys to ski. They fished a lot, too. “We were really blessed,” Jeremy says. “Give credit to the Man above for the gifts we were given and how we were raised.” After co-oping his senior year at REHAU, Jeremy graduated from West Point High in 1997. He continued that job while working on his associate degree. Later he worked at Topre until he and Jason started their business in 2010. It was at Topre that he met and married Mizuki, “the best thing

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Rob puts out a rooster tail on Crooked Creek. He’s a fan of a quote by Dean Charrier, leader of Dean’s Team Watercraft Performance Racing. Speaking of mini jet boats, Deans said. “Finally ... something new. It’s been 20-30 years with the same toys.” Photo by David Moore. that ever happened to me.” Life changed again when Jeremy met Rob. “You could tell Rob was highspirited,” he laughs. “But he’s an unbelievably kind-hearted man.” Even without building boats, Jeremy stays busy. “We are really blessed since we diversified with the excavation business and other work,” he says. Besides teaching 12-year-old daughter Rilee to weld and playing with Dixie, 7, after work, Jeremy spends five or six hours in his shop building boats. It takes about six weeks to finish one. “It’s really enjoyable to put the boats together,” he says. “You put a piece of your soul into each build. You know every inch of it. You’ll never forget a boat.” Still, for Jeremy to give up his other business, boat building will have to turn into a really big deal. 70

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he thing about it is, Backwater Boats really might do just that. A few start-ups out west build mini jet boats, but Backwater’s closest competition is in Idaho, basically making the eastern U.S. the company’s market area. “We have people flying over Idaho to get here. That says something,” Rob notes. Indeed, they have entertained clients from California, Texas, Arizona, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. The little aluminum boats might as well be magnetic. “We are really making Smith Lake popular, too,” Rob says. “They love it here.” One of their customers – and occasional Jetstream playmate – is Ronnie Renner, who’s won the X Games 10 times, holds a world record for motocross high jumps and probably some kind of record for sponsorships.

“We are already working on his second boat,” Rob says, who adds it was extremely cool to see Ronnie Renner cruise up to his house in February in his custom Red Bull RV and trailer. Jeremy is building another boat for a sponsored sharp-shooter, an ex-Marine who works at the Pentagon. “We don’t get any boring customers,” Rob laughs. “They’re all eccentric, smart and wealthy.” Backwater has sold at least 11 boats to date, with high-end models topping $59,000. A customer from California recently plopped down $170,000 for three boats, which may take six months or more before they’re ready due to Covid delays. “If we had a hundred boats sitting here,” Rob says, “we’d have a hundred sold.”

ue to high demand, Rob hired two additional welders, Justin Freeman of

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Northport and McCall Atchison of Hartselle. He could use more. “We need welders, mechanics, guys who are ambitious,” he says. And more space. Rob and Jeremy plan to build a 50x100-foot shop within a year. That would allow them to enter another potential market. They’ve had calls from fire departments about building larger, shallow-draft rescue/fire boats. “We could build them if we get the larger shop,” Rob says. Backwater Boats’ magnetism has attracted the attention of Dale Greer, director of Cullman Economic Development Agency. “It’s a very unique product,” he says of the mini jet boats, and echoes what Rob and Jeremy have said about the potential to move into the market for swift water rescue and potential game warden use to access remote hunting/fishing spots. “I believe they have great potential and give us more exposure for Smith Lake and the community,” Dale says. Another positive for the company came in April when Backwater Boats got U.S. Coast Guard approval to assign hull identification numbers – similar to VIN numbers on cars and serial numbers on other products – to their water craft. “This will allow buyers ease in getting financing and insurance,” Rob says, adding that it was primarily Jeremy’s knowledge of the intricacies in boat construction that enabled them to sail through the USCG’s inspection process.

“Over the river and through the woods ...” The Christmas song is seemingly applicable to Jetstream. Rob takes Skid Vicious down an embankment, top, and through the mist in the upper reaches of some creek, bottom. In the middle photo, he jumps a ramp while pulling Smith Lake wakeboard phenom Kane Ward over a second ramp. Yep ... the mini jet boat is some toy. 72

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ut what if …? What if it all goes bust and Backwater Boats runs aground? Or deep-sixes, as the case might be? “In a worst case scenario,” Rob says, “even if we shut down tomorrow, we have a lot of friends who still want boats. We have so many people who have offered us a place to stay out of state or given us free merchandise because of the boats. People send us gifts, parts, stickers, sunglasses, hats … it’s created such a cool community.” In the course of their voyage together, he and Jeremy have also amassed a lot of tools. “So we’d still be building our own boats tomorrow,” Rob continues. “But with this trajectory, I don’t see how it could end unless there was some future legal angle, like speed limits on skinny creeks. Thank goodness we still the have freedom at the moment for that. “I don’t see an end in sight,” he adds. “We still have people clamoring for boats.” After all, people do like toys. And these little, fast, serious toys will take you up streams and creeks where only canoes and kayaks once dared to venture. Good Life Magazine

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Out ‘n’ About Oh, boy. Second Fridays are coming back. Well, apparently, at least one of them. Details were not finalized at press time, but the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce and Cullman Park, Recreation and Sport Tourism plan to make one of the popular summer events happen – canceled during Covid shutdowns last year – in the Downtown Entertainment District along First Avenue. June is the tentative date. If you were out ‘n’ about on the Second Friday of June 2019, some of these scenes just might look familiar to you. Photos by David Moore. 74

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