Marshall Good Life Magazine - Fall 2015 by The Good Life Magazine

Marshall County

Sometimes a garden is a garden ... but Jane McDonald’s is more For the Sumners on Sand Mountain, farming’s a multi-generation lifestyle FALL 2015 Complimentary

Haven’t hiked Cooley Cemetery Trail? Fall should be a good time

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Welcome

Take your spouse, kids, friends, whoever ... just get out P lanning ahead might be easy enough for you, but it takes some effort for me. The way deadlines fall I sometimes have to shoot pictures nine months in advance for seasonal stories. Even when I’m on the ball and squeeze in early shoots, I’m still not out of the woods. Months later, on deadline, I face writing a cold story. Case in point: the story in this issue on the Cooley Cemetery Trail. It helped the writing by recalling one of the reasons, other than climate and history mysteries, that my old buddy Earl “ET” Talley, his son, Earl Jr., and I hiked TVA’s interesting six-mile trail early last November.

“I always enjoy and look forward to getting back into the woods,” ET had said as I huffed behind him on one of the two climbs the trail makes up the flanks of Georgia Mountain. But he’s right. Getting out in the woods is inevitably good for me, physically and mentally. For the fall issue of our Cullman GLM, I did a story on peddling the completed portion of the 21-mile mountain bike trail Cullman is building around the future Duck River reservoir, expected to be full of water by the fall of 2016. I biked it with a friend and two girls. We all thoroughly enjoyed the excursion in the woods, even if it was one of those shirt-drenching days. I later talked to the engineer/biker who

is constructing the trail. He’d just peddled about 14 miles of it after work. “Getting out in the woods,” Preston York said, “is always good for the body and soul.” I didn’t argue. Whether planning in advance comes easily to you, or you’re proficient in spontaneity, get out in the woods this fall. Take your spouse (unless maybe that totally defeats the purpose). Take the kids. Go with friends or go alone. Just get out. We live in a great area. It deserves to be enjoyed. And I think you’ll find it good for body and soul. Publisher/editor

Contributors Annette Haislip attended her high school’s 60th reunion recently. With daughter Martha, she frequently drives to Anniston to ogle over greatgranddaughter, Anne Elizabeth. In July she went to Florida visiting daughter Mary and granddaughter Caroline. But she faithfully wrote her book reviews, so she’s not fired. Patrick Oden of Claysville is a true photographer with a professionally trained eye. In this issue you can see his work shot from the back of a wakeboard tow boat and elsewhere with artist Michael Banks. Fur funsies he submitted a selfie to the editor that didn’t run. If you see Patrick out and about, you can ask him why ... As advertising and art director of Good Life Magazine in Cullman and Marshall counties, Sheila McAnear has managed to stay very busy. That’s been upped a notch since GLM, we’re pleased to say, was asked to produce this year’s Oktoberfest magazine in Cullman. If you see a short, blonde blur zip past you, that was Sheila. 6

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

In the 13 years Steve Maze published “Yesterday’s Memories,” he compiled a vast collection of stories from the past. Most have an odd twist to them. Maybe living near Arab has something to do with that ... In this issue he writes about an item from the past he pulled from a refrigerator. It’s truly amazing how much Alabama Cooperative Extension Service people know. Marshall Extension coordinator Eddie Wheeler is no exception. In this issue he explains that to measure how much you water your grass, set out a tuna or cat food can. He says he likes tuna better. How can he know that?

Publisher/editor David Moore sometimes hops on a bad train of thought. Facing days of busy deadlines, he sometimes wants to rush through them, hurry, get them done. But busy days count just as much as all of the others. And we only have so many days. He should know better than to rush any of them.

Permit Us to help you Shoreline Construction Permitting

If you are planning a project in or near the water, we can help with the 26a permit you may need to do the work. TVA is required to review and approve – before they begin – shoreline construction activities across, along or in the Tennessee River and its tributaries. At TVA, we’re here to serve the people of the Valley. For more information visit tva.com/ river/26apermits or call 800-882-5263.

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Inside 10 Good Fun

Fall is full of opportunities to get out

16 Good People

Judy McMurry finds it fulfilling to be a voice for abused children in court

20 Good Reads

Fly with the Wrights; unravel blue thread

22 Good Cooking

Try a recipe from bookshelves in Grant

28 Good Eats

There are reason Sierra’s Mexicanisimo has been open so long in Arab

32 Good ’n’ Green

Get the most out your gallon of water

34 Cold, hard cash

It sometimes comes with a bit of mystery

38 Jane’s garden

Beyond the flowers in her Cherokee Ridge garden, something more important grew

46 Michael Banks

The art in the man demands to get out

54 Farming on Sand Mountain

Andy and his dad, Stanley, find raising cows and chickens to be a good lifestyle

On the cover, Courteny Washington of Gadsden flips out at the wakeboard tournament on Lake Guntersville in June. Photo by Patrick Oden. On this page, red maple leaves dangle over an inlet on the lake in a view from TVA’s Cooley Cemetery Trail. Photo by David Moore.

62 Beyond creating products

The county’s 124 industries allow 12,000 employees to create their lifestyles

68 Cooley Cemetery Trail

Hiking in search of fall and old lost roads

74 Out ’n’ About

Wake’s up! Grab your board and hit the lake

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

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

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

Mo mc Publishing llc A member of the Albertville, Arab, Boaz and Guntersville chambers of commerce

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

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38 Special: Saturday’s headliner at Albertville’s Main Street Festival. Photo by Wes Sewell Photography, wessewell2.bravophotos.com.

• Aug. 7-8 – Main Street Music Festival 38 Special and Tracy Lawrence bring their nationally known rock and country to headline Albertville’s big music festival this year. The free event includes a children’s inflatable water park, vendor booths, art contest/exhibit and entertainment on two stages. Saturday events start at 7 a.m. with a 5K run. Bike and chicken races, magic shows and teen dances go on 9 a.m.-5 p.m. with seven live bands and musicians playing throughout the day. At 6 p.m. Alabama’s Sweet Tea Trio hits the stage with a blend

Good Fun

Main Street Music Festival in Albertville is part of a great fall lineup of fun stuff

• Through Aug. 16 – “Blockhead Arts” Originally from Arab, now of Oneonta, late-blooming Marian Baker draws inspiration from her family history, adding humor to create one-of-a kind pieces with a touch of whimsy. Catch her exhibit “Blockhead Art,” at the Guntersville Museum. Admission is free. Museum hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m., TuesdayFriday; 1-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. • Through Aug. 28 – “Our Town” This exhibit by Guntersville modelturned-photographer Jennifer Baker continues at the Mountain Valley Arts Council. MVAC gallery hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. For more info, call: 256-571-7199. • Through Aug. 30 – Masterpieces An exhibit of masterwork pieces from the Westervelt Art Collection, on loan from the Tuscaloosa Museum 10

of harmonies, southern charm and country twang. At 8:30 p.m. catch Tracy Lawrence, whose 22 top-10 hits – 18 of the number ones – include “Paint Me a Birmingham,” “Time Marches On,” “Alibis” and “Find Out Who Your Friends Are.” Opening at 6:30 p.m. Saturday for 38 Special will be Exile, which is on its “50 Years in Music” tour. Headliner 38 Special hits the stage at 8:30 p.m. With arena-rock pop sales in excess of 20 million, their biggies include, “Hold On Loosely,” “Rockin’ Into the Night” and more.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

of Art continues this month at the Guntersville Museum. Enjoy works by famed ornithologist and painter John Audubon, contemporary bird artist Basil Ede and contemporary realist painter Andrew Wyeth. Admission is free. Museum hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m., TuesdayFriday; 1-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. • Aug. 7 – Movie Knight in the Park Bring out the family to enjoy “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” The free flick starts at 7 p.m. at the Arab City Park amphitheater. Bring a lawn chair or blanket, but no coolers. Refreshments will be sold. • Aug. 18 – Makers Market Find handmade arts and crafts, fresh produce and flowers from 5-7 p.m. at Northgate Shopping Center on U.S. 231 in Arab.

• Aug. 20 – Benny Thurman and Friends Local, well, hmmm … Local something-or-another Benny Thurman will host this month’s free Main Event show starting at 6:30 p.m. on the corner of First Ave NW and Main Street in Arab. A variety of local musicians will play gospel and country, including Jo Ann Bullard, who’s hit “Ole Blue Truck” is a crowd favorite. Bring your lawn chairs and enjoy the show. Check out shops downtown that stay open for Main Event. For updates on performers, check with the sponsoring Arab Downtown Association: www.facebook.com/ downtownarab. • Aug. 21-22 – River Run Car Show Last year’s show drew 200 registered vehicles – eye candy on wheels – and more than that 4,000 spectators. This

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

• Aug. 22 – Jeff Cook Day It’s the ninth annual countywide birthday celebration for the guitarist, vocalist and founding member of super group Alabama … which means a free concert at Guntersville’s Civitan Park – where the stage is named for Jeff Cook – and music starts at 7. Opening will be Me and the Girls, which is Jeff’s wife, Lisa, and her friends. Following will be the Judge Talford Band, an eclectic acoustic group from Bell Buckle, Tenn., who fuse bluegrass, pop, folk, country, rhythm and blues and rock to perform songs you grew up with in a brand new way. Wrapping up the fun will be Jeff Cook and the Allstar Goodtime Band. They’ll play some of Jeff’s old hits plus their own blend of country, soul and rock and roll. Jeff is still touring with Alabama and his AGB. Makes you wonder how old he is. “He won’t tell,” says Rhonda McCoy, friend and Jeff Cook Day organizer, “but he’s past 60 and not yet 70.”

sixth annual edition at Marshall County Park No. 1 may be the biggest yet because it marks the 85th anniversary of the sponsoring Guntersville Lions Club. See the vehicles and, from 12:30-2 pm. buy lunch. Bands will play from 12:30-7 p.m. with the headliner Brooke Danielle Band coming on at 5 p.m. Music is free. Bring a lawn chair. The show is 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday with auto registration going to 11 a.m. There will be lots going on, including fun Barney and his Mayberry friends, the River Run Lion and his motorized bed. The Lions pump all proceeds back into the community. Spectators get in for $5 per carload. To register a show vehicle: call or text, 256-677-9763. • Sept. 2-26 – Michael Banks exhibit The Mountain Valley Arts Council is hosting a show for Guntersville’s Michael Banks. You can meet him at a reception the MVAC gallery 5:307:30 p.m., Sept. 3. You can also read about him starting on page 46 of this magazine. MVAC gallery hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. For more info, call: 256-571-7199. • Sept. 5 – Eat more seafood It may be the 45th anniversary of the St. Williams Seafood Festival, but the seafood, as always, will be fresh. Held at Guntersville’s Civitan Park, the drive-thru opens at 7:30 a.m. for quarts of gumbo and Cajun boiled shrimp. Dine-in opens at 10:30 a.m. for creole style filé gumbo, Cajun boiled shrimp, boiled crawfish, catfish dinners and BBQ chicken dinners and more. 12

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

• Sept. 12 – Arab Community Fair If you’ve never visited the Arab Historical Village at the city park, this is a great time for it. The day-long event harkens back to Arab’s first fair in 1922. Crafters from all over demonstrate their skills and wares. Visit the restored buildings and see demonstrations of old fashion corn grindin’, blacksmithin’, log sawin’, needleworkin’, lye soap makin’ and whittling. You can pet a mule, take a wagon ride, join in some foot-stompin’ gospel music at the Rice Church and enjoy live entertainment. See the car show and Civil War re-enactment group, eat great BBQ and at Smith Country Store, pick up Moon Pies, RC Colas and dill pickles. • Sept 15 – Taste of Sand Mountain The first Taste of Sand Mountain may be more than just a “taste.” Set for 5-8 p.m. indoors at the Boaz Outlet Center on Ala. 168, more than 30 restaurants from across Marshall County will have samplings of what they cook best. Besides eating, register at the food booths for gift certificates and prizes. Pick up freebies and restaurant coupons. Vote for the best restaurant and see which three go home with winning silver platters. Sponsored by the Boaz Chamber of Commerce, a portion of all ticket sales will go to Julia Street United Methodist Church food bank, which gives away food the third Saturday of each month to anyone in Marshall County. Tickets are $10 each; children 6 and under get in free. For more information or to buy

tickets, contact the chamber: 256-5938154, 256-593-8172 or chamber@ boazchamberofcommerce.com. • Sept. 15 – Makers Market Find handmade arts and crafts, fresh produce and flowers from 5-7 p.m. at Northgate Shopping Center on U.S. 231 in Arab. • Sept. 17 – A Celtic Evening Two Celtic trios take the stage for the final Main Event concert of 2015 sponsored by the Arab Downtown Association. Kinvara opens at 6:30 p.m. A Madison group of exceptional traditional musicians, they play music from Ireland, Scotland, Cape Breton and other Celtic lands. The Sullivans take the stage at 7:30 playing traditional and contemporary Irish and Scottish tunes with the likes of guitar, fiddle, bouzouki, harp, flute, concertina, whistle and even a synthesizer. Bring your lawn chairs and catch the free concert on the corner of First Ave NW and Main Street in Arab. Shops downtown will stay open for Main Event. • Sept. 18 - Movie Knight in the Park Bring out the family to see “McFarland USA.” The free flick starts at 7 p.m. at the Arab City Park amphitheater. Bring a lawn chair or blanket, but no coolers. Refreshments will be sold. • Sept 23 – Fine Rock House dining at Guntersville museum Rock House Eatery will hold its third

• Sept. 26 –Mile-Plus Yard Sale Grant’s 10th Annual Mile Plus Yard Sale is expected to draw several thousand bargain hunters to browse their way for a mile down Main Street at the county’s biggest sales event. Expect 100 vendors or more offering auto parts, accessories and jewelry, handmade crafts, blue jeans and corn meal ground on the spot. And you can eat while you browse. Other vendors will be selling hamburgers, hot dogs, Krispy Kreme Donuts, BBQ plates and homemade fried pies. If you’d like a booth, they’re $20. For more information or to reserve a spot, call the Grant Chamber of Commerce: 256-728-8800. Photos by Ramona Edwards, www. guntermountainphoto.com. annual Museum Evening, which offers you the opportunity to sample unique dishes from one of the city’s finest restaurants … while eating at … the Guntersville Museum. Special dishes you don’t see on the regular Rock House menu will be prepared with the chef’s choice of fresh market items. You’ll get several options for a premium four-course meal that includes champagne. Enjoy music to eat by and a silent auction, all done to benefit the museum. Book a seating for either 5 or 7:30 p.m., but do it soon. Seating is limited. Tickets are $50 per person, which does not include wine you might like to order or tip. For reservations call the museum: 256-571-7597.

• Sept. 26 – Catch a concert at Cathedral Caverns Here’s a fun twist for a local concert – rock ‘n’ roll at Cathedral Caverns. Mountain Valley Arts Council is sponsoring the free concert starting at 6 p.m. in the pavilion above the cave. A blue grass group is expected to sing for the opening act, followed by Two-Tone Willie. The foursome loves to dig out that ol’ time rock ‘n’ roll to get everyone stomping and happy. The DAR Booster Club will sell food, and you can always take a cave tour – even in the dark (18 and up, $17; 6–18 years old, $12; 3 and under, $3). For more info, call: 256-571-7199 • October – Arab Chamber turns 50 Plans were incomplete at press time,

but the Arab Chamber of Commerce will celebrate its 50th anniversary as a mover in the community with special community activities during the month. Watch for details. • Oct. 1-31– Scarecrow Trail Lake Guntersville State Park is staging its first-ever Scarecrow Trail. Marshall County businesses and charities are invited to create fall festive scarecrows and hay bale scenes in the day-use area between the beach pavilion and boat ramp. Visitors by car or boat can tour them every day, and vote for their favorite, while enjoying the beach or picnicking. For more info contact: 256-571-5444; heather. mccann@dcnr.alabama.gov; or Amanda. Glover@dncr.alabama.gov. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

will be at 11:59 p.m. Friday on Billy Dyar Boulevard next to the Gridiron Restaurant. All day Saturday, there will be an antique classic car show at the Farmers Market. The Miss Harvest Festival pageant will take place at 9 a.m. With performances at noon and 3 p.m., the headliner Saturday will be the Gary Waldrep Bluegrass Band, a member of the Alabama Bluegrass Hall of fame. Between performances, compete in the Moon Pie eating contest at 2 p.m. Contact the sponsoring Boaz Area Chamber of Commerce for booth or event registration information: 256-593-8154, 256-593-8172 or chamber@ boazchamberofcommerce.com

Stella Parton, sister to Dolly, is a regular client of Cynthia Hornsby, who did her most recent album cover. • Oct. 1-30 – Cynthia Hornsby photography See the stunning portrait photography of Arab native Cynthia Hornsby in this months exhibit at the Mountain Valley Arts Council. Meet her at a reception at the MVAC gallery 5:30-7:30 p.m., Oct. 3. Cynthia has won Photographer of the Year, Kodak Gallery and Best of Show honors, along with more than a dozen first place awards for her children’s portraits. “I seek beauty in every setting that I enter,” she says. “I see light and emotion, and then a story emerges. I am in constant visualization of seeing the world in front of me as a painting before the shutter clicks.” MVAC gallery hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. For more info, call: 256-571-7199.

• Oct. 9-18 – “Black Tie Broadway” Created and directed by Johnny Brewer, this sweeping revue of Broadway music for all generations at The Whole Backstage is based on arrangements by Mac Huff, Ed Lojeski and others. Performances are Oct. 9-11 and Oct. 15-18 For details and ticket information: visit the office 9 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays; visit www.wholebackstage.com; or call 256582-SHOW (7469). • Oct. 2-3 – Harvest Festival Visit the 51st Annual Boaz Harvest Festival 8 a.m.-6 p.m. both days. Main Street downtown will be lined with more than 200 arts and craft booths, a huge food court and children’s play area. The Harvest Moon Midnight Run 14

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

• Oct. 3 – Smoke on the Water This fundraiser draws so many competitors to its delicious – not to mention KCBS and Alabama BBQ Association sanctioned – cook-off that it’s moved this year to Lake Guntersville State Park to provide enough camping spaces with power and water for teams to prep the day before. More than $5,000 cash and prizes will be presented, including $750 for grand champion. The event, free to the public, is a fundraiser for Georgia Mountain Volunteer Fire Department and takes place 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Judging is at the Buckeye Pavilion at the beach area. Starting at 11 a.m., chicken will be provided to the public for blind judging of the People’s Choice Award. Certified judging begins there at noon. Deadline for teams to register is Sept 1. For more info, call: 256-673-0277 or 256-302-1832; or e-mail: gmvfd@ yahoo.com. Bring your lawn chair to a 5-10 p.m. concert on the beach to benefit Alder Springs VFD. Headliner will be country artist Chad Bearden, transplanted to Nashville from Grant. Also performing will be Rusty Shii and Chase Williamson. Tickets are $10 at the gate, $5 until Labor Day. For tickets and more info: James Edwards, 256-302-4161; or chief@aldersprings. org • Oct. 20 – Makers Market Find handmade arts and crafts, fresh produce and flowers from 5-7 p.m. at Northgate Shopping Center on U.S. 231 in Arab. • Oct. 31 – Pink Pumpkin Run The special Halloween Edition of the Sixth Annual Pink Pumpkin Run/Walk should be an interesting one. Sponsored by the Foundation for Marshall Medical Centers, the event takes place at Guntersville’s Civitan Park and raises money to benefit mammography and cancer services at MMC. It features a 5K, 10K and a one-mile fun run along with music, children’s activities and the popular Pink Pancake Brunch. Register online at www.pinkpumpkinrun.com with discounts until Oct. 1. You can register and get packets 3-6 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Guntersville Rec Center or from 7-8:45 a.m. race day. Races begin at 9 a.m. with awards at 11.

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Snapshot: Judy Stewart McMurry Early life: Born and raised in Madison;

graduated from Butler High School 1964. Career: 20 years as an

administrative officer at Redstone Arsenal; now an active farmer.

Family: In 1977 married Jerry, her

second husband, a 1954 graduate of Marshall County High School, who

grew up in Guntersville. Daughter

Cynthia Porter lives in Huntsville

with Judyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grandchildren Cody, 13, and Cole, 9. Jerryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son,

Russ, and his wife, Lisa, live in Athens; grandson Colin, 25. Other activities: 4-H

volunteer; Master Gardener since 2012; member of

the Lake Guntersville Rowing Club; active

member of Diamond

United Methodist Church.

Judy McMurry

Child abuse is an ugly reality, but she shows you can do something about it Story and photo by David Moore Here’s an ugly fact. Marshall County has the 2nd highest rate of child abuse and neglect in Alabama. That amounts to a lot of pain and misery, a lot of youngsters far outside the warm circles of a good life. And all too often abusive parents raise children who grow into abusive parents themselves. Here’s a bright fact. You can actually do something about it. You can help break the cycle of abuse. Maybe Judy McMurry can help convince you. In some aspects Judy leads a bucolic life. After a 20-year career at Redstone Arsenal, she’s now an active farmer. She lives in a 98-year-old house off Warrenton Road she and her late husband, Jerry, restored. She has a 100-acre farm located on Point of Pines where her 65 cows graze. Her dogs, goats and horses are there. Judy shares the cotton, beans and corn another farmer grows on 65 acres in Madison that she inherited from her grandfather. Other aspects of Judy’s life are less sunny. Her first husband was killed in an accident. Jerry, to whom she was married 32 years, died in 2009 after a three-year battle with cancer. Through good times and bad, children – OK, animals, too – have always been close to her heart. She’s always had, and even created, ways to interact with them. When her daughter Cynthia was a teen, she and Jerry did oval track racing. Judy was part of it. “I was a race mom and a race wife,” she grins. She followed Russ’s son, Colin from T-Ball to pitching for UAB for two years. Today, Cynthia’s kids bring Judy to the ballpark. They also are growing 300 Christmas trees on her Madison farm.

In Marshall County, Judy is a 4-H volunteer involved in the kids’ goat shows. She also picks up neighborhood kids on Wednesday evenings and takes them to supper and worship at Diamond United Methodist Church. Perhaps her biggest involvement with kids, however, relates directly to the problem of child abuse. Judy is a volunteer for CAJA of Marshall County, a Court Appointed Juvenile Advocate. When a child is pulled into court because he or she is a victim of abuse or neglect, or is maybe stuck in the nowin middle of nasty custody cases, a judge appoints Judy or one of the other 10 CAJA volunteers to represent the best interests of that child during legal proceedings. The parent or parents have attorneys. And in most cases the judge appoints an attorney as guardian ad litem to look out for the minor’s best legal interest. “Judges assign CAJA volunteers to cases where they don’t have a clear view of what is going on,” Judy says. “A lot of times they look at a case and it’s black and white, but when a case is in the gray area, when this parent is saying this and that one saying that, that’s when CAJA is called to investigate. “A CAJA is the child’s voice in court,” she adds. “We are always out for the best interest of that child.” And it’s always in a child’s best interest to be placed in a safe and permanent home in order to help prevent future abuse and neglect. That’s how you break the cycle. Growing numbers of drug cases hamper the entire legal system; likewise for CAJAs. Judy and the others work on, making a difference in the lives of the children they work with. But, she says, they sure could use some help ...

So how did you and Jerry get involved in CAJA? Jerry had worked with U. S. Army

Good People

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Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal for 42 years and was thinking about retirement. I told him he’d want to find something in the community that interested him and get involved as a volunteer. We saw articles about CAJA in the paper. We’d always been involved with children, with sports with our kids. And he had been involved in the Jaycees before. And our son Russ is an attorney, so the legal side of CAJA was interesting, too. It just all fit. It involved children and the court system. So we signed up for the training. We had no clue what we were getting into. I don’t think anyone who gets involved in CAJA comes in realizing the magnitude of what children have to live in or go through in their lives.

Can you describe a sampling of home situations you’ve found children living in when you came to help? We’ve had cases where you go into a home and children are eating out of garbage cans because they didn’t have food. And I guarantee you the parents would be sitting there holding a cigarette. Some homes we go in are filthy and have bugs. Then again, we have been to houses we probably could never afford to live in. Child abuse and neglect range from one demographic extreme to the other. We volunteer 24-7. You find out a lot when you knock on someone’s door at 7 a.m. Sunday and see what happened there Saturday night. Do people always like to see us come? No. Are they always truthful? No. But that’s what we are there to find out, the truth. We can get a court order and investigate all aspects of the case. All of our cases are fact-based. We are there to gather facts. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

You have degrees of cases, but they are never pretty. Some are not that bad, but some are horrendous.

Become a CAJA

“I have the best volunteers,” says Marshall County CAJA executive director Sherry Willis. “They have always stepped up when asked to be an advocate for the abused and neglected children of Marshall County. Every child deserves to have a voice in court.” Volunteers are: Wanda Parker, Peggy Shell, Wanda Teal and Rhonda Walker of Albertville; Pamela Bodine, Flemming Grove, Rhonda Likos, Judy McMurry and Dr. John Packardof Guntersville; Susan Beck and Sherry Willis of Union Grove. If anyone is interested in joining, Sherry will set up training for late fall. Call: 256-582-3787.

Emotionally and time-wise, how much of a commitment does it require of someone to be a CAJA? The initial training is 30 hours. They usually try to cover it in a couple of weeks. Also, we are required to have 12 hours a year of in-service time, continuing training to keep up with laws and services. The national average for time on a case is 30 to 40 hours depending on its severity. I have had cases open months and cases open years. You know how the court system can be. After a case, we try to keep in contact with most of the children. With some of them you get emotionally involved. You might pick up the phone every day or two to find out what is going on in their life, to ensure the parents are doing what they need to do. For a lot of these children it’s the first time someone has ever cared about them. With the younger kids it’s pretty

easy to form a relationship. With teenagers it’s harder. Imagine a kid who has been abused all his life. You

step in and try to have rapport with that teenager. I don’t know how many times I’ve been cussed. You try to keep your emotions in check and not take things personally. A lot of these kids fall into the cracks. No one knows about it until they get in the court system. It’s sad. One child asked me, “Where were you when I was growing up and living in the back of a car and on the streets?” Some kids get into drugs. Some end up in juvenile court. It’s sad that there are not more facilities for kids with drug problems. If we had more volunteers it would be so much easier because we would not have to take on so many cases. But no cases are forced on you. They’re all volunteer.

What do you get out of being a CAJA volunteer, out of your investment of time and emotions in these children? There is not any price you can put on just knowing you have helped a child. When you look at what these kids come out of and see them become productive

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people, it’s rewarding. It’s rewarding to see that maybe something you said or did for the child has helped break the cycle. I don’t know … I always get this feeling that I never do enough for a child. That’s the hard part of it. As a CAJA I can’t force my standard of living on each case. I’d like to take all of these kids and put them at my standards, but I have to look at their life and where they are. It’s not what I want for them. The houses you go in … You would like to make them look like your house, but they are their houses. You just try to make that better. A lot of cases are not so much about abuse as circumstances. Some people get into situations because they don’t know services are there for them. Sometimes you can help a family with services and make a lot of difference in that child’s life. For instance, you might help them get housing. We can guide people in directions they need to go for certain services: DHR, HUD, The Home Place … there are a multitude of agencies here. There was a girl years ago that Jerry

and I had worked with. She had been pushed off on other family members 25 times. She had been traded for drugs, abused in a few of these places. She went to a girls ranch. Jerry and I became her resource parents, something stable in her life. She is married now with children. They are not where I would like them to be, but they are doing OK. What she’d like is to hear her parents say they love her and really mean it. We become so comfortable in our own lives that we forget these children are out there. They just need someone to step up and speak for them, someone to care. People think they can’t possibly do this. They can’t picture themselves doing it. But you really can. Anyone can, if you just give up a little bit of time. I think everybody needs to step up in some form. Everybody can do a little bit. There are times I don’t get my house cleaned because I have a CAJA case. But if everybody gave just a little bit of time, it would make these children’s lives better. And, like I said, you can’t put any price on knowing you did that.

You And Your Clothes Always Look Best With

Many people may know you as a CAJA and as a Master Gardener. Will you share something about yourself that most people don’t know? I have a lot of varied interests, and animals have always been a part of my life. My grandfather gave me a cow the day I was born. I have never been without a cow. It’s part of my life. I love animals. I have seven horses. Six of them were abandoned or rescued. I’ve also rescued and raised many kinds of dogs. I used to raise registered Dobermans and sell puppies. Now I just rescue them. When you rescue dogs, it’s almost like they feel indebted to you, like they know they now have a good home. They appreciate it. Dobermans have a bad name of being fierce, but once you put them in a good loving home … I never had one that stayed that way after I rescued it. Rescuing them breaks the cycle. That’s what CAJAs do – break the cycle.

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Good Reads

Tyler unravels ‘blue thread’ in what she calls her last novel

McCullough takes flight with striving Wright brothers

ulitzer Prize winner Anne Tyler’s “A Spool of Blue Thread” is her 20th and, according to her, last novel. She has again chosen Baltimore as the setting for her usual quirky and eccentric characters and deftly spins her tale around a large comfortable home that has sheltered two For years she had been generations of Whitshanks mourning for the way she as they raised their families. had let her life slip through Amy and Red, married her fingers, given another for 48 years, are beginning chance, she would take to face the problems of more care to experience it. aging and are reluctant to give up their independence and their home. Amy has been having periods of “forgetfulness” and “blank spells.” Then Red suffers a mild heart attack. Their four children attempt to determine what plans should be made for their future. As they get together, the house, empty for so long, is suddenly too full. Resentments build and long held secrets are revealed. The adopted son learns of his past; the uncaring, usually absent son’s mysterious lifestyle is explained; and the reference to the spool of blue thread is finally unraveled. Tyler’s faithful readers will not be disappointed as she again negotiates the foibles and failures of average American middle class family life. – Annette Haislip

n “The Wright Brothers,” David McCullough reveals the human side of the siblings and their flight that changed the course of history. He faithfully recounts the saga of a remarkable family primarily focusing on the two brothers and their sister Katherine. From their bicycle It was only a flight of shop, Wilbur and Orville worked on a design for twelve seconds, and it manned, motorized flight. was an uncertain, wavy, Not until 1903, after years creeping sort of flight at of ridicule, struggle and best, but it was a real false starts, were they finally successful. flight at last. Unappreciated by the U.S. government and ignored by the American press, they traveled to France in 1906 where their achievement at Kitty Hawk was admired. Lionized by the Europeans, recipients of honorary and financial awards, they were welcomed home to the U.S. in 1909 as “conquerors of the air.” Subsequent years were spent in litigation and lawsuits to protect their flying machine patent. Wilbur, beaten down by the struggle, died in 1912 of typhoid fever. Orville, who died in 1948 at 77, lived to see jet propulsion, the introduction of rockets and the breaking of the sound barrier. Their monument at Kitty Hawk is towering proof that the seemingly insurmountable can be reached with courage, determination and dogged effort. – Annette Haislip

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

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Good Cooking

ibrarian Thames Robinson is used to pulling novels, biographies and research books from the shelves of Grant Public Library. But if you ask, she’ll gladly pull you a copy of the cookbook the Friends of the Grant Library published. It is, appropriately enough, titled “Recipes from the Shelves.” The library was established in 1991. The friends didn’t take long to follow,

organizing the following year. Though published in 2006 –with cover art by Debbie McBride – copies of the book are still available for purchase. Thames will be glad to sell you one for $8. It will not only benefit the library, but it’ll benefit your friends and those folks around the house you cook for when you are not too busy reading ...

Check out these recipes from Friends of Grant Public Library PORK CHOP DINNER Brenda Keel 6-8 pork chops 2 lg. onions 8 lg. potatoes 2 cans cream of mushroom soup Brown chops on both sides in skillet. Slice potatoes into ¼ inch thick rounds. Slice onions into rings. Put browned chops in 9x13 inch dish. Arrange sliced potatoes over chops and onion rings over potatoes. Mix mushroom soup with 1 can of water; pour over top. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 425 for 1 hour. CHICKEN DORITOS CASSEROLE Brenda Keel 1 whole chicken or 5 chicken breasts 1 lg. bag of Doritos chips 1 can cream of mushroom soup 1 can cream of chicken soup 1-2 cans Ro-Tel 1 cup milk Cook and debone chicken; . With mixer blend soups, Ro-Tel and milk. Layer a 9x13-inch pan as follows: ½ bag of Doritos, ½ chicken chunks, then the remaining chips and chicken. Pour liquid mixture over entire casserole. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Chicken Doritos Casserole, left, is one of three dishes Diane Moore prepared from “Recipes from the Shelves.” 22

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

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CORN SALAD Jane Lemley

BROCCOLI-CAULIFLOWER SALAD In memory of Carolyn Dennis 1 bunch broccoli ½ head cauliflower 1 med. onion ½ cup bell pepper 10 slices bacon, fried crisp, crumbled 4-5 cherry tomatoes, sliced ¾ cup shredded Parmesan cheese lemon pepper seasoning to taste 1 cup mayonnaise 1 cup sour cream Wash, drain and chop broccoli, cauliflower, onion and bell pepper. Gently mix lemon pepper, mayonnaise and sour cream. Mix this in with vegetables. Refrigerate at least 3 hours; overnight is better. Add tomatoes, bacon and cheese just before serving. 24

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

3 cans shoepeg corn 1 lg. onion, chopped 1 bell pepper, chopped 1 cucumber, chopped 3 tomatoes, chopped ½ cup sour cream ½ cup mayonnaise

1 tsp. vinegar 1 tsp. dry mustard Drain corn and mix all ingredients. Place in refrigerator 3-4 hours before serving. Will keep in refrigerator several days.

HUMMUS BI TAHINI Sylvia Williams 4 cups drained chickpeas ½ cup tahini ⅓ cup warm water ⅓ cup high quality olive oil 2-3 lemons, juice only 2 cloves garlic 1½ tsp. salt 2 tsp. ground cumin seed freshly ground black pepper to taste paprika, optional Combine first 4 ingredients with lemon juice using food processor with steel blade or

a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Add garlic clove and next 3 ingredients and blend (using a blender may required processing in several batches and combining them at the end). Taste and correct seasoning; add more lemon if desired. Store covered in refrigerator until served. Serve with toasted or steamed pita triangles and, if desired for color, sprinkle with paprika. Yield: 1 quart; serves 10-12.

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LEMON POPPY SEED CAKE LaCretia W. Beard 1 pkg. lemon cake mix, 18¼ oz. 1 pkg. instant lemon pudding mix, 3.4 oz. ¾ cup warm water ½ cup vegetable oil 4 eggs 1 tsp. lemon extract 1 tsp. almond extract ½ cup poppy seed ½ cup confectioner’s sugar

1 lemon, juiced additional confectioner’s sugar (optional dusting) In a mixing bowl combine cake and pudding mixes. Add water, oil, eggs and extracts. Beat for 30 seconds on low speed. Beat for 3 minutes on medium speed. Stir in poppy seeds.

NO BAKE PARTY MIX Eva Wright

Pour into a greased 12-cup fluted tube or a Bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. Combine confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice; brush over warm cake and let cool. Dust with confectioner’s sugar, if desired.

8 cups Crispix cereal 2½ cups miniature pretzels or pretzel sticks 2½ cups bite-size cheddar cheese crackers 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil 1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix

OVEN ROASTED SWEET POTATO FRIES Eva Wright 2 tsp. vegetable (or olive) oil, divided 4 lg. sweet potatoes or baking potatoes 1 tsp. salt ¼ tsp. freshly ground pepper

In heavy-duty, reusable 2-gallon plastic bag, combine cereal, pretzels and crackers; drizzle with oil. Seal and toss gently to mix. Sprinkle with dressing mix; seal and toss until coated. Store in airtight container. Yield: 12 cups.

Preheat over to 450. Line cookie sheet with foil; brush with half of oil. Cut potatoes lengthwise into ½ inch thick wedges. Transfer to large bowl, add remaining oil, salt and pepper and toss. Spread potatoes in single layer on cookie sheet. Bake 2530 minutes until golden and crispy.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

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seaplanes take to the sky – and lake – for a world of fun Jim and loretta Kennamer’s house stands unique among lake homes add a wild (game) twist to your holiday meals Predictions on the Bassmaster Classic? records will fall in ‘gi-normous’ event

Jim and Carol Meekins call honeycomb natural bridge home

some great ideas for adding an outside living area to your home yachting couple respond to the lure of america’s Great loop

Winter 2013 CoMpliMentary

Visit the eight local pipe organs and the musicians who play them sPrinG 2014 CoMPliMentary

suMMEr 2014 CoMPlIMEntary

students, volunteers talk about serious fun... fishing for your schools

albertville-Guntersville football rivalry turns 100 on halloween Mary Terrell paints with flowers, and a look at her yard proves it love of quilting attracts artisans from every part of the county

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Catch an eagle, so to speak, during program’s 30th year reputation of Mill street has grown beyond Boaz For years sam harvey asked the questions; table’s turned

Boaz‘s renée Pierce wear crown with purpose and a sense of humor

Milton Eubanks reigns (and works) over a spring kingdom in scant City

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Glenn Mcneal proves that Mr. nice Guy does win sometimes

since the earliest times man caves have provided shelter from the wild WIntEr 2014 CoMPlIMEntary

For the Sumners on Sand Mountain, farming’s a multi-generation lifestyle

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suMMer 2015 CoMpliMentary

Follow the cycle of vine to wine at Jules J. Berta Winery in albertville

FALL 2015 COMPLIMENTARY

Haven’t hiked Cooley Cemetery Trail? Fall should be a good time

An Alabama Winery

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Mon. - Sat. 10 am - 7 pm AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Alex Sierra welcomes people to his restaurant located in the Northgate Shopping Center on U.S. 231 in Arab.

Good Eats Story and photos by David Moore

“W

elcome home!” Alex Sierra says, obviously having fun greeting people at Sierra’s Mexicanisimo. He means it, too, even if you’ve never been there before. “I do enjoy myself,” he grins. “It’s my nature. I like to welcome people … ‘Welcome home.’ I want my guests to become raving customers.” A friendly smile alone does not a good restaurant make. “You have to give the customers a combination of good service, good food and good value,” Alex says. “Of course you have to provide good atmosphere, but atmosphere is last.” Start with service. His staff is mostly Mexican. Alex prefers new hires to have little restaurant experience. “That way, they don’t have any bad habits. I can 28

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Welcome home to Sierra’s Mexicanisimo ‘Very Mexican,’ Alex says. ‘But not typical.’

teach them how to treat people right.” Food? Everything is prepared fresh, he says, starting with the chips and salsa. “Our meat makes us different,” Alex says. “Our shrimp are huge. Steak, pork chops ... anything from the grill is awesome. I want people to know when they taste their food that it was prepared for them. “When people spend $1, I want to give them $1.50 or $2 in value. We always make an effort to see you leave happy.” And certainly the fun atmosphere contributes to the lure that has built him a loyal clientele. Fact is, Sierra’s has been open under the same management longer than any full-service restaurant in Arab.

native of Guadalajara, Mexico, Alex got an early taste of America and liked it. Relatives on his mom’s side owned restaurants in Atlanta. The Sierra family made annual trips to visit. “When we came the first time in 1976, I was only 7 but knew I would have my own restaurant in America,” he says. By 13 he was spending summers bussing tables and washing dishes for his uncle and listening to his grandmother’s mantra. “She would say to put God first and move north,” he laughs. “God, north and Mexican restaurants.” It stuck like melted cheese on refried beans. At 16 Alex moved himself to

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Order from the menu or, on Friday night and Sunday, visit the buffet. Sierra’s also hosts birthdays and receptions and does catering. Fresh Water Creek members, bottom photo, play bluegrass on Tuesday nights.

Duluth, Ga., working at Olive Garden and attending high school. He had his own apartment by 17. He was the first Mexican to graduate from Duluth High School. But it wasn’t a free education. “I got bullied by the bigger kids. I got in a lot of fights. “You grow up quick when you’re by yourself. You swim or sink. And we Mexicans are good swimmers!” “Swimming” meant second jobs such as landscaping, but restaurants were Alex’s driving goal. Ten years after school, his social and business skills had advanced him up the restaurant rungs from waiter to district manager over six Frontera Mex-Mex restaurants in Atlanta and two in Louisville, Ky. He did the DM gig six years, working 9 a.m. to 1 a.m., fighting traffic between. “The money was great. But it got old. I was not seeing my oldest son grow up. I didn’t have time for anything.” So he said adios to big city restaurants.

lex had visited North Alabama and come to love it, so when former co-workers started a small chain of Buenavista Mexican Cantinas in Sardis, Rainsville and Sylacauga, Alex partnered with them and moved to Guntersville in 1998. In 1999 they opened a Buenavista in Arab. After a few months, Alex bought the restaurant outright and changed the name to Sierra’s Mexicanisimo. Most gringos can translate buena vista. But Mexicanisimo? “Isimo is ‘very,’” Alex says. “‘Very Mexican.’ We are very Mexican.” Proud of his heritage, he’s also proud of his U.S. citizenship, obtained in 2004. But even before then Alex, who had moved to Arab, had made himself an active part of the community. Whenever locals needed a translator to talk to non-English speaking Hispanics, Alex was the go-to guy. “Fifteen years ago there was hardly anyone bilingual who would offer their time,” he recalls. “The police did not have anyone who spoke Spanish. Lawyers, doctors, hospitals, schools … I said, ‘If you need a Mexican, call me. No charge.’” He doesn’t get many such calls today, but, hey, he says, you never know.

lex also doesn’t cook as much as he once did, but sometimes customers still ask that he grill their steaks. “I can get down in the kitchen,” he grins. Work still requires a ton of hours, but Alex tries to find time to be with Crystal, a former cashier/ hostess at the restaurant, and their young children, Lola and Emiliano. He has four other children ages 11 to 25 years old: Brier, Kaden, Jacob, a navy medic, and Alex Jr. of New York. Even if Alex didn’t enjoy himself so much at Sierra’s, that many mouths to feed is a very good reason to own a restaurant.

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Good ‘n’ Green

WATERING TIPS FOR KEEPING IT GOOD ‘N’ GREEN Story by Eddie J. Wheeler Photo by David Moore

healthy lawn is an important part of the home landscape. Good ‘n’ green, it enhances the value of the property as well as provides a pleasant area for family activities. Proper maintenance will help keep your established lawn healthy and attractive. This includes mowing, fertilization, watering and management for weed, insect and disease control. Let’s focus on watering practices. There’s more to it than many people think. Water requirements vary depending on your grass species, soil texture, weather and maintenance practices. Follow these tips to keep your lawn looking its best. • How much water? In general, about one inch of water per week is needed either by rainfall or in combination with irrigation to maintain green color and active growth. You can measure it by placing a rain gauge or empty tuna or cat food can in the area you are watering and time how long it takes to get an inch so you’ll know next time. Cool season grasses naturally slow down in growth and may go dormant in hot weather. • Frequency of watering. For established lawns, deep, infrequent watering is recommended. Long intervals 32

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Tim and Xan Curran’s lawn on Buck Island gets a morning watering, helping to keep it looking nice. They also get some help from Clay Irrigation. Their dog’s not worried about staying green ... or getting wet, as far as that goes.

between watering encourage the grass to develop deep, strong root systems, which results in increased drought tolerance. Shallow and frequent watering lead to shallowrooted grass and a weaker overall plant. • Water at the right time. The best time to water is very early morning before the heat of the day. Most of the water will make it to the roots. Early morning also tends to be a time of lower winds and thus reduced evaporation. Plus,

the grass blades will dry quickly, preventing disease problems. • Check your sprinkler system. An important step in using water wisely is proper maintenance of irrigation systems. If sprinklers are not in good working condition, they can waste water as well as have undesirable effects on the landscape. Turn on the sprinklers to inspect the system for broken, clogged or misaligned heads. Make sure the sprinklers are only watering landscaped areas – not sidewalks, driveways, porches or streets.

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Cold, hard cash Story by Steve A. Maze Photos by David Moore

y dad wasn’t really a coin collector, but he would hang on to an old dime, fifty-cent piece or silver dollar if he happened to run across one. But a particular coin he discovered in the early 1950s gave new meaning to the term “cold hard cash.” It was nearly two decades later that Dad thought of the old coin. That’s when it was accidentally rediscovered, but not by him. I happened to be rummaging through Grandma’s refrigerator on one of my frequent visits during the late 1960s. I grabbed a slice of her delicious egg custard pie then noticed something out of place when I started to close the refrigerator door. A clear plastic bag was hidden behind a bottle of catsup. Curious, I pulled the heavy bag out and saw a handful of coins inside of it. I anxiously fumbled through the Indian head pennies, buffalo nickels, mercury dimes and silver dollars. Every one of them was at least 40 years old. Another thing I noticed was how cold they were. They’d probably not been exposed to room temperature for a couple of decades or longer. 34

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

It was one particular coin, however, that intrigued me. Something seemed mysterious about it, and, even though it was a silver piece, I was drawn to it like a magnet. It was an 1837 Liberty halfdollar. I wandered into the kitchen where Grandma was shelling butterbeans while sitting in her ladder-back chair. Her faded brown eyes immediately lit up when I showed her the silver coin. Grandma held it in her hand and rubbed it gently with her fingers. A smile suddenly began to form, which seemed to double the lines on her face. The silver currency transported her back in time like a time machine. She stared intently at the halfdollar for a few moments before turning her tired eyes on me. Only then was she ready to tell me the story about the silver half ...

Besides Steve Maze’s grandmother’s refrigerator, where has the coin been during its 178 years of circulation? Who’s handled it?

efore leaving for military service, Grandma said, Dad had received the old coin as change after purchasing a pack of cigarettes. Even then, the silver currency was more than 100 years old. Dad had handed it over to my grandmother for safekeeping until he returned from his Army stint a couple of years later. Busy with other things when he returned home, Dad forgot all about the coin. He went to work, got married, had two children and purchased a new home. The halfdollar was a faded memory until I discovered the plastic bag full of coins in Grandma’s refrigerator.

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Then I jumped aboard the time machine, at least in my mind. Curiosity had gotten the best of me, and I suddenly had lots of questions. Where had this coin been during its lifetime? Had it perhaps witnessed some of our country’s early history in cities such as New York, Philadelphia or Boston? After all, the coin had been minted only 61 years after our country was founded. Andrew Jackson, our nation’s seventh president, was still in office early that year. And it would be another year or two before Native Americans would die as they marched along the Trail of Tears. Who touched the coin over the years? Could Jackson or Abraham Lincoln have ever held the half-dollar in their hands? Probably not, but we’ll never know for sure.

In my opinion, the coin’s real worth is the family story, and the history it may have witnessed. I can only imagine the stories the silver half could tell if it could speak. The coin is only worth about $100 in today’s market, but it’s not for sale at any price. Like an old television ad used to say … “It’s priceless.”

For some reason, the back of the coin appears a little worse for wear and tear than the front.

The Liberty half is not in pristine condition and, of course, that is important to coin collectors. Not so much to me.

randma did tell me one more thing I was curious about – why she hid the coins in the refrigerator. Simple, she said. If someone ever burglarized her home, they would never think to look for valuables in a refrigerator. Cold, hard cash … makes sense to me. Good Life Magazine

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Janeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s garden Where flowers are grown and memories are sown that outlast any bloom

Landscape lights and the warm-glowing conservatory add a touch of magic to an evening in Jane McDonaldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s garden.

Story and photos by David Moore

ane’s garden started as a place to propagate her passion for growing plants and flowers. It beautifully satisfies that purpose, but the garden has branched out on its own. It’s proven to be fertile ground for cultivating memories, which last longer than the brightest blooms of fragrant flowers. But before the memories, before the garden, came the boulders. Sid McDonald opened Cherokee Ridge in 1992, and he and Jane became one of the first residents of the gated community in Union Grove. Their house at the time, as many there do, backed up to the championshipquality golf course Sid built, where Jane intended to spend many an hour on the greens. “But for the first time in my life I realized the joy of growing flowers,” she says. “I never picked up a golf club.” Instead of hitting the greens, she hit the garden and planted beaucoup roses. Her and Sid’s long-term plan Counterclockwise from upper left: Among the first bloomers in Jane’s garden are was to build a house atop the tall, secluded knoll across the road. her purple allium, kin to onions and garlic. She also loves the different In 2000 they began nine months peonies that bloom in April, not to mention the irises. of excavation to scrape off a site on the hilltop for a large house. The extensive digging unearthed When they moved into their spacious new home in numerous boulders that were piled the fall of 2003, the conservatory overlooked a mound up, some of them destined to become part of Jane’s of native boulders, but it would be three years until the garden. created rock area was developed into the masterpiece Sid made an expensive mistake about this time – that is Jane’s garden today. introducing Jane to the architect, Dennis DeWolf of Highlands, N.C. After that, he’d later laugh, he lost o make that metamorphosis, Jane turned to Bill control and was outvoted two-to-one on any addition Nance, a longtime art professor at Alabama A&M who to the project. had designed some of the finest gardens in Huntsville. “Sid,” she laughs, “learned pretty quickly that if I “He was a Master Gardener with an artistic eye,” got into a project, he’d better stand back.” she says of Bill, now deceased. “From the moment we High on Jane’s more-than-a-wish list for the house met, he was inside my head.” was that it include a conservatory. It could double for She showed him magazine clippings of gardens she dining, but she wanted a glass room where she could liked; explained it should be more than just beautiful winter plants when needed.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Several walkways lead into the garden from the house. Others come in from the motor court and from the paved golf cart path that climbs up the knoll. Pink geraniums, above, and peonies, below, color these walkways.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

all year, it should be functional for events ranging from family Easter egg hunts for grandchildren to formal receptions. Within a week Bill presented Jane a watercolor painting of his garden design. She changed not a thing. True to the garden’s intentions, it provides ample area for Jane to grow flowers and plant the hydrangeas she’s come to love. The layout can accommodate a reception tent and a bar on the grass. Benches offer places to sit a spell. As youngsters, grandkids loved romping on the green when they weren’t swinging from tree limbs or clambering up the boulders. For three straight years the big rocks housed a den for gray foxes and their kits, providing thrills for grandkids, kids, “Big Daddy” and “Nana,” too. As grandkids got older, prom photos were made under the pergola. Family wedding receptions and other events, formal and casual, were held in the garden. What’s more, landscaping lights at night turned the garden into a dramatic backdrop for dinner parties in the conservatory. And so memories took root.

ornings, Jane says, are pleasant in the garden. They’re her favorite time to work there. But dusk is the best time. She and Sid always looked forward to coming home after work and strolling around the grounds to see what had bloomed. With shadows creeping in, the landscaping lights glow from the trees, shrubs and pergola adding magic to the atmosphere. “Sid had this incredible vision,” Jane says. “He had a side of him that enjoyed and appreciated beauty. He took as much pleasure in the garden as I did.” That’s not to say he toted bags of manure or helped in the war on weeds. “I would help Jane in the garden,” Sid used to laugh. “But I never figured out which end of the hoe to use …” She can hear him laugh now; see those dimples she loved so much. On May 15 of this year, alone on a business trip, Sid died suddenly but peacefully in his sleep, a copy of the John 42

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Jane says she is addicted to hydrangea, and it shows. White Annabelles grow outside the conservatory, above. Opposite, oakleaf hydrangea also grow among the shag-barked river birch in the garden. Top right, lacecap hydrangeas, another cultivar in Jane’s collection, grace the front of the house.

“This is Jane’s house, much more than mine. My suggestion was that Jane have a garden that did justice to the house, and she has succeeded. The conservatory and garden are just so integrated. “The garden is home to a range of wild life – foxes, opossums, ground hogs, chipmunks, raccoons, squirrels. The animal kingdom has enjoyed our backyard. We are saddened when they leave, so we feed them, do everything we can to make them feel welcome. “But the house and gardens were built for friends and family. We have five children, their spouses, twelve grandchildren, and the family will continue to grow. We are blessed, we get along, and we care. Everybody works at that, and it is all very successful. Family is valuable to each of us.” – comments Sid wrote on the garden AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

As night settles over

Cherokee Ridge, the

pergola stands as the

centerpiece in Janeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

garden, above. The

centerpiece in Janeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

life, however, was Sid.

Their daughter-in-law, Ginney McDonald,

photographed them

together in the garden

in 2010. At far right,

a climbing rose dangles

from the beams of the

pergola. A rose at night is naught but a rose.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Grisham thriller “The Confession” resting on his chest. He was 76. The family is slowly climbing from the depths of loss. Jane makes every effort to carry on with life. The garden – abloom with memories of Sid, her entire family and their good life together – is one source of solace. She can almost hear his laugh from the bench by the boulders, from the walkway through the hydrangeas. “Oh, yes,” she says. “He is with us. As someone once said, ‘When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.’” And it dwells – in part – in Jane’s garden. Good Life Magazine AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Michael Banks

The man is his art ... he’s got to let it out

Story and photos by Patrick Oden

hen you stand and stare at one of Michael Banks’ paintings, and you will stand and stare, you’ll find yourself gazing deep into the soul of a true artist. To some, his work is whimsical, to others it’s unnerving, but in all of its chaotic and imperfect glory, it’s pure Michael. In his early forties now, the Guntersville native has been making art in one form or another since childhood. His style has changed with time, influences have played their part, but Michael doesn’t create art for people to like; he creates the art that he feels. Perhaps that’s exactly why people love the imperfect art Michael produces … it’s honest. “I am my art,” Michael says, “it’s inside of me and I have to let it out.” Like Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, both influences on Michael, his work is an extension of the man. A mix of love, pain and passion, he, like his work, holds nothing back ... more beautiful for their imperfections, more infectious for their undeniable uniqueness. You see, Michael, an advocate for the arts, has figured out what a lot of artists miss, and his success Michael holds out a two-dimensional piece cut from scrap wood covered with old paint and wrapped with string. It’s part of a series of mixed-media sculptures he’s doing as his expressionism expands. At right, a piece from his “Open Mind” series. 46

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

confirms this. Great art evokes emotion and great artists embrace their identity. Like many artists, Michael’s talents began to emerge at a young age. In grade school, Michael had a hard time giving attention to his class work; all he wanted to do was draw.

young artist. His mother died. Devastated, the emotional teenager began spending less time with his art and more time trying to mask the pain. Alcohol and the chaos it caused consumed Michael, leaving no room for his art. For several years Michael wrestled his demons. When the battle is earliest was over, he emerged Michael expresses his art through all sorts of things he finds. teachers, recognizing refocused, rededicated his talent, made a deal and reborn as an artist. For example, the doll, at top, holds an old crusty paint with Michael. There’s only room brush and is perched inside an up-turned drawer. “If I would do a for the alcohol or the little work,” he says, art, Michael says, as he “they would let me rinses spilled paint from talent matured, he began focusing on draw.” a dustpan. He recognized he couldn’t realism within portraiture. In his young days, Michael partake in both and made himself But just as Michael was finishing worked in pencil. As he and his concentrate on the latter. high school, darkness fell upon the

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

In addition to the show this month at the Mountain Valley Arts Council gallery, this year Michael has shown locally at Art on the Lake and, pictured on these two pages, at the Guntersville Museum. Julie Patton, director of the museum, has long admired Michaelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work and creations. Birds that show up in some of his work are post-production editing, he says, added after heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sat back and studied a composition and its colors.

Michael’s recent exhibition at the Guntersville Museum and his upcoming September show at the Mountain Valley Arts Council are a testament to the determination and focus Michael gave to his rebirth. And the art world is better for it.

aving left his earlier pencils and realism behind, Michael reemerged into the art world with inspired abandon. Working on a variety of materials with a variety of mediums, he began to free his mind. Now, almost two decades later, the proactive artist’s work is admired and collected around the country. But Michael doesn’t rest on his laurels. If he’s not traveling the United States to show his work, he’s creating … night and day. All consumed by, and completely 50

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Walking past paintings on his back porch, something catches his eye. He picks up a brush and dabs at one of the pieces. “It needs a little touch-up,” he says. “They’re never done until I sell them.” Painting on wood, Michael sometimes scratches the surface to add texture, such as in the painting above. At left, Michael talks about his mother while cleaning up after work. Before she died in 1992, she encouraged him to make art but also warned him of the difficulties. He created in obscurity until 1992 when his mother died. After a five-year depression, he recalled the hope and encouragement she gave him and began to paint his way out of his depression. While much of his work has an edge to it, he says he sometimes uses flowers, ducks and birds as a symbol of happiness. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Reminiscent of Vermeer’s “Painter in his Studio,” Michael works in his studio, which might be his back porch, bedroom or wherever.

submissive to the need to create, he channels his emotions into his work. And it shows. Ask most art scholars and they will tell you art isn’t good or bad, it’s successful or it isn’t. That success is based largely on the art’s ability to engage the viewer. Successful art elicits a reaction, triggers an emotion. In this respect, Michael Banks embodies art at its pinnacle. His work is visceral, and it connects at the most primal level. And it can only be the emotion present in the piece that causes one viewer to feel joy while another feels fear.

ike any master artist, Michael realizes the effect his work has on people and knows his creations 52

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allow for a great deal of individual interpretation. Faces, birds, flowers and fire all find their way from the tip of Michael’s brush to the wooden canvases he sources from just about anything he can find. For Michael, everything has the potential to be art. “When I drill holes through a piece to hang it at a show, they become a part of the art,” Michael says. “If a piece gets bumped or dropped, that’s OK, it just becomes part of the art.” In this vein, until it’s hanging on someone’s wall, Michael’s art is never finished. For this very reason, he doesn’t sign his work until it sells. Even with their imperfections, Michael’s work is complex. His

subtle mastery of color and his controlled abandon harmonize in every piece, dark or whimsical. But make no mistake. Every brush stroke and every scratch alike are at the will of the master’s hand. Chaos remains an aspect of his life. But the approachable Guntersville artist shows no signs of slowing down. In fact Michael is hot, in demand … on fire. Mark your calendars for September and visit Mountain Valley Arts Council. Spend a little time engaging Michael but more importantly engaging the creations that flow from the mind and hands of a true artist. No telling what emotions will stir within you, but stir they will. Good Life Magazine

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On the rolling pastures of Sand Mountain three generations of Sumners have found ...

Farming is an agreeable way of life

According to National Agriculture Statistics Service, Marshall County is home to 1,505 farms that produce chickens, cattle, pigs, vegetables, fruit and more. Farming is an essential industry. As the bumper sticker declares, “No farms, no food.” Beyond essentiality, farming is a way of life, and, more often than not, a family way of life. That holds true at Sumners Farm near Boaz – in the Blessing community, to be more precise – where farming’s been a way of life for at least three consecutive generations. Andy Sumners partners with his father, Stanley, who lives nearby. Stanley’s father, the late M.G. Sumners, grew row crops, raised beef cattle, sheep and turkeys. M.G.’s old home place is incorporated into parts of Andy’s and Stanley’s property. They have 140 acres where 75 mama cows graze and this season gave birth to 60 calves. The Sumners also have two layer hen houses and, as of early August, two broiler houses. Gardening comes with the territory. Stanley’s wife, Helen, is part of the team. Andy’s wife, Misty, a special ed teacher at Boaz Intermediate School, helps as she can. So do their two young children. Likewise for Andy’s sister, Tisha, who has her own career, and her family. “We’ve had public jobs,” as Andy calls them, “but we always farmed. It’s a way of life. It’s bred into me.” Their “Sumners Farm” sign could just as well read “Sumners’ Way of Life.”

Some of the Sumners’ South Poll cattle mosey across one of their pastures. The cows feed strictly on grass.

shed there. Then the guy from the magazine showed up for an interview, which took a couple of hours. Next they need to unload the fencing at the church to free the big trailer in order to move pasture fencing so the heifers can graze new grass. “That hay the guy rolled for us

the Mule in a pasture for while to talk about what’s near and dear to the Sumners. Doing anything other than he Kawasaki Mule jostles over farming, Stanley says, was never a the hillside pasture, parting the tall consideration. fescue, Bermuda and Sudex grasses “I knew how to do what it took,” that the Sumners’ South Poll beef he says. “Why not go into a field I cattle feed on. Andy drives, his dad, knew something about?” Stanley, in back. Andy But know-how tells a magazine writer, doesn’t make farming riding shotgun, that he easy. recently resigned from “It’s all hard work,” AT&T after 15 years as Stanley says. “You a lineman.“It was a good have to be willing to be job, but I never even self-motivated, to get think about it unless up and get after it and someone brings it up,” stay with it. You can’t he says. say, ‘Ah, I don’t feel Farming called. It’s good today. I’ll just go what he’s always done, to the lake.’ You gotta’ even while working do the work. When the full time elsewhere. He work is done, you can likes that, even with do something else.” the continuity of three Farming requires generations here, typical commitment to the Stanley and son Andy talk farming. They live, and most of their farm is days don’t exist on the lifestyle, which is a located, on the southeastern edge of Marshall County. Some of their land farm. double-edged scythe. is just across the DeKalb County line. For more on Sumners Farm “There’s always “Sometimes it and South Poll cattle, visit: www.sumnersfarm.com. something different to doesn’t pay too good,” do,” Andy says. “You Stanley says. “The just have to quit at the years I was home with end of the day and start up again the yesterday needs to be stacked in the the hens picking up eggs seven days a next day.” barn,” Andy says, running out of week, Andy and Tisha were right there Makes it easy to lose track of what fingers to tick off. “And I need to in the chicken house with us.” day it is. Misty, he laughs, reminds mow my yard.” When work was done, he tossed him when Sunday rolls around. “That’s another thing,” Stanley baseballs with them or took them Today, Andy says, he was out by chimes in from the back of the Mule. fishing. 6 a.m., starting his morning with “The baseball field needs mowing.” “I wasn’t making a lot of money,” yesterday’s leftover details. He “Whether that gets done today is Stanley says. “But I was paying the checked on yesterday’s progress – or yet to be determined,” Andy laughs. bills. And I was at home raising two lack of same – at two chicken houses “We haven’t eaten lunch yet, and it’s kids.” he’s building, then went to pay a man 2:40.” That, he insists, is worth a lot. for rolling hay for him the day before. By 7 he and Stanley were heading Before quitting time Andy needs That Andy is also to the farm born to Trussville, an hour away, to pick to hook the cattle trailer to his truck. gives his dad a sense of satisfaction. up a load of alfalfa hay then load the In the morning the family heads out Validation, if you will. goose-neck trailer with chain-link for Rosemary Beach in two vehicles. “It can’t help but make you proud fence for the ball field at the new En route he’ll drop his off his truck when your son is doing what you family life center at the Sumners’ and trailer at a Florida farm, retrieve do,” Stanley says. “That he thinks church, Beulah Baptist. them on the way home loaded with six enough about what you’ve done and When he got back from Trussville heifers. accomplished to want to do the same at 11:30 a.m., they returned to the Stanley predicts no supper before thing, to follow your footsteps. new chicken houses to move two 8 p.m. “But I wouldn’t have felt no 6,500-gallon tanks into the well Schedules don’t prohibit stopping different toward him if he’d kept a Story and photos by David Moore

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Andy’s nephew, Mason George, watches cattle in the farmyard at his grandfather’s house, lower left. Starting with a herd of 20 in 2006, the Sumners raise South Poll beef cattle, a cross between four breeds developed by Teddy Gentry, a Fort Payne farmer best known as a member of the band Alabama. The Sumners raise their South Polls from birth to 600-800 pounds, at which point they’re sold to producers who finish growing them out. The Sumners believe in the benefits of grass-raised beef, which is rising in popularity partly because it has less fat and higher omega-3 levels than grain-fed cattle. Sugar content – important to cows – is higher in new growth grass. Rather than simply turning cattle out to pasture, the Sumners utilize strip grazing, confining cattle with moveable fencing to broad strips of pasture. “If you graze grass down to a certain height, then get the cows onto a new strip, the grass grows back faster and is less affected by dry weather,” Andy says.

Since 1979 Stanley has raised breeder hens, whose fertilized eggs are hatched and grown into chicks that are raised in broiler houses for consumption. The Sumners have 14,000-15,000 breeder hens and 700-800 roosters in each of two houses. The 7-8-pound hens are coming into production when he gets them at 21-22 weeks old. At peak they lay 12,000-13,000 eggs per day. The birds are 60-65 weeks old when the flock finishes out, at which point they are processed for soups and such.

public job. He had a good work ethic. He learned it on the farm. So whatever he did, he was going to be successful at it. “He’ll do better on the farm than his daddy.” Cows meander to the pond as the Kawasaki sits parked in the pasture. It’s as fine a spot as any on Sand Mountain for farm talk. Technology and new methods – such as strip grazing – have improved farming. Stanley says Andy uses these changes to their benefit. Also, at least some changes in government policy have been helping farming he says, such as doing away with so many subsidies. “Now it’s more competitive,” Stanley says. “If a farmer doesn’t do a good job and make a profit, he’s out of business.” 58

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Solomon, the Sumners’ only employee on the farm, examines and stacks the large breeder hen eggs that produce big-breasted broiler chickens for grocery stores and restaurants. Stanley says questions about steroid and hormone use are blown out of proportion. “It’s not artificial growth,” he says. “It’s as wholesome a product as you can grow in your backyard. We know where it’s going – on somebody’s table. I wouldn’t eat it if there was anything in it that shouldn’t be.” Under contract with Koch Foods in Gadsden, Andy expected to get his first birds or his two new broiler houses in early August. “Good mommas and daddies make a chick that will grow into a four-pound bird in about 35 days,” he says. “The genetics are what it’s all about. No steroids. No hormones. They get corn and soybean and all that good stuff.” He’ll grow out about seven bunches of chickens per year. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

After church one Sunday this summer, the Sumners gathered on Andy and Misty’s large, covered back porch for a family portrait. Family members are, from left front, Helen, Brynlee and Mason George, Noah and Maggie Sumners and Stanley; Matt and Tisha Sumners George are on the back with Misty and Andy.

Farm product prices have not kept up with inflation, he says, but those prices still come closer to their products’ worth than they once did, and that helps. Stanley knows what they get for their products, and he knows what they cost in the store, but the disparity doesn’t bother him. “I’ve seen what it takes to take one of these beef calves to the feed lot, to feed it out, process that beef, truck it to market, get it on the grocery store shelf … There are a lot of steps involved,” Stanley acknowledges, “and everybody has got to make a little money. So it doesn’t bother me.” He’s just glad to get his share. Farming is hardly a get-rich-quick scheme. Both sweat equity and financial investments are steep, margins slim, risks as iffy as the weather. A two-house broiler farm these days exceeds a $1 million investment. 60

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Plus, in the Sumners’ case, they have several John Deere tractors, Kawasaki Mules, pickup trucks, the goose-neck trailer and assorted equipment. “You’ve got to have stuff,” Andy says. “There are all kinds of cost.” The successful farmer is a successful businessman. “You better know how to count your eggs, so to speak, or your chickens,” Andy laughs. “Whatever you want to call it, you’d better know what you are doing financially, or you can get in a bind in a hurry.” Cold winters drive up gas heating bills for poultry houses. Saving hay for winter feeding? Dry summers can mean breaking into those supplies as early as September. Be prepared, Andy says. The mention that rain has been decent this summer brings a quick answer from father and son in unison: “So far.” So why do it? Why farm?

Andy gets satisfaction from completing a job, from seeing a cow born to shipping it off. In cases of cows they’ve kept for years, he’s enjoyed seeing them have calves then seeing their calves have calves. He says he looks forward to growing chickens – starting in early August – and knowing he’s raising quality poultry for tables in homes and restaurants. “I’ll know I’ll have done the best I can do,” he says. If push comes to shove, Andy can get another job, but the bottom line is that farming makes him happy. “Working and sweating don’t bother me,” he says, “as long as I enjoy what I’m doing.” And another thing … after farming all day, Andy sure sleeps well. “I haven’t had a problem,” he says, laughing and adding, “Yet. But that could change when I get my birds.” Good Life Magazine

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Marshall County industries by the numbers Food Processing Division 195 Paragon Drive • Albertville Conveyor, Fabrication & Millwright Services

124 $ 71

299 12,000 $ 300

total industries million - amount existing and new industries invested here in 2014 new jobs created in 2014 people employed million estimated annual paychecks

Industrial Piping Division 1600 Progress • Albertville Industrial, ProcessDrive & Sanitary Piping

Food Processing Division Conveyor, & Millwright Services 1605 Fabrication Progress Drive • Albertville

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Industrial Piping Division 195 Paragon Drive • Albertville Industrial, Process & Sanitary Piping

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These leading members of the Marshall County Manufacturers Association proudly help build the “good life” in Marshall County. The next 4 stories are good examples.

Marshall County Manufacturers Association

Kappler

Elaina Franks: ‘plan- B’ scientist is up to myriad activities when off work Story and photos by David Moore

here was never a plan B. Elaina Lee Franks graduated from Arab High in 2004, would earn an undergrad degree in cell and molecular biology, go to med school, become a doctor. Oh, and she’ d move off … somewhere. Junior year homesickness at Troy University cured her itch to move away. Shifts in the structure of healthcare changed her mind about medicine. She did marry Daniel Franks, a Troy football player, and moved him to Arab. She also earned an online master’s degree in biomedical informatics from Nova Southeastern University, which encouraged her to go into the business and IT side of medicine. “Why not?” Elaina says. Plan A was gone. Meanwhile, she served on the board of Alzheimer’s Services of Marshall County with Gale Kappler, wife of George, founder of Kappler in Guntersville, renown for extreme protective wear. Elaina gave her a resumé and soon got contract work with Kappler growing bacteria and testing dye-treated fabric designed to kill microbes. Elaina took a Huntsville biotech job but was thrilled in 2011 when Kappler hired her full time. After thorough cross training, she became a research scientist. Since March, she’s been the R&D quality manager, analyzing data using her “black belt” in Six Sigma methodologies to ensure consistency in fabrics and their coatings. “Chalk it up to my science brain,” Elaina grins. “I like solving problems. It’s like a puzzle.” So, what’s a science brain to do after work? Well, she and Daniel have four dogs, four nieces and two nephews. They garden and can with her parents. She hunts and fishes with Daniel; teaches the Arab Junior High majorette clinic; boats with friends on the lake; reads up on holistic medicines. Through a connection made during the 2014 Marshall County Leadership Challenge, Elaina was appointed to the Arab Planning Commission. “I love my hometown,” she says. “I want to help preserve its heritage but help Arab grow, too.” Imagine ... what if Elaina actually had a plan B?

This summer Elaina Franks, above with a microscope at work, accompanied George Kappler and Kappler’s director of R&D to Washington, D.C., to lobby Sen. Richard Shelby and others for support of national standards for Ebola protective garments. She makes fun trips with Daniel, below, on their 2004 Harley Ultra Classic.

Good Life Magazine

A salute to Marshall County industries

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Paragon Gail Jimmerson works and lives with art; life’s too short not to enjoy Story and photos by David Moore

Gail Jimmerson works with an artist at Paragon who is re-creating a popular silhouette of trees, top. Above, she reads from a 1902 cookbook, surrounded by her grandmother’s recipe for orange sponge cake and some of the more than 40 quarts of pickles and tomatoes she canned the week before. 64

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1976 graduate of Albertville High School and Gadsden Tech, Gail Jimmerson was a nurse long enough to know it wasn’t for her. “Life,” she says, “is too short to do something you don’t enjoy.” Fortunately, Bonnie Glassco – who started a decor firm with her husband, Wendell, in 1970 – hired Gail 26 years ago to work at Paragon in Albertville. Thrilled to be involved in producing art, Gail had found something she enjoyed. She worked her way from the frame assembly line to team leader in research and development, figuring out how to quality-produce the artwork Paragon designers conceived. More recently, as a supervisor, she helped the 80-employee plant move into “hand-crafted items on steroids.” On top of work being a creative outlet for Gail, she says she loves the family feel of the company. At the end of the day she takes her creativity home with her. Life’s too short not to enjoy being home.

Friends say her house is her artistic canvas. She loves decorating and painting furniture. Her kitchen is a studio, if you will, where her culinary passions extend from baking cupcakes for work to collecting antique cookbooks. Gail gardens extensively, giving away much of her canned veggies. A music lover, she’s played clarinet in community band at Snead State. Her volunteer work has included Hope Place, United Way, Boaz Senior Center, Marshall County Christmas Coalition and more.

rom Girl Scouts to the Boaz High School band, Gail was active with her daughter, Hannah, growing up, though not so much today. Hannah is embarking on a master’s degree in physics. Gail’s husband, Terry, owns Premier Transportation. She helps out as she can at the 16-truck operation. “God has blessed us with a lot,” Gail says of life. And she’s made an art of enjoying it, too.

Good Life Magazine

A salute to the industries that

Syncro Andrea Taylor deals with fires, wrecks and rescues after work Story and photos by David Moore

ndrea Taylor is adaptive. Maybe that comes from her dad teaching her auto maintenance so if something basic happened to her car she could take care of it herself. At any rate, when the Eva preschool she taught at closed, Andrea landed a job fabricating circuit boards at Syncro in Arab, a convenient two-mile drive. “I enjoy it here,” says the 1994 graduate of Brewer High School. “We have a lot of good people. And every day is different.” Andrea’s adaptive off work, too. She has to be. As a member of Brindlee Mountain Volunteer Fire Department she might find herself entering a blazing home, helping free and provide basic medical attention to a trapped wreck victim or assisting an injured person lost inside a cave. Her interest in firefighting and rescue work ignited while earning her elementary education degree from Athens State. As part of a community service project she paid several visits to Arab Fire and Rescue, assisting Capt. Jerry Holmes and the other professional firefighters with shift-change paperwork and hose and gear checks. She also hung out with friends at the BMVFD station in nearby Morgan City. “They said that since I was already there, I might as well join,” Andrea grins.

At Syncro, Andrea operates several high-tech machines that print and install components in circuit boards for the medical, industrial, transportation, military and other fields. The company employs about 142 people. At BMVFD, Andrea is one of three females on the roster. As a testament to her dedication, she’s been known to leave a friend’s wedding to respond to an emergency call.

he did, but it was hardly that simple. Since 2009 she’s spent hundreds of hours earning advanced certifications in firefighting, handling hazardous materials, cave and cliff rescues and more. She’s also certified to teach fire training, rescue and safety classes. Continued training, she insists, makes for safe and efficient firefighters, who in turn can properly adapt and respond to someone in need. “Our motto,” she says, is ‘We serve because we care.’”

Good Life Magazine

help make Marshall County great.

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At work Brandon is a happy geek, excited about virtual hard drives and the server system he installed. “This is what I dream about,” he grins. “TS Tech allowed it to happen.” At home, he has developed a real fondness for growing and grafting trees, from ginkgo to apples. “It’s an interesting hobby,” he says. “You’d be surprised how many people do this for fun.”

TS Tech

‘Connectivity’ follows Brandon Crawford home to his ... trees? Story and photos by David Moore

n TS Tech’s expansive production floor in Boaz hundreds of associates bustle about on various production lines making seats for every new Honda Odyssey sold in America. The choreography would utterly amaze assembly line inventor Henry Ford. Connectivity. That’s the term for networking the more than 1,000 electronic devices – from computer monitored boltfastening torque guns to robots – that make this industrial dance work. And then there are all of the computers, tablets and such in the offices. Brandon Crawford of Boaz is the connectivity guy. “If it’s networking,” says the 1996 Albertville High grad 66

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with casual assuredness, “I am responsible for it.” The production dance starts with the continuing arrival of parts from 80 vendors. Every move of every one of the 8001,000 parts in a seat is tracked through Brandon’s networks. “It’s a whole deep dark world of electronics,” grins the self-acknowledged geek who could almost drool over the technology he gets to work with. “It would be hard to find another company in this area that puts this kind of investment into technology,” he says with pride.

o big surprise but after work Brandon sometimes plays computer games. His three youngsters might play with him. Or he and wife Jennifer might watch them play T-ball. Still no surprise? OK … after work he often checks on his serious hobby – his pecans, Japanese maples and ornamental conifers and evergreens. He has 5,000 of them, grown from seed, twigs to five feet tall. He’s learned grafting and, say, takes 4-6 inches of new growth from a bloodgood Japanese maple and grows it to the bottom of a little green Japanese maple, which has better rootstock. The hobby fascinates Brandon. It’s as if he developed … well, connectivity with nature.

Good Life Magazine

A salute to Marshall County industries

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You probably won’t end up lost if you hike the trail without the map, but you can google it and print one from the TVA site.

Cooley Cemetery Trail Hike along Georgia Mountain seeks old roads, fall colors and a few answers to small mysteries

Story and photos by David Moore

wo mysteries lurked in my mind as I hiked TVA’s six-mile Cooley Cemetery Trail last fall with Earl “ET” Talley and his son, Earl Jr. Nothing so dramatic as who-done-it murders, missing treasures or even lost hikers in the woods; still these mysteries intrigued me. Segments of the trail follow remnants of two dirt roads dating to the 1800s. Parts of the roads are 68

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simply lost to time, reclaimed by the forest. Parts of them disappeared from the face of the earth when Guntersville Dam backed up the Tennessee River in 1939, sinking the roads, surrounding bottomlands and the small town of Manchester into the murky mud of watery graves. What tidbits of our history disappeared with those old roads? To where did they lead? Who built and traveled them? And why? Maybe the hike would reveal something.

Another reason for our excursion was to see the foliage at the peak of fall. But, as you might recall, last autumn’s colors were late, less showy than usual, less “fallish” than we’d hoped. What happened to autumn? Where had it gone? It was another mystery, and ET, Earl Jr. and I talked about it as we left Arab that morning, carrying a TVA map of the trail so we would not become “The Mystery of the Lost Hikers.” We started at the end. We parked my car deep in the woods at the cemetery at the rutted dirt end of Manchester Drive, and drove ET’s truck back up Georgia Mountain. We crossed over to Union Grove Road, then took Snow Point Road down

Earl “ET” Talley and son Earl Jr. tromp up the trail shortly after entering the woods near Guntersville Dam.

almost to Guntersville Dam, parking the truck at Cave Mountain. The unmarked trailhead is halfhidden on the south side of Snow Point Road, a half-mile from the dam. We found it and struck off up a flank of Georgia Mountain. The trail followed a power line right-of-way for a short distance. By the time it turned into the woods proper, I was breathing a little hard. Blame it on birthdays.

rom the dam’s end, TVA’s trail heads generally eastward but not without winding its way up, down and around three inlets on the south side of the lake and part of a fourth near the cemetery. In places the trail traverses the steep, wooded slopes of Georgia Mountain, in others it

flows easy and level beside the wide waters. None of us had hiked the Cooley Cemetery Trail since TVA had organized and named it, but ET and I had explored parts of the trail and parts of these woods and the mountain before, together and separately. As it had done to me before, the trail exerted a strong sense of place. I could feel it in the views through the trees of the Tennessee River 200 feet below, in glimpses of the dam behind us. It was as if the land possessed the ability to hold memories. About a mile in, the trail led us south and back down the mountain, into the Mill Hollow inlet. I had been there by boat and by different trails a number of times, once camping overnight with friends. In fact, the

first time ET and I hiked together we had come here. In all my visits I’d never seen water flowing in Mill Hollow Creek. It’s a basically dry, boulderstrewn creek bed tumbling down the mountain to the inlet. That first time ET and I hiked we followed a trail along the creek bed up into the steepsided hollow. Oddly, after a half-mile or so we heard rushing water. We reached a quasi-clearing where two creeks flowed together after one of them toppled over a waterfall. Curiously, at their confluence at the base of the falls, both creeks disappeared down a sinkhole into the dark depths of the mountain.

ET and I talked about Mill

Hollow Creek as we hiked around AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Trees at Hembrick Hollow show off a little color. Below, ET and Earl Jr. follow the trail down Georgia Mountain.

the inlet. We told Earl Jr. about a section of steep, old roadbed near the two creeks; about how foundation remnants and a few chunks of rusty iron machinery indicated the place was once the site of a mill. Sleuth that I am, I figured that’s probably how Mill Hollow Creek got its name. I voiced my theory that blasting during the construction of Guntersville Dam – a mile and a half away as the crow flies – opened the sinkhole at the base of the falls. Someone at TVA once refuted that, but either way the sinkhole explains why the creek bed is dry down to the inlet and enhances the area’s sense of mystery history. Earl Jr. was all for hiking up Mill Hollow Creek, but our destination was a graveyard, and the clock was ticking. So we bore northeast, following the Cooley trail as it climbed 200 steep feet up the side of Georgia Mountain. The trail does a bit of pleasant 70

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yellow. Elsewhere, the woods felt more airy. Eventually we started downhill toward the second and smallest of the four inlets along the base of Georgia Mountain. The trail grew wider and apparently joined an old roadbed up and down the mountain. We followed it a short way before the trail turned off, crossed the end of the inlet and continued toward the river. The old road, I assumed, petered out into the water.

zigzagging – north, east, south and north – as it hugs the 800-foot contour line. In places the trees formed a thick canopy of green and

or the last three miles, the trail generally followed the river, sometimes next to the water but usually a few hundred yards away. We noticed that the trees were often more colorful near the water. ET and I wondered if climate change had affected the fall colors. Earl Jr. suggested it could simply be the normal ebb and flow of weather cycles. The trail was easy to follow, but

Colors are brightest near the river and inlets, above and lower right. At lower left itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s apparent the trail is following an old roadbed.

Overhead, the canopy was still green in places, even though it was early November, but in other places fall colors added their dazzle. Under water was obviously a different story. Sections of old roads and the site of the former town of Manchester have lain hidden in the 76 years since TVA closed the gates at Guntersville Dam and created the lake.

after curving around the third inlet it became even more distinct, often quite wide. We were on a section I had hiked alone a few years earlier, a section I knew to be the old roadbed. The river here runs a half-mile wide or more and, on this day, it was a gorgeous blue. The trail/roadbed was wet and rutted in places, the canopy thin overhead. Elsewhere, the woods felt deep, trees loomed tall. And in my mind, the old lost road came to life. I imagined settlers in mule-drawn wagons, alone or with family, jostling their way home from Manchester, Warrenton or perhaps Guntersville. I imagined evening 72

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drawing nigh, the quiet of the woods suddenly ripped by the scream of a mountain lion. Near the last and largest inlet, the trail bore south again, picking up another old roadbed. What I think of as the Old Manchester Road continued east, disappearing with its past under the water.

quarter-mile stretch brought us to the trailâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s end at what the sign calls the Manchester Cooley Cemetery. We puttered around the quiet cemetery a while reading old tombstones and thinking old cemetery thoughts. Just as Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d never seen water flowing in Mill Hollow Creek,

Foster Landing Road extended into the bottomlands and turned west, ending, presumably at a landing <<< past the site of the dam.

Old unpaved roadbed on the eastern end of the Cooley Cemetery Trail. >>>

<<< These shaded lines denote rim rock, according to maps legends. Foster Landing Road today, a dead end. >>>

To Mount Carmel Baptist Church. >>>

Joining two old maps helps solve part of the mystery of former roads that coincide today with the Cooley Cemetery Trail. The left third of the combined maps above is from a 1936 quadrant map produced by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The corresponding section of the Mount Carmel quadrant is to the right. Note Manchester at the far right in the area to be flooded. The map does not show the Cooley Cemetery. Ira Roe Foster was a teacher and doctor in South Carolina and an attorney, soldier, businessman and politician in Georgia. During the Civil War Foster was quartermaster general of Georgia. In 1867, Foster moved his family to Georgia Mountain, where he owned six miles of Tennessee River-front farming land, a large portion of the mountain and a saw mill. He returned to Georgia after several years.

I didn’t remember ever hearing any sound at Cooley Cemetery. I find it a strangely quiet place. The mysteries for the day remained clouded, but the afternoon was bright and sunny. Though we solved nothing large or small, it was a fun and interesting hike, and we agreed that it simply felt good just to get out in the woods. My curiosity about the lost road or roads, however, simmered over the winter and spring. In early summer I began searching online for old maps of Marshall County. It was my alma mater that rewarded me at alabamamaps.ua.edu. There, on 1936 U.S. Geological Survey and TVA topographic maps, were my old mystery roads, portions of them covered by blue indicating the future reservoir. Those maps, in turn, led me to reexamine current maps, and Foster Landing Road jumped out as an obvious clue. Perhaps I’ll learn more in the future. Maybe ET, Earl Jr. and I didn’t need a map to get “unlost” in the woods that day, but in the end maps did get some aspects of the old roads mystery “un-lost.”

Earl Jr., distant right, explores Cooley Cemetery after the hike.

For now, however, the stories behind the people who traveled those roads remain relegated to the realms of imagination. Good Life Magazine AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Out ’n’ About If you were out ‘n’ about June 19-20 you might have seen a mass of boats gathered on Guntersville Lake, west of 431. It was the

Eight Annual Spring 2 Summer Wakeboarding Tournament. Wakeboarding can be a hard knock sport as evidenced by the bloody

nose of Ben Allbright, center, of New Orleans. Below contestants

wait on the new Publix dock for their turn to compete. Hyperlite

Wakeboards representative Jeremy Baker, adjusting a board in the

bottom photo, brought his Nautique G23 demo dreamboat from Arkansas to tow contestants. At far right, top to bottom, bodies

from the spectator crowd fill the G23 to add ballast; professional wakeboarder Kyle Rattray of Orlando, Fla., shows off with an

aerial assault; and all good things must come to an end as the sun

lowers over Guntersville Lake. Photos by Patrick Oden

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Marshall Medical is proud to make the 100 SafeCare Hospitals list. The Marshall Medical system has been recognized nationally by The SafeCare Group for three critical categories of quality healthcare: the best Processes, Outcomes, and Efficacy of Care. This recognition covered hospitals between 100-400 beds nationwide for the period 2014-15. Founded in 2010 to help hospitals excel in patient safety, quality and efficiency, The SafeCare Group analyzes such areas as lowest mortality rates, lowest readmission rates, and lowest surgical complication and infection rates. In performing well in these and other categories, Marshall Medical demonstrated its continuing commitment to quality â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and another reason weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the convenient choice for your healthcare needs. For more details on the 100 SafeCare Hospitals list visit mmcenters.com.

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