Local History
Floyd and Beasley-Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
Sometimes remembering is a warm, fuzzy feeling, but remembering can be painful. Consumers today are seeing the effects of a shortage of truckers in empty shelves. Government regulation, rising gas prices, and people’s misconceptions about the trucking industry have...
Reynolds Business College – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
It was a different time when I was growing up in the fifties. Moms left home to work because of necessity in World War II, but the war was over and prosperity had begun to settle over small communities across this land, towns like Sylacauga. In the days of the “Leave...
People Making a Difference – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
Horace and Doris Farris Everywhere I go I am looking for a little bit of “nice.” I remember a kinder, gentler, time when people treated each other with respect and did small acts of kindness with no expectation of reward or even thanks. There is an old saying, “You...
A Tiger Legacy – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
B.B. Comer Memorial High School I have always been interested in schools of yesteryear and how they evolved into such different places as time rolls on. From Miss Beadle’s school in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series of books, to any book I see about...
“Hon, Run Down to the Store and Get—–” – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
These words were repeated countless times by wives and mamas and husbands and daddies of long ago. The neighborhood Mom and Pop Grocery was not far away from the family’s house, but in one car families or no car families going to town to shop was only...
Small Grocery Stores with Big Hearts – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
Grocery stores have always been about products (supply and demand), people, and service. The mom and pop stores of the past provided the things that people could not raise on the farm, and they raised just about everything. People even did spinning and weaving at...
Remembering Mom and Pop Stores – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
Sylacauga has some store buildings that have been in the same location for a very long time, but the store that is open there now is not the store that was open there in the fifties and sixties. One such store is Walco Grocery. I have passed it hundreds of times...
Neighborhood Stores of Yesteryear – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
The mom and pop grocery stores of yesteryear will always be memories in the hearts of those who operated them and the customers who traded with them. Ezekiel’s Grocery at the Quarry was one of those stores. Several other Sylacauga families whose names you will...
The Old Hickory – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
Where did that running pig go? Everyone in Sylacauga loved the sign that said Old Hickory and the little pig that was always running. He had a lasting impact on this city in the days that Sylacauga was on the Florida Short Route. The old Birmingham...
A Golddigger from the Marble City – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
The year was 1968 and Dean Martin was a popular television personality. It was the year his popular weekly summer programs began featuring a group of young, beautiful, singers and dancers called the Golddiggers, an idea from a group that originated in the...
First Day of School – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
It’s that special time of year when school is starting again. I can almost smell new blue jeans and see those shiny new pencils, book bags, and pointy new crayons. I can close my eyes and smell the shiny waxed floors, so clean that even a small child hated...
The Walking That Was – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
Sylacauga is a much changed city because society has changed! Nothing brings the past in focus as much as the present. Our Marble Festival promoted a walking tour, but upon arriving downtown Saturday morning, there were no visible walkers. Many people were in their...
Some Old Memories of Elementary Schools – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
School is off to a rocky start again this year, and everyone has an opinion about the best way to do it. All who are involved were so in hopes we could get off to a “normal” school, whatever that is. If you are a believer, continue to pray with me for our country and...
Citizenship Recognition Day in 1941 – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
With one election behind us, and a municipal run-off election next month, there is more talk about candidates and issues than action. Elections are important, and they definitely wake people up to the issues that are at stake; but these same people who are screaming...
Citizenship and Community in Days Gone By – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
I love the history of our area, and sometimes I accidentally discover something that is just so unusual that I cannot let it go without a little more research. We have a treasury of history about Avondale Mills and the people who lived or worked there; and B. B. Comer...
I Hear That Train A Comin’ – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
We know that sound in Sylacauga, and even at Lake Joy I can hear the train coming up Trammell Hill across 511 in the edge of the Talladega National Forest. We had overnight guests from Fairhope who got quite alarmed in the early morning hours when they heard that...
The Railroad in Sylacauga – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
Railroad tracks run right through the center of Sylacauga, and most of us have grown up waving at the man in the caboose and hearing our parents complain about having to wait for the train to clear the crossing. If you were a student at Sylacauga High School in the...
City Bus Line – Remembrances of Sylacauga by Ginger Clifton
Go back with me in time to the years during and after World War II when every family did not own a car, and compare that to today when two or three cars are parked in every carport or at every house. Cars were scarce during and after the War, and gasoline and tires...