Thursday, April 28, 2022

Bonnie Plants in Union Springs

If you've shopped for garden plants at a big box store and no doubt many other places, you have probably encountered Bonnie Plants. In the spring their little black, green and yellow plastic pots offer up all sorts of herbs and veggies at our local Home Depot, WalMart, etc. We've certainly purchased who knows how many dozens over the years to put tomatoes, straight neck squash, cucumbers, various peppers, and such in Dianne's garden. 

I recently noticed something about the little pots I had always missed before. Right there on the side it says, "Headquarters/Union Springs, AL". Hmmm....And "Since 1918". Hmmm....

Actually, the company, the largest plant and vegetable grower for home gardens in the U.S., relocated its headquarters to Opelika in early 2022. One reason given was the close proximity to Auburn University, with which Bonnie Plants has worked for decades. 

A couple named Bonnie and Livingston Paulk moved to Union Springs in 1917 and the following year began to sell cabbage sprouts in town. Within a few years the couple and their hired help were offering onions, strawberries, eggplants, peppers, potatoes and more for sale. The company erected its first greenhouse in 1936 and the growth never stopped. Bonnie Plants now sells in all 50 states and Canada and has 70 growing stations around the country.

A video created to celebrate the firm's 100th anniversary can be seen here.

I wonder how many individual plants the company has sold....













Bonnie Springs facility in Union Springs

Source: Jessie Shook's article "Bonnie Plants continues to expand" in the Union Springs Herald 2 Sept 2020. The article notes that the company's sales were approaching $400 million. 




The ribbon cutting held in January 2022 for the new Bonnie headquarters in Opelika

Source: PR Newswire 




Sunday, April 24, 2022

Alabama History & Culture News: April 24 edition

 



Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!


Settlement, war and agriculture in West Florida explored in new history | DON NOBLE
He is the director of Historic Blakely State Park in Spanish Fort and the author of many books and articles on early Alabama.


Freedom Rides Museum unveils newly discovered photo from Civil Rights Movement - WSFA
The historic image features the interracial group of men who traveled for two weeks back in 1947. They were protesting segregated seating on buses ...



Weather History: April 24th, 2010 Intense Tornado Outbreak | WHNT.com
Instability, lift, and wind shear created a favorable environment for severe storms to develop. Storms began firing up in northwest Alabama during ...


Alabama author helps revive legacy of forgotten photographer
The result: two books and a website about Korman, which resurrect the photographer's extraordinary catalogue of black and white images that, for a ...


One of Alabama's oldest independent bookstores will host its first book fair featuring local authors
In May, the Little Professor bookshop in Homewood will hold its first local author showcase.


For years, Pearl Buck's daughter was buried in an unmarked grave in New Jersey. One fan ...
(L-R) Patricia Martinelli, 68, curator of the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society, stands with David Swindal, 69, an Alabama landscape ...


Philip D. Beidler, longtime Alabama professor whose experience in Vietnam influenced his ...
Philip D. Beidler, a longtime English professor at the University of Alabama whose own experience in the Vietnam War served as the focus of ...

'Bloody Sunday' Exhibit to Identify Foot Soldiers | Alabama State University
Now historians are trying to identify the people who marched into the pages of history. A 30-piece photographic exhibit on display at Britt ...

Alabamian Dan Bankhead earned a place in baseball history - Alabama NewsCenter
In the same year Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier, his teammate, Alabamian Dan Bankhead became the major leagues' first Black ...

A civil rights memorial in Alabama expands to document lynching victims' stories - NPR
The Equal Justice Initiative addresses America's history of racial violence at a time when state lawmakers nationwide have been trying to limit ...

​ASU Holds Dedication Ceremony for Jo Ann Robinson Hall | Alabama State University
The ceremony was held in front of the residence hall, a historic building that was previously named after Alabama's 39th Governor, David Bibb Graves, ...

Alabama gave slaves rocky land as 'compensation' for slavery. A 'resilient' few made Colony their home.


Guest Opinion: Is Alabama abandoning impoverished folks in the Black Belt for 'Bridge to Nowhere'?
... issues surrounding historical site questions around Moundville have not been addressed. According to a recent article, “West Alabama Corridor ...

Emotions stirred as Alabama honors a moment in its football history - al.com
Certainly not Mitchell or Wilbur Jackson, the first two Black players in Alabama football history who are now honored with a plaque unveiled ...


Alabama professor's great-uncle survived the sinking of the Titanic - CBS 42
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Julie Hedgepeth Williams remembers how her great uncle, Albert Caldwell, was always smiling.


Hartselle woman publishes book
Special to the Enquirer. Hartselle native Connie Pearson recently published a book titled “100 Things to Do in Huntsville & North Alabama Before ...


Review: Eye-opening historical fiction 'Take My Hand' - ABC News
Being one of the few nurses with her own reliable transportation, Civil is assigned two rural Alabama girls, India and Erica Williams, ...

Review: Eye-Opening Historical Fiction 'Take My Hand' | Alabama News
Review: Eye-Opening Historical Fiction 'Take My Hand'. Newly graduated from Tuskegee, Civil Townsend takes on her first job as a nurse at a family ...


Thursday, April 21, 2022

Hudson Strode's "Now in Mexico"

As the downsizing of my book collection continues, I'm even letting go of volumes that have Alabama connections. Can you believe it? This post is about such a book and its author.

Strode was born in Cairo, Illinois, on Halloween, 1892. His father Thomas was a native of Huntsville, Alabama. Because Thomas suffered from tuberculosis, the family soon moved to Denver but Thomas died in 1896. By the time Strode was 12 his mother Hope had remarried, and the family had moved to Demopolis. 

He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1913 and received a master's in English at Columbia University. Hudson Strode taught English and creative writing at the University of Alabama from 1916 until retirement in 1963 with various time outs for travel, breakdowns and service at the Pensacola Naval Air Station during World War II. In 1975 he published The Eleventh House, a memoir that covered events in his life until the start of World War II. Strode died on September 22, 1976. The New York Times noted his passing

Many of Strode's books relate to his travels to places such as Cuba, Bermuda, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Asia and India and Mexico. He also published a three volume biography of Jefferson Davis and edited Spring Harvest: A Collection of Stories from Alabama. I hope to do a blog post on that anthology at some point soon. 

Strode's greatest legacy is the long list of former students who published more than 50 novels and 100 short stories. Borden Deal alone published more than 20 novels and a number of stories. I've put together this listing from various sources and have included links and a representative--or in some cases only--novel or other publication. Many of these authors were prolific novelists, short story writers, and poets; others published a single book. As far as I know, all of these individuals are deceased except Nancy Huddleston Packer.  

John Mayo Goss, one of his students, won First Prize in the 1946 O. Henry Memorial Award contest given to the best story published in the previous year. Strode was one of three judges that year; stories by Truman Capote, Patricia Highsmith, Eudora Welty and others did not win. This tale has been dissected on the Passing Tramp mystery blog. Two years later Goss published a novel, This Magnificent World. 

STUDENTS [probably incomplete]

Links are given to entries at the Encyclopedia of Alabama or other sources. 

Douglas Fields Bailey, Devil Make a Third [1948]

Babs Deal, The Walls Came Tumbling Down [1968]


Borden Deal, Bluegrass [1976]

Lonnie Coleman, Beulah Land [1973]

John Finlay, Mind and Blood: Collected Poems [1992]

Robert Faucet Gibbons, Bright as the Morning [1943]

John Mayo Goss, This Magnificent World [1948]

Winston Groom, Forrest Gump [1986, also many other books!]

Harriet Hassell, Rachel's Children [1938]

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird [1960]

Helen Norris, Something More Than Earth [1940]


Nancy Huddleston Packer, Old Ladies [2012]

Thomas Hal Phillips, The Bitterweed Path [1950] 

Catherine Rodgers [McLain], The Towers Inheritance [1958]

Elise Sanguinetti, The Last of the Whitfields [1962]

Carlyle Tillery, Red Bone Woman [1950]

Ann Waldron, The Princeton Murders [2003]

Alabama author Alina Stefanescu wrote a blog post in 2009 about Strode's Tuscaloosa home and his life and career. That post includes a partial list of Strode's students with some comments. 

The photos below should give you some idea about the book, published in 1947. I've made comments below a couple of them. 

Full disclosure: no, I haven't read it, and since I'm not likely to, I'm letting it go.  




Hudson Strode [1892-1976]

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama









This copy was purchased at Smith & Hardwick, a legendary book store that operated in Birmingham from 1934 until 2004. I remember visiting its second location in Forest Park before it closed. 




I assume Mrs. Spigener is this lady, and she was married to this gentleman. You can see their modest Tuscaloosa home on Zillow




Yes, my copy is signed by the author. 





































Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Some Postings about Alabama Bookstores

One of the things we do when travelling is seek out local bookstores. Over the years I've written a number of pieces on this blog about such establishments in Alabama, past and present, or their ephemera such as bookmarks. Here's a list of ones I've done so far.  




Alabama Photos of the Day: Two Auburn Bookstores in 1950









Birmingham Photo of the Day (80): Paris Bookstall Protest in 1971



Deb's Bookstore in Cullman [now Camelot Books & Comics]















Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Alabama History & Culture News: April 12 edition

 



Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!


UA history course explores queerness in the South - The Crimson White
“To really understand queer history in Alabama, you have to marry it to the history of discrimination against Black Americans.


Historical novel 'Take My Hand' focuses on involuntary sterilization of Black women - NPR
That's the question that protagonist Civil Townsend, a Black nurse in 1970s Alabama, has to grapple with when the federally funded clinic she ...


The church is long gone but the graves of many of the early settlers of ... receives marker at Pea Ridge Cemetery in Autauga County Alabama ...


University of Alabama breaks ground on Bryce Main, Randall Welcome Center
The University of Alabama's Randall Welcome Center will be in the renovated historic Bryce Main building. (contributed).


Muscogee (Creek) Nation returns to Alabama in historic homecoming ceremony | News
Muscogee (Creek) Nation returns to Alabama in historic homecoming ... want and deserve to know the history of their community,” said Hill.

Legacy Flight Academy: Continuing the Celebration of Black Aviation History - FLYING Magazine
The event, held at the historic Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, featured another original Tuskegee Airman: Brigadier General Charles McGee.


USS Alabama getting new deck after more than 8 decades | Stars and Stripes
It was moved to the Alabama coast, and Battleship Memorial Park opened in ... History. USS Alabama getting new deck after more than 8 decades



ASF is partnering with the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, an organization under the Alabama Historical Commission, to bring exhibits and ...


historic release from a Birmingham distillery - WBRC
“What the breweries did when they came in really started an evolution in the alcohol manufacturing business in Alabama.” As rules relaxed, Cubelic, ...

Hank Aaron to Jim Tabor: Alabama's 100-homer hitters - al.com
When the Mobile native hit the milestone home run, four of the top 19 home run hitters in history had Alabama baseball roots.
Fossil of prehistoric lobster likened to beef jerky after discovery in Alabama creek - Ledger-Enquirer
Adiel Klompmaker/Alabama Museum of Natural History photo. The remains of a 70-million-year-old carnivorous lobster have been found in Alabama, ...


Across rural Alabama, downtowns are making an energetic comeback
Atmore has added a stage and green space to a parking lot, and the stage incorporates a box car in a nod to the city's railroad history.