Marshall Good Life Magazine -Fall 2014 by The Good Life Magazine

Marshall County

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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Welcome

Good Life Magazine, I remind myself, isn’t a destination; the trip is what counts

It hardly seems 14 months ago that

Sheila McAnear and I left newspaper jobs in Arab to publish Good Life Magazine. This fourth issue in your hand completes our first full cycle of quarterly issues in Marshall County. Thanks to all of our readers and advertisers. We would not be here without you. And thanks for your feedback. We never dreamed we’d hear so many glowing comments. Someone recently noted how much fun I seemed to be having and added, “If you love what you do, then you

never work a day in your life.” I wonder sometimes, especially when I get a rejection, get exasperated trying to contact people or tangling with finicky technology, stay up late writing ... all, naturally, on deadline. But I don’t like feeling that way. So I’ve made a renewed effort to apply a lesson I learned 33 years ago hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. The point of the sixmonth trek was not reaching a distant destination in the wilds of Maine. The point was the trip itself, making the best of each day and loving the beauty

around me, despite lugging a 50-pound pack, always craving more food and sleeping in a small tent next to a hiking buddy whose smell scared off skunks. Likewise, GLM is not a destination. It’s a journey to be savored. I am already there. And, if I enjoy myself along the way, which I fully intend to do, I believe you’ll continue to enjoy Good Life Magazine.

David Moore Publisher/editor

Contributors Thousands of people across Marshall County saw and read some of Patrick Oden’s photos and stories in the special section on Marshall Cancer Care Center that was inserted in July in all of the local newspapers. While not as serious as cancer, he tackled two assignments for this issue of the magazine that you’ll also enjoy. A “voracious reader,” Annette Haislip devours two or three books a week. She chooses from best seller lists and recommendations from friends and members of her monthly literary club. One of the books she reviewed in the summer issue of Good Life, “The Goldfinch,” has since won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. As co-owner and advertising and art director for Good Life Magazine, Sheila McAnear really has lots of spare time on her hands, so she’s planning to write and illustrate a series of books on the joys and thrills of raising three boys ... well, maybe if they ever allow her time to do it. Or maybe not.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Steve Maze, like Patrick Oden, also wrote for the recent special section on the year-old cancer care center. Hospital officials say they continue to get great feedback on the inspiring stories of local cancer survivors. A regular contributor to Good Life, Steve is back this fall in the history niche he also fills so well. As county coordinator for the Extension Service, during a given week Eddie Wheeler might be off in a corn field, in someone’s vineyard or at Auburn or Alabama A&M. He might even be writing his new piece for this magazine. Serious about his work, it’s rumored that in his off time he sneaks out to shoot hoops.

David Moore, publisher and editor of Good Life Magazine, also worked on the aforementioned cancer care center project in July plus, along with Sheila, sent Cullman and Marshall GLMs to press. “I love it when people ask how I like ‘retirement,’” he grins. While that’s not in the cards, a vacation sounds pretty darn good.

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Inside

Good Fun

Music, seafood, football – you name it

14 Good People

Jeff Cook has birthdays backward

On the cover: Jerry Cox crews aboard a sailboat during races on Lake Guntersville. Pictured here: An Alabama roll, top, and a sashimi roll, bottom, are two specialties from the sushi chef at Sakura Japanese Steakhouse. Photos by David Moore

18 Good Reads

Different searches make different stories

20 Good ’n’ Green

What to do when “invaders”show up

22 Good Eats

Sakura: Fun, food and the ‘American Dream’

24 Good Cooking

Paella – big taste comes from a big pan

30 She paints with flowers

If you know Mary“Prissy”Terrell, you know her yard explodes with flowers

40 Lakeside Quilters

The love and art of quilting bring them together from all corners of the county

44 Oh, that name

The history of Arab took a wrong turn from its earliest beginnings, but so what

48 Albertville Museum

After being closed since this past spring, it’s open again with a brand new layout

51 Racing with the wind

Lovers of sailboats take racing on Lake Guntersville as very serious fun

58 Out ‘n’ About

With the coming of fall, what better time to enjoy the beauty of the state park

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

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The Gary Waldrep Band headlines the 50th Annual Boaz Harvest Festival, playing on the main stage by the chamber of commerce at 1 and 5 p.m. Saturday. A premier clawhammer banjo picker, Gary also plays fiddle, guitar, piano, mandolin and dulcimer and is in the Alabama Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. A Boaz High graduate, he’s attended harvest festivals as long as he can remember. “We have a lot of family and fans around here,” he says. “It will be like coming home.”

Boaz Harvest Festival turns 50 on Oct. 3-4 T

he Boaz Harvest Festival is always big doin’s, but this year’s 50th anniversary version promises to be bigger than usual. Sprawled out along Main Street in historic downtown, the event will be held 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Friday-Saturday, Oct. 3-4. Besides deals at downtown stores, some 200 vendors along Main Street will be selling arts, crafts and food. A huge classic car show and swap is planned again, plus there will be a motorcycle poker run. See who knows how to pig out Saturday at the Moon Pie-eating contest. In the free play area, kids can romp on inflatables, climb the rock wall and bungee jump. New this year will be the Harvest Moon Midnight Run with 5K and 1-mile courses. It starts at 11:59 p.m. Friday from Piper Station. The $25 pre-race fee benefits the high school cross-country team and a city program to make Boaz healthier. For more info, call: Jessica Patterson, 256-593-8105. The Miss Harvest Festival Pageant for girls 1-18 will be at 9 a.m. Saturday at 110 South Main. Entry fee is $50 and the deadline to register is 4 p.m. Sept. 19. For more details or to participate, call: Boaz Chamber of Commerce, 256-593-8154. Among the vendors will be dozens of the 80 members of the Marshall County Craft Club. A small sampling of their work is shown at the right, set up in their new home, Alabama Craft Show, at Piper Station. The group is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. For more information, call: Ida Stackhouse, 256-996-4945. 8

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Party likes it’s downtown Arab

Good Fun

owntown Arab has been partying this summer, and the fun event continues every second Friday of the month through Nov. 14. Actually, the fun event is called The Main Event. It’s a free evening of art, entertainment, food, socializing and a themed street dance that goes to 10 p.m. on First Avenue NW. Feel free to dress according to each event’s theme. Starting at 6 p.m., local and regional artisans and authors will display their works along the sidewalks on Main Street. Live music and entertainment will be happening on the main stage and at Walker’s Coffee House from 6-8 p.m. DJ Paul Limperis will keep the music going at the main stage 8-10 p.m. Meanwhile, live music starts at the Firelight Tavern at 9. Downtown shops, diners and cafes will be open late for shopping, dinner, dessert or drinks. Here are the street themes, headliner bands/musicians and events lined up so far... • Aug. 8 – Feelin’ Groovy Sock Hop from the 1950s and ’60s’ country/western music by Hwy 231; Cruisin’ Main Classic Car Cruise-In; watermelon eating contest can win you a blue ribbon and bragging rights for a year. • Sept. 12 – Boot Scootin’ and Salsa with country and western with a taste of salsa; classic rock by Mychael John Thomas; enter your best baked beans, potato salad in the Side Dish Showdown. • Oct. 10 – Halloween Howl – A Thriller of a Street Dance; it’s open mic, so bring your guitar, banjo or CD for a turn on the stage; wear a costume whether you perform or not; Howl-a-ween pet costume contest with the $5 entry fee going to Arab Animal Shelter spay/neuter program.

Mychael John Thomas will perform Sept. 12 • Nov. 14 – Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree is the event theme but there’ll be no street dance; The Sullivans Celtic band will headline the music; there also will be carolers and Santa; it’s all part of the Downtown Christmas Open House which will continue that Saturday. The Arab Downtown Association, sponsor of The Main Event, will add some surprises from time to time. There’s no charge for artisans, authors, non-profit groups and entertainers wanting to participate. For more information, call: Dawn Sparks, 256-200-5270; or Kathy Ramsey, 256-586-0345.

Main Street music to fill the air in Albertville Among the activities on deck for the coming months are a weekend of music and fun in the streets of Albertville, an art exhibit, seafood and what promises to be a wild air show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Albertville Regional Airport. Check it out ... • Aug. 8-9 – Main Street Music Festival Albertville will be rocking all weekend as the Fifth Annual Main Street Music Festival spills over downtown with

music acts that include Jo Dee Messina, Gin Blossoms and the Bellamy Brothers. And it’s all free. Day events, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., range from art exhibits through the Arts Factory and Mountain Valley Arts Council to animal exhibit and a fun area with inflatables and a water park. Friday night’s music on the stage at First Bank includes: • 5:30 – Nick Longshore’s Barefoot Blues Band • 6:30 – Whiskey and Lace featuring

Albertville’s Chad Bearden; • 8 p.m. – The Bellamy Brothers. Day-long events Saturday will also include a kids’ bike parade meeting at 9:30 a.m. in front of Sandwich Host, chicken races and chicken dancing contests. A classic car cruise-in will be 1-4 p.m. at First Baptist Church. Music on the First Bank stage during the day includes Morgan Taylor, Rosewood, Southern Riot, Fellowship Quartet, Country Case, Albertville High School jazz band, River Hollow, Sweet Tea Trio, AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

1987) will be on display at Mountain Valley Arts Council. Her love of nature, the changing seasons and, especially, Lake Guntersville and the Tennessee River fill her oils and watercolors, many of which hang today in private and public collections around the South. Lucile studied at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and was a graduate of the School of Fine Art in Westport, Conn. Locally, she studied under Martha Bradford and Frank Nelson. Beyond painting, she was an active member of the Twentieth Century Club (now the Twenty-First Century Club) and is credited with suggesting it hold the now annual Art on the Lake show. She was a member of the Guntersville Art Guild, supported an art gallery in Guntersville and was one of the first artists to show her work at Lake Guntersville State Park when it was first built. It and Joe Wheeler State Park both commissioned works by Lucile to hang in their permanent collections. The first showing of her works since 1981, the exhibit is sponsored by the Rains Family and Sonny Lewis. For more information, call: Mountain Valley Arts Council, 256-571-7199.

One of Lucile Smith Rains’ oils Life Point praise and worship band, Brooke Danielle Band and Wade Trammell Band. Playing on the WQSB/Bankston Motors/Harris Flower Insurance stage that night will be: • 6:30 – Gin Blossoms • 8:30 – Jo Dee Messina For more info, call: Albertville City Hall, 256-891-8200. • Through Aug. 30 – Memorial art show The works of Guntersville artist Lucile Smith Rains (1908-

• Aug. 29-30 – St. William Seafood Festival This marks the Catholic church’s tasty Labor Day weekend event’s 44th year. Not only is the freshly prepared gumbo and other food a favorite for locals, but it draws people to Civitan Park in Guntersville from as far away as Tennessee and Georgia. At the drive-thru you can get Cajun boiled shrimp by the pound and frozen gumbo by the quart. It’s open 4-6 p.m. Friday and reopens at 7:30 a.m. Saturday. The dine-in menu includes Cajun boiled shrimp and crawfish by the pound, gumbo by the pint and quart and catfish fillet and BBQ chicken dinners, rice by the cup, hush puppies, coleslaw and homemade desserts. Dine-in, for Saturday only, is available starting at 10:30 a.m. If you wait for dinnertime, it’ll be long sold out. Seafood market prices fluctuate, so costs at the festival will not be known until closer to that time.

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• Sept. 2-Nov. 1– Photos and “recycled art” Stop by the Mountain Valley Arts Council gallery to view the photography of Robert Kenmore which will be on display. A native of Albertville, the artist resides in Birmingham. A reception for Kenmore will be held 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4, at the gallery. While you’re there, check out the artwork the Keep Guntersville Beautiful group created with recycled “stuff.” Located at 300 Gunter Ave. in Guntersville, the gallery is open 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. For more information, call: 256-571-7199. • Sept. 13 – Arab Community Fair Enjoy food, arts and crafts, games and history at this free event, held in the Historic Village and city park. If you’ve never visited Arab Historical Village, this is a great time to find all of the buildings open and step back into history. The Community Fair first started in 1922 and was held for some years. The Arab Historical Society resurrected it for the city’s centennial in 1992. The fair and village are located at Arab City Park, and admission and parking are free. • Sept. 27 – Albertville Air Show Albertville Regional Airport will celebrate its 50th anniversary with what promises to be a heck of an air show, bringing in four national acts and other regional acts. “They are all top-notch performers,” says airport director

Jerry Cofield. “It’s going to be a tremendous air show for the celebration of the 50th anniversary. It’s a major step to celebrate 50 years.” The airport held shows in 2008, 2009. The latter drew a crowd of 12,000-15,000 people, Jerry says. Among the major acts are: • AeroShell air team, which has performed across the country for more than 25 years flying “Pilot Maker” AT-6 Texans used as WWII pilot trainers • Billy Werth puts on hardcore, low level performances. Besides his beautiful biplane, he brings thunder, power and awesome to all his shows. • Greg Koontz and the Alabama Boys are a complete air show package. He’s been known to cut a ribbon by flying his Super Decathlon 15 feet off the ground – upside down. • Gary Ward these days flies the awesome new MX2. Small, fast and agile, the carbon fiber plane uses a 350 hp engine and dives at 250 mph. There’ll be plenty of food vendors, but bring a lawn chair. Cost of admission is $5; 12 and under, free. For more information, call: Doug Emge, 256-878-1433. • Sept. 27 – Grant Community Wide Yard Sale “The”event of the year in Grant, the massive yard sale expects to draw at least 150 vendors and perusers, shoppers and the curious from not just the county but out of state as well. It kicks off at 6 a.m. and goes until. For booth space, call: Grant Chamber of Commerce, 256728-8800.

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The 1972 Mountaineer annual carried a photo of the Aggie-Wildcat game in 1971 that ended in a 14-14 tie, one of six in the first 99 years of the series.

Aggies vs. Wildcats

State high school record rivalry hits the century mark

Story by David Moore

here may or may not be spirits in evidence on Halloween night on Sand Mountain, but spirit will be in strong evidence. Oct. 31 will mark the 100th football game between Albertville and Guntersville. It will be duked out on the Aggies’ home turf. Besides the usual slugfest on the field, the history of Alabama’s longest continuous high school football rivalry includes an epic brawl over the kidnapping of a goat. That incident notwithstanding, the game for years was a Thanksgiving Day tradition. The Wildcats hold a 48-45 edge over Albertville in the win column, including nine of the last 10 games and last season’s 25-22, come-from-behind victory. Six times the teams tied. Dating to 1914, the rivalry is probably the oldest in Alabama high school football lore. For four years, however, the game was not played: 1917 and ’18, coinciding with World War I; and 1924-’25, coinciding with 12 AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

the “war” over the goat in 1923. T.J. Carnes describes the goat incident in delightful detail in “Out of the Sand,” his history on what was then the State Agricultural School at Albertville. In the rivalry’s first years, fans – as fans do – started referring to their respective opponents as “Hillbillies” or “River Rats.” About 1919, Guntersville fans began bringing a goat to the game wearing a blanket with “Albertville” on it. During this era, teams and fans rode the train up or down Sand Mountain to the games. Both squads were undefeated in 1923 before Albertville won 13-0 in a drizzle. As the dejected Guntersville crowd returned to the train, some Albertville fans got a wild hair and kidnapped the visiting goat. As the ensuing melee spread, the visitors recaptured their goat and beat off opponents until they were able to escape the station, the goat on the roof of the train. Two missed games in the series were “made up” during WWII when, to save oil and gas on distant away

games, county teams played each other twice in 1943 and ’44. Another missed game was made up when they met twice in 1993, the Aggies winning in the regular season, Guntersville winning in the playoffs. Former Aggie Gil Bruce compiled many stats from the series from research he did for the Alabama High School Football Historical Society’s website. He can’t confirm the series is the oldest in the state, but its run since 1926 is apparently a record. “In seven years of solid research I have yet to find a longer continuous rivalry,” he says.

A witness to half of the rivalry is

Bill Yancy, who since 1965 has called the Guntersville games for WTWX. This Halloween will be his 50th straight Albertville game. Though school annuals called the game an intense rivalry after the first or second season, Bill thinks that level was not achieved until 1927, the first year Guntersville, 9-0 that season, won. The Wildcats handed Albertville its only loss when, late in the game, Sam Means threw a TD pass to Mack Moss. The 1967 game was one of many memorable battles because “we beat the snot out of them,” Bill says of the Wildcats’ 42-19 win, tied

for their highest score in the series. “Guntersville had a great team that year and went to the playoffs.” Senior fullback Mike Jennings earned a scholarship to play at Auburn but died in a car crash that summer. “He was quite an athlete,” Bill says. Another game he recalls, played Nov. 14, 1969, in Albertville is memorable for the brutal weather. “It came an unexpected blizzard,” Bill says. “The temperature, as I remember, dropped about 19 degrees.” Gil, then a water boy, says it was spitting snow during the pre-game that night, big flakes were falling by kickoff, and 2 inches had piled up by halftime. His brother, Buddy, slipped on the freezing surface while kicking off, fell, broke his tailbone and had to watch from the bench as the Wildcats beat his team 13-12.

Gil quarterbacked for the Aggies

1974-76, going two for three against Guntersville. The ’75 game was the “worst knock-down drag-out in my

life,” he recalls, adding that six future members of the Marshall County Sports Hall of Fame participated: Guntersville’s Stanley Howell and Albertville’s Hamp Moore, Paul Teague, assistant coach Richard Ferguson, coach Vernon Wells, himself and Bill Yancy. Guntersville scored one play after a second-quarter Aggie fumble but failed to convert. Late in the game, Gil says, center Paul Teague snapped him the ball on the first count instead of the second. Still waiting for the second count, everyone on the line held their position except wideout Tim Davis, who saw the snap. “He ran downfield, I threw it as far as I could, and he caught it and ran for a touchdown,” Gil says. Collins Wakefield toed the extra point, and the Aggies won 7-6. Ardent Wildcat fans cried foul. No way, Gil insists. “It was a mixup on the snap count.” Whatever happens this Halloween when the teams tangle for the 100th

This program is from one of the

games played ’43; Aggies won both. time, you can bet spirits once again run high. There might even be a spirit or two watching anxiously from the sidelines.

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Snapshot: Jeff Cook

Early years: Began playing lead guitar and keyboards in bands at 13; earned a radio broadcast license three days after his 14th birthday. In 1969 joined Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry to form Young Country; for their first gig they won a Section High School talent contest in 1969. In 1972 formed Wildcountry with Randy and Teddy; changed their name in 1977 to Alabama to coincide with releasing “I Want to Be with You Tonight,” their first song to crack the charts, making it to number 77. Among awards with Alabama: Starting in 1981, named eight times as Entertainer of Year by the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music; performed their way into the Country Music Hall of Fame; presented the Gift of Music award three times; won the Alabama Hall of Fame Distinguished Service Award, the Country Radio Broadcasters Humanitarian Award and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. To boot, they got one of those nifty stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Record sales with Alabama: sold 75+ million albums and singles with “Mountain Music,” “Greatest Hits” and “For the Record” racking up five million each; quadruple platinum albums include “Feels So Right,“ “The Closer You Get” and “Roll On”; going double platinum were “My Home’s in Alabama,” “40-Hour Week,” “Alabama Christmas” and “Greatest Hits Volume III.” More than 43 singles hit number one on various charts. Personal life: Married Lisa Williams, a former Delta flight attendant, June 9, 1995; moved to Guntersville in 2007, where they enjoy lake life shelties, Boo Boo and Blazer.

Good People

Jeff Cook

Some ‘crazy thought process’ led him and Alabama to a philanthropic mindset Story by David Moore Jeff Cook turns 65 on Aug. 27, but he’ll be publicly celebrating with his annual free concert at Civitan Park on Jeff Cook Day, which this year is Saturday, Aug. 23. He is, of course, best known as co-founder, vocalist, guitarist and fiddle player for Alabama, the supergroup from Fort Payne that changed the sound and look of country music. In the course of doing this they chalked up a record 21 consecutive number one singles, rang up 75 million album sales and became the most highly awarded act in country music with more than 200 citations. Among Jeff’s personal awards, in the course of an interview he might happen to mention that Gibson Guitar Co. named him Guitarist of the Year in 2001. In 2007, then Gov. Bob Riley appointed Jeff as lifetime Alabama State Fishing Ambassador and proclaimed Aug. 27 Jeff Cook Day in Alabama. Since then, in addition to free concerts, the Guntersville resident has used the occasion to hand out tens of thousands of dollars in checks to local charities and projects. Last year, proceeds from the concert and, mostly, Cook’s own donation, provided $30,000 for Marshall County United Way and Georgia Mountain Volunteer Fire Department. Jeff is a little hard pressed to explain his strong sense of philanthropy. Rhonda McCoy, his friend and coordinator of Jeff Cook Day, simplifies the issue, saying,

“Jeff is a really nice guy.” Here’s what the birthday boy has to say...

Many folks might think you have things backward. On Jeff Cook Day you give out gifts instead of getting them. What’s up with that? It started with June Jam, which Alabama did in Fort Payne for 16 years. We’d use some of the funds as seed money to ensure the next year’s show. After the last show, we rolled the seed money over and, fortunately, through some wise investments, we’re still able to draw some $75,000 a year to give away to charities. Randy has his favorites, Teddy has his and I have mine. For the last eight years my share has gone to groups in the Marshall County area. It’s given out on Jeff Cook Day. It’s just an excuse, an occasion to give back to the fans and community I appreciate. This year, I’d like to see it change some. We have a good little stage facility on the lake at Civitan Park, but it’s old. I understand that repairing the bleachers would be $10,000 more than to get new ones. We’ve been talking about fixing up the amphitheater and will let the city figure out the details. But there is a desire to give back.

You’re a stage guy. What in your past set the stage for your philanthropy, your desire to give back? There were really no tragedies or anything. I never thought as a child that I was rich or I was poor. I just thought everybody was like me – had

5questions

what we had and didn’t have what we didn’t have. I think we were an average middle class family. Mother and Dad both worked. I remember my grandparents worked even harder. I started working as disk jockey three days after I was 14. I had to take a test and draw a transmitter diagram that would really work. After I got it, I found out it was a job nobody wanted. It was seven hours on Sunday afternoon. Then I inherited the night shift. I made minimum wage ($1.25). It was big money if you didn’t have a job otherwise. It never crossed my mind that I would make a living playing music, so I went to electronics school in Gadsden. I tried to join the Navy three times and they kept sending me back to school. One day I was in school, the next I was working for Western Electric based out of Huntsville and going all over the country installing telephone exchanges. Then I worked for the Anniston Army Depot. This will make you feel real safe – my job description was repairing test equipment for missile firing systems. About 1972, Teddy, Randy and I got to talking about playing music for a living. We figured if we could get $1,000 a week to split and two rooms, we’d be doing good. In 1973 we went to the Bowery at Myrtle Beach and played for tips for seven summers. It was a great place to learn how to entertain. We told jokes and stories on stage to keep from having to play so many hours. Your voice would just give out. We got by that without killing ourselves, but we were a lot younger, too. We never thought too much about records in the beginning. There was AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

not tons of money, but we began to think we could make a living doing this. We ended up being able to “give back.”

What’s the background with June Jam and how did that lead to you and the other members of Alabama wanting to give back? What led to the June Jam, we got hired and paid for that first show, but there were a lot of obligations, and the promoter skipped town. But the stage was set for us or somebody else to come and do something like that. So we started and tried to benefit as many charities as we could. Don’t ask me what crazy thought process we had, but it went from helping out a lot of people we were working with that first year, to, “Well, we could just do this again and make it a big charity thing.” We helped some 75 to 100 charities while the Jam went on. We raised some $4 million. We did something like that again after the tornadoes in 2011. We knew it would be an impossibility to help every single person, but we decided we could put a dent in it. The Raising Alabama concert we did had about 20 acts. I think we initially raised some $2.1 million. I get a good feeling giving back from knowing that we were able to help some people back on the path to recovery.

Can philanthropy, after a while, ever become or threaten to become an obligation, an expectation? Do you ever think, “Oh, no, someone else has their hand out for money.” We get approached for money, as all philanthropic groups do. We can’t do it for everybody, but we try to do things that benefit the most people, the greater good. Sometimes the recipients change. Some people get funding for a year or two. We’re 16

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

You’re invited to the party Jeff Cook Day means a big birthday party celebrated with a free evening concert on the shores of Lake Guntersville Saturday, Aug. 23. Jeff Cook and the Allstar Goodtime Band are the headliners, naturally, with three opening acts. Gates at Civitan Park open at 5 p.m.; music starts at 6. Matthew and Gunnar Nelson, twin sons of the late Ricky Nelson, were scheduled to play with their group, Nelson. But Matthew’s wife is expecting a baby, so Jeff is bringing in Baillie and the Boys, who had 10 chart records in the ’80s and ’90s. As usual, the birthday boy’s wife, Lisa, will again hit the stage with Me and the Girls for some good fun and music. Also playing is Southern Halo, a trio of Mississippi sisters who crank out some rocking country. Jeff really likes them so much he’s producing an album for them. So, for a “Goodtime,” you know where to be Aug. 23. glad to help, but maybe we’ll do something different next year. But our goal is still to help the most people with what we’ve got. One thing that does bother me a little is that we have given substantial amounts of funds to some organizations, and they don’t even send a representative to accept the check. They don’t show up for the concert and still expect the money. If they can’t spend an afternoon with us, it’s kind of cheesy. The other thing that used to bother me was giving out the check

at the beginning of the show and the recipient leaving. So now we give out checks at the end of the show. It’s like, “Must be present to win ...”

Will you share a story or something about Jeff Cook or Alabama that your fans don’t know? It always kind of bugs me when people mention that Randy, Teddy and I are first cousins. But that’s not the way it is at all. When we first started, we thought we’d play up the cousin thing because we thought it might be a good advertising hook. In reality, Teddy and I are fifth cousins. Teddy and Randy are second cousins. And Randy is my fourth cousin. So the cousin thing isn’t hardly worth mentioning. I didn’t even know the relationship when we first started. We’ve been removed several times. Another thing ... people ask how long the All American Tour will last. My official answer is that nobody really knows. I would base it on supply and demand. We are working on two new recording projects: a DVD project filmed at the Ryman Auditorium and 15-song gospel CD in association with Bill Gaither. Both projects are in the finishing stages. I have never let the fact that we wrote or didn’t write a song interfere with using it. I try to base it on merit of the song and how it works for us. “Take Me Down” was a song written by Exile, some of our best friends in the business. They put it out; it didn’t do much. We put it out and got a number one with it. Here’s something else most people don’t know – I don’t like mayonnaise. I don’t like avocados either. I like Oriental food, and country cooking, too – 15-bean soup with a ham hock cooked in it and fresh cornbread sticks. Anyone who’s read my book knows I am a Star Trek fan. So I’ll end this like I end my book: “Live long and prosper.”

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Good Reads

Bohjalian’s moving tale set in the first 20th century genocide

A botanist embarks on search for clues God hid in plant life

Girls” by Chris Bohjalian is set in Aleppo, Syria, in 1915, during the early years of WWI. A young woman seeking information about her Armenian grandfather and American grandmother stumbles into the senseless horrors of the 20th century’s first massive genocide. To the east the sky Determined to is just beginning to make their country homogeneous with lighten. She thinks of the one religion, one starving in the square language and one and the sick in the culture, the Ottoman hospital. She blows out Turks eliminate almost the blue flame atop two million Christian Armenians through the wick and sits deportations, massacres motionless, waiting. and death marches. Elizabeth Endicott, her wealthy father from Boston and other social workers bring supplies to women and children huddled in a refugee camp. Forced to march stripped naked with no food or water for days through the desert, few had survived. While in Aleppo, Elizabeth meets a young Armenian civil engineer searching to find his missing wife and infant daughter. Theirs becomes a haunting, moving and memorable love story. – Annette Haislip

from her autobiographical best seller “Eat, Pray, Love” and, in “The Signature of All Things,” delves much deeper into more complex fictional characters and subject matter. Set in the 18th and 19th centuries, this She knew the world story of discovery spans was plainly divided 80 years. In a search for the meaning of life, old into those who fought beliefs are questioned, an unrelenting battle mysteries of evolution to live, and those who discussed, revolutionary surrendered and died. It ideas explored. was true of every living Botanist Alma Whittaker, following entity on the planet. In the path set by her this struggle for existence, father, searches for the strong endured; the what she believes is weak were eliminated. the signature of all things – clues God has hidden for humanity’s betterment inside the design of flowers, fruit and trees. Her search spans the voyages of Capt. Cook and Darwin’s writing, to the unexplored jungles and exotic plants of Peru and the mystical uninhibited island of Tahiti. Only Georgia O’Keeffe in her paintings could render plants more erotic. – Annette Haislip

A sweeping historical journey, “The Sandcastle

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

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Good ’n’ Green

Pretty, yes ... but look out Fall is a good time to fight your yard invaders

Story by Eddie Wheeler Photos by Nancy Loewenstein

nvasive plants are a growing problem in Alabama. They escape cultivation, spread and aggressively displace native species. Sometimes purchased for hedges, shade or pretty blossoms, some are taking over entire landscapes. An invasive plant is a species found outside its native range that threatens the survival or reproduction of native plants. Sometimes they arrive on your property accidentally, spread by bird droppings. Sometimes, unsuspecting homeowners buy and plant them. A number of invasive plants cause problems in Marshall County. Let’s focus on the Chinese privet, Callery pear and the princess tree, all non-native invasives from Asia. Chinese privet was introduced into the United States as an ornamental shrub. This mostly evergreen shrub became a traditional ornamental hedge shrub that can produce a thicket up to 30 feet in height. Chinese privet has showy flowers in the spring and small, dark-purple berries in the fall and winter. It can The Callery pear has pretty, snowy spring blossoms, above. Actually a variety of the Bradford pear, it was developed to have a stronger limb structure. But remember, kudzu was initially thought to be a good idea, too. Callery pears, right, invade and overrun a field. 20

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

be spread by seeds carried by birds and water, while infestations grow by root suckering. Callery pear is an ornamental, deciduous tree in the rose family growing 30-50 feet tall and 20-30 feet in width. The shape of the tree is often described as a tear-drop with the trunk frequently splitting into many smaller branches. Leaves are alternate, simple and shiny with wavy, slightly-toothed margins. Leaves turn yellow, orange and red in late autumn. Five-petal white flowers occur early in the spring before leaves appear. During late spring and summer, small ½-inch, round,

Though producing pretty blooms and purple berries, Chinese privet, far left, can quickly become a thicket. Sometimes advertised as ornamentals, the prolific princess, or Paulownia tree, left spreads into colonies via seed and root and takes over yards and fields. and green to brown fruits appear on the Callery pear. It spreads vegetatively and by seeds that are dispersed to new locations by birds that eat the fruit. Princess tree, or Paulownia, is a fast-growing deciduous, flowering tree also known as royal Paulownia or empress tree. It has large catalpa-like, heart-shaped leaves, large clusters of violet flowers in the spring and can reach 50 feet in height. Fruits are pecan shaped, oval capsules initially sticky and green, later turning brown and dry persisting on the tree through the winter.

he best way to avoid invasive plant problems is prevention. They might be pretty, they might offer fastgrowing shade, but simply do not introduce plants known to be invasive onto your property. If it’s too late for prevention, here are some steps to take in dealing with invasive plants … First, identify the species and determine the amount of the infestation. Next, develop a plan for removing it. Cutting them down alone is generally not enough for these persistent plants. Most will re-sprout the following year, often with many more stems. Herbicide applications are often the most effective means of control. The most effective application period is late summer to early fall. Cut the plant down and immediately treat the stump with glyphosate herbicide. To prevent re-sprouting, applications might be required over several years. A similar technique of basal bark application involves spraying or painting a herbicide in a band around the base of the tree. Also done in fall or winter, this method allows

the tree to be killed without first cutting it. Always follow the herbicide label recommendations for application. For details on control options, visit: http:// tinyurl.com/killprivet.

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Good Eats

Yi Xue, 39, manages Sakura Japanese Steakhouse on U.S. 431 where O’Charley’s was. Besides the business end of the restaurant business, he sometimes bartends and cooks.

Sakura serves great food & fun And a Chinese man finds the American Dream at this Japanese steakhouse in Guntersville

Story and photos by David Moore

hen you stop by Sakura Japanese Steakhouse for a hibachi lunch, to savor sushi or feast with family and friends as a chef, flourishing knives and shrimp with equal ease, cooks in front of you on a table-size griddle, sometimes spewing fire, chances are the American Dream is not on your 22

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

mind. It’s not on the menu, either. While it’s not always consciously on Yi Xue’s mind, it’s never far off. He was seeking the American Dream when he followed his father’s airline routes from China to the restaurant business in the United States in 1995. He was still pursuing it as he moved around, got married, became a citizen and eventually landed in Huntsville. And certainly Yi Xue – pronounced Ee Shu-e – was hoping to stake a

claim in the American Dream when he became a business partner in Sakura, which opened in Guntersville a year ago this August. Just don’t look for Yi behind one of the restaurant’s four teppanyaki cooking tables expertly provoking an open flame or slicing food with sharp, clicking knives. “I am dangerous there,” the restaurant manager grins. Growing up in China, Yi found life economically hard. His dad was a carpenter and woodworker, an artist in his own right, and Yi sometimes worked with him. At 15, after his father had immigrated to the U.S. hoping to pave the way for his family, Yi worked as a mechanic. “I tried to do something to help our family,” he says. He also quit high school. “If I had come to the U.S. five

years earlier, I could have gotten my degree here,” he says. But life didn’t pan out that way.

i was 19 when he, his mom and sister came to America. His brother would follow about 10 years later, also going into the restaurant business. For Yi’s part, he went to work with his father, then a chef, in West Virginia. Yi bussed tables for $15-$20 a night. America was excitingly new, he says, but also intimidating. “I couldn’t speak English at all,” Yi says. He attended ESL classes and picked up some basic English but soon quit. Later, in Roanoke, Va., he was a server and then assistant manager at a restaurant and began to make a little money. It was there he met and married Ying Wang, formerly of Beijing and a student in computer science at Radford University. In 1998 the extended family moved to Kingsport, Tenn., and opened the Fortune Dragon restaurant. His dad cooked; as manager, Yi was the “public face” of the Fortune Dragon, so to speak. “We did really well,” he says. By the time they sold it in 2006, Ying had earned her master’s degree and landed a job in Bristol, Va. The couple and their two daughters moved there, and Yi, tired of restaurants, took a production line job at a fiber plant. He was a team leader when Ying, who got laid off, found a job as a senior programmer with SAIC in Huntsville. With no degree, Yi returned to what he best knows, managing a restaurant, this time for a friend. But the restaurant was in Augusta, Ga. To see his family, every weekend or so, for two years, he had to drive 12 hours round trip. “I tried to go as much as possible,” he says.

ursuit of the American Dream got easier in 2011 with a job managing Sakura Japanese Steakhouse on County Line Road in Madison. When owners Ben Chen and Steven Lin looked to

Shown Rose, one of the talented teppanyaki chefs at Sakura, prepares a multi-course meal in front of customers at one of the four table grills. There are also regular tables, tables in the bar and sushi bar seats. open a new Sakura in Guntersville, Yi joined them. “When they asked me to come here, I didn’t know where Guntersville was,” he says. “I came and saw the lake and loved it.” It’s still hard to get back home after late nights, so a few times a week Yi stays at the “chef’s house” Sakura rents on the lake near the new Publix’s site. Some weekends Ying and their girls, Ling Qing, 16, and Ming Hui, 13, visit him. “It’s like Augusta only one hour away instead of six,” he laughs. More seriously, the pursuit of the American Dream, as many know, is not without costs. “I am spread out,” Yi says. “I really miss my family.” Ironically, he’s been so immersed in American culture he’s forgotten most of his Chinese, a complicated language to speak and write by any standard. And he wishes his girls

could be more in touch with their Eastern background. But life’s not that bad. “I always knew I would be here,” he says of immigrating. “Part of it was to get out of China. A lot of people try to get out to find a better life. “Finally, I did that. We enjoy it. Nothing is perfect, but I’m happy with what I have here – my family, my own business.”

Perhaps his biggest regret is one

Yi shares with many Americans – his lack of formal education, a degree. It’s not too late, he supposes, to get a GED, take some college courses. “I don’t need it to make money,” he says. “Just maybe to go to college for the experience.” None of this, of course, need be on your mind when you drop by Sakura. Yi would rather you be thinking about having a good meal and enjoying yourself at his restaurant. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Good Cookin’

A traditional dish from eastern Spain, paella hit a hot charcoal grill in Arab ... and hit “the spot” after it was served with toasted bread and salad.

Grilled paella

Big pan, big taste, big time

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Story and photos by David Moore

hen my wife and I were invited to a paella cookout at David and Jami Russell’s house, I had to ask a basic question. “What’s paella?” (First they had to correct my pronunciation. Pi-a’-ya, I was informed.) That was the beforehand question. “Hey,” I now ask, “when are you guys cooking paella again?” With Susan Jones pitching in to help with preparation, David’s version of this Spanish dish included shrimp, scallops, clams, sausage and chicken, all mixed together on a bed of saffron-flavored rice with green peas for an English accent. David grilled it in a massive pan. You won’t read a critique like mine in Bon Appétit, but ... paella is one heck of a killer dish. David, a retired sergeant major, and Jami, a Pampered Chef rep, live in Arab and work at Redstone Arsenal. But during 2001-2004, they lived in Belgium while David was stationed with NATO. There, “the Russells from Brussels” were introduced to the dish when a co-worker and his wife threw a paella party for 10 people. “She cooked it on the stove and in the oven, and it turned out really good,” says David, who, like Jami, is well-endowed with culinary talent.

Seafood and English peas were the last ingredients added to the paella on the grill. While David Russell tortured guests with good cooking smells, Jami Russell served an appetizer of smoked salmon and cream cheese on crusty loaf toast. “Ever since then, we’ve wanted to cook paella, but we couldn’t have it by ourselves. We needed a group.” I’m seldom shy about volunteering for such experimentation. While most people cook paella on the stove, David was keen to grill it and chose his charcoal Weber over his gas unit. He bought a 22-inch wide paella pan that fit nicely on his grate and, he figured, would hold enough to feed a party of 10 if you count me twice. “There’s not a big difference in grilling it outside and cooking inside, except I think it would be harder to use a 22-inch pan on the stove because none of the elements are that big,” the chef says.

David loosely followed a Bobby

Flay recipe for grilled paella he got

from the Food Network. Though David used a dozen chicken legs (one of his several variations on the Flay recipe), this mixed grill dish is basically a seafood meal. He left out Flay’s suggested lobster but cooked generous portions of scallops, shrimp and mussels. “You could put in crawfish, lobster or oysters in the shell,” David says. “But I like the way I did it.” Traditional paella calls for saffron. It sells for about $1,500 per pound, but don’t worry, you don’t need that much. “It’s probably the most expensive spice in the world, but that’s the key,” David says. “It’s what turns the rice yellow.” And delicious, I might add. He paid about $12 for two grams at the Redstone commissary. Counting pre-grilling the chicken,

David says prep and cooking time for his grilled paella dish was about two and a half hours. That was with Susan, who’s a great caterer, pitching in. “She had heard Jami and I talking about paella,” David says. “She had said if we ever made it, we’d better call. It was great to have somebody like her help.” As I said, it was a killer dish. Everyone there raved about it. “I was ecstatic,” our acclaimed chef says. “I could not believe that something I had never made before turned out so good. I’d love to do it again.”

avid compares paella with what he calls an old southern “Jake plate” prepared with whatever leftovers one has on hand. “The origins of paella are similar. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

GRILLED MIXED PAELLA 12 chicken legs 1/4 cup canola oil Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 8 cups chicken stock 1 large pinch saffron 2 pounds clams, scrubbed 18 extra large shrimp with tails, peeled and deveined 15 sea scallops, patted dry 4 lemons, halved 1 large Spanish onion, finely chopped 1 entire garlic head (David likes garlic), finely chopped 4 cups short grain arborio rice (or paella rice, if you can find it) 1 pound Spanish chorizo, medium firmness, sliced thinly 1 cup frozen peas, thawed

David Russell’s savory dish is ready to be served from the special 22-inch, double-handled paella pan that he bought for about $80. 26

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Light a fire in the bottom of a large charcoal grill, place the grate, cover and heat for at least 30 minutes. Brush chicken legs with some of the canola oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and grill, skin down, on cooler, outside parts of grate. Cover and cook indirectly and slowly about 15 minutes until golden brown and cooked nearly through. Set aside on sheet pan. Combine chicken stock and saffron in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer on the grill or a stove. Add clams, cover and cook 8-10 minutes until they open. Set aside in bowl. Add mussels to the broth, cover and cook 5 minutes or until mussels open. Set aside in bowl discarding any crustaceans that don’t open. Brush some of the oil on shrimp, scallops and cut sides of lemons and sprinkle with salt and pepper on all sides. Grill shrimp about 1 minute per side. Grill scallops about 1 minute per side, slightly charring and cooked nearly through. Grill lemon halves cut-side down until charred, about 45 seconds. Set all aside on sheet pan. Heat 3 tablespoons canola oil in large paella pan over direct heat. Add onions and sauté until soft. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Add chorizo and cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brown and crisp. Add rice to pan stirring constantly for a few minutes. Add stock 1 cup at a time. Cook about 25 minutes, stirring constantly, until rice is al dente, still firm to bite. Arrange chicken legs, shrimp, scallops, clams and peas in the rice. Squeeze juice from 4 lemon halves over paella; place other 4 halves in the rice and scatter with parsley. Stir gently to bring some of the rice up from the bottom, and serve.

At least that’s the way I heard it,” he says. In its modern form, the dish dates to the mid-19th century and the Valencian region on Spain’s eastern coast. According to Wikipedia, many non-Spaniards view paella as the country’s national dish, but most Spaniards think of it as a regional rice meal. Valencians hold the rice dish in high regard and, in its traditional form, toss in green vegetables, beans and some combination of rabbit, chicken, duck and even snails. Valencians living on the coast developed seafood paella, replacing meat with crustaceans left in the shell, omitting veggies and beans. “Paella” is a Valencian-Catalan word derived from paelle, an old French word that, in turn, traces back to patella, Latin for “pan.” In Valencia, if you heard the word “paella,” it could refer to the dish or the special shallow pan you cook it in, plus it’s the word used for all pans. In most of Spain and Latin America, the common term for the paella pan is paellera. For big to-dos, Valencians in the 18th century used paella pans to cook rice outdoors, along with water voles, eels and butter beans.

As living standards improved over time, voles and

eels fell out of favor, or flavor as the case might be. As the popularity of paella spread in the 20th century, so did the preference for mixed forms of the dish, combining,

Saffron rice, chicken and sausage cook on the grill. as David did, seafood and meat, including sausage. Restaurants in Spain and the U.S. that serve it this way often refer to it as Valencian paella. Valencians, however, insist only the original two recipes are authentic and look down their forks at mixed paella. No one at the party at Jami and David’s did that, however. We joyfully polished off the entire massive pan of mixed paella. If the Russells ate a Jake plate during the next week, it certainly contained no paella. “That,” says the pleased chef, “is a fact.”

Lorna S O’Leary, AAMS® Financial Advisor

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Story and photos by David Moore

ary “Prissy” Terrell paints pictures with flowers all over the yard of her Cape Cod house on a hilltop overlooking the Tennessee River. Her home is named Bella Vista, and it both offers, and is, a “beautiful sight.” It’s unique in its stunning array of 700 daylilly varieties, 300 types of hostas and other gorgeous plants, but her home has another unusual aspect. It’s rare today that people live in the same house in which they grew up. Her father built the house at the top of Scott Street in Guntersville in 1939. Mary – known as Prissy at the time – and her parents moved in on her first birthday. To be sure, she has not lived there her whole life. Mary was very much a part of today’s mobile society, following her husband and his career and raising their two children in four states. When she and Bob returned to the house in Guntersville in 1993, they moved into not just a place they loved, but a place steeped in family history and memories. And, in the years since then, the house has been steeped in Mary’s own special artistic talents ...

She lives in a house on a hill ... with her flower-painted yard and her family-painted history

Talking with a visitor in her “new” great room

Bob’s career, first to Wisconsin, where he earned his PhD in meat science and food technology. overlooking some of her gardens, Mary delves into her There she tried teaching and working at the university, common bond of history with the home. but it wasn’t for her. Mostly she raised their children, David Her mother, Louise Dunson, was TVA’s first local and Tracy, and started a career as a “professional volunteer.” employee and served as the stenographer during proceedings In fact, she went on to be president of nearly every and litigation as the agency organization she joined. bought land for dams along “Volunteerism,” she says, the river. Later, she was “is something I really enjoy.” secretary to the Marshall Two other life-long County Probate Judge and changes took root in County Commission. Wisconsin. She reverted During the depression, to Mary – please see page her father, Richmond 34 – and planted her first Dunson, earned 50 cents an garden, a tiny plot of annuals hour as a general contractor to paint some color into the for the Work Progress late arriving springs and Administration. He built summers. sidewalks and the armory Their next stop was in Guntersville, several Auburn, where Bob was with buildings downtown and the State Extension Service, the stone wall that divides then on to Chicago where he Hill Street. So today Mary worked with a major food frequently encounters the ingredient company. In 1976 fruits of his labor; at home the Terrells moved to Bryan, she is surrounded by them. Texas, when he joined the Her father built the house, faculty of Texas A&M. There which she describes as a she earned a master’s degree typical New England Cape in education, specializing in Cod design, using a $25 plan public relations and started a ordered from Sears. It has chapter of Tri Delta. two bedrooms and a bath In 1983 they moved upstairs and, downstairs, two to Cincinnati, where Bob Hemerocallis is the Latin genus name of the daylily. bedrooms, a bath, kitchen, was a VP of research and living room, dining room and A tiny sampling of Mary’s garden includes, clockwise development at Kahn’s nursery, now Mary’s office. It Meats, a division of Sarah from top left, Coach’s Class Act, Double Screamer, also has a full basement. Lee. But their mobile life Free Wheelin’ and Clark Gable. While very large for a screeched to a halt in 1990 single-child family, the house when he was “downsized” was also shared with one set of grandparents, a widowed two weeks before Tracy’s wedding. It was traumatic, but the aunt and her two children. Mart’s father died when she upside was Bob started his own consulting firm, plus they was young, but she grew up with three strong women who moved back to Guntersville in 1993. ingrained in her the idea that she could accomplish anything she set her mind to. always knew I was going to come back,” Mary says Full of people then, her home is full of memories today. of her childhood home. Her mother had remarried and moved in 1958, but her band member, majorette and salutatorian, Prissy Aunt Pocahontas “Pokey” Albert and Grandmother Mattie graduated in 1957 from Marshall County High School. She Smith had kept the house in the family. effectively moved out when she left for The University of Mary and Bob updated it using a floor plan she designed. Alabama, where she was a speech and theatre major and The 1,300-square-foot addition included the great room, president of Delta Delta Delta sorority. expanded kitchen, laundry room, master bath and walk-in After graduation in ‘61, she met Oklahoman Bob Terrell closet. through a hometown neighbor, the late Tim Jordan. After When her grandfather lived there, he’d kept a vegetable they married in 1963, she dove into a mobile life, following garden and raised roses. Mary had gardened wherever

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

“I

Some seven hundred types of daylilies are beautiful, but they require a lot of work, especially when blooming. Blooms lasts a day and need to be deadheaded afterward. Mary does most of it, but two part-time yardmen help. Twice, in June of 2011 and ’14, regional daylily societies toured her garden, which she also opens one weekend to the public. Before such events, Mary gets help from volunteers who, apparently, just love being in her yard. . A sign at her back door is apropos: “Gardening – a true labor of love.” Jesse George, a hybridizer friend in Jasper, AL, respects her gardening so much he developed and named a variety of daylily for her.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

To ‘Prissy’ or not ... T

o “Prissy” or not to “Prissy”? That was – and sometimes still is – the question for Mary Terrell. Officially named Mary Richmond Dunson, she didn’t get out of the Birmingham hospital and home to Guntersville before Aunt Martha Birdsong-Jones nicknamed her “Prissy.” The name stuck from 1939 to 1963. Then, living in Madison, Wis., where she taught school one year, she and her husband attended a reception for new teachers and were introduced as Prissy and Bob Terrell. “Prissy?” a woman retorted. “What kind of name is that?” That ended Prissy for a long time. She was introduced to everyone she met afterward as Mary. Even her children and their families – David and Robin Terrell of Guntersville and Tracy and Mike Russell of Huntersville, N.C. – call her Mary. “I was Mary Terrell for the next 30 years until I moved back to Guntersville,” she says. “The first week home I went to church and Mrs. Lida Manning said, ‘Oh, Prissy, we’re so glad to have you back!” She laughs that she’s a different person, so to speak, depending on when she met someone. “It’s difficult when I sign Christmas cards. I have to think, ‘Do they know me as Mary or Prissy?’” What’s her preference? “I don’t care. I answer to either one,” she says. “But I will say this: Ladies my age don’t get a lot of respect when they answer to Prissy.”

Surprises abound as you stroll around the grounds at Mary’s house. For instance, the bottle tree she “planted” is doing surprisingly well. And the view from her front yard is surprisingly beautiful, no matter how many times you‘ve seen Lake Guntersville and the main channel of the Tennessee River. 34

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Mary loves hostas and developed a “hosta walk” displaying some of the three hundred varieties she grows. Most of them are potted, so they’re mobile. Lace-capped and oakleaf, below, are two of many hydrangeas she grows. she lived after Wisconsin – becoming a Master Gardener in Cincinnati – so back home she picked up where Granddaddy left off and embarked upon painting her masterpiece with flowers. As she did elsewhere, back home Mary immersed herself into community activities. She played handbells and sang in the choir at Guntersville United Methodist Church. She joined the Friends of the Library, Guntersville Tree Board, Guntersville Garden Club, Pierian Book Club. She was – and still is – active in the North Alabama Daylily Society and the Hosta Society of North Alabama. She’s president of the latter. In 2000, Bob died of emphysema, two weeks after his 62nd birthday. The next June Mary’s mother died. Shortly afterward, her sister-in-law, Fay Terrell in Wichita, called and suggested a little trip with a group called The Friendship Force. Mary nearly fell over when Fay said “to New Zealand.” It proved to be a fabulous, three-week homestay visit – focused on gardens. “The prettiest place I have ever been,” Mary says.

ew Zealand was followed by garden-themed trips to eight countries timed so that something major was blooming AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

The great room Mary and Bob added is surrounded by garden views and comfortably appointed. Sliding doors are one of the gateways between the new and original part of the house.

there, such as seven million tulips in Holland … heaven for the avid gardener. Other than the immediate joy, her travels also resulted in an assortment of art and memorabilia, much of it flower-related, displayed throughout her house, and lots of great landscaping ideas. Anyone who cares for just a few flowerbeds around the house will agree it takes time if you want them to flourish. Imagine, then, how busy Mary’s massive flower-painting project keeps her. In the heat of the summer, she works mornings and evenings. Spring and fall bring longer hours. Even in winter there are camellias and other things blooming to care for. An artist’s work is never done. “I have cut back on a lot of my activities because my garden takes so much time,” Mary says. “In the past I had attended up to 11 meetings a month. Now I am mostly just active in my plant societies.” But a tour through her yard – where something is always blooming, and especially in June, when the daylilies explode and the hostas are at their best – is glorious evidence that Mary, or Prissy as the case might be, remains full of energy. She has to be. “I paint pictures with flowers,” Mary Terrell says. “It’s what I do.”

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The art love of quilting ...

... are very much alive with Lakeside group I

Story and photos by Patrick Oden

dropped by the Church of the Epiphany on Sunset Drive in Guntersville recently. My mission was simple: photograph a meeting of the Lakeside Quilters group and investigate the notion that quilting is a dying art and tradition in the South. I wasn’t convinced the dying art assumption was accurate. But maybe I had a skewed perspective. In these days of social media, we are constantly orbiting the lives of friends and family, picking up on details of people’s worlds we might not otherwise know much about. In my case, thanks to my mother and aunt, this means my Facebook feed is covered with quilts. They’re both avid quilters, and I have borne witness to the fortresses of fabric they call “sewing rooms” and to the awesome technology that exist in their modern machines. My

Lakeside Quilters have members from Sand Mountain, Gunter Mountain, Brindley Mountain and the lake. Drawn by the love of quilting they meet the second and fourth Monday of each month. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Sue Biggard and 24 other members will have their Quilts of Valor on display at the annual quilting show. time in their inner sanctums, more akin to command centers than craft shops, has been awe-inspiring … but perhaps I’ve merely peeked behind the veil into a dying world?

s it turns out, nothing seems farther from the truth. Expecting to meet a few nice folks and see a couple of pretty quilts, my jaw dropped when I opened the doors to the large meeting room and stepped into a sea of stitchers. With 60 members locally, Lakeside Quilters is more a small army than a forgotten or disappearing enclave. All of the members are passionate about their craft, each one’s work unique, but there is a unifying thread within the group that gives them solidarity of purpose: Quilts of Valor. In existence since 2000, in January of this year the Lakeside Quilters became involved with the Quilts of Valor Foundation and 42

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Billie Craig, president of Lakeside Quilters, stands in front of the quilt she’s donating to Quilts of Valor.

Lakeside Quilters will hold their annual quilt show Oct. 10-11 at the Guntersville Recreation Center. Quilts of Valor will be on display in addition to other quilts and a variety of handmade items. For more information about the quilting group, call: Marquita Jones, 256-5826510. For more information on the Quilts of Valor Foundation, visit: www.qovf.org.

so far have produced 25 quilts in conjunction with the organization. The quilts are distributed to the men and women of our armed forces returning from wartime service. In the 10 years since the grassroots effort began, more than 90,000 Quilts of Valor have been

produced and distributed all over the country by groups such as Lakeside. These quilts are medals of honor, awarded by civilians. A tangible and comforting thank-you from a grateful nation. Though I learned quilting is far from a dying art, that wasn’t what struck me most deeply about my visit with the Lakeside Quilters. It also wasn’t the beautiful quilts and crafts they were producing. It was the feeling of humanity that permeated the air and the esprit-de-corps evident within their ranks. I felt as if I had stepped into a place where my mother and aunt would feel right at home. Into a group that would have made my mom, a retired U.S. Army major, beam with pride. The shared passion and shared laughter make for an inviting mix, and the hospitality shown this stranger was as warm as any quilt.

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As a consolation prize of sorts, instead of being the namesake of the city, Arad Thompson got a road named for him. It turns off Ala. 69 on the east side of Arab. Photo by David Moore

History took an early turn for Arab T

Ranson Arad Riley Thompson was born March 21, 1896, and died Aug. 26, 1949. A farmer, carpenter and barber, he also made cabinets and caskets. The latter were popular because people preferred hand-made over ready-made. Arad and his wife, Talulah Adella “Lulu” McDonald, had eight children. 44

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Story by Steve A. Maze

he fair city could have been named “Ink” or “Bird,” but it should never have been named Arab. Several Marshall County cities have been named after individuals such as Guntersville (John Gunter) and Albertville (Thomas A. Albert). And that was also the case with Arab. Well, sort of. The man who secured the name of our city was Stephen Tuttle Thompson. Generally regarded as the founder of Arab, Thompson moved to the Brindley Mountain area in the early 1840s when he was not quite 10 years old. By 1858, Thompson had settled in the wilderness area that would later become known as Arab. He was a natural leader and wore several hats in the new community. Thompson was a cabinet maker, deputy tax assessor and county commissioner. It was only natural that he became the city’s first postmaster since his father had also been a Marshall County postmaster. Before the new settlement could have a post office, however, it had to have a name. While some cities were named after individuals, many newborns were often named after people mentioned in the Bible (Mary, Esther, Ruth, Isaiah, etc.). Thompson had 14 children during his two marriages, and one of his sons was named Ranson Arad Riley Thompson.

The name Arad appears in the Bible as the name of a man and of a city. The man is mentioned in I Chronicles 8:15 as being among the sons of Beriah of Benjamin. The city called Arad was located in the southern extremity of Israel, according to Numbers 21:1. Apparently, Thompson wanted his son named after both a man and city mentioned in the Bible. At any rate, he submitted an application with the name of the town to the U.S. Postal Department in Washington, D.C. Thompson was required to list three names for postal officials to choose from. It came as no surprise that he selected “Arad,” his 13-year-old son, as his first choice, and “Bird” and “Ink” as alternate names. Thompson probably felt confident that the town would be named after his son since the two alternate names had a low appeal factor. He was correct, but the name of the town would come with a twist – as in twisting the “d” around to a “b.” Because of this misnomer by U.S. postal officials,

the post office was christened Arab in 1882. Of course, that meant the name of the town would also be Arab, even though it would not be incorporated until 1892. I am sure the spelling error was disappointing to Thompson, but it could have been worse. Instead of supporting the Arabian Knights when they play high school football on Friday nights, we might be cheering for the Bird Feathers or the Ink Blots. I can only imagine what those mascots might look like. What if bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde had made their brief 1934 stop in Bird, Alabama, rather than Arab? And what if Davy Crockett had walked along the trail that is now Main Street in Ink, Alabama, rather than Arab? The stories just wouldn’t be the same. What if a surveyor from Ohio had named the town after himself in 1876? The man set up a shack near the settlement that was to become Arab and claimed he had applied to erect a post office. “He never gave any

specific place where the town would be located,” according to a 1948 issue of the Arab Enterprise. He told some people his name was Duggins, but told others his name was Stuart. While intoxicated, he also mentioned on one occasion that the law was looking for him. He vanished a few weeks later and was never heard from again.

I suppose Dugginsville or

Stuartville wouldn’t have been any worse than Bird or Ink as a name for our city, but I still prefer Arab. You may be wondering why Stephen Tuttle Thompson did not attempt to amend the name of our town to its correct spelling. It would not have been as simple as an e-mail or text message to correct the problem at the time. It would have taken months, maybe even years, before the correction could have been made. That would have delayed the opening of the post office as well as the naming of the city, which remains Arab to this day.

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Albertville Museum The Albertville Museum closed in March to update and re-arrange its permanent collection into chronological order. Its grand re-opening was in late July. Located in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Little Branch Primitive Baptist Churchâ&#x20AC;? at 610 W. Main, the volunteer-staffed museum is open 1-4 p.m. Sundays and 2-5 p.m. Thursdays. Admission is free. To arrange tours, call: 256-878-0606. Photos by Patrick Oden

A complete and rare loom from the 1800s is a centerpiece in the museum. It was sought by the Alabama Department of Archives and History, but a member of the family that owned it donated it to his native Albertville. 48

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

The cash register was used for years at Wells Brothers Clothing Store, once a fixture in Albertville. Also fixtures were the Johnson Family String Band, which played music for 60 years, and fiddleand guitar-making masters Adas and Ras Johnson, below.

Dr. A.L. Isbellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old medical equipment and Albertville sports memorabilia are on display.

PUT JEFF TO WORK FOR YOU AGAIN As your former representative from Marshall County, Jeff McLaughlin brought Republicans and Democrats together to form the Tennessee Valley Caucus in 2005. Through bipartisan leadership, the Caucus was able to: • Protect the Tennessee River from thirsty Atlanta and Birmingham. • Return millions in TVA money “home” from South Alabama. • Get statewide funding for a $175 million bond to build new schools here and in other BRAC counties. • Secure additional highway funding to improve access to Redstone Arsenal and for other projects across the Valley. Jeff McLaughlin will again work in a bipartisan manner to achieve …

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All photos need to be of high quality and include your name, the identification of your pet and anyone else in the photo, where you live and a phone number in case we need to reach you. A digital picture needs to be a high-resolution JPG emailed to: david.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com. A print should be mailed to: Good Life Magazine, PO Box 28, Arab, AL 35016. If you want the photo back, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. 50

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Racing on the lake with wind in your sails (At least you hope itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blowing) A day spent sailing does not count against you in the book of time. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

“It’s always a challenge,” says Gordon Trowbridge, at the tiller with crew members Jerry Cox, left, and Chris Torgerson. Sailboat racing requires deriving strategies against – and with – Mother Nature’s weather, considering every aspect of wind and water, of space and geometry, of boat and rigging, to make optimum speed.

Story and photos by David Moore

hris Torgerson and Jerry Cox are performing choreographed steps foreign to dance floors on land. They move in reaction to Gordon Trowbridge’s orders, called out in a language also foreign to that on land. “Ready about,” the captain tells Chris and Jerry. “Helm’s lee.” Welcome to the world of sailboat racing on Lake Guntersville, where a lapse in attention or understanding could get you knocked overboard by a fast swinging boom. Or worse – cause you to lose a race. None of the nomenclature or action is foreign to experienced sailboat racers. But a lubber like me finds 52

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himself a stranger on a strange deck. Lack of full comprehension, however, doesn’t diminish my appreciation of the skill and experience on display around me. Neither does it diminish the thrill of it all – the simplicity and complexity of harnessing wind to thrust your boat forward; the sounds of the wind in the sails and the hull slicing water. It’s a Saturday in June. I’m thrilled to be aboard Gordon’s 26-foot sailboat, largest in today’s lineup during the spring racing series held by Browns Creek Sailing Association. Two other full-size sailboats and four dinghies make up the fleet that is testing its sailing skills, strategy and tactics. Other than providing 220 pounds of ballast, I contribute nothing to the

efforts of Gordon, Chris and Jerry, but I do a decent job of staying out of the way when the dancing starts. “Ready about” is the dancing cue, meaning orders are forthcoming, usually immediately, that Gordon’s about to push the tiller to turn, or tack, putting the wind on the other side of the boat. Chris and Jerry should be ready. “Helm’s lee” means he is actually changing direction. The change in direction will blow the mainsail and the boom to which it’s attached from one side of the boat to the other, sweeping across about five feet above the deck. The main sail is controlled by lines on both sides of the deck, the one to windward being the trim line

for adjusting the sail for maximum advantage. Chris, crewing with Gordon five years to Jerry’s one, handles the trim line. On Gordon’s “helm’s lee” order, they smoothly dance past each other, ducking below the boom, swapping places so they are on the proper line. Do-si-do. “It becomes intuitive,” Chris says of the language and choreography of sailing. “If you don’t understand it,” adds Gordon, “you’re SOL.”

inds are very light, about 3 knots per hour. So, instead of a triangular course, today’s three races are linear, back and forth, windward-leeward, between points A and B. Race chairman John Gwyer, starting and overseeing the race Above, action on deck; at left, Jerry Cox rigs the boom for the spinnaker.

from a pontoon boat anchored in an expansive mouth of Browns Creek, laid out the two turning points about three quarters of a mile apart so that, with this wind, it should take about one hour to sail three laps. John conducts the six-minute countdown to the start of the race by raising a series of flags at one-minute intervals. Don’t even try to equate the start of a sailboat race with, say, the starting gun at Churchill Downs that sends neatly lined horses charging out the gate together. The sailboat start bears closer kinship to herding cats on a big chessboard in the water. During the countdown to the start, each captain maneuvers his or her boat in a large general area behind the starting line. Some tack one direction, some another. Gordon and crew confer intently, noting subtle wind lines rippling the water, critiquing the other boats and discussing the tactics their skippers historically use. Knowing he’s being watched, too, Gordon sometimes hangs around the far side of the starting line as a feint, then, at the last minute, changes course to the other side. “We want to be in the best position to get the maximum boat speed at the start without having someone in our way,” says Gordon, who at age 73 has been sailing since he was 14. “There’s no little Hitler here. We discuss tactics and weather. We talk.” “My mind,” Chris says, “is spinning with a hundred things.” At the horn, we cut as close to the pontoon boat as possible and get the jump on everyone.

ordon’s sailboat is fast. The speedometer goes to 13 knots, and he’s buried that before. Even so, he named his boat Slow Motion. That’s for racing contingencies. If he loses, he has an excuse. If he wins, it makes him look better as a captain. Plus, I suspect, he likes the irony. Within minutes of the start, the already light breeze all but 54

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disappears. The roughly 4 knots per hour we were making dwindles to maybe 2. It’s not just Slow Motion in slow motion; a dying breeze slows all boats. But the overriding question in all sailboat racing remains unchanged: Who can squeeze the most out of the wind, however sweetly or miserly it blows? Besides watching the competition,

Gordon, Chris and Jerry keep eyes peeled for ripple lines in the water that indicate stirrings of wind off to one side or the other. I learn it’s sometimes worth going out of your way to pick up wind. For now, we sail with the large mainsail aft and a genoa as the foresail. The standard foresail, a jib, is confined inside the triangle formed by

Gordan Trowbridge, captain of the Slow Motion, is where most racing captains like to be – in front of the fleet. But it’s not for long. John McCollough, sailing with a red-andwhite spinnaker, or “chute,” on his J-24, is closing on the Slow Motion.

the mast, the mainstay wire from the top of the mast to the bow, and line from bow to mast again. A genoa is a jib on steroids, big enough to extend aft of the mast, in Slow Motion’s case it fills 155 percent of that triangle. Because of wind and slow speeds, the race chairman cuts the race to two laps. Gordon and crew coax the most from Slow Motion, and we win.

Our good start, however, pays no dividends in the next two races.

ood news. The miserly breeze has stirred into a mild wind. Compared to the near doldrums we’d been in, the 8.5 knots blowing now – about 10 mph – feel downright brisk. In the second race we build a nice

lead. Wind and winning feel great. As we make the first turn and come about downwind, Gordon orders the spinnaker set. It’s a colorful, parachute-like sail used to get the most out of a tailwind. Setting the spinnaker requires the bowman to first strike the genoa then rig a tricky boom that extends one side of the “chute.” AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Robert Moser and David Ashley are Gordon’s usual and experienced bowmen, but Robert races in the fall, and David is out of town today. Jerry, the appointed bowman, only a year out of sailing school, does his best, but there’s no substitute for experience. Setting the spinnaker is problematic. The choreography is tripped up. Our downfall begins. By the end of the downwind run we’ve fallen out of first, and striking the spinnaker and setting the genoa again costs us more. Turned into the wind, Gordon sets Slow Motion on an optimum tack. Her hull rolls sharply as we grab wind. Sails and rigging strain – a strain that sends us through the water at 6.5 mph – which, lubber that I am, feels as fast as I drive across the Warrenton Causeway.

ut the spinnaker remains our bane. Changing bowmen doesn’t help. We finish back in the fleet on the second and third races. No fault of her own, Slow Motion lives down to her name. This is hard on three competitive sailors, but with little to prove we relax some on deck and shoot the breeze. As an introduction to sailboat racing, this day has been a blast for me. For the other guys, it’s probably been the opposite. Or maybe not. “We take it seriously,” Gordon says, an understatement on racing. “But we have fun, too.” I ask him about a plaque hanging in the boat’s cabin. A sailor’s creed of sorts, it reads: A day spent sailing does not count against you in the book of time. “You believe that?” “I would like to,” replies the old salt. “That means I have put a lot of time in the bank.” 56 AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Some of John McCollough’s younger crew members enjoy the races.

Susan Wilson â&#x20AC;&#x201C; at the tiller in her 19-foot Flying Scott â&#x20AC;&#x201C; sails with her recent student, Chris Holden. Susan teaches sailing classes for the Browns Creek Sailing Association. They meet for six Sunday afternoons starting in late July. The classes are $150 and include membership to the Browns Creek Sailing Association. For more information, contact Susan: suhurwil@gmail.com; or 256-684-0907. At left, crew member Don Moser trims for racing while skipper Greg Bennett mans the tiller. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER

Out â&#x20AC;&#x2122;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; About Fall, for many people, ranks as the prime time to get out and about. Little wonder. And Guntersville State Park offers a fine and convenient place to get out and enjoy the colors in October. There are short trails by the lake, above, and longer ones by the water and over the mountains, such as the Lick Skillet Trail, upper right and immediate right, which offers a 5-mile round trip hike. Stay at the lodge, stay in a chalet or cabin, or get out in a boat for some scenic fishing. Just make sure you get out. Photos by David Moore 58

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