LIVE ENTERTAINMENT IN TOWN

A brand new Civic Center has opened in Thomasville. We are so proud of it. It happened almost overnight after 20 years of working on it. We always dreamed of the day when we would be cultured and we are almost there. Within a week’s time, we had two different kinds of live performances.
One was the local school systems’ production of “Annie”, the Broadway musical. It was wonderful. We had some talented directors who really knew how to get the most out of the students. They were of all ages from elementary to high school. Children who had never shown any inclination to sing and dance were warbling and cavorting all over the stage. There was one young student in particular who had some juvenile delinquent tendencies in the past who gave a stellar performance. It just proved to me that sometimes children act out who have not found their niche. When they feel like they are making a valuable contribution that is recognized, they find their place in society. Things like that warm everybody’s heart particularly when there is an underdog they can cheer for. Living in a small town is like that. We know more about everybody’s business than we know the person. However, we all do root for one another and want all our young people to succeed. They all did in this production. There were a number of children I knew well in the program, but there were some I had never had the pleasure of meeting. However, a small town in rural Southwest Alabama being what it is, I did place most of them when somebody told me who their mama or their grandmamma was. Some of them got their talent from their relatives and some in spite of it.
The other production was a concert by a geriatric rock and roller by the name of Billy Joe Royal. He was what was called in my youth a “One Hit Wonder”. The only song anybody ever heard of that he sang was “Down in the Boondocks”. He was sponsored by a local sports booster club as a fundraiser. I don’t know if he was all they could get or whether their target audience was over 50, but he was the one who came for the first concert in the Civic Center. When he came out on stage, the woman next to me remarked that he looked like the Richard Nixon Halloween mask. He did. There was a quality about him that looked like his face had melted. The real fright was his hair, however. It was dyed some shade of brown that never quite looks real. He wore it in an elaborate do that when women wore it in the 70s, was called a gypsy hairdo. Either he had taken a brief nap before the performance, just had some bald spots in the back, because there were two holes in the back of his do.
Royal was a bit overweight and corseted which may or may not have been the cause of his arthritic dancing style. Several of us went out together after the performance and were discussing this. One man said every time Royal would get close to the edge of the stage, he’s think “For God’s sake man, get back! If you fell, you’d break a hip!” The irony of it was that Royal referred to his 12 year old daughter while on stage. One wag said it must be sad to have to pay child support out of social security. All kidding aside, though, the old man could sing! His voice still had its full register of tones. He was a tenor and could still hit the high notes without wavering. His voice reminded me of the voice of one of my favorite singers, Freddy Fender. I told that to a friend I was sitting with. He said “Well, you better enjoy Billy Joe Royal. Freddy Fender is not coming”. Fender is now performing on the Big Concert Stage in the Sky. Billy Joe Royal is still here and touring. We all enjoyed his performance. He sang well. His band and backup singers were every good musicians.
It was a little bit like watching the 50s and 60s specials Public Television has as fundraisers, only right in front of us. The worst part of both is reminding the audience how we are aging when we see the performers of our youth get on stage and say as Frankie Valli did on a PBS special “ I just thank God I made it through my open heart and cataract surgeries”.
I am just thankful I lived to see the Civic Center built. I plan to support as many performances as possible just because its here- juvenile or geriatric performers all, we’re glad we have a place to see live theater and concerts.

A NEW DINING ROOM TABLE

I have always wanted a banquet sized dining room table. Why? Just because I have a big dining room and I like the thought of everybody sitting down together. I have looked long and hard for one. It has been a ten year search. I let one get away 10 years ago in Selma. It was exactly what I wanted, price and all, but I let it get away. I had even looked into having one made, but never worked out the details. We have a local furniture craftsman, Kenton Brasell, who has made some beautiful things. He said he would make me one, but it just never got off the ground.
My friend Cindy and I will every so often make a pilgrimage to Tucker’s Treasures at the end of the road off Highway 69 between Nanafalia and Myrtlewood. Juanita has several large outbuildings filled with furniture, pictures, rugs and china/glassware. She’s not as reasonable as she used to be 20 years ago when we started visiting her, but that is to be expected. I bought my dining rooms chairs there years ago for $25 apiece. They were nice and sturdy, but were that god-awful stop sign yellow of the 1960s. They were a good brand, but a despicable color. They were tall with cane inset backs. I painted the dining room coffered ceiling a soft green. I had enough paint left to do the chairs. Being green calmed them down a lot. I bought my bed there as well as may other items. I still go to look whether I need anything or not. What would be the point of shopping if you only bought? We’d call it buying instead and all the fun of looking would be gone.
Cindy has purchased a lot of her household furniture there, too. We check in periodically just to see what we have missed since last time. Tucker’s prices really are very reasonable, so she has a lot of turnover. This table had been there for a while because it was so big. It had three leaves. I wanted more. It was 20 inches wide and will let out to 14 feet long. I am having Kenton, the master craftsman make me three more leaves. The table is solid mahogany. It took 4 people (without the leaves) to get it up my front steps. It is heavy. You can seat two people at either end. With all the leaves in you can seat 12-14 easily. Right now I have three leaves in. Kenton has to go to Mobile to find the rest of the solid mahogany that he needed for the other leaves. There are certain things that you just can’t find on hand in rural Southwest Alabama and solid mahogany boards are one of them. I’m just lucky Mobile is only 100 miles away and they can be found there.
One of my favorite things is doing tablescapes for each season. I have included a picture of the Halloween table. I’ll have to have a dinner party soon because I want to use my new table. Would you like to come? I’ll let you know when it is. I may decide to have a witch party like the women in Selma do. They started out with 13 women and it grew to a large number. They dress up so that they don’t even recognize each other. I went to a shop in Selma called TuTu’s that sells fancily decorate witches hats for the occasion. The store had a whole variety of life sized scary figures and all sorts of decorations for Halloween. If you happen to be in Selma this month go by to see their interesting array. There is a billboard just coming into Selma on Hwy 22 that tells you how to get there. It is worth a visit. I can’t wait to see their Christmas things. I would rate it as a tourist attraction in itself.
The big attraction in Selma at the moment is the citywide display of beautiful butterflies handpainted by local artists. For a full description, go to the Dallas County portion of this website for a look. Local writer Janet Gresham was kind enough to share her blogs about the butterflies with us.
Between Tucker’s Treasures, dinner on Saturday night at Mama Nems Bistro in Thomaston and a night at the historic St James Hotel in Selma with a Sunday morning stroll to see the butterflies, you can have a nice weekend in rural Southwest Alabama. Come on down!

STAYCATION

It’s bad when you enjoy being on your own front porch more than a weekend at the Grand Hotel. I spent the weekend there at the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation Conference. I love the Grand and I loved the conference. Those people know how to throw a good party. We wined, dined and toured to a fare-thee-well. Those are my favorite things to do ordinarily. It’s just that I have been tied up for the last three weekends. It was all fun stuff, but left very little time for porch sitting, which is how I regenerate. If I don’t get my quiet Saturday on a regular basis, I begin to come unglued. I fray around the edges at first, then the seams begin to seriously unravel. By yesterday, when I finally returned home with an extra trip to Montgomery thrown into the mix, I was not in good shape. I needed some solitude.
One thing I was able to do on the trip was find a new rocking chair for my front porch. Between many years of rocking and the neighborhood cats shredding the arms, it was time to reset things (literally). I had tried one other chair. It was a great looking 1940 metal chair that rocked on a metal frame. It wouldn’t do at all. One of the requests for my sitting place is that it must be the right height for my legs to prop on the wicker coffee table in front of me. Ideally, I guess I should have one of those chaise lounge things where your feet prop up automatically, but it would take up too much room. I have places for a lot of other people to join me on the porch this way. Two more of them can prop their feet up, too. Did I mention that my porch entertaining is very informal? When the weather is right, which is most of the year in rural Southwest Alabama, we always eat every meal on the porch when I have company. Everything except Thanksgiving Dinner tastes better on the porch.
My two rockers that shredded had been with me over ten years. They were nothing grand to begin with, just new imported ones that I bought white and painted. One was painted watermelon pink and the other was a rich grapey purple. I just had the paint colors on hand in spray cans. Spray painting is the only way to go with painting wicker. Otherwise, painting wicker is a real pain. This time I had one chair I just bought. I needed two, so I went shopping in my own house. I am an inveterate collector of things. I love antiques and I love bargains. I will buy any antique that is a bargain provided I can fit it into the house. I had reached capacity about a year ago. I started thinking of what I had that I might use on the porch. I just happened to have two wicker rocking chairs upstairs to choose from. I have a big guest bedroom upstairs that had room for them plus two more chairs. I took the fancy one. I went to the store to find some more spray paint. Just call me the spray paint queen. I use both hands. When one tires I spray with the other, It is the only place I use my ambidextrousness other than in eating (where it really counts).
I could choose any colors I wanted. I chose the exact same two that I used before. The other chairs are painted white with spring green cushions. I have a wonderful little table that I bought by artist Brenda Murphy at Black Belt Treasures in Camden. It was the first one she ever made. I bought it before they could even put it on the floor. It is patterned, checked and stripes in interesting colors –the predominant one being the spring green on my furniture. I thought of painting my new chairs with the same effect. I decided against it. I did paint the rockers on the hot pink chair the grape of the other chair, but that was all I could bring myself to do. The porch is about tranquility, not a carnival. I use it as a resting place – and now, I’m glad to be back home- resting!

Canoe and Camping Trip

Nobody ever told me that at a mature age I would be taking up the great outdoors. I first surprised myself at the age of 50 by becoming a gardener. I found out I loved growing flowers and playing in the dirt. A friend took me canoeing after that and discovered that I liked canoeing almost as well as sailing, except for the possibility of poisonous snakes being present. My mama is a snake-a-phobic and did her best to indoctrinate her children with the same phobia. I am only half as phobic as she is. Ramona Larrimore had told me about going on a boat trip with her husband and snakes chattering in the trees and falling in the boat. That didn’t really help my snake phobia much. I like sailing in the gulf because there were no snakes. I overcame my trepidation about canoe trips because I like the tour guide. I must admit, I was not enchanted with being so near the water with the possibility of snakes AND alligators nearby. I tried to concentrate on the scenery and peaceful environment. It worked. It did not turn me into an inveterate paddler. It merely acquainted me with the process.
I am involved with the promotion of tourism. I fell into it because I love to travel, eat and shop. I am always on the lookout for new and interesting places to find, see and try. I am like the guy who went to work for the division of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. When he got the job, his friends said “Congratulations! You like all three!” I am like him in that I like all things related to tourism, with the possible exception of snakes that might show up at outdoor recreation. I had thoroughly explored all the places in rural Southwest Alabama related to tourism except those related to outdoor recreation. I had never been to the Isaacs’ Creek Campground in Monroe County although I had been right next door at the Alabama River Museum many times.
I have always loved picnics and being outdoors as long as nothing strenuous is required of me. I have packed many a picnic lunch and headed for places where there are trees adorned with Spanish moss. There is something very special about spreading a quilt out under trees and reading a new book or writing in a journal. My Fairy Godmother, Kathryn Tucker Windham, shared this passion. She has done much of her writing sitting on the banks of the lake at Camp Grist near her home in Selma.
So the big question is - how in the heck did I ever organize and facilitate a 2 day canoe paddle last weekend? I’m still asking myself that one. I got involved with the Alabama Scenic River Trail because I live between two major rivers that run through the tourism area I serve in rural Southwest Alabama. About 1/3 of the 631 mile ASRT trail runs through this region. I am, if nothing else, an opportunist where tourism is concerned. I started going to their meetings early on. I decided we needed a kickoff event for our part of the trail. Thank goodness, I had some knowledgeable people I could call on for help. Don Self is an expert on birds and geology, Randy Nalley is a forester who works with trees every day and worships nature as his real religion. They are both paddlers, as is Don’s wife, Judy, who knows about wildflowers and plant life. My job was to be dragger and toter as well as chief cook and bottle washer. One thing I do know about is food. It is the firm belief and cornerstone of hospitality in rural Southwest Alabama is that if you feed folks well and show them a good time, they will tell their friends about us and they will all come back.
Our paddle was a 10 mile day trip. I know nothing about canoe travel other than sitting in a boat. Apparently, this paddle was a little ambitious for even a seasoned paddler. We had 27 people on the trip. When they got to the campground at Isaac’s’ Creek, they were some tired bodies. We had planned to have entertainment in the evening, but all they wanted to do was eat and go to bed.
As with all entertaining in rural Southwest Alabama, food was the centerpiece. When they got to the boat landing to start the paddle, we had homemade sausage and biscuits for them. I had been advised by Don, the Head Paddler, not to serve them coffee before they began an all day rowing because they would need extra bathroom breaks. There were no bathrooms. For their carry-on sack lunch, we had fried chicken, homemade pimento cheese sandwiches, homemade shortbread cookies, raisins, juice boxes and bottled water. When they got back to camp, we had blackberry pepper jelly over cream cheese with crackers, nuts and relishes. For dinner, we had a barbeque – pulled pork and smoked beef brisket served with ranch beans, salsa coleslaw with corn, hot garlic herb bread, Italian Cream Cake, Caramel Cake and sweet tea. For breakfast, the next day we had Tomato Cheese Grits casserole, grilled Conecuh Sausage and blueberry cream cheese braids, coffee and juice. For Sunday Dinner on the Ground, we had chicken and dressing, fresh pink-eyed purple hull peas, bacon potato salad, banana pudding, rolls and sweet tea. Several paddlers asked that next year (they want to make this an annual event), they be allowed to bring spouses/family just to see the area and eat with us. We plan to do just that.
Isaac’s Creek Campground is a beautiful spot. It is filled with trees draped in Spanish moss. Each campsite has privacy, electrical hook ups and running water. There is a bath house and toilet facilities. The sites are $18 on the water or $16 not on the water. If you admit to being 62 and sign up for a senior citizen card, you can stay there for half price. The people who run the campground are friendly and helpful. Being at a campground like Isaacs’ Creek is one part of the great outdoors I can relate to. I just love sitting at a picnic table at the campsite and reading a book or writing in my journal. I love to contemplate nature; I just don’t like being bitten by it.
We had some interesting activities on Sunday after the paddle. We toured the lock and dam, talking to the Lock Master about river traffic, natural conditions on the river and the fishing in the area. We then toured the Alabama River Museum next door to see Native American and river artifacts as well as the geology/paleontology of the area. We offered short paddles for those who wanted them, but nobody was in the mood after the workout of the day before.
This trip was our first effort on the Alabama Scenic River Trail. We asked the participants to give us feedback for future planning. We fed them too well. They suggested that they didn’t require hot biscuits the first morning. Some wanted to coffee the first day. We told them to please get it before they came, so it would be out of their system by paddle time. We all had fun. Come join us next year!