THE SCENIC RIVER TRAIL OPENS

Friday was the day that the 631 mile Alabama Scenic River Trail opened. It is the longest River Trail in the United State of America. It runs the entire length of the State of Alabama. It starts at the Georgia line on the Coosa River in the northeast corner of the state and runs down the Alabama River into the mouth of Mobile Bay. This has been an 18 month project of a statewide committee.

This was the brainchild of Fred Couch, a jeweler in Anniston who has been an avid canoe enthusiast for 30 years. He thought “what if?” and made it happen. He coincidentally had this good friend named Bob Riley, who is in his second term as the governor of Alabama. He passed the project on to the Alabama Office of Tourism and Travel. They pulled together all the partners to work on the project. Everybody from corporate Alabama Power Company to local tourism programs and chambers of commerce to the Army Corp of Engineers got involved. The Alabama Councils of Resource Conservation and Development embraced the project and donated funds to make it happen. The project, on the day it opened, became a National Recreational Trail under the National Park Service.

The rivers are some of the assets we in rural Southwest Alabama that we have always had and just took for granted. We have both the Alabama and the Tombigbee Rivers flowing right by our doorsteps. We have always boated and fished in them, but never thought of inviting other people to come enjoy them. Now everybody knows. We put together brochures that catalogue all the things to see and do along the way. Nine of the attractions in the brochure are in rural Southwest Alabama. There is a website alabamascenicrivertrail.com where you can go and find out all about it. Both USA Today and the New York Times have done articles on it.

Wonder what else we have in rural Southwest Alabama that we take for granted that other folks might think is wonderful? I can’t wait to find out! Better still, why don’t you come to visit and tell us what you like. We take too much for granted about where we live. I bet you do, too. Bring your canoe and see the sights from the river. There are fossils in the banks, birds of all kinds singing overhead in the tree, and wildflowers growing along the way. There are historic sites all along the way. You can bring a powerboat, but the best way to beat the gas prices is in a can

A Movie Premier Comes to Thomasville

Who says nothing exciting happens in little towns in rural Southwest Alabama? We are going to have a movie premier coming up at the end of July in downtown Thomasville.
How did this happen? Well, synchronicity is everything. I went, as you know to Kathryn Tucker Windham’s birthday party last week in Selma. I ran into a childhood friend of mine – Ron Harris. He used to be Ronald in his youth until he moved to Huntsville, got sophisticated and became Ron. He also became a playwright. He wrote a play “Like Mice, Like Rats” that was made into a movie called “Twenty Years After”. It is a Science Fiction Fairy Tale. Ron says it’s science fiction, but it’s a fairy tale because it has a happy ending. His sister, Lena Carol has never fully understood Ron’s fanciful nature. She said about the movie “Well, you know Ronald…it’s going to be weird”. I look forward to finding out when we host the Deep South Premier on July 28th at the Thomasville Theater.
We chose this location because as a child, Ron went to the picture show, as we called it in those days, every Saturday. He lived in Putnam, a little community near the Tombigbee River in Marengo County. He would come into town with his Aunt Sister, who was coming in to town to shop and get her hair done at Bedsole’s Department Store Beauty Parlor. He said he was a very impressionable child who was much affected by what he saw on the silver screen. One Saturday during the 1950s, he saw a news reel about the polio epidemic. There were children in iron lungs on the screen. He immediately came down with polio. He could no longer walk. His legs would not move. In a little while, the usher called “Ronald, your aunt is here”. He didn’t move. Again came the call, “Your aunt is here and she’s getting mad!” He stayed in his seat. Finally, the usher and his aunt came after him. His legs would not move, so they had to drag him up the isle with his legs flopping. This is only one of the good stories that Ron will share with the audience who comes for his premier. His good friend, Kathryn Tucker Windham, will be there. He’s going to ask her to share her stories, too. At the age of twelve, she was the movie critic for the Thomasville Times which was owned by her cousin Earl.

This is going to be the most fun! I can’t wait until somebody says “What’s been going on with you?” and I can say “I’m working on a movie premier project here in downtown Thomasville”. Everybody is excited about the project. The local Theater owners, Linda and Jerry Edwards, have graciously consented to let us use the theater for the event. They have a real community spirit. The Mayor has said we can block off the street in front of the theater for the event. ALA TOM RC&D has offered their office across the street to host a reception following the showing. The Southwest Alabama Tourism Office and the Southwest Alabama Chamber of Commerce are involved as are the University of Alabama Center for Economic Development and the Auburn Extension Service. The Clarke County Arts Council is involved. When a good idea comes along, we all embrace it and work together. Plus the fact, that we in rural Southwest Alabama love an occasion.

Kathryn Tucker Windham’s Birthday

One of the eternal mysteries of life is how Kathryn Tucker Windham can reach 90 years of age with the verve, energy and mental acuity she has. Every one of her faculties is still intact. She has started to use a cane in the past few months. She says one of her knees has found out how old she is and she hopes it doesn’t tell the other knee. She still lives alone and takes care of herself. She still travels on airplanes and drives herself on short car trips.

On June 2, she turned 90. The whole town of Selma and friends from as far away as California turned out to help her celebrate on Sunday June 1. She had two bands participating. One played at the church service in her honor at her home church, Church Street United Methodist, the Dill Pickers led by her friend Norton Dill who produced an award winning documentary about her. The other, led by her dentist Mike Mahan, was a jazz band that paraded down the street at her birthday party at the Selma Public Library.

The church service featured hymns of her childhood selected by Kathryn. The rafters rang with renditions of “Standing on the Promises” and I’ll Fly Away”. All of the ministers who served the church since Kathryn had joined in 1951 were there (at least those who were still alive). Kathryn sat on the second row and tapped her feet in time to the music. Afterwards the church honored her in their fellowship hall, the old A&P grocery store. They named the fellowship hall in her honor that day. They served an old fashioned fried chicken dinner to hundreds of people.

The birthday part itself was held on the lawn of the Selma Public Library – one of Kathryn’s favorite places. Kathryn was positioned on the balcony waving out to the crowd of a thousand who were in attendance. She looked like the Pope bestowing blessings on those gathered. The event was a comb concert. Kathryn has made a mission out of teaching people to play combs as musical instruments. The way it is done is to take a comb with a small sheet of waxed paper wrapped around it, with the ends loose. The comb is placed in from of the player’s mouth. The player hums the tune of the song which vibrates the paper causing the comb to act like a musical instrument. People who otherwise have no musical ability can learn to play the comb. Kathryn says the way she came to appreciate comb playing was when she ended up teaching a class of 30 junior high school aged boys in Sunday school. She said the only way she could keep them entertained was by teaching them to play the comb. She said they played the entire Methodist Hymnal during that year.

The party started with Dr. Mahan’s band marching down the street playing “When the Saints Go Marching In”. I don’t know how old the men were but the musicians looked like a group of Kathryn’s peers. They played then the combs were played then everybody sang. After about an hour of playing and parching in the sun, the participants marched down the street to the Performing Arts Center where they were served cake and refreshments. It’s hard to say exactly how many people there were, but Kathryn had ordered a thousand combs and they ran out. She also had ordered a thousand Moon Pies, which are a particular favorite of hers. She said when she found out the bakery in Chattanooga where the Moon Pies are made, she talked to the owner who said his father used to preach in the Selma area. He turned out to be the preacher who married Kathryn and her husband Amasa. Talk about a small world! I asked her if he donated the Moon Pies free when he found out the connection. He did not. Commerce triumphed over sentimentality once more.

Kathryn’s birthday party was another example of her ability to inspire people to come together. Her stories have a way of bringing us back to our roots and a celebration of who we are here in rural Southwest Alabama. They touch a cord of southerness in people everywhere. A painter who now lives in upstate New York once heard Kathryn on National Public Radio and called her. He said “Hearing you made me homesick. Can I come see you?” She agreed so he did and came to spend two days with her. He had such a good time he came back later, bringing his family. He stayed two weeks and painted her portrait which hangs proudly in her dining room. Kathryn has that effect on people. You meet her and before you know it you’re adopted into her extended family. She has a way of creating a celebration out of living, bringing everyone along with her.