Local History

I live in the country about 4 miles from the city of Sylacauga, and I have lived here a very long time. I love living where I can hear the train comin’ round the bend way yonder in the distance like Johnny Cash. I hear the mocking bird singing when I wake up in the...

The fifteenth annual Magic of Marble Festival begins this week, April 11-22.  Sponsored by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and Sylacauga Arts Council, the Festival is an artistic and educational event where some 35 sculptors will gather at Central Park...

George Lewis “Fess” Simpkins December 2, 1908-March 31, 1981 Special guest columnist this week is Mrs. Faye Simpkins who wrote this beautiful story back in 1981 after her beloved father-in-law’s death. It continues the theme of my last two columns about Avondale Mills...

With all of the excitement about the Earth project and the renewal going on in the Avondale Mill Village in Sylacauga my mind goes back to the late fifties when I first visited Arrie and J.S. Clifton's house on 30 Pelham Avenue, when I first sat on that screened porch...

One of the most beautiful and most photographed small church buildings in rural Alabama is the Sears Chapel Methodist Church on Highway 231 two miles North of Rockford in Coosa County. It is a pretty building, but people in the community, the church, still meet there...

My last visit to A & M Clothing was not February 11 for the Retirement Reception and celebration as I had planned. Sorry I missed that (Covid finally caught up with me), but my last visit with Betty and Polly Blades is still a memorable one.  I try staying...

Commitment to responsibility is a tough word to illustrate today, but Betty Blades and family are a great example of what the word means. A&M Clothing has been in business for 48 years and is now closing its doors.  As soon as I heard the news, I went down to...

So much about Christmas gives assurance to believers in in a world that is dark and gloomy. Christmas comes quickly when you are a senior adult. Anticipation of Christmas reminds me of how very long it seemed between Christmases when I was a child. The songwriter...

I  experienced the Comer Camaraderie in 1958 when I became associated with the J.S. Clifton family who lived on Pelham Avenue in Sylacauga. I was smitten with Arrie Clifton’s youngest son, and I was still in High School at Sylacauga High, in Fess Simpkins’...

My cousin Dot, living in Spanish Fort, sent me a clipping from the Mobile Press Register about a Sylacauga girl and her successful business in Homewood, Alabama, making and selling cookies at a shop called Cookie Fix. “Do you know her?” Dot asked, for Dot and I share...

The class of 1958 at Sylacauga High School had a reunion last week, not unusual because they gather often to share memories and enrich friendships that have continued down through the 64 years since they graduated They have had more class reunions than any other SHS...

Someone asked me about the legend of Merkel Mountain.  It is absolutely Southern to tell stories about mountains, sometimes in poems, stories, and often in songs; but the legend of Merkel Mountain is a fascinating true story about a place right here in Sylacauga...

There are certain times and certain situations where it is sensible and realistic for boys and girls to be separated because they were created, male and female, for separate roles in life. Last time we talked about the Boys Club, and then this opportunity came to talk...

I have always had a soft spot in my heart for boys and people who see potential in them and try to guide them through the tender days of childhood and youth.  My Dad, my hero, had a favorite charity. It was Boys Town, a home for disadvantaged boys, with a slogan,...

Many wonderful people came out of the Avondale Mills Village family, people who contributed to good in the world even though they grew up in hard times, with big families, and not much of this world’s riches. They worked hard, played hard, and apparently got a good...

William and Frances Berryman came to Sylacauga High School in the fall of 1957. I was in the tenth grade and excited, but a little bit nervous about taking some new subjects, algebra, biology, and typing. Algebra I and the teacher had a reputation that made anyone...

Remembering education in Sylacauga from 1948 until I retired from teaching in 2005 covers a lot of territory as well as a lot of time. I was thinking of Sylacauga’s school board policy which often hired married couples at the same time, sometimes in the same school...