Christmas Now

It is hard to believe how fast Christmas comes around these days. When I was a child, it was 10 years from one Christmas to the next, or at least if felt like it in my perception. Now it comes every 3 months in ripe adulthood. I do my best to make it last. I have the same idea as the local retailers –start in October and keep on ‘til January. That is the only way I have enough time to notice it in my busy, overflowing life. Anybody who thinks that we who live in the rural world don’t have a fast paced life has never been here. The living is easy – but only when we can slow down enough to enjoy it. The way we live life comes from the inside out, it is not dictated by geography. Geography is like the stage set, the players determine the dialogue.
It is not the shopping that causes the bustle in my life, it is the socializing. You’d think that people who live in places like rural southwest Alabama would have limited activities available. Again, this is a misconception. We learned two hundred years age that if we were going to have fun, we‘d have to make so. We learned to share the joy of living by entertaining ourselves and each other. It may be a vibration thing, but those of us who love a good party stick together. We have a code of honor that what happens when we get together is never told outside the group. We only talk about it when we look back on it with the other participants and reminisce. It’s not that we do anything illicit or illegal, but we just don’t want everybody knowing all our business. Knowing people’s business is entertainment in itself. It is for those who choose to live vicariously, rather than actually participate. If there’s a good entertainment, I want to attend it, not hear about it secondhand.
Food is a central part of all celebrations here. This is the co9mmon thread that runs through it all. Libations occur at many gatherings, some up front and some on the sly. We recently had a wet/dry vote in our town. I know that even contemplating a place where liquor is not available is unbelievable for most of the world. It is a hold over from the time when we were either too Christian (according to the narrowest interpretation) or too drunk to be responsible. It also has a lot to do with our ancestry. Our Irish and Indian ancestors did not handle liquor very well. The families of the affected thought they could control intake by making it illegal, and theoretically harder to get. Also, it became a control factor for those who didn’t drink and didn’t care to have others do so.
Consequently, drinking went underground as a group social activity. There was this petition in the paper that listed a whole slew of men from one church who said they morally opposed the legal sale of liquor. The whole town enjoyed looking at the list and telling which of those upright men they had shared a drink with. One man said “Old So and So (One of the signers of the declaration of moral temperance) better not come down to my camp looking for a bottle of whiskey anymore.” Consequently, to avoid further sinning on the part of the signing drinkers, we keep our libatiounary entertainments to ourselves.
Drink divides us, food unites us. Each family has its own traditions of what to serve, but there are certain foods to be found on every holiday table. One is dressing. That is a southern term for stuffing, which we in the south do no put in the turkey, but along side it. Even vegetarians know it’s not Christmas or Thanksgiving or maybe even Easter without dressing. We always make it out of cornbread, too. No soggy white bread stuffing will suit us. It also has lots of celery and onions in it. Some people add a bit of bell pepper to flavor up the broth. If we put in sage, it is only a pinch. We don’t like to taste it, rather have it as a subtle underpinning.
We must also have sweet potatoes. They can be mashed with various things in them. They can be topped with a praline/pecan topping (my personal favorite) or have marshmallows on top. My grandmother went through a couple of trendy sweet potato phases. One was orange rind cups with marshmallows on top. That was handy when you used the orange sections in ambrosia. The other was to mash the sweet potatoes, mold them around a marshmallow and then roll in cornflake crumbs and bake the balls.
No holiday table is ever complete without pecan pies and most have the aforementioned ambrosia. It is a dish made with orange sections and fresh grated coconut. Some people add crushed pineapple. It is not as popular now as it once was because for some reason, children no longer eat coconut. It seems to be a generational thing. That also eliminates Japanese fruitcake, once a dessert staple, from many tables, I’ve always wondered if it was invented during WWII when candied fruit was hard to get. It may have been called Japanese fruit cake as a derogatory term. Anyway, now it seems to be as ancient as WWII.
If you have access to them, butterbeans also seem to show up on most holiday tables. They are fresh tomatoes, rare and valuable when you don’t have a garden. If freezers have one package left, they go on the holiday table.
Presents are part of the holiday celebration, but entirely secondary to the foods/ entertainment aspect of the holiday. In fact, as we age, many of us treasure food as a suitable gift. My aunt told me that when a person reaches 60, there is a good rule to follow in gift giving, “If you can’t eat it, can’t wear it, and can’t spend it – don’t give it.”
Foods are the first in order with that rule. My requests for gifts include pound cakes from my relatives who are good cake bakers. I have learned to make peppermint bark for gifts this year. One of my friends makes wonderful fruitcake cookies that I look forward to receiving. One of everybody’s favorite gifts is a quart of shelle4 picked out pecans. We consider pecans to be the nut of choice in rural southwest Alabama. Now that Christmas comes every three months, we have plenty of them in a good crop year. May this be a good crop year for all of you whether in rural southwest Alabama or the world at large. Christmas is now. Merry Christmas!

CHARLIE LUCAS OPENING

Charlie Lucas is a famous outsider artist who lives in Selma. Alabama. His is a story that is stuff movies are made of. There is a book being written about him right now. Ben Windham, the editor of the Tuscaloosa News, is working on one with Charlie. I will leave the whole story to them to tell. I have seen a sample chapter of the book. Ben’s mother is the famous storyteller and NPR commentator, Kathryn Tucker Windham, who lives next door to Charlie. Her whole family calls Charlie “brother”. He really is a member of the family. Kathryn lives in what can kindly be described as a declining neighborhood. Her children wanted her to move out of the house that has been her home where she raised her family. Kathryn refused and found her own solution to the problem. She bought the house next door and moved Charlie into it. They had become friends when both were appearing at Kentuck, an arts exhibition festival in Northport. Charlie was completing a messy divorce and needed a pace to live. Kathryn needed a reliable neighbor.
The two watch out for each other. They have a signal morning ritual. When Kathryn gets up, she opens the blinds in her kitchen window to let Charlie know she’s all right. Kathryn is in her late 80s, so the ritual is useful, but does not invade her privacy. Charlie, like all artists, has periods of feast or famine. Kathryn has vowed he will never go hungry. She is a famous writer whose works include books on southern cooking, so Charlie eats well whether art is selling or not.
This past Saturday night, Charlie had an art opening in his new gallery next to Holly’s Feed and Seed in downtown Selma. He shares the building with the Everyman bookstore and antique shop. His side makes the perfect gallery to showcase his sculptures and paintings. His work needs a place with the patina of age to show it best.
His sculptures are metal, made of found objects welded together. His paintings are framed with boards salvaged from abandoned buildings he tears down. He also does art on ironing boards and other interesting things. He has a series of masks that he makes from old tin roof shingles. He also does metal wall hangings. All of the pieces look well against the damp stained plaster walls of the warehouse space. The light is dim, which works well with his bright colors.
Some of Charlie’s work is simple and childlike. I bought one of these when I was previewing the show. The one I bought is called “50 Foot Woman”, a study in bright pastels with the woman surrounded by small buildings. It is so powerful in its message, that with Charlie’s permission, I plan to have prints made for all my powerful women friends. Charlie painted it after he had a dream about the Woman. All Charlie’s work is based on mystical and philosophical principles. He is a deep thinker who spends a lot of time contemplating how the world and the human minds in it work. When you point to any work in the gallery, he will tell you its story. Each and every piece has a story. There are no pieces that he just throws together for the sake of seeking a sale. One piece that particularly spoke to me was one called “The Teacher”. It was an abstract with a face mask surrounded by smaller descending faces. It was the teacher with her students. On the back of the sculpture were wires tying the lives together. He told me the story as I looked at the sculpture, pointing out the various aspects of the work. Half the fun of owning a Lucas work is knowing the story behind it. Coming to see the artist and his work, in my opinion, is the only way to buy from him.
I had reserved another piece of his, in addition to the one I bought, but it was expensive for my budget, so I put it on layaway. It was a metal wall hanging on a red wooden board called “Lug Wrench”. It told the story of divorce – How love had put the two together and divorce had wrenched them apart. He told how he wished to see divorce be gentler between the people involved without the pain of the wrench. I wonder if the person who bought it understood Charlie’s message. Charlie regretfully informed me that before he got to the opening, it sold. He was much better off. It would have been months before I could have paid it off, and he was able to get his money on the spot. He is going to do me another piece, so I’ll have months to save up for it.
I may even opt for another piece I saw. I had trouble deciding not to buy one of her newer pieces which looked quite Picassoesque. The reason I bought the “50 Foot Woman” is that it reminds me of one he did for Kathryn’s birthday of her as a dancing woman. It captured her essence as a joyful figure. The “50 Foot Woman” has the same air of carefree abandon. Charlie has a knack for distilling the essence of life.
Charlie’s phone number is (334) 872-3956. If he’s around, he will answer his phone and meet you at his gallery.

CHRISTMAS PLAY IN GILBERTOWN

I am always amazed when I attend a play put on by the locals in Choctaw County at the Ballet and Theater Arts School in Gilbertown. Fred and Svetlana Kimbrough came back from New York City where they had been performers to raise their family in rural Southwest Alabama. To make a living, they founded a non-profit organization to teach and do performances with local people. The talent they find and bring out in the locals is truly amazing. Their daytime work is with children in the schools and in after school programs. Their plays are extra.
Last weekend, I went to see “A Sanders Family Christmas” – the Christmas sequel to “Smoke on the Mountain” which they had presented to sell out audiences earlier this year. It is set in 1941 at the beginning of World War ll. It is a religious musical comedy, if you can imagine. It involves a cast of 9, with three musicians extra. I have rarely heard better harmony on the musical numbers.
I never like to enjoy plays or eating out by myself. I like to celebrate good things with friends. I took three of my favorite culture buffs along with me. As I have told you before, I am like an army, I travel on my stomach. We had choices of good places to eat along the way. It is hard to believe that there are a number of places scattered through the woods of such a rural area. The largest town is around 300. We could have had catfish as Bobby’s fish camp, seafood at DeDoc’s, a train wreck loaded potato at J&K Junction, or authentic homemade pizza at Bimbo’s. I opted for Bimbo’s because I am partial to their shrimp, mushroom and bacon pizza on a homemade crust as well as the interesting things on their salad bar like pepperoni.
I have attended plays in Gilbertown for years. One Christmas, I went to see Amahl and the Night Visitors. Believe it or not, in rural Southwest Alabama, it was an opera. It was beautifully done! At the end, Fred came out and said “Ah, fooled you didn’t we?” How many of you enjoyed the opera?” Everybody clapped and raised their hands. Then he asked “how many of you would have come if you had known it was an opera?” About three hands went up. Sometimes in rural Southwest Alabama we have to be fooled into culture, but we enjoy it when we get there.


I am always amazed when I attend a play put on by the locals in Choctaw County at the Ballet and Theater Arts School in Gilbertown. Fred and Svetlana Kimbrough came back from New York City where they had been performers to raise their family in rural Southwest Alabama. To make a living, they founded a non-profit organization to teach and do performances with local people. The talent they find and bring out in the locals is truly amazing. Their daytime work is with children in the schools and in after school programs. Their plays are extra.
Last weekend, I went to see “A Sanders Family Christmas” – the Christmas sequel to “Smoke on the Mountain” which they had presented to sell out audiences earlier this year. It is set in 1941 at the beginning of World War ll. It is a religious musical comedy, if you can imagine. It involves a cast of 9, with three musicians extra. I have rarely heard better harmony on the musical numbers.
I never like to enjoy plays or eating out by myself. I like to celebrate good things with friends. I took three of my favorite culture buffs along with me. As I have told you before, I am like an army, I travel on my stomach. We had choices of good places to eat along the way. It is hard to believe that there are a number of places scattered through the woods of such a rural area. The largest town is around 300. We could have had catfish as Bobby’s fish camp, seafood at DeDoc’s, a train wreck loaded potato at J&K Junction, or authentic homemade pizza at Bimbo’s. I opted for Bimbo’s because I am partial to their shrimp, mushroom and bacon pizza on a homemade crust as well as the interesting things on their salad bar like pepperoni.
I have attended plays in Gilbertown for years. One Christmas, I went to see Amahl and the Night Visitors. Believe it or not, in rural Southwest Alabama, it was an opera. It was beautifully done! At the end, Fred came out and said “Ah, fooled you didn’t we?” How many of you enjoyed the opera?” Everybody clapped and raised their hands. Then he asked “how many of you would have come if you had known it was an opera?” About three hands went up. Sometimes in rural Southwest Alabama we have to be fooled into culture, but we enjoy it when we get there.

DECKING MY HALLS

I finally got all my decorating done. I had to ask myself “why bother?” since I live alone. People tell me I don’t live alone because there are always friends in and out. It’s been particularly pleasant to have company this December because it is still porch sitting weather. We can light the candles and drink wine on the front porch in the evenings. It is not usually like this, so I consider this a Christmas gift from the Universe to Southwest Alabama.
I decorated as much as usual, pretending that it is cold December even while I write this sitting on the porch with the birds still singing in the trees. It is like having the best of both worlds – the joyous Christmas season and shirtsleeve weather.
This appears to be a red year in decorating. I used red amaryllis, my favorite flower as the main element. I have collected them for years. I like clear reds, not deep reds. Living in the country ( I think of it as a small town, but I realized it wasn’t so when a friend from California said she lived in a small town of 40,000), I save ribbons and decorations over the years. I reuse them as much as possible, but this year, many of the old ribbons bit the dust. I bought one big roll to start over with. All my ribboning this year is red tartan. Many of us residents of southwest Alabama have a Scots/Irish heritage. I am not particularly celebrating that, I just love red and green. I notice many of the magazines this year are using white accented with silvers and blues. To heck with that, I like bright and colorful for Christmas. My tree has colored lights. They are gold with touches of red and green. The tree is loaded with ornaments then beribboned all over with gold, red and green ribbon I bought at the flea market in Mobile. I never think of myself as a fan of Victorian decorating except at Christmas. For the holiday season, I festoon and drape with the best of them. Usually, I am a fan of the country English look because I love the way they collect all kinds of books and art, finding places for it all. I love the way that everything is used and lived with, including the finest antiques. If I can’t sit on it and prop on it, I don’t have it. At Christmas, there are a lot more people around to sit and prop. In the past four days, I have had different overnight guests three of those nights. They have all enjoyed my decorations and sitting on the porch with me. It is has been a great treat to me to have one on one time with some of my favorite people and cook some authentic southern foods for them. I made some Conecuh sausage cheese bread, chicken salad, pimento cheese, and soups (even though it is hot weather).
I do have a full time job, but being with friends and entertaining is a fine southern tradition that adds to the quality of life. I can rest when I’m dead. I take a full regime of vitamins and herbs to keep me going. I never go to the doctor because I’m never sick. Okay, I confess, I did go to the doctor recently. I was shopping at the Talbot’s outlet in Kentucky where my mother lives the day after Thanksgiving. I looked down in the dressing room and saw a blue circle like a bull’s eye on my stomach (which I try not to look at ordinarily). In the middle of the circle was a red spot. I didn’t feel bad, but my family got all upset, so when I got home, I went to Dr. Frank. He gave me a tetanus shot and took blood work to see if I had a dread disease. I didn’t, but the tetanus shot got me down for a day or two. I don’t believe in taking medicine if I can help it, but I took my first round of antibiotics in 20 years. I have recovered sufficiently to keep up my social schedule. In rural southwest Alabama, entertaining and being entertained is a way of life.
I am including some photos of my Christmas decorating to share with you. I have recently discovered that I like to make pictures now that digital cameras provide instant gratification. I don’t think I’ll ever Ansel Adams’ successor because that kind of photography takes patience which I don’t seem to have much of. I can’t wait for the light to get right, I just have to snap it and hope it comes out well. There must be some magic in my digital camera, because so far, pictures are turning out well. If you don’t thinks so, don’t tell me. Keep my simple faith alive. This is the essence of Christmas.

CHRISTMAS AT GAINESRIDGE

Yesterday, I had two meals at the Gaines Ridge Supper Club in Camden. It was a good day. This is one of the spots we always direct tourists to when they are in the area. It is on the Alabama Department of Tourism’s 100 Places to Eat Before You Die list. We recommend the food, but love the atmosphere as well. It is especially beautiful in December. The setting is beautiful any time. It is located just east of Camden in an antebellum home set on a hill surrounded by trees draped in Spanish moss. In December, the house is festooned with all the accoutrements of the season. It greets you with lanterns along the gravel driveway. At night they are lit. The front of the house is garlanded with evergreens and red bows that are only a clue to what you’ll fine inside. Every room is decorated in a style befitting a grand old lady of a house.
This is not a fancy house, which is part of its charm. It was not built for a wealthy planter to show off his fortune. It was a lived in house of a normal family. It has been added on to as the restaurant business grew. The added on part is the one most folks mistake for the original part because it has the look of a pioneer cabin.
When the two Gaines sisters started the supper club, nobody in Camden thought it would last. People there didn’t eat out much. There had been only one café in town as long as anybody could remember before Gaines Ridge. Betty Gaines Kennedy and her sister prove the local critics wrong. For many years they have been serving good food to appreciative people. It is another example of how far out of their way people will come to eat well. The group I was with a lunch yesterday was from Montgomery, 60 miles away.
They were expecting to eat lunch, not spending so much time with the visual treats as well. Every visitor is free to look over the whole restaurant before settling down to their meal. It is all right to pop into the other dining rooms to see the decorations even if your party is not in that room. It’s a kind of “excuse me, I’m just looking” as we sometimes do in department stores. The other diners are good natured about it because they just did the same thing.
The rooms are all done in individual themes, but they flow easily into one another.
The homespun atmosphere of the fireplace room was my favorite. Most of the other rooms were fancier, but the decorations on the hearth were charming. There was a teddy bear and other toys in a wicker box placed next to the tree that was decorated in bird ornaments, natural materials and raffia. The mantle had simple decorations. A fire burned merrily in the fireplace. The tables were covered in red and white checked homespun. The valances at the window continued the checked theme with ribbon and greenery trim.
All of the rooms had trees. Some were grand ladies in their Christmas finery. My favorite tree was a small one that had demitasse teacup as the only ornaments. The owner has many interesting collections. I think the cups must come from those. Just inside the front door, there are bookcases filled with, of all things, a collection of gravy boats! I wouldn’t have thought of collecting those. However, some of them were pressed into service in the dining rooms as holders for sugar packets. It was clever idea, because with all the tea and coffee that gets served, I imagine there is a call for a lot of sweetener packets.
Even the back porch has red and green plaid cloths. There are red ribbons on the plants in the back garden. If you want to get the Christmas spirit, got the Gaines Ridge.
They are open all year around Wednesday-Saturday nights, and for lunch for groups by appointment. They are open daily for lunch during December and at nights for group Christmas parties. At lunch the menu will be whatever they happen to be serving. Yesterday, it was a traditional turkey and dressing dinner. It included turkey/dressing, rice and gravy, sweet potato casserole with crushed pineapple and a touch of cloves, well seasoned green beans and always hot from the oven homemade parker house rolls. There was bread pudding with bourbon sauce. There is always all the tea and coffee you can drink. When you arrive, hot spiced cider will be waiting for you to enjoy as you walk through looking at the decorations. The total for lunch including tax and tip is $15.00.
For dinner, the menu will include several choices of entrée. With this comes your choice of potato or rice pilaf, a dinner salad and, of course, those homemade rolls. For we dessert, we were fortunate enough to be served the black bottom pie, the dish that is to die for.
Gaines Ridge is worth driving for as many visitors have discovered. It is a destination in itself, but combined with a trip to Gees Bend on the ferry and Black Belt Treasures, a gallery for local artists; it makes a great day trip. A drive around town to see the antebellum homes will add to the experience.
If you don’t have the Christmas spirit now, maybe you need a trip to Gaines Ridge to put you on the right path.

Christmas Parades

We in the South all have an innate love of pageantry, whether we admit it our not. That is why every little town has its own Christmas Parade and they are such a success. People, who would walk across the street to avoid each other on a normal day, will shout “hello” and wave until they nearly fall off the float speaking to the same people as they parade through town. They will throw candy to people they normally wouldn’t give a crumb of bread to if they were starving.
People lined up along the parade route who are normally staid and calm will scream for candy. They will jostle little children out of the way for Mardi Gras beads to turn their conservative outfits into Christmas decorations.
Christmas parades are the great equalizer. Anybody who is willing to march can get in. In our local parade that holds true unless you are a horse. They were outlawed along time ago when the Sheriff’s Posse was mounted in the parade. The horses left too many calling cards along the way. The mothers of the majorettes complained about the condition of their daughters’ boots. Horses were outlawed immediately. The Sheriff’s Posse wasn’t about to loose their dignity by being followed by pooper scoopers.
Out floats are all homemade. Some are quite charming. They are always judged by secret judges scattered in the crowd. Their identity is always secret for their own protection. It is necessary, as anyone who has ever judged a beauty pageant or floats that parents worked late into the night to build will tell you.
It was a shock to me to learn that now we have to pay bands to be in parades. I thought they were in it for the sheer honor of performing. I guess all that changed when every town’s parade started being on the same day. Now they hire out to the highest bidder. Consequently, there are few bands per parade. There were actually some floats this year with love performers on board or boom boxes. They can’t hold a candle to a drum beat and horns, but at least modern technology has made available alternatives to the bidding on bands.
The one float that I thought went too far even in the Bible Belt was the SUV with Christian Queen written on the side and the Queen ensconced on the back tailgate. We are all far too fond of our various and sundry brands of religion to be able to agree on one brand as being able to proclaim one of theirs queen. It is quite arrogant to assume that one outshines the others and just seized the title for itself. I’ll be interested to see how many brands of Christian Queens are floated out next year.
People stand on the side of the road where their child will be facing from the float they are on. One mother who was riding in the parade (not the Christian Queen) has bought specials toys to throw to her child and friends. I hope her aim was good or she’d have more problems than even the Christian Queen with the partiality issue.
It was a long assed parade. We are very proud of our fire departments locally. They win all kinds of state competitions. We have bought them many fire trucks. All of them were in the parade. I was glad to see children back riding them. For a while, the firemen were too arrogant to allow it. They had two excuses. One after the other – the first was that if the fire truck had to pull out and go fight a fire, what would happen to the children? That was settled by parents having to walk along and monitor the floats. Then they said their insurance wouldn’t allow it. We locals thought that strange since they were climbing all over fire trucks in nearby towns. I just don’t think they wanted to be worried with children until a few of them got pretty grandchildren they wanted to show off and all that changed.
Our local parade has had the same godfather for 22 years. It’s a lot of work to put on one of these. He was an unsung hero until this year when somebody had sense enough to make him the Grand Marshall. They didn’t have a Citizen of the Year. It seems that anybody chosen citizen of the year either dies or has a serious illness shortly thereafter. We wanted to keep the parade guru in good health because it is a thankless job.
Having small town Christmas Parade really is a great way to start the season. It is all about peace and good will even if it is for just

Decking the Halls

My friend Judy Martin’s house in on the Tour of Homes in Marion this weekend.
I am on standby with some fake amaryllises in case the real ones don’t force in time. We are down to the wire. The florist is applying heat and light to make it happen.
Judy is one of those superwomen that have 20 things going at once. Any physical problems she might have are never mentioned. She just gives it her all and goes full speed ahead. Last year this time, she had major surgery with complications, was renovating her early 1800s house and still selling another house two counties away. This year, I guess she got bored with ordinary life (which for her is juggling four balls of activity on the air) and decided to add a little excitement by agreeing to host the tour.
Judy has her degree in interior design which has little to with her career life which includes working with two major universities, a non-profit foundation, and numerous volunteer jobs which she does so easily, that most people don’t realize the effort she puts in. Of course, the truth is that making a hard job look easy is a talent in itself. That is the same principal she is applying to the tour of homes. I’ve known women who can make a year long major production out of planning a wedding. It would take Judy one week and it would be a quality production.
She has chosen to make her décor theme how the house might have looked in its early days. She is using all natural greenery and fruits with a few feathers of local birds thrown in. Of course, like the early settlers, she will have some of the family pieces of silver and other collected treasures on display in her tablescapes.
Judy and her husband, John, did most of the renovation themselves with local subcontractors and carpenters. The house is not one of those grand Tara/Twelve Oaks jobs. It is one of the three oldest houses in an old Black Belt town. It has upper and lower porches and two front doors. The chicken coop in the backyard is on the National Register of Historic Places. Their renovation was kind to the old house. It was actually three houses cobbled together to make what is now their home. The den, the heart of the house was a sagging enclosed back porch. They jacked it up and made it look the way it was supposed to. They took two of the multitude of bedrooms and made great big baths that have places to lounge in them. The kitchen is state of the art with the prettiest yellow distressed cabinets you ever saw. The colors in the house are soft sagey greens and neutrals. The colors of the furnishings and draperies are muted, but not dull. You can imagine how the natural decorations will enhance the holiday theme.
Judy will probably kill me for divulging plan B which is having the fake flowers that will only be pressed into service if the real ones don’t rear their natural heads. I promise that these are good fakes. They came from the NDI (Natural Designs Incorporated) in Brewton which advertises in Southern Accents and Architectural Digest magazines which don’t allow any tacky in their pages. Besides, they’ll be interspersed with genuine raised in the woods greenery and berries from the back yard. If you don’t tell, I won’t.

Official Start of Christmas

It’s official. Christmas has come to rural Southwest Alabama. It started Sunday with the first activity in Demopolis for their annual Christmas on the River week. They have something going every day and night this week. The first activity was a choral concert by the Demopolis Singers. They are a group of volunteers who perform under the direction of Clyde Williams who just happens to be a Julliard graduate. I know that surprises those of you who think of us down here is not wearing shoes very often. Although I am very much in favor of a shoeless lifestyle, I also love culture. I am part of the Demopolis singers, even though I live in Thomasville, 45 miles away. I am a tagalong. The real singer is a friend of mine who wanted company on the ride. My original intent was to go hang out with my friend Cindy while he practiced. Somehow, they needed another soprano, so I ended up singing in a funny suit that looks like I should be carrying a tray with champagne glasses on it. To tell the truth, I really enjoyed it. It’s not every day that we can work with a Julliard led chorale. I sing in the local church choir where one member it under 40. The average age of the rest of us is almost AARP qualified. Our director is also the organist/pianist. He is a very talented musician, but I am not sure he can always hear what is going on. We are sort of like his backup singers. The truth is – our claim to fame is the fact that we robe up every Sunday. We are adequate for serving the Lord in a routine sort of way, but for real enthusiasm, you’d have to look elsewhere. You’d fund that enthusiasm in the Demopolis Singers.
Being part of a group that belts out carols is a good way to lead off the season. There are lots of things going on around here for the holiday. There are several tours of homes in the area including ones in Marion, Monroeville and Coffeeville this weekend.
There is a candlelight tour of the public antebellum homes in Demopolis Thursday night. There is a barbeque cook off Friday night and an illuminated boat parade on Saturday night. There are other activities going on during the day. A visitor could spend this whole week in Demopolis and not get bored. There are a number of family oriented activities going on.
As we drove back from Demopolis last night, I noticed Christmas lights beginning to sprout up all along the way. I hear some people complaining that it’s too early, but I just love it. To me, Christmas is a celebration of life and joy. There are positive uplifting things on television every night. The stores are playing carols. Homes grand and humble are decorated. Even the most humble abode is beautiful when outlined with lights. It’s beginning! Merry Christmas, Ya’ll!