Cullman Good Life Magazine - Winter 2014

Cullman County

Cullman Regional: Perspective on 75 years A small prep school exerts international pull Use yaupon in the yard ... or like the Indians did

WINTER 2014 complimentary

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Contributors

Welcome

How about a couple of good leftovers?

I love leftovers. Spaghetti comes first to mind as being

great. You’re lucky today. Here are two leftovers for you …

The first is left over because I lacked space for it in this issue’s story on St. Bernard Preparatory School.

During interviews I asked senior Jang Soon Kim of South Korea what he learned last year in Youth Leadership Cullman County, sponsored by the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce. He talked about how Cullman “is a growing society with great potential.” Then he said this: For me, Cullman has a really special meaning because it is the place I started my second life. I thought I had totally failed whenever I was in my former school. Here, I started a new life with higher academics and … (met) all these great teachers and good friends.

Cullman equals St. Bernard. Cullman itself is like a second home for me. People here are so, how do I say? Tranquil and peaceful. They look like they cooperate really well and try to help each other.

Jang has a pretty good handle on things.

I

call “oops!” on this second leftover.

Our fall issue had pecan recipes from the great ladies in the Cullman Pilot Club. Well, most of their recipes. The day I shot photos for the story I sampled a bunch of great dishes. Perhaps my favorite was Julie Wilhite’s sweet potato pecan dumplings.

It was something different and drop-dead delicious.

Unfortunately, I accidentally omitted her recipe from the story. With my apologies to Julie, here it is …

1 pkg of frozen sweet potato patties; 1 stick of butter; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup water; 2 cans of crescent rolls; pecans; cinnamon.

Heat sugar, butter and water over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Cut patties into halves and wrap each in a crescent roll triangle. Place in a baking dish (use nonstick cooking spray). Pour mixture over top. Dumplings will appear to be floating. Sprinkle with pecan pieces and cinnamon and bake on 350 until golden brown.

Heck. Make Julie’s dish and I bet you won’t even have any leftovers.

David Moore Publisher/editor 4

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

Dear Santa, Historically speaking, I have been a very good boy, but I have my days. Like a few years ago when I drove my faithful old tractor into my pond in the New Canaan community. Will a John Deere fit in your sleigh?

Hopeful, Steve Maze Dear Santa, I’ve been good all year. I would like a pony, red shoes like Dorothy’s (the magic kind), some books and curly hair. You might note that this is the same list I’ve been sending since I was 4. Not to complain … I did get books.

Love, Deb Laslie Dear Santa, I work really hard with the other folks here in the Cullman County Extension Office to help people with all sorts of questions. Please tell them I did not take a new job in Marshall County. That was a typo in the last magazine.

Happily planted, Tony Glover Hey big guy, I want three new boys. No, wait ... I love them. How about a new publisher? No. That probably wouldn’t work. Our magazine has LLC papers. Oh, wait! I know!

Please be nice this year to all of our advertisers!

Sheila McAnear Dear Santa, Why am I the last one on your list? Was it something I wrote?

Edited? I’d love a small box of perfection, but that’s asking a lot when I already have a good life.

How about just bringing a good life to everyone else?

David Moore

Fueling Your Life In Cullman County

...For

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There’s a just down the road from you

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Inside 9

Good Fun

On the cover: A hitching post at the home of Dr. Garlan and Dot Gudger is bedecked for Christmas.

Pictured here: A female cardinal peers around a birdfeeder at a red-bellied woodpecker, both looking for a little bite to eat on a cold, snowy, winter day.

Photos by David Moore

‘Tis the season for lots of events

14 Saluting 75 years

Cullman Regional Medical Center

16 Good People

Drs. Bill Peinhardt and Jim Davis talk about Cullman Regional Medical Center

22 Complications at birth

Dr. “C” broke the mold when he accepted Sallie Spencer at CRMC

26 After the tornado

The new ER that was funded by the public soon got a chance for payback

32 Good Reads

Two thrillers go in different directions

34 Good ’n’ Green

You can grow yaupon ... or drink it

38 Good Cookin’

Bosom Buddies offer cakes for holidays

44 Good Eats

Pop’s Place BBQ has a fresh tang to it

48 Christmas at the Gudgers’

Historic old house adorned each year

by Dot’s green (and red) rule of thumb

54 St. Bernard Prep School Small Catholic school in Cullman seems to exert worldwide pull

59 Antiques and Furniture

Get tips on decorating your home

62 Out ’n’ About

This one is for the birds ...

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

Vol. 2 No. 2 Copyright 2014 Published quarterly MoMc Publishing LLC P.O. Box 28, Arab, Al 35016 www.good-life-magazine.net

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The Huey was a workhorse in Vietnam. As part of the annual Veterans’ Day program on Saturday, Nov. 8, you can get a ride in a Huey without anyone shooting at you. Army Aviation Heritage Pilots from Georgia will take people up from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Cullman Regional Airport. Rides are $60.

Veterans’ Day notes 50th anniversary of Nam war The Veterans’ Day at

Guest speaker Lt. Col. (Ret.) Myron Donald of Tuscon, Arz., was shot down over North Vietnam in his F-4 Phantom, pictured here, in 1968. He spent some five years as a POW. 8

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

Sportsman Park will include a flyover by a vintage P-51 Mustang from World War II and Civil War reenactors armed with a cannon.

But the thrust of the celebration on Saturday, Nov. 8, will be a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the start of the Vietnam War. At 9:30 a.m. former Vietnam fighter pilot Myron Donald will speak. At 11:15 a.m. a wreath will be laid at the Vietnam Veterans’ Wall, and at 11:30 a.m. Nam veterans will be introduced.

Sponsored by VFW Post 2214, the event is free with programs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., including reenactments and live music.

In addition to all-day events at the park, there will be coinciding aircraft displays at Cullman

Regional Airport, where you can buy a ticket for a ride in a Huey helicopter. Skydive Alabama will jump at the airport and the park as a salute to veterans.

The P-51 flyover will be at 2:30 p.m. at the park and include a WWII Stearman biplane and Russian Yak trainers.

On display at the park will be jeeps, ammunition carriers, ambulances, trucks and various other military related items from World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. And, this year, at 2 p.m.

Civil War reenactors will stage a live skirmish at the park.

Veterans and their spouses will be invited to a free lunch sponsored by the Cullman Elks Lodge. Johnny’s BBQ will sell sandwiches to the public.

For more information call: Ken Brown, 256-507-1121.

Enjoy the most hap-happiest events this year Lyrics to the old song describe Christmas as “The most hap-happiest season of all.” It’s also the busiest.

And Cullman County is full of events you might want to put on your haphappiest Christmas to-do list.

Read on …

train is expected to run again this year, giving rides for $3 per person.

The lights will be on, unless it’s raining, 5-9 p.m. weeknights and 5-10 p.m. weekends.

For more information, call: 256-7343052.

• Nov. 8-9 – Christmas Open House The holiday shopping season kicks off in earnest with the 28th Annual Christmas in Cullman Open House Weekend.

Stores throughout Cullman will be offering special sales all day Saturday, and select stores will be open Sunday afternoon. Shop ’til you drop.

• Dec. 5 – Christmas in Cullman The annual Christmas in Cullman parade starts at 6 p.m. this Friday from Busy Bee and goes up First Avenue SE to Festhalle. It’s sponsored by the Cullman Downtown Merchant’s Association.

James Spann will be grand marshal in the parade of night-lit floats and other units.

After the parade enjoy watching the official lighting of the Christmas tree at Depot Park. Get a photo made with Santa and run crazy in the machinegenerated snow.

Choral groups and Wallace Singers will perform, and Victorian-style singers will be caroling throughout downtown.

Cullman Parks and Rec is in charge.

• Nov. 8 – Free gift wrapping The Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce will have elves on duty at its office 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday offering free gift wrapping – five per customer – for purchases from Chamber members.

There also will be free pictures with Buddy the Elf, who can deliver your letters to Santa, “Polar Express” and “Buddy the Elf” movies, refreshments, balloons and an opportunity to donate gifts to needy children.

• Dec. 1-23 – “Hello, this is Santa” Not many things are more exciting that getting a phone call from Santa Claus. You can arrange that through Cullman Parks and Recreation’s “Phone Calls from Santa” service.

Registration for the free fun opens Dec. 1. Calls come in Dec. 23.

To get on Santa’s list or for more information, call: 256-734-9157.

• Dec. 5-23 – Sportsman Lake Park lights Pack up and see the 12th Annual Winter Wonderland Christmas light display at Sportsman Lake Park. Last year the drive-through show drew about 5,000 vehicles.

Admission is $5 per car or truckload. See Santa every night at the concession stand with hot cocoa and candy canes. Take a horse and carriage ride for $4 per person, and the park

• Dec. 6 – Santa’s Workshop Santa’s Workshop is part of the monthly Farm Kid’s Club at the North Alabama Agriplex Heritage Center.

From 9-10:30 a.m. this Saturday kids 5 and up with their parents or grandparents can rotate through fun work stations and make evergreen wreaths and other holiday crafts to take home (or give as gifts).

Located across from the Cullman Bowling Alley, the event is sponsored

by First South Farm Credit. Cost is $5 per child, $10 per family; adults are free.

Required pre-registration can be done by calling: 256-297-1044; or e-mailing cullmanag@gmail.com.

• Dec. 6 – Cullman County Christmas parade The 23nd Annual Cullman County Hanceville Civitan Christmas Parade begins this Saturday at 2 p.m. at Wallace State and runs down U.S. 31 to Hanceville City Hall.

There will be themed floats,

Good Fun

Vinemont and Hanceville high school bands, antique vehicles, horses, pageant winners and more.

Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus will ride an antique fire truck driven by Mayor Kenneth Nail and accompanied by winners of the Civitan essay contest.

The Clauses will visit with kids after the parade at city hall.

Parade registration forms are available at local banks, city hall and online at: www.cityofhanceville.net. For more information: 256-352-9830.

• Dec. 13 – Christmas Festival and Market The second-year outdoor festival is 10 a.m.-5 p.m. this Saturday at St. John’s Evangelical Protestant Church, which is hosting the event with St. Paul’s and Christ Lutheran churches.

The old-world Dinckelburg Market hopes to attract 50 vendors with unique gift ideas. The Candy Cane Lane Kids carnival area, returns along with games, carousel rides and pictures with Santa.

Ride Bucking Blitzen, the mechanical bull; take a carriage ride for $5.

Food trucks will be on hand with lots to eat, and entertainment will include the Cullman High School jazz band, Wallace State Singers, St. John’s praise band and more.

For more information, call: 256-7340344.

• Dec. 13 – Good Hope Christmas Parade Good Hope will hold its Christmas parade starting at 2 p.m. this Saturday.

It will run from Good Hope School along Ala. 69 to city hall.

This marks the third year for the parade.

“Last year it was a huge turnout,” says Mayor Corey Harbison. “We hope to grow it this year and every year.”

After the parade, Christmas in the Park offers games and fun for kids until dark. A free meal will be served to all who come, sponsored by local businesses.

For more information or to participate in the parade, call: 256-7393757.

Even without Christmas, there’s lots to do this season • Nov. 2 – SAXsational Rob Verdi will bring his wild and rare collection of saxophones and five decades of jazz and pop to the stage at the Betty Leeth Haynes Auditorium in the student center at Wallace State Community College. He’ll play exciting solos, and local musicians and groups will accompany him on other songs.

The 2 p.m. Sunday show is part of the Cullman Community Concert Association season. Tickets go on sale two weeks before show at: www. cullmancommunityconcertassociation. com. They’re also on sale the night of the concert at the door: $30 individuals; $10 students.

• Nov. 6-9 – Shakespeare at Wallace Wallace State Theatre will present “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the Betty Leeth Haynes Theatre at the Wallace State Student Center. Tickets at the door are $5 for students, $10 for

adults.

Performances are at 7 p.m. that Thursday, 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

For more information visit: www. wallacestate.edu/artscalendar; or call: 256-352-8277.

• Nov. 13 – “Go with Le Flo” Wallace State Community College free independent film series continues at 6 p.m. this Thursday in the recital hall at the Burrow Center for the Fine and Performing Arts.

A romantic comedy, “Go with Le Flo” earned Best Foreign Film at the Myrtle Beach International Film Festival. Shot in Berlin with English subtitles, it follows a French deli owner who falls in love with one woman, while his best friend’s love for him is unrequited.

For more on the film visit: www. gowithleflo.com; see the trailer at: www.youtube.com.

• Nov. 15 – Country Jam Spend a Saturday night with country music performed by TG Sheppard, Johnathan East and Who Shot Lizzy? at the Cullman County Agricultural Trade Center.

One of the legends of country music, TG Sheppard notched 20 No. 1 hits over the years, including “Last Cheaters Waltz,” “I Loved ’Em Every One,” “Do You Want To Go To Heaven?” and “Party Time.”

Doors open at 5 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 general admission, $12 floor seats and available at the door or at: http://www. cullmancountyparks.com/cj/agTix.html.

• Nov. 20 – Farm-City banquet Held at the Cullman Civic Center, the annual celebration includes the announcement of the 2015 City Family and presentations to the Farm-City poster and youth leadership winners.

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

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Jeremy and Julie Calvert, also will be recognized.

Entertainment will be Flatt Lonesome, winner the International Bluegrass Music Association’s 2014 Emerging Artist of the Year Award. The six young Tennessee pickers are not only rooted in bluegrass classics but also have an energetic flair for country sounds, progressive jams, and soulstirring gospel music.

Tickets for the Thursday night event are $15 and available at local banks, the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce and the Cullman County Economic Development Office. Tickets will be entered for a drawing to win a trip to Gatlinburg.

The Civitan Club formed the FarmCity committee in 1955.

• Nov. 21-22 – Vinemont craft show The annual Vinemont Band Boosters craft show – always the weekend before Thanksgiving – will bring more than 40 vendors to the Cullman Civic Center. Boosters will sell concessions.

Admission is free, and you can get some early Christmas shopping done.

The show runs 9 a.m.-8 p.m. that Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday.

For more, see the booster page at: facebook.com/ vinemontbandboostercraftshow.

• Dec. 5-6 – Christmas Arts and Crafts Show Vendors will be at Cullman Civic Center from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. this Friday and from 9 a.m.to 5 p.m. Saturday showing and selling nothing but handmade items for that special gift.

The event is sponsored by Cullman Park and Recreation.

• Dec. 9 – Art After Hours This third annual event for Chamber for Charities is 5:30-7:30 p.m. at sponsoring TP Country Club. Network and enjoy games, prizes, live music, a silent auction and great art.

Cost, which includes heavy hors d’oeuvres, is $15 for Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce members; $20 for future members. Please bring a toy

or canned food item to the event.

Required reservations can be made by contacting the Chamber: 256-7340454; or info@cullmanchamber.org.

Deadline for artists submitting works to the Chamber for the silent auction is Dec. 1. Sale proceeds are split between artists and the local food bank. For details, stop by the chamber office or e-mail: info@cullmanchamber.org.

• Dec. 15 – Cullman Community Band Back again this year on the big stage, the 40-member Cullman Community Band will perform traditional band music and holiday favorites.

The free, 7 p.m. performance will be in the Betty Leeth Haynes Auditorium at Wallace State Community College and is part of the Cullman Community Concert Association season.

• Jan. 19 – Kids needed for “Aladdin” Missoula Children’s Theater is returning to Cullman to hold auditions for “Aladdin” at 3:30 p.m., Monday,

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• Visit Greece trip If you ever wanted to explore ruins of antiquity, sign up now for a trip to Greece in 2015.

Sponsored by Wallace State Community College and the Evelyn Burrow Museum, the trip is open to the general public as well as students. The group will fly out of Birmingham May 18 and use Athens as base of exploring far-flung sites.

The price of about $3,200 (about $3,000 for students) includes all transportation, seven nights in hotels with private bathrooms and – with an extension to Cape Sounion on the Aegean Sea to visit the ancient Temple of Poseidon – four nights in cruise cabins.

Gain insider knowledge and cultural perspective from licensed local guides to ruins and museums at the Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia, Epidaurus, Mycenae and other sites.

A professional tour director with College Study Tours will manage all logistics, and WSCC’s Kristen Holmes will be the group leader. The tour company provides security measures and insurance at no added cost.

For more details visit: www.wallacestate. edu/abroad.

On the tour you will visit the museum at Olympia, right, and you can take an option to see Poesidon’s Temple on the Aegean Sea, above.

Jan. 19, at the Cullman Civic Center.

Some 50 children, 5-18, will be chosen for parts. Entry fee is $25, which also includes two adult tickets to both shows Sponsored by Cullman Parks and Recreation, tryouts drew 115 children to try out for “Rapunzel” last year.

“Aladdin” will be performed at 2 and 6 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 24, at the civic center. General admission is $5.

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MCT sends directors across the country to audition, cast and perform a children’s play within one week.

For more details, call: 256-734-9157.

• Jan. 22 – The Diamonds In 1957 the Diamonds released an instant million-selling hit called “Little Darlin’.” The song – which has sold some 20 million copies worldwide – has been dubbed the “National Anthem of Rock and Roll.”

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

The Diamonds went on to rack up 16 Billboard hits, appear 33 times on American Bandstand and were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

Part of the Cullman Concert Association’s eclectic season, tickets go on sale two weeks before the show at: www. cullmancommunityconcertassociation. com. They’re also on sale the night of the concert at the door: $30 individuals; $10 students.

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Cullman Regional Medical Center It started with a dream. Inspired by an emergency hospitalization when he was younger, hometown businessman H.C. Arnold for years desired to have a hospital built in Cullman.

After he died in 1937, his wife saw to it that his dream was fulfilled. She donated a block of land on Arnold Street on which Cullman County Hospital was constructed. Staffed with five nurses, the $100,000 facility opened its doors in October 1939, pictured above.

A five-day confinement rang up a hospital bill of $20.

Arnold’s dream took a quantum leap in February 1995 when Cullman Regional Medical Center relocated to sparsely developed Ala. 157 north of town and opened a new 115bed, full service, fully accredited, not-for-profit facility. Initially owned and operated by Health Care Authority of Cullman County and Baptist Health Systems, in 2005 the Authority bought out Baptist, restoring the hospital to full community ownership.

75

Celebrating years of excellence in healthcare Today, CRMC, pictured above, is a sprawling, 90-acre campus that has attracted some 15 medical offices to the immediate area. Another 10 businesses or so have opened in the area, drawn by the proximity to Cullman Regional and the traffic it generates.

Earlier this year, CRMC’s board of directors amended the hospital’s vision to this: “We aspire to be a leading community-based healthcare provider. Together, with our physicians, we will be the most preferred healthcare provider in patient experience, clinical outcomes and value-based purchasing.”

Though worded in today’s parlance, that vision is probably very close to what H.C. Arnold had in mind when the dream of providing quality healthcare in Cullman County first formed in his mind.

A promotional section of Cullman County Good Life Magazine

Good People

7questions c

Story and photo by David Moore

ullman County Hospital opened in October 1939, built on land Alma Arnold donated at the bequest of her deceased husband, Caspar. Their intent to provide quality healthcare to a growing community led to several major expansions at the location on Fourth Avenue NE, but by the early 1990s the hospital was showing its age.

And so the downtown location gave way to today’s Cullman Regional Medical Center, boasting an expansive campus, three multistory professional buildings, a host of medical offices, some 150 physicians and 1,000 nurses, technicians and support staff delivering state-of-theart services.

All of this has sprouted up since 1995 on former farmland alongside Ala. 157. But it might never have happened had it not been for the vision and efforts of Dr. Jim Davis, Dr. Bill Peinhardt and the late Dr. Herman Ensor, once fondly referred to as the Three Musketeers.

The remaining Musketeers are quick to point out that many others played, and continue to play, important roles in bringing the vision to reality. One entity they noted in particular is Wallace State Community College.

“Maybe 80 percent of our employees came through there,” Peinhardt says. “People get nursing degrees there and are able to work locally and support their families.”

“Many factors made this hospital, but without Wallace State it would have been far harder,” Davis adds.

16

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

Peinhardt & Davis With Dr. Herman Ensor they shepherded a dream that exceeded all expectations In commemoration of Cullman Regional’s milestone 75th anniversary, Davis and Peinhardt reflected on the past, present and future of the medical center. Here’s what they had to allow …

1.

How close did CRMC come to not existing as we know it today?

Davis: By the mid-1980s, Peinhardt, Ensor and I were working on the dream of a new hospital. It was a process that often seemed insurmountable. Some board members and doctors initially opposed it, but the biggest blockade under the surface was Baptist Medical Centers. In effect, Cullman was a patient feeder to Baptist, and we were not encouraged to become all that we could be.

A lot of community people also said a new hospital was too expensive. “What’s wrong with the one we’ve got?” What was wrong is that it was landlocked. We couldn’t grow, and we couldn’t recruit new doctors into that old facility.

To build a new hospital, we had to get a certificate of need through Montgomery, and, pretty much, if the community opposed you, you wouldn’t get one. About a week before the CON hearing, I heard that some community leaders were going to convoy down there and formally oppose us. These were good people, influential people. I would have hated to go up against them.

This is all behind-the-scenes stuff, but I called one of them, Jimmy Knight, and said I’d take him to lunch that day anywhere he wanted to go. He said Top Hat, so I took

him to Garden City. We sat there eating barbecue and arguing, and I convinced him we needed a new hospital. Then I asked how to stop the opposition. He said to call his law partner, Steve Griffith.

These were good guys, and I talked to Steve that day about the need for a new hospital. He said, “OK, Jim, we’ve got to have a meeting. We’ll have it at my office.” And he named off the people he would call.

So Ensor, Peinhardt and I went to the meeting the next night with the people who opposed the hospital.

Only Griffith could have gotten them all together. We talked about it, and, come to find out, most of them thought we were building a third hospital in Cullman. (The former Woodland Medical Center was also in operation.) When they understood this would be a new hospital to replace the old one, the opposition suddenly became our allies.

It must have been three or four days later – that’s how close this came – that Ensor, Peinhardt and I went down to the CON board with absolutely no opposition. That would have killed the medical center, or at least delayed it.

I always liked Jimmy Knight’s assessment of our meeting that led to gaining the support of community leaders. He refers to it as, “From the Top Hat to reality.”

2.

How does the reality of CRMC compare to your early vision?

Peinhardt: It far exceeds it. When you reach a point where you have doctors wanting to come here to practice, as opposed to having to drag

Snapshot: Dr. Bill Peinhardt

• Married Carolyn Peinhardt in 1967; three children, seven grandchildren.

• Beyond medical affiliations, a member of St. Andrews United Methodist Church; president, Cullman Historical Society; member of Cullman Savings Bank board of directors, medical director of CRMC’s cardiac rehab program; medical director of Good Samaritan Health Clinic; heavily involved with his family’s Pienhardt Living History Farm.

• Youngest of five born on the Cullman farm of the late Carl and Irene Peinhardt; graduated from Cullman High School in 1965.

• Bachelor’s degree in zoology from Auburn University, 1969; University School of Medicine, 1973.

• Completed residency in 1976 and opened Cullman Internal Medicine with Dr. Pat Davis and remains an active partner.

Snapshot: Dr. Jim Davis•

• Married Jane Schultheis in 2010; three daughters, a stepdaughter, 11 grandchildren.

• Beyond medical affiliations, is a member of St. John’s Evangelical Protestant Church of Cullman; member, Cullman Downtown Redevelopment Authority; board member, Cullman Regional Medical Center Foundation.

• Born to a ship-building family in Newport News, Va., moved often before graduating in 1967 from a high school outside of Richmond.

• Obtained pharmacy degree in 1967 and medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, 1971; two years of general surgery residency under Dr. John Kirklin and three years of urology residency, all at UAB Hospitals and Clinics in Birmingham.

• Completed residency in 1976 and opened Cullman Urology and practiced at Cullman Regional Medical Center; retired from active practice in December 2013.

Drs. Bill Peinhardt, Herman Ensor and Jim Davis, left to right, stand on former farm land with the plans for the new Cullman Regional Medical Center during its groundbreaking. Jim says the photo, provided by CRMC, shows two of his favorite people. He and Bill say that Herman deserves the lion’s share of the credit for making the dream of the new medical center happen. them here to show them what we have, it says something.

Cullman has a rich history of physicians providing good care, going back to the early Germans in Cullman and physicians out in the county before them. Then we went from being a county hospital, under the thumb of local politics, to one associated with Baptist Medical Centers, and that was a real step up for our area. That later produced the atmosphere where this medical center could become far beyond what we ever expected, providing services I never would have thought we’d have.

Herman, Jim and I served consecutive terms as president of the medical staff in the time frame in which decisions about moving were made. So we interacted with the board and the administration and, to a lesser extent, the county commission back then.

Since the three of us were in that position, it was a natural partnership for us. We tried to figure out what was the best thing to do, and leaving the old place and coming out here was it. It has certainly exceeded my expectations. I am very excited to have a medical center of this quality in North Alabama.

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3.

What do you think CRMC means to the community in terms of healthcare, economic impact and business/industry recruitment?

Davis: Job-wise, the impact is tremendous. The medical center is one of the largest employers in the county. (Number two, actually.) Just building the facility created jobs like you wouldn’t believe.

Healthcare-wise, we have a full medical community that you wouldn’t have with a small hospital. We have almost every specialty here today. The one thing we don’t have is open-heart surgery. They tried to put a unit here, which would have been a big mistake.

It’s too expensive. We felt it would bankrupt the town, bankrupt the hospital. It did that in some towns.

I suspect that the newer industries Cullman has would not have come to a town that did not have a strong medical community. You have to have good healthcare and education. And I also say that Cullman has one of the best education systems in the state.

I think Cullman Regional Medical Center has been a key element to the advancement of this community, this county. The impact is immeasurable.

It’s been fun to be a small part of it.

4.

What advancements at CRMC over the years do you think most impacted local healthcare?

Peinhardt: The 1970s, in retrospect, was a very exciting time for advancements. One of them was in emergency medical system.

Prior to then, many ER patients arrived in the back of a pickup truck or a hearse. Establishing the emergency medical system was so good, especially in the area of cardiology. We were involved with CPR and advanced cardiac life support training for those guys. So was Wallace State, offering EMT and paramedic courses.

Then the county commission came through and set up the volunteer fire departments that ended up being the first responders. Then we had major improvements in the emergency room and the ICU. Bob Waters was an EMT who ran the early emergency medical system.

The ER was run by Elaine Persall, a nurse. Marie King, another nurse, ran the ICU. Those were local people who stepped forward – they weren’t recruited from Timbuktu – and helped bring advances to the medical center.

Now we have recruited Drs. James Lee, Edward Mahan and Silvio Papapietro to put in stints.

5. What do you think are the most under-utilized

healthcare services that CRMC offers?

Davis: Maybe the under-utilized services are also some of the things we need to develop a little better. It’s a doubleedge sword. People leave for a reason, but perhaps there is more here than they think.

The first area would be cardiac evaluation, heart disease and such. People leave town for that, but Cullman Regional is filling that gap and will continue to develop a better cardiac system here. The equipment is here. But it’s becoming more difficult to recruit the doctors we need.

Doctors don’t establish their own practice like they used to. They join big systems because the economics of billing and record systems has grown so complex – a lot of it has to do with government requirements and intervention – that you can’t afford them as a single practitioner.

What’s happening is that these big out-of-town groups open satellite clinics in places like Cullman. It’s not the fault of the hospital; it’s the direction medicine is going.

6. What do you see as the biggest changes in

healthcare for the future?

CRMC Cardiology Clinic "Dedicated. Compassionate. Technically Advanced."

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We are located on the first floor of the main hospital 1912 AL Highway 157, Cullman, AL 35058

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Office Open Monday – Friday: 8 am – 4:30 pm

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

19

Peinhardt: You hear a lot about Obamacare, and I guess I am skeptical about the future of healthcare now. It’s become so disorganized, so lost in the direction it’s going. Too many people are telling you what to do.

I am not an anti-government person at all, but when you have the insurance companies telling you what tests to order, and then you have the government come through and give you 45 different requirements to meet for every diagnosis, and the two don’t go together, it creates real chaos.

On the positive side, we see great advances in non-invasive procedures, such as cardiology with stints and in ophthalmology. When I started practice, a cataract problem was a full, open operation. You took out the cataract. You lay flat on your belly for five days. You wore big Coke-bottle glasses. Now you get an ophthalmology procedure in 15-20 minutes and don’t interrupt your life.

In the future, people will get medical advice and treatment the same way they get everything else: electronically. I was at a meeting recently where they were pushing concierge medicine by computer. You sign up all your employees for so much a month. Then they Skype the doctor and, say, show him their sore throat or their rash on the computer, and he’ll write them a prescription.

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

Is that a good thing? I don’t know, but that’s what the younger people want. They don’t want to schedule an appointment and get off work Monday morning; they want to go to urgent care on the weekend. I guess that is where the future is going for a lot of medicine.

7. What is your funniest

hospital story? Names can be omitted to protect the guilty …

Davis: When I had been in Cullman just a few months, straight out of training, I was talking to one of the older doctors in the operating room. A nurse came in and asked him a question. He gave her the order, and she turned around and was writing it.

Then he, as a joke, touched her in a way that was very inappropriate.

She turned, hit him upside the head, knocked him on the floor and said, very much more colorfully than I can repeat here, “If you ever do that again, I will kill you!” Then she stormed off.

He said, “’Guess I’ll never do that again.” The other nurses were laughing because the doctor was laid out on the floor. It was funny as heck.

But my point is, back in those days there was no such thing as sexual harassment. Today, it would not have been funny at all. But I believe it was

handled appropriately without ending up in a courtroom for years.

Nowadays, assault and battery would also probably be brought against the nurse, but I sure would have been a witness for her. He deserved it!

Peinhardt: In any environment, humor is a big part of getting through the tough stuff.

One of the hospital nurses I thoroughly enjoyed working with was an excellent nurse with a wonderful sense of humor she used in managing patients and everyone else. When she developed cancer, she lost her hair and wore a wig but kept right on working through her chemotherapy.

One day I said something about her wig looking nice. She immediately slipped it off and had a big smiley face painted on top of her head.

I think she had something very positive painted on there every day.

But she took it even further than that.

When she went in for exams, she would have all kinds of pictures and messages on her other end, too.

Her sense of humor in approaching a malignant disease was very refreshing and wonderful.

A lot of the jobs in the hospital are very stressful. Humor is very much involved.

Good Life Magazine

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www.chestmedicine.us November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

21

Complications at birth J

we can and cannot do, but I know You can do everything – so I’m putting it in Your hands.’ I felt everything would be OK once I turned it over to Him.”

Story by Steve A. Maze

esse Clemmons Spencer called Cullman Regional Medical Center a couple of years ago to inquire about meeting the doctor who delivered him six decades earlier. He was saddened to learn that Dr. Lowell Clemmons Sr. had passed away in 1986 at the age of 70.

Jesse’s request wasn’t that unusual. Many people want to reunite with doctors or medical personnel who went above and beyond the call of duty during a medical emergency. Jesse’s request, however, related to heroics in a realm beyond the medical. He wanted to personally meet the doctor whose middle name he bore and learn more about the extraordinary circumstances surrounding his birth.

Jesse’s mother, Sallie Rowe Spencer Joiner, had no medical complications when delivering her son. Rather it was the social complications – before and after his birth – that she still remembers after all of these years.

Imagine traveling 770 miles by car from Cleveland, Ohio, while you are nearly nine months pregnant. Imagine going into labor in the car on the way to your destination during the wee morning hours. Imagine this happens in the Deep South in the 1950s. And imagine you are African-American.

It was the fall of ’53 when Sallie Spencer decided to head to Alabama.

She already had a 20-month old son, Wayne Bernard Spencer, and was about to give birth to another child.

The expectant mother could not stand the thought of having another baby in Cleveland where she had no close relatives. She wanted to be near her 22

’Dr. C’ and Cullman Hospital broke the stereotype of the day

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

T

Sallie Rowe Spencer Joiner as a young wife parents and other relatives in Tuskegee when her new baby was born.

Sallie, her husband, Jesse, and their infant son headed south in their 2-year old Ford. Twenty miles before they reached Cullman, Sallie’s water broke. Her husband grabbed their son’s blanket, and Sallie was sitting on it when they came to a traffic light in Cullman.

The sun was not yet up, but there was enough light for the couple to spot a tall policeman standing on a nearby street corner in his navy blue uniform. They frantically asked him for directions to the hospital.

He pointed to his left and said, “But they don’t take n------s.”

“I started praying out loud to the Lord,” Sallie says during a recent phone interview. “I said, ‘I know what

he couple drove up to Cullman County Hospital, predecessor of Cullman Regional, just as Dr. Clemmons was walking out after delivering a baby. “Dr. C,” as he was affectionately known, grabbed a gurney and Jesse helped his wife onto it.

“You push the gurney and give me the baby (Wayne),” Dr. Clemons instructed Sallie’s husband.

As they entered the facility and headed for the elevator, a hospital employee approached Jesse and told him that he would have to go outside and enter another way, possibly the stairs.

“No, no, no!” Dr. Clemmons exclaimed. “He is her husband, and he and this baby are coming up with me.”

Sallie gave birth almost immediately after her arrival and remained in the hospital for five or six days.

“Dr. Clemmons told me that my son was the first black baby delivered in that hospital that actually lived in the hospital after it was born,” she says.

“Other black babies had been delivered there, but the baby and mother left after the birth.”

Dr. Clemmons discussed the situation with the staff, and all of the nurses were very cordial to Sallie. The staff moved a white lady from one of the few private rooms at the hospital then so that Sallie and her family could be by themselves. They also moved an incubator into the room so the newborn son could remain with her.

3

Dr. Lowell Henry Clemmons, above, dictates medical notes in his office. His daughter, Dr. Linda Clemmons, says she never heard the story of her father and the then Sallie Spencer, but he always told his children to treat people right.

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

23

“The nurses were very nice to me,” says Sallie. “They even took care of my other son. They brought him diapers, baby food and formula. In fact, everyone at the hospital was nice to me.”

Jesse

Clemmons Spencer was born healthy and sported an olive complexion with straight black hair slicked back over his head. Word soon got out that a black baby had been born at the hospital, and people began to visit Sallie’s room to see the newborn.

It was the first black baby that most of them had ever seen. Dr. Clemmons told Sallie it had been suggested that school be let out so everyone could see the baby.

Sallie chuckles and says she pretended to sleep when one group of elderly women entered the room.

“I thought n-----s are all real black with kinky hair,” one whispered.

“I thought they were born with monkey tails,” Sallie heard another say.

Still another, apparently looking at Sallie’s light skin, remarked, “She’s light complected, and can’t be all black. She looks more like an Indian.”

It was obvious that some people in Cullman – as elsewhere across the U.S. – were unable to comprehend and accept certain aspects of race.

“I debated things in my mind that

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I wanted to talk to them about,” Sallie recalls, “but I knew the Lord would say that this was neither the time nor place.

I wanted them to know that we have the same things that white people do … that we have the same experiences they do. I also wanted them to know that we might come in different colors, sizes and hair textures, but God loves us all.”

The understanding Dr. Clemmons did much for Sallie and her family, but he did ask the couple to do one thing for him – give the baby some part of his name. Sallie and Jesse happily accommodated him, using “Dr. C’s” last name as their son’s middle name.

“My son has bragged about his name being a part of a doctor’s name since he was old enough to realize it,” Sallie says. “He loves family history, and that is why he placed the call to CRMC to try and reunite with Dr. Clemmons.”

Besides the help of the Lord,

Sallie thinks that growing up in rural Roanoke, Ala., is another reason she was able to cope with the circumstances of her child’s birth.

“Our neighbors were white, and race was never mentioned” she says.

“They had one girl in their family and we had three girls. If our neighbors went somewhere, they would bring their daughter to our house – and our parents did the same if they went somewhere.

“Their daughter lovingly referred to my parents as ‘uncle’ and ‘aunt.’ We did the same with their parents.”

Being accustomed to white people kept Sallie from being afraid of the policeman she and her husband spoke to in Cullman.

“My husband smiled at what the policeman said to us,” Sallie says.

“But later he told me that he was so glad that we knew the Lord because he wanted to reach out and slap that officer. I told him they would have put him in jail or hung him on the square if he had done that.”

Some people have asked Sallie if the circumstances of her son’s birth left her with negative feelings.

“I have never had any bitter feelings,” she says. “It was a wonderful experience because I knew the Lord.

Someone else could have had the same problem, and there might have been a different outcome. Maybe the Lord sent me there that day.”

At age 82, Sallie is an ICU volunteer at a medical center where she lives in eastern Alabama. Her softspoken voice occasionally allows the kind-hearted lady to comfort family members of patients in the ICU. It’s something she learned from the Lord – and from a country doctor and the nursing staff at Cullman County Hospital.

Good Life Magazine

Congratulations On Your Anniversary Thanks for all that you’ve done for so many people over so many years. You’re a big part of what makes Cullman great!

Cullman, Alabama A City of Character www.cullmancity.org

facebook.com/cullmancity twitter.com/cullmanusa

Mayor: Max A. Townson City Council: Garlan E. Gudger, Jr., (President) Andy Page, John W. Cook, Clint Hollingsworth, Jenny Folsom November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

25

Payback Following the big tornado, the ER helped the community that helped build it M

Story by Steve A. Maze

ost of us assume that law officers, firefighter and other emergency responders will roll to our aid whenever they’re needed. And roll they did when the EF-4 tornado struck Cullman County on April 27, 2011.

We also were reminded that day – and in the aftermath of the tornado – just how much the community needed another crucial service: the Cullman Regional Medical Center emergency room.

It’s interesting that the ER had just undergone a nearly $6 million renovation to better serve the community.

The group that made the new ER happen is the Cullman Regional Medical Center Foundation.

Established in 1977 as a non-profit charity, the Foundation is a volunteerled fundraising organization that over the years has assisted in advancing 26

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

and strengthening CRMC’s mission of providing excellent healthcare, health education and other humanitarian endeavors.

The need for a major renovation to the ER had become essential by 2007, but CRMC was still at its prudent debt limit and paying off the new hospital built in 1995.

So the Foundation stepped forward and launched the Golden Window Campaign hoping to raise at least $3 million to help renovate the emergency room. Spearheading the campaign were co-chairs Clint Frey, Danny McAfee, Steve Glasscock and, as honorary co-chairs, Chester Freeman and Dr. Herman C. Ensor, both now deceased.

Contributions came from CRMC doctors and staff, from board members, from city and county governments, which are funded by taxes, and from many individuals. Beyond all expectations, the drive raised the total cost of the ER in two years.

The newly renovated ER opened in late 2009, only about a year and a half before the massive tornado twisted a catastrophic path across much of the county, including downtown Cullman.

Not only did the expected emergency responders move into action, but so did the ER at CRMC.

The staff immediately set

up an incident command system and activated its disaster plan. The command center gathered key personnel such as doctors, nurses, surgical, administration, security, etc., in a specific area of the hospital so that timely decisions could be made in specific situations. In all, 17 physicians reported to the ER along with extra nurses and other staff members.

“We prepared for an influx of patients,” says Maria Stanford, the Foundation’s executive director.

“Several of our employees’ homes were hit by the storm, but they remained her to care for our patients.”

Cullman Regional Medical Center’s “new” emergency room ... on a clam evening

It could have been much, much worse, but as it was, the ER cared for 99 patients after the storm.

Cullman Emergency Medical Services treated more than 100 “walking wounded” in the field.

“The hospital was an island of safety,” says Cullman County EMA Director Phyllis Little. “There are few hospitals around that set up emergency operation centers during a natural disaster. CRMC had a surge in patients, but they had key people who could make decisions in one place at any point.”

Little also praises CRMC for the open line of communication she had with them during the days immediately following the storm.

“It was an all-hands-on-deck situation, and CRMC was a major player,” she says. “We had direct contact with them and there was a constant flow of information back and forth. If victims needed a product or service we didn’t have,

personnel would direct them to the EMA or some other facility. The spirit of cooperation between all the county agencies, as well as the hospital, was wonderful.”

The ER’s response to the disaster extended well beyond tending the injured on the day of the storm.

Many people had no power at their homes or places of work for days and, in some cases, for weeks after the storm. CRMC’s two generators fueled the facility’s electrical needs, and the hospital became the gathering place for many people without power.

The number of daily meals served at the hospital increased from 1,900 to 3,000, and a number of people were fed for an extended period of time.

The hospital was also designated a food distribution site. CRMC rented refrigerated trucks to receive perishable food from Cullman County school lunchrooms and

medicine from local doctor’s offices. This was critical because some people had lost their homes and had nothing to eat or any way to get their medications.

With area drug stores closed, CRMC’ pharmacy department dispensed needed medications to patients on an emergency basis.

The hospital also established a dialysis treatment area in the ICU because the local dialysis center did not have power.

T

he weather was hot at the time, and CRMC also provided people a place to cool off.

“CRMC” says Phyllis Little, “stood up as a safe haven.”

Not only was the surrounding landscape severely scarred with mangled homes and businesses, but so were the lives of those who had lost virtually everything. CRMC was able to use the disaster as a way to expand the humanitarian November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

27

Cullman Urology, P.C. William H. Parker, M.D., Rodney C. Sanders, M.D., Nicholas T. Braswell, M.D. 1848 Parkland Dr. N.E. Cullman, Al 35058 256-739-2885

& associatEs, Pc

William H. Parker, M.D., Rodney C. Sanders, M.D., Nicholas T. Braswell, M.D. 1848 Parkland Dr. N.E. Cullman, AL 35058

William E Holcomb, mD Ophthalmology - Specializing in Refractive Surgery - Lasik

William E Holcomb, MD Gary C Few, OD

Ophthalmologist, Optometrist 1813 Kress St NE, Cullman

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Nassetta Pediatric Dentistry “For 6 years I have been proud to be part of Cullman Regional Medical Center’s long tradition of providing quality health care to the community.”

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

endeavors the Foundation strives to provide.

Along with a cool repose and a warm meal, people seeking help at CRMC received encouragement from the staff. With widespread power outages, CRMC also became a source of information to many.

“We had a television playing a stream of area devastation photos on our Foundation Wall of Honor so people could see the damage in our area,” says Maria Stanford. “Some people were anxious to find out if their homes or the homes of relatives and neighbors had survived the tornado. In addition, the hospital set up stations where people could charge their cell phones, laptop computers and such. We also provided restrooms for them.”

T

he people of Cullman County looked to CRMC to meet their medical, physical and emotional needs during a time of extreme crisis – and the medical center did just that.

Through the determination of city and county residents and the efforts of local, state and federal agencies, the once scarred landscape has been rejuvenated.

And, thanks to dedicated CRMC employees and the Foundation’s fundraising efforts, the hospital has helped many of the emotional scars fade away.

Good Life Magazine Note: Day-to-day business activities of the Cullman Regional Medical Center Foundation are managed by a small on-site staff. Also critical to its functioning are volunteers serving on the CRMC board of directors and the Service Guild. The latter creates themes, decorations, invitations and special events to promote health and wellness through our medical center,” says Foundation executive director Maria Stanford. “These women are committed to the cause of fundraising for CRMC.” For more information on volunteering or making a taxdeductible contribution, call: 256-737-2565.

Happy Anniversary CRMC

Perseus

Pegasus Emergency Group

Hospitalist Group

y app 75t

h

H

y app 75t

H

Together we’re raising the standard and quality of emergency care in Cullman, Alabama

CRMC Josiah C. Daily, MD, Director of Hospitalist Medicine

John Morris, MD

Joel Johns, MD

Randa Duke, CRNP

Katherine Mann, CRNP

h

Continuing the tradition of excellent hospital care

CRMC Neil E. Schamban, MD, FACEP

Josiah C. Daily, MD,

Neil E. Schamban, MD, FACEP, CEO

Charles Allen Smith, CRNP

Steven Bobo, MD

Dennis Laird, MD

Geron Story, PA-C

Amanda Thomas, CRNP

Amy Burdette Gray, CRNP

Director of Emergency Medicine

Timothy S. Talbot,

William Ferguson, MD

Robert Echols, MD

Gregory Borucki, DO

Kent A. Taub, MD, FACEP

Michelle Cost, CRNP

Desiree Washburn, CRNP

Kristopher R. Maday, PA-C

MD FACEP, Asst. Director of Emergency Medicine

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

29

Cullman Mayor Bob McGukin, CRMC board member Jerry White and Cullman County Commission Chairman Randall Shedd. left to right, stand in front of a mirrored wall at a ribbon cutting at the old Cullman Hospital. Major expansions took place in 1957, 1969, 1972 and 1976. A medical office building was completed in 1979. By 1988 the idea of a new hospital was being discussed, and land was acquired in 1990. In 1992 the State Health Planning Agency awarded Cullman Regional Medical Center a certificate of need to begin construction on a new hospital on Ala. 157.

Look What’s New! It’s All Right Here!

C ULLMAN Internal Medicine

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It’s Our Pleasure To Serve You! PHARMACY Located inside our office on the 3rd floor. Prescriptions, compounding and over the counter items are available before you leave. Open to the public.

Stop by and meet our pharmacist, Page Dunlap, PharmD 256-737-8021

INCONTINENCE TREATMENT Having bladder problems?

Call to schedule an appointment with our nurse practitioner, Niki Brooks, CRNP 256-737-8051

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NEW PHYSICIAN Cullman Internal Medicine welcomes home, Dr. Adam Harrison, beginning his practice in August.

To schedule an appointment, call 256-737-8051 Certified DOT Examiner appointments available

WALK-IN CARE is available. Why go to the local urgent care, when you can see one of your own physicians or nurse practitioners?

Keep your regular scheduled appointments, however, when you have a minor problem, our walk-in hours are from 8 am - 11 am and 1 pm - 3 pm.

New Patients are now being accepted. See our website with all our physicians and services: www.cullmaninternalmedicine.com

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

Good Reads

‘Traveler’ is non-stop action with an edge-of-seat ending

Rindell writes like old pro in her noir-style hit of a thriller

part “Person of Interest,” I found “The Traveler” to be everything I wanted it to be in escapist fiction.

Maya spends her early life perfecting skills she needs to protect “Travelers,” those with the ability Human beings are toolto leave our fourth making animals. Since dimension to visit other the prehistoric era, we realms to influence and guide our civilization have created and used a toward “the Light.” wide variety of objects.

Gabriel, son of a very But now a significant powerful Traveler, has change is about to occur. no idea who his father In the near future, was or of the gift that he may have inherited. we will simply become Together Maya and another object that can Gabriel attempt to find be monitored, tracked and out if Gabriel has the gift controlled within a vast and if they can stop an all-knowing, all-seeing machine. government whose goal is complete control through electronic monitoring of the population. (Sound familiar?)

Will we ever be truly free? Is this fiction? John Twelve Hawks’s book is non-stop action, great characters and an edge-of-your-seat ending. You might need a seat belt.

– Deb Laslie

Get in on the ground floor with Suzanne Rindell as she takes you to the 1920s and New York City’s speakeasy, jazzy, gangster-filled, glittery world of obsession and deception. Just who is being deceived will “The appearance of be up to you when one’s innocence is a you reach the chilling funny house of cards; climax.

It is the story of you start by shifting Rose, a stenographer the smallest thing, and for the NYC police. She before you know it the dutifully and accurately whole structure has come transcribes the brutality of crimes committed crashing down.” in the precinct without batting an eye. She’s steady and reliable and content in her world – until the prohibition-era crimes become too numerous and the precinct hires Odalie, another typist.

Odalie is everything that Rose is not, and when the two become roommates, Rose is accused of murder and her world changes dramatically.

Obsession, betrayal, and yes, murder, are the mainstays of any noir-style novel, and this one has them all. It’s not your ordinary psychological thriller, and I can’t wait for more from Ms. Rindell.

– Deb Laslie

Part “DaVinci Code,” part “Brave New World,”

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

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33

Good ’n’ Green

A type of holly, the yaupon also is called the Christmas berry tree ... for obvious reasons.

Yaupon

Ignoring its distasteful history, it’s a nice addition to your yard

M

Tea or not, you can use yaupon in this area for landscaping 34

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

Story and photos by Tony Glover

ost Americans have no idea that most of the tea we drink comes from an Asian plant called, Camellia sinensis.

Many years ago I took a trip to South America and noticed that almost everyone there drank a hot tea called “yerba mate,” but likewise those I talked with didn’t know what plant it came from. Later I learned their tea source is a holly called Ilex paraguariensis. It’s closely related to our native yaupon holly, Ilex vomitoria.

Later I learned yaupon holly is

likely the only native plant in North America that contains caffeine, and Native Americans in the Southeast made a tea from it. Europeans called it the “black drink” due to its very dark color, but area Indians referred to it as the “white drink” because of its use in purification rituals.

Yaupon holly grows naturally in sandy soils in coastal areas, but it is believed to have been cultivated inland for the purpose of harvesting the leaves to make tea. Evidence suggests the Cherokees moved the plant outside of its natural range as far as western North Carolina.

In the winter of 1775 at

This 16th century engraving by Jacques le Moyne depicts the black drink ceremony among Timucua Indians of Florida. The brew drank by at least some Native Americans was very strong and basically chugged after days of fasting, which no doubt had a lot to do with its powers to induce regurgitation for ceremonial “cleansing.”

Tuckabatchie in today’s Elmore County, renowned explorer William Bartram mentioned the use of black drink among the Creek Indians. “Their mode of disgorging, or spouting out the black drink, has not the most agreeable appearance.”

Sounds like an understatement to me. And it gets worse. “After drinking copious amounts, the warrior, by hugging his arms across his stomach, and leaning forward could hurl the drink a good six or eight feet. The further one could spout the drink, the greater the accomplishment.”

Cherokee, Caddo, Creek, Choctaw and others believed the tea purified the drinker and purged him of anger and deceit. Black drink was prepared and served, to men only, usually in large communal cups or a seashell. To prepare the drink the leaves and small branches were harvested and parched in a ceramic container over a fire.

Roasting the leaves made the caffeine more soluble, much like roasting coffee beans.

T

his plant might have gained wide commercial use had it not been for its history, which led to that unfortunate Latin name, Ilex vomitoria.

However, according to the book “Black Drink: A Native American Tea” by Charles Hudson, the tea was widely used by non-natives in coastal North Carolina as early as the

Care for a spot of yaupon tea?

Curious about yaupon tea? Don’t make it as strong as the Native Americans, don’t chug quarts of it on an empty stomach, and you might discover why it’s making a comeback as niche drink.

Below is a recipe from the old Carolinian Hotel at Nags Head on the Outer Banks in the 1950s. No amounts are given, but you want to achieve a color closer to your regular tea than the black tea of prehistoric days ...

Yaupon tea Pick leaves from a yaupon bush.

Dry in oven at 400 degrees, stirring leaves to keep from burning until they turn quite dry and a dark brown color similar to regular tea.

Steep on a slow burner about 5 minutes.

Bring water to a boil and keep it hot to draw out the flavor until desired color is reached.

Serve hot with either lemon or cream or cold over ice.

early 18th century. (Interestingly, it continued to be available in a few coastal North Carolina restaurants up to the publication of that book in 1979.)

A German traveler who visited that area in 1794 reported that yaupon

tea was more commonly used than tea from China. I wonder if the recent Revolutionary War and our disagreement about tea taxes was a contributing factor.

Either way, it grew out of favor and was considered the drink of poor, uncultured people. By the 1890s the “sophisticated” residents of coastal North Carolina would refer to the uncultured rural peoples of the Outer Banks region as “yaupon eaters.” I can just hear Jeff Foxworthy’s great-great grandfather now, “You might be a yaupon eater if you have three covered wagons on blocks in front of your log cabin,” or, “You might be a yaupon eater if you serve your afternoon tea with cornbread.”

W

e don’t grow yaupon holly to make the black drink or even for tea anymore (although you could), but it is a very good native shrub that is widely used in landscapes. They come in many forms from very dwarf, to topiary shrubs, to a beautiful, multitrunked small tree. The female plants produce lovely red berries for birds to feast on during the winter months – and it won’t make them sick to eat their fill.

Just in case you get curious, the trick to avoiding an upset stomach with yaupon tea is simply to make it weaker than the very strong “black drink” that the Native Americans used.

Good Life Magazine November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

35

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37

Good Cookin’

Bosom Buddy Cakes Y

Story and photos by David Moore

ou can bake your cake and eat it, too. Or be nice and share it over the holidays with family and friends. Or be nice still and give someone the cake you bake for a delicious gift.

Mary Dyer and her buddies – Bosom Buddies, to be exact – go one nicer.

They bake cakes and sell them to raise money for the Cullman County Bosom Buddies Helping Hands Foundation, which in turn assists cancer patients in financial distress by buying them gas to get to appointments or paying power bills.

In their 20 years of existence, Bosom Buddies have published three cookbooks, raising tens of thousands of dollars for the cause.

With holidays in the air, the smell of cakes baking should be, too, so Mary, who lives in the Gold Ridge community, shared some Bosom Buddy cake recipes from their latest cookbook.

So, bake and eat, bake and share or bake and give away …

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

MOIST YELLOW CAKE Submitted by Evelyn Batemon Baked by Deanie Walker Snowman by Deb Bowers 2 sticks butter 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 3 cups self-rising flour 1½ tsp vanilla flavoring 1 cup whole milk Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter till fluffy.

Add sugar and continue to cream for 7 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time. Add flour and milk, alternately, a little at a time, beginning and ending with flour; add vanilla. Bake in three 8- or 9-inch cake pans for about 25 minutes.

Ice with your favorite icing. Coconut works!

HOWARD JOHNSON CAKE Submitted by Floie Duvall Baked by Floie Duvall 1 Duncan Hines milk chocolate cake mix 1 cup sweet milk 3 TBS flour (very heaping) ½ cup butter-flavored Crisco 1 stick margarine (room temperature) 1 cup sugar Chocolate icing Cook cake mix according to the directions on the box using 2 round cake pans for baking. Let cool; then split each layer in half to make four layers.

Mix milk and flour in a heavy sauce pan. Cook on low heat until it forms a soft ball (stir constantly to keep from scorching). Remove from heat and put ball of mixture into a bowl, cover with Saran Wrap and place in the refrigerator until it gets real cold.

Combine Crisco, margarine, sugar and the cooked mixture into a large bowl and whip until it looks like whipped cream. Put this mixture between each layer of cake, but not quite to the edges of the layers.

Ice with your favorite chocolate icing.

CARROT CAKE Submitted by Premier Bank of the South (Recipe from Ann Mullins, via her mom, Sue Mabry) Baked by Mary Dyer 2 cups flour 2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon Sift the dry ingredients together 3 times then stir in the following: 1 cup canola oil 4 eggs 3 cups grated carrots ½ cup chopped pecans Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until done.

FROSTING 8 oz pkg. cream cheese 1 stick of butter 1 box of confectioners’ sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla Cream together cheese and butter, add sugar in slowly then add vanilla. Frost the cake with icing. Add chopped pecans on top of icing. The cancer bow is a single lone shaving from a carrot skin.

RED VELVET CAKE Recipe submitted by Dana Reid Made by Nell Barbee 2½ cups self-rising flour 1½ cups sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cocoa 1 cup buttermilk 1½ cups Crisco oil 1 teaspoon vinegar

2 eggs 1 bottle red food coloring 1 teaspoon vanilla Sift dry ingredients together then add remaining ingredients; mix well. Pour batter into greased and floured layer cake pans. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

FROSTING 1 stick margarine 8 oz pkg. cream cheese 1 box confectioners’ sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup pecans, chopped Cream margarine and cream cheese together. Add sugar, vanilla and nuts; mix well.

Let cake cool before frosting.

PEANUT BUTTER CAKE Submitted by Pat Dalrymple (In memory of Aldalena Douglas) Baked by Mary Dyer 1 box yellow cake mix 1½ cups sugar 1 stick margarine 1 small can evaporated milk ½ cup water 1 to 1½ cups peanut butter Prepare cake according to the directions on the box.

Boil sugar, margarine and water for approximately 5 minutes until it becomes the consistency of syrup. Remove from heat, add peanut butter and beat to correct consistency to frost cake.

CANDY REESE’S CUP Submitted by Mary Dyer Baked by Mary Dyer 1 box powdered sugar 1 cup peanut butter 2/3 cup margarine ½ cup chopped nuts Chocolate bark Dash of salt Combine powdered sugar, margarine, peanut butter, salt and chopped nuts. Roll into balls then dip in melted chocolate bark.

TURTLE CANDY Submitted by Mary Dyer Baked by Mary Dyer 1 lb. caramel candy 4 TBS milk 4 cups chopped pecans Chocolate bark Melt caramel and milk in microwave. Cook pecans at 350 for about 15 minutes. Chop pecans and stir into melted caramel. Spoon onto wax-paper covered cookie sheet and freeze for approximately 30 minutes then dip into melted chocolate bark.

Mother of Bosom Buddies has a heart like fresh cake

M

About 300 copies of the latest Bosom Buddies Cookbook are left. When they’re sold, the project will have cleared $25,000. They can be purchased for $25 at: the nurse navigator office on the first floor of CRMC’s Professional Office Building 1; the third floor pharmacy of Cullman Internal Medicine in POB 2; the hospital gift shop; Options on U.S. 31 N.; Cullman Shoppers’ Guide on First Avenue SW; or by calling the Mother of Bosom Buddies, Mary Dyer, at: 256-734-8729.

ary Dyer’s heart must be something like one of her freshly baked cakes … sweet, warm and soft.

Certainly she has a soft spot for cancer patients. Been there, done that. In fact, cancer has directly or indirectly affected all 25 people involved in the Cullman County Bosom Buddies Helping Hands Foundation. Their goal is raising money to help local cancer patients in financial distress.

“No one should have to face a cancer diagnosis and then worry about daily living issues for their families,” Mary says. “We try to make a difference in their treatment journey as well as provide hope, strength and resources for them to cope with their experience.”

After her breast cancer diagnosis in 1989, for the next five years Mary longed for a support group to help with issues she faced.

So she was thrilled in 1994 to get a letter from Drs. Greg Windham and William Smith at Surgical Arts PA. They were starting a support group at Cullman Regional Medical Center.

Mary soon became group facilitator, and today many know her as the Mother of Bosom Buddies.

Initially providing emotional support, the group of dedicated buddies started raising money to provide financial support for breast cancer patients.

But, Mary says, the effects of any cancer take their toll, and it’s all the harder on those with very limited financial resources. So in 2013 she spearheaded the formation of the non-profit Helping Hands Foundation to broaden their outreach to patients with any kind of cancer.

The Foundation board and volunteers work with nurse navigators at CRMC to reach patients in need. Fundraisers include motorcycle runs, the recent 5K walk-run at Sportsman Lake Park, cake sales … and, of course, the Bosom Buddies Cookbook.

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

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The Bosom Buddies first two cookbooks raised some $75,000, which was donated to the American Cancer Society. But the foundation now provides a structure of keeping funds local, and, as a testament to hard work, the group is closing on its goal of raising $50,000 this year.

All proceeds now go directly to benefiting local, financially distressed patients who are in active treatment and have documented needs to cover basic living expenses.

The nurse navigators write checks directly to billing companies involved, such as utilities.

“We are helping a lot people right now,” says the Mother of Bosom Buddies with the fresh cake heart. “And we are real proud for them.”

– David Moore

You should know ...

The Bosom Buddies support group meets at 6 p.m. on the third Monday of the month in the Ave Marie Room in in Professional Office Building 2 at CRMC. Members of the Cullman County Bosom Buddies Helping Hands Foundation are: Mary Dyer, president; Gail Hooper, vice president; Janice Murphee, secretary; Gail Martin, treasurer; board members Donna Barnett, Michelle Kelley, Geraldine James, Linda Pannell, Dr. William Smith, Dr. Lori McGrath, Josh Speakman, Stuart L. Moore, Beth Evans, Judy Watts Grissom, Christina McAlpin and Michael Hall.

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43

Good Eats

Fresh, tangy, homemade, a little different and good...

Pop-Pop would like Pop’s Place BBQ

he helped him grill steaks, ribs and chicken.

Karl is minister of music ethany McDonald at Welcome Baptist Church and Ashley Drinkard were in Fairview, but it was the shopping in Cullman one insurance business that recent Tuesday morning brought him, wife Michelle and decided to drive out to and their five children to Trimble for a 10:30 a.m.

Cullman in 1997. lunch at Pop’s Place BBQ. Grilling and smoking Why drive all the way for some 20 years at out there? various weekend events, “I would drive an hour Karl eventually gave the to come to this place,” restaurant business serious says Bethany, who lives in consideration.

Good Hope.

“I love cooking, and I “We come for the love dealing with people,” Bethany McDonald, left, and Ashley Drinkard delicious food … and the he says in the short break enjoy and early lunch at Pop’s Place BBQ., chips!” chimes in Ashley, between lunch and supper who lives in Fairview. crowds. “The first business Almost on cue, Chelsea Parsons, one of the waitresses, plan I wrote back in 1999 or 2000 had this place in it – I just sets their appetizer on the table – a paper-lined plastic basket didn’t know it at the time.” of Pop’s hand-cut and home-fried potato chips along with a The plan called for a laid back, casual family atmosphere Styrofoam container of homemade ranch dressing. with a see-through serving window to enhance his Hands from both sides of the table target the dish. interaction with a limited number of customers.

The small restaurant on Cullman County 222 was Karl and Michelle looked at lots of places. Each was too previously owned by another BBQ restaurant. During the large, too small or too complicated and fell through. summer, to try out Pop’s, Bethany and her daughter, Alonna, “We figured that when God wanted us in the barbecue hit the drive-through on their way home from the lake. Mom business, He would let us know,” Karl says. “And He did.” ordered a cheeseburger, and it’s only a slight exaggeration to ne day Karl found a small, casual, vacated restaurant say her life was changed. in Trimble that was available; it’s equipment for sale.

“And once I tried the barbecue …” Bethany interrupts “Within two weeks I had written a check,” he says. herself with a few chips.

“This became my favorite barbecue place in the county,” “Everything fell into place without a doubt. It was very calming to me, and I retired out of the insurance business.”

Ashley finishes for her, crediting her friend for turning her When Karl opened Oct. 11, 2013, the restaurant’s name onto Pop’s. had also fallen into place.

“I feel most people in Cullman County don’t know “It goes back to the sauce,” he says. “People asked us about it because it’s so small,” Bethany says. “But everyone what we called it. We just called it Pop’s Sauce. I had said around here knows about it.” that when we finally got a restaurant, we’d just call it Pop’s The statement grows apparent as the working lunch Place.” crowd begins flowing in like the thick red BBQ sauce that To offer something a little different, they serve the Pop’s owner Karl Hurter makes. homemade chips … Pop’s Chips, of course. Their mantra ctually, that BBQ sauce is pretty much at the core is “no short cuts,” which means there’s no par-boiling ribs of Pop’s. Karl got the recipe from his dad, Cliff “Pop-Pop” and that nearly everything you order – mac and cheese is an Hurter, who died about 12 years ago. The sauce is a little exception – is either homemade or has had some fixin’ done sweet, a little tangy, a little hot … adding up to a big taste. to it.

Growing up in Tuscaloosa, youngest of five boys, Karl Homemade extends from all salad dressings and sauces always strived to earn his dad’s respect. Among other things, to the four different rubs Karl puts on his ribs, pork, chicken Story and photos by David Moore

B

O

A

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

The food Karl Hurter, right, and his crew cook and serve at Pop’s Place BBQ often starts drawing a lunch crowd by 11 a.m., above. His barbecue is a big part of that, including pulled pork sandwiches, with slaw, below, if you want. “I am new to the slaw on barbecue thing,” he laughs. “One of the first fundraisers we cooked for in Cullman County, a woman said, ‘What? No slaw?’ I have tired it. It’s pretty good ... with my slaw of course.” Pop’s offers stress-free catering for all sorts of events, and Karl says he’s glad to help non-profit groups with fundraisers.

and beef brisket. They use his and Michelle’s own recipe for the onion ring batter and coleslaw.

“It’s all fresh,” Karl says.

If Pop-Pop could drop by, what would he order?

“He would order ribs, no doubt,” Karl laughs. “He would like the chips – he was a chip guy – and the baked beans and

potato salad because those are Mother’s recipes.

“I believe he would be pleased with what I have done here.”

Certainly that’s true for Bethany McDonald, Ashley Drinkard and a growing number of other fans.

Good Life Magazine November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

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Christmas at Dot and Dr. Garlan Gudger’s old house D

Story and photos

by David Moore

ot Gudger’s mother didn’t have a green thumb. It was red and green.

Nothing specific she did, no particular family tradition, she simply possessed a spark that made Christmas joyously special to a young child. Dot, in turn, developed her own green and red thumb, much to the joy of her children and now her grandchildren, too.

So Christmas at the Gudgers’ 133-year-old house on Third Avenue in Cullman has been something of a spectacle ever since Dot and Dr. Garlan Sr. and their children, Jill, Joy and Garlan Jr. moved there in 1980.

Actually, her ability to spark special Christmases got started before that. Early in their marriage the Gudgers drove a family holiday circuit between Cullman, Tennessee and North Carolina. Once while traveling the car broke down and they spent Christmas Eve in a motel room with a scrawny, spur of the moment Charlie Brown tree.

Even there, Dot ensured that Santa delivered presents to 5-year-old Jill.

“Our first Christmas in this big 48

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

house I really wanted to decorate,” Dot says. “I put up five trees, all of them live. I didn’t do that again.”

Maybe not, but for years her extensive decorating required an October jump-start.

Dot and Garlan Sr. retired from college jobs in 1996. Now she doesn’t start until the end of November.

“But I have help, now. I just can’t do it all,” Dot says.

Little wonder. The Gudgers have accumulated so many decorations they’re kept in a storage unit. The magnitude of the project comes to light if you ever see the mountain of decorations piled on their living room floor in early December.

She still puts up four trees, though three are not live, and the “kids” pitch in. A big help is Kerry Walker of Pine Hill Tree Farm in Tarrant, from whom Dot orders her nine-foot live concolor, or white, fir for the living room. It’s delivered the day after Thanksgiving and comes flocked with artificial snow and pre-strung lights.

Dot Gudger had been happy in the “perfect” three-bedroom brick house on Lake Hill Street she and Garlan Sr. had moved into the year after they married. But while she taught business classes at Bevill State Community College in Sumiton, Dr. Gudger drove to Wallace State Community College where he was dean of students, and passed the old house on Third Avenue daily. He fell in love with it and convinced Dot to move there.

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

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The Christmas Eve table is set with the good china, crystal and silver.

Sutton Fuller built the house in 1881. Subsequent inhabitants include Adam Dreher, founder of Dreher Furniture Factory, and Elsa and Earney Bland. In 1980, Elsa, a niece of Col. John Cullmann, and her nephew, Stanley Johnson, sold the house to the Gudgers. They’ve changed it little but build a breakfast room onto the kitchen, glassed in a side porch, converted the attic to a fifth bedroom for Garlan Jr. and added leaded glass, gingerbread and a front door procured through the family business, Southern Accents. The house has a living room, dining room, entrance hall, library, former servant’s room and a catch-all room.

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In the living room, a large antique Bible, above center, is turned to the Christmas story in Luke. Also large in the living room is the live, 9-foot, flocked fir tree. A few times before Dot started ordering from her current supplier, Gudger Christmas trees have toppled. There are holes in floor where the tree was once nailed down. Many of the decorations are antiques or echo Victorian times, left. Three smaller trees elsewhere are not live. One of those, the Bearcat tree, stands year round on the glassed-in porch with decorations that recognize activities and achievements of the Gudger grandchildren. Another faux tree sports a Scottish theme as a nod to Gudger roots and includes the clan tartan.

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

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“They bring it in and set it up,” she says.

Burns Florist in Hanceville bedecks the outside of the house with classic greenery and red ribbons.

Michael’s Flowers and Design ensures four of the five fireplaces are not just warm but festive. She calls owner Michael Richard “a pure genius.”

“I can manage the rest,” Dot grins.

One tradition important to Dot is displaying a large,

antique Bible that Garlan Sr. bought. It’s opened to the Christmas story. And the family traditionally attends the annual Carols by Candlelight program at First Baptist Church.

“That is what Christmas is all about,” Dot says.

Another tradition, the origin and reason for which no one is sure, is that Joy and Garlan Sr. always lower an antique oil lamp in the hallway and light it.

Stocking are still hung by the living room fireplace, upper left. In the breakfast room, a kitchen tree is decorated with old utensils and toys, upper right, and crystal, candles and nadina berries adorn an antique cabinet.

The Gudger family got together for a Good Life Magazine Christmas photo in 2013. Grouped by families from left to right, are Pierce and Garlan “Tripp” Edward III, sons of Heather and Garlan Gudger Jr.; Dr. Garlan and Dot Gudger; Mary Elizabeth, Sarah Katherine, Alexandria in the scarf and Victoria, daughters of Joy and Brady Barker; and Jill and Mike Howell.

Some aspects of Christmas have evolved over time. One is Dot’s acceptance of her children and spouses bringing food.

“I’m not a big fan of cooking anyway,” she confesses.

On Christmas Eve, Jill, Joy and Garlan, their spouses and six children arrive for dinner and presents.

The menu has become something of a tradition: pork loin roast with cherry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry salad and son-in-law Mike Howell’s mashed potatoes and deviled eggs.

“That’s the basic menu, and then we add things,” Dot says. “Maybe a turkey breast or ham. There are 14 of us, and these guys can eat.”

W

hen the Gudger children were small, they slept together upstairs on Christmas Eve. They could not come down and tear into their separate piles of presents until Garlan Sr. and Dot had gotten up and gone into the living room to check if Santa had, indeed, visited during the night.

The suspense and excitement, at least for the girls, was escalated by the wait – and further frustrated by Garlan Jr. The girls complained that he was impossible to wake up.

Nowadays, after digging into Christmas Eve dinner, the crew moves into the living room and digs into family presents. Grownups take their customary seats while the kids dole out gifts. It takes a while.

“I love buying presents,” Dot says.

“I buy them all year. I don’t care about getting any presents. I love to give people stuff!”

Christmas Day is spent visiting their children and their families to see what Santa rained down around their trees. That works well with in-law schedules, Dot says. Afterward, it’s back to the Gudgers for leftovers as the spectacle winds down.

“All of them are really the same, but every Christmas is still special,” Dot says. “I think it’s the anticipation.”

That, and maybe having a red and green thumb, which obviously kept alive much of the excitement she felt as a child at Christmas.

Good Life Magazine November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

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St. Bernard Preparatory School Small Catholic institution attracting bright, diverse students from near and far

A

Story and photos by David Moore

imme Cortes felt the pull from nearby Vinemont. Marco Tona felt it from Fort Walton, Fla. Jang Soon Kim felt it from South Korea.

It’s rather amazing when you think about it, this pull created by a small prep school in the middle of North Alabama that draws bright, diverse young people from not just its own neighborhood, not just from all corners of the country, but from Europe, Africa and Asia.

But that’s what St. Bernard Prep School does.

“Who,” muses Father Joel Martin, the school’s president, “would have thought?”

As with most prep schools, St. Bernard’s enrollment rides the ebb and flow of economic times. For the fifth straight year the head count is up, from 157 in 2011 to 177 this August.

Of those, St. Bernard, Father Joel and others pulled in 114 commuters attending the seventh through 12th grades from Cullman and its surroundings; they come to the campus in the mornings and leave after classes and activities. Another 63 students live on campus, attracted from elsewhere in 54

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, West Virginia, Africa, Germany, China, Taiwan and Korea.

St.. Bernard’s pull this year also drew Min Gao of Shanghai, China, to the staff to teach Mandarin Chinese.

Founded in 1891 by Benedictine monks at St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, the school’s liberal arts curriculum emphasizes the ability to think, to read with understanding, to express oneself with precision and grace and to solve problems creatively.

Beyond that, says Dr. Donna Bryant, admissions director, SBPS encourages growth intellectually, socially, physically and spiritually.

T

his learning environment thrives on a sprawling, 800-acre campus that encompasses the abbey, retreat center and Ave Maria Grotto.

It is a Catholic school. Mass is held once a week, and religion classes are required, says Father Joel, but being Christian is not.

“Religion and studying theology helps us see something much deeper than what passes for education in some places. Of course,” he adds with a laugh, “I am a monk in the Catholic Church.

“But from the Christian point of view, from the Catholic point of view, being separated from that exposure is not a full education. That’s huge for us, to be really aware of what drives human beings in their lives, what has meaning for them. It’s not making a ‘buck’ in the final analysis.”

That said, last year’s 27 seniors earned $5.1 million in scholarships – an average of $189,000 each.

“As a college preparatory school, we are trying to bring students up to a certain level so they are admitted

Aimme Cortes, Jan Soon Kim and Marco Tona represent a cross-section of the students at St. Bernard.

For more on each of them, see the following pages.

to college and not only survive but do well and thrive,” Father Joel says.

“Also in life.

“So a great deal is expected of students.”

Grads are accepted to the likes of Boston College, Duke University, Georgia Tech, Harvard and Vanderbilt, local universities and colleges, such as Birmingham-Southern, Samford, The University of Alabama and Auburn University. Some receive appointments to the military academies.

Getting accepted to American

universities helps lure foreign students.

“They value the American education very highly,” Father Joel says.

B

y all accounts, the small student body and faculty and staff of 30 make all comers feel at home. Students talk of themselves as being part of a “family,” another part of St. Bernard’s attraction.

“It’s innate to the school to be accepting of internationals and out-oftown and state students,” Father Joel

says. “But I don’t have to tell people to be nice to these folks, that they’re a long way from home and are very brave. Which is all true … but you would never guess some of them have a little home-sickness.”

To some degree, the students from foreign lands end up being part of St. Bernard’s attraction for some local students.

“There are not many places in Alabama or the Southeast,” says Father Joel, “where you can basically go to school with the world.”

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

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Aimme Cortes, right, conducts an experiment in AP chemistry with Megan Butler as their teacher in the class of 10, Shelley Perry, checks on them. All three are from Cullman. Aimme is the daughter of Gladys and Juan Carlos Cortes, owner of Buenavista Mexican Restaurant. A Cullman native who loves science and math, Aimme wants to attend Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, Mexico’s oldest private medical school, and probably become a plastic surgeon.

Aimmee, other commuters, boarders – all are family The world – at least the world

of students at St. Bernard Preparatory School – can be divided into two kinds of students: boarders and commuters.

Aimme Cortes is one of the latter, living with her parents in Vinemont and driving to and from school.

Boarders from outside the area live on campus in dorms. Compared to them, one might think this ironically makes “outsiders” of local students who commute, but Aimme, a senior, finds that’s far from the case.

“There’s no feeling of being an outsider,” she says over lunch in the bustling cafeteria where commuters and boarders all eat. “No one leaves anyone out. Everyone talks to everyone. It’s like a big family here.”

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November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

A tight family at that. About half of the commuters, she guesses, stay after school for various activities. She’s usually there until 5:30 p.m. or so, busy with soccer, volleyball and basketball or, as president of her senior class, planning for dances and the like.

International students on campus are a bonus, Aimme says. For instance, YangSoon Kim once cooked a Korean dinner for her and other classmates, and another friend gave Aimme some socks from her home in Korea.

“It gives you a broad view,” she says of her international “family” members.

“You learn directly about people from all over the world.”

A devout Catholic, Aimme attended Sacred Heart School in Cullman, so she was well aware of St. Bernard. But it

was her brother, Giovanni, a graduate of there and now at Auburn, who urged her to attend SBPS. He told her about his close relationship to teachers, how his copious notes from AP chemistry helped him – and his friends – breeze through chemistry at Auburn, how taking dual enrollment English gave him credit in high school for his freshman English at AU. If Aimme had a younger sister, she’d likewise encourage her to follow their academic footsteps. Among the benefits, she says, is that she’s learned, regardless of her goals, large or small, to always push herself to do her best.

“In doing that,” Aimme continues, “you find yourself achieving more than you thought was possible. If you keep on trying, in the end it will be worth it.”

Marco Tona burned out on swimming after nine years but found a new competitive outlet when schoolmate Steven Mami urged him to join SBPS’s track and field team last season. In class 1A, the first-timer finished fifth in the state with a 4:51 mile. And, with Marco as fourth leg in the 4x800 relay, SBPS finished one second off third in the state. This year, he’s also running cross country, above, training on campus after class.

Marco makes a run at his education and spiritual life A friendly firecracker fight and

a retired monsignor in his hometown of Fort Walton, Fla., played big parts in Marco Tona’s decision to attend St. Bernard Preparatory School and to seriously consider becoming an earnose-throat specialist.

Sitting in the bleachers after class, about to run with the SBPS cross country team, the sophomore recalls the firecracker incident.

“I was about 9, and we were throwing firecrackers at each other,” he grins. “One hit me in the cheek and went off. It blew a hole in my eardrum.”

Two surgeries and ENT visits for three years cured the problem. They also ignited serious medical interest in ear-nose-throat work. Anesthesiology,

therapy, psychology and politics are other simmering interests. Turning 17 in December, Marco has time to decide.

An early homeschool education with his mom and seven siblings made for a big family but a low student-teacher ratio. In public school for eighth grade, Marco yearned for closer teacher interaction and a better faith foundation, so he researched prep schools in Florida, Nebraska and California.

Retired Monsignor Slade Crawford, a longtime family friend who graduated from St. Bernard’s College in the ’60s, suggested that Marco consider SBPS. He visited, liked what he found and started ninth grade there.

“Coming from homeschool, my eighth grade year was easy,” he says.

“Academics weren’t that challenging. I

have to work here. I am challenged.

“Spiritually, it’s helped me out. I like the campus. It’s definitely lived up to my expectations.”

Marco gets a little homesick and misses mom’s cooking, but he spends major holidays with his family. Plus, making new friends was no problem.

“We’re pretty accepting,” he says.

“Everyone knows everybody. We are interactive. It has a family feel.”

There are rules, sure, such as mandatory study hall with no electronics. Marco takes them in stride as lessons in maturity, independence.

“It’s up to you if want to study and make the grades,” he says. “My parents aren’t here to hound me. They can check my grades, call or text or Skype.

But whether I learn or not is up to me.”

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Jang: the challenge is less than in Korea, but he learns more at SBPS St. Bernard holds academics to high standards,

Jang Soon Kim reads in his dorm room after classes. The oldest student at St. Bernard, he’s sometimes fondly called “Grandpa.” Jang just grins. Actually, he holds elders in great respect. Consequently, he enjoys his weekly community service requirement: visiting Folsom Center long-term care center. “I talk to elders and listen to what they say,” Jang says. “There is one elder I respect the most. She is really wise.” As a junior then struggling with English, he asked her advice. “What she said was be patient. Give it time. If you’ll keep patience with yourself, then you’ll be just fine.”

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but senior Jang Soon Kim finds the classwork much less challenging than it was at home in South Korea.

Interestingly, though, he says he’s learning much more since coming here as a sophomore.

Classes at his former high school were small by Korean standards but are huge relative to St. Bernard.

Driving competition is an even bigger difference.

“Even if you are friends you think of yourself as adversaries,” Jang says of Korea. “You compete against each other with grades and scores and rankings. I don’t think that just challenging people to learn more is always good.”

He says average math scores at his school were 40 out of 100, and his grades were not good. Plus, he wants to study pharmacy at an American college, so he and his family opted for an American prep school. His counselor suggested St. Bernard.

After repeating his sophomore year in Cullman, he’s flourished since.

“I’m making pretty decent grades now,” he says.

“Decent?” He makes straight A’s. “That is pretty good progress. I have learned to discipline my time wisely.”

He finds no adversarial competition among his 25 senior classmates.

“Our class tries to help each other,” Jang says.

“When we have a really difficult test, we have a study group. We try to help each other with our weak points using our own strengths. It’s not like you’re trying to beat other people out so someone can be first.”

Fluency in English is his primary academic goal.

Teachers and curriculum have benefited him greatly.

“Moreover,” he says, “good buddies in the dorms and who are commuters try to help internationals. If you try very hard and get help from all the people here, you’ll be very good in English in two or three years.

That’s what I am thinking. Our school takes good care of internationals.”

That’s good, because his AP English and AP chemistry are still tough.

“I used to dislike ‘challenging,’” Jang says. “But here, challenging is just studying hard and trying to figure things out better and cooperating with others. It’s fun to do even if it takes a lot of time and effort. Still, it is worthwhile to be challenged.”

Good Life Magazine

Antique & Furniture Shops of Cullman County

Hamby mill

Flea Market and Antiques I-65, Exit 299, HWY 69 South, 465 Co. Rd. 30 Bremen, Alabama

24,000 sq. ft.

256-287-2255

Open Fri.-Sun. 9am-5pm

Glenn & Freda Perdue invite you to come antiquing today

A Great Place to Buy & Sell!

201 1st Avenue SW Cullman, AL 35055

256-727-5341

Water Valley Flea Market Friday—Sunday 9am-5pm

We sell Cece Caldwell’s paints

90 booths in two buildings

Antiques, Furniture, Glassware, Records, Movies, Lamps, Kitchenware, Advertising Items, Iron Ware, Outdoor Furniture, And More!

Furnishing Cullman Area Homes For Over 40 Years

906 Perry Street SW – Cullman, AL 35055 256-734-6564

Easy Pickens Antique Market Located at the 4-Way in Trimble 6474 County Road 222 Cullman, Alabama 35057

256-734-9118

13076 US 278 • Cullman

256-747-4496

Village Furniture And Gifts 224 3rd Ave SE Cullman, Alabama 35055

256-734-8844

Mitch & Vanessa McCluskey

Jennia’s Hen House Antiques, Household, Furniture & More

7583 US HWY 31 Johnson’s Crossing Hanceville, Alabama

Buyers, sellers & collectors are welcome!

256-595-0049

Open: Tuesday-Friday 10-4, Saturday 10-5, 1st Sunday of the Month 1-5

A three-page promotional section of Good Life Magazine

Harlin and Kay Callan of Cullman staged this setting at Finders Keepers using some of the primitive antiques they sell.

Get a ‘visual’ on using antiques at Finders Keepers Visuals are important to people

shopping for antiques – and selling them – says Wayne Cook. That’s why you’ll see a number of “staged” rooms and areas when you browse through his store, Finders Keepers, on First Avenue SW in Cullman.

The store rents space to some 200 vendors with a wide assortment of items.

“We really wanted to mix it up in an eclectic style with vintage antiques, art, repurposed furniture, new items and homemade and creative stuff,” Wayne says. “We set it out in a way to help people visualize how to use things.”

Wayne, as a creative outlet, stages window displays and his own items, and offers help to vendors who want it. Some, he says, do a beautiful job of staging.

“We want people to come in and have an idea how they can use things,” Wayne says. “People like to come and see beautiful things. They like what 60

November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

Repurposed furniture is trending. they see and they buy.”

Many of his vendors have been with Finders Keepers since it opened and have done well.

“We provide a tremendous

opportunity for someone to get into business with a low overhead. All they pay is rent,” Wayne says.

A 1985 graduate of Cullman High School, he earned his bachelor’s degree and, later, a master’s in divinity from Samford University. He was youth and assistant pastor for 21 years at Northbrook Baptist before serving a church in South Alabama.

Among other activities since retuning home, Wayne started a Southern Baptist “plant” church, City on a Hill, in Dodge City.

Looking for a creative outlet, in 2011 he started Finders Keepers. His mother, Jackie Cook Porter, is the manager.

“I always loved antiques, and my wife and I have a lot of them in our home,” Wayne says. “We also appreciate art. I told Mom Cullman was posed for a store that offers that.

“It’s a town I love and a town that is thriving. We’re glad to be part of it.”

Good Life Magazine First of a year-long, three-page promotional

Village: Make eclectic work for your interiors E

clectic interiors can be divided into two kinds: those that work and those that don’t.

Pro decorators Donna Richter, Kitty Warren and her daughter, Summer Borwick, at Village Furniture and Gifts know eclectic. That’s because “eclectic” is the best description of the 30-year-old institution located at Third Street and Third Avenue NE. Given his wide-ranging, glorious assortment of furniture, accessories and gift items, Perry and Wade Warren’s business is known as Cullman’s most unique store.

By nature, an eclectic interior blends different styles – with “blend” being the operative word. Donna, Kitty and Summer offer the following tips: • Look at your budget. Prioritize.

• Choose a neutral tone for the focal point in the room or area, such as a sofa or bed. Trendy patterns and colors can limit your options right off the bat.

“With a neutral focus, it’s easy to change the look,” Donna says. “With the seasons, you can use different colors, patterns and trends on relatively inexpensive pillows and accents.”

• Mix old and new, rustic and contemporary, casual and elegant for interesting contrasts.

• Mix different textures, such as satins and burlaps. Mixing in rustic wood or metal provides textural contrast to smooth walls.

• Furniture sets tend to lock you into “matchy-matchy.” Being eclectic allows your own tastes to shine through. Matching lamps or end tables can work, but the pros at Village suggest not even using end tables that match a coffee table.

• If you want to break out of an existing set in your bedroom, remove section of Good Life Magazine Cullman County

Note the neutral focus of the staged bedroom at Village Furniture, above; below, a few whimsical items, such as this boat, can be great eclectic accents. the mirror from the dresser and change your headboard.

“Not only do you want your home to be beautiful, but you want it to be reflection of your taste and lifestyle,” Donna says.

Perry’s 22,000-square-foot store is not only filled with a changing, eclectic inventory, but the building’s

history is eclectic, too. Besides housing various businesses over the years, Cullman County’s first high school was started in 1908 upstairs in what then was the Imbusch Building.

The W.O. Kelley General Store downstairs no doubt carried an eclectic array of merchandise.

Good Life Magazine November | DECEMBER | JANUARY

61

Out ’n’ About You might not be out and about in the middle of winter, but many birds are. You can help them through the winter and entertain yourself at the same time with a birdfeeder or two in your yard. Placing feeders near a window helps in viewing, and the entertainment only multiplies with a camera, long lens and a tripod. According to the Audubon Society and other sources, wild birds usually manage to scrounge up enough to eat from the natural environment, but it’s especially beneficial to them during snow and heavy freezes to keep a stocked birdfeeder or two. Blackoil seed is the preferred menu item of many woodpeckers, finches, goldfinches, cardinals, grosbeaks, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and grackles. Squirrels like it, too, but that’s another war. Suet, fruit and – if you want go all out – peanut butter pudding – are also appreciated by your fine-feathered friends.

Photos by David Moore 62

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256-734-6430