Some Alabama Drink Coasters

I have small collections of many things, and Alabama-related drink coasters are one. Here are a few samples. You can read about the history of drink coasters on Wikipedia. For instance, the first cardboard coasters were introduced in Germany in 1880. 

More comments are below. 

I probably picked this one up when Dianne and I visited DeSoto State Park and the Fort Payne area in October 2012. You can read my blog posts about that trip here, here and here. 

Diamonds has apparently been operating for several decades, first in a smaller location. I picked up this coaster on a visit my brother Richard and I made there a few years ago. They apparently have a sense of humor. 

Lakeview Oyster House closed in March 2009. A capture of their menu for February 2009 can be found via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. 

This brewpub operated in Birmingham from 1995 until 2000. Magic City was the second such business to open after the state legislature passed the Brewpub Act of 1992. The first was Port City Brewery in Mobile in 1993. Both were preceded in the modern era by the Birmingham Brewing Company, which operated as a brewery from 1992 until 1998. 

Terminal Station Brown Ale is one of the offerings from Birmingham's Ghost Train Brewing Company. More information can be found at the brewery's web site. The name of the beer references Birmingham's wonderful railroad station demolished in 1969. 

Design Studio offers these wooden city map coasters for a number of U.S.  locations.

Alabama Postcard: Mentone Springs Hotel

Mentone is a small town in DeKalb County in the northeastern part of the state. Mineral springs in the area led to its development in the 1880s as a resort, and it later became a location for summer camps for young people. Mentone is atop Lookout Mountain at an elevation of more than 1700 feet, and naturally cooler in the summer.

The Mentone Springs Hotel opened in 1884 to serve the numerous tourists coming to the area. The hotel thrived until the 1920s, but then began a decline that lasted into the 21st century. The hotel was purchased in 2010 by two couples who began restoration efforts. Unfortunately, the facility burned to the ground in March 2014. 

James F. Sulzby, Jr.'s classic Historic Alabama Hotels and Resorts [1960, pp 175-179] has a chapter on Mentone and the Springs Hotel. The hotel was originally built in 1884 by Dr. Frank Caldwell of Pennsylvania. The two-story frame structure had 57 rooms with hot and cold water. Caldwell sold the property in 1896, and new owner Charles Loring further developed the popular facility, which was open from June 1 until October 1 each year. 

New owners in 1914 added an annex with 24 rooms, each having a private bath. Ownership changed again in 1918 and once more in 1920, when a group of Baptists purchased it for the denomination's summer activities. That group added a 44-room dormitory, an auditorium for 600 and six classrooms. 

The final Baptist summer was in 1932, as the Great Depression deepened. After that, a series of owners had little success, and the hotel sat unused some years. The 2010 purchasers seemed to resurrect the hotel, but the electrical fire ended its history forever. 

This postcard comes from my collection. It has no date, but 1981 is mentioned in the text on the reverse side, so it was issued sometime after that. The "family from Atlanta" may be one of the unsuccessful efforts at restoration that took place over the years. 

The hotel's zombie web site is still available. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and the Wikipedia article has links to the nomination form for the National Register. That document in PDF format gives extensive details about the history. 

Below the postcard are two more images about the hotel with links to more newspaper articles about it and the fire. 

You can read about the supposed visit of Welsh Prince Madoc to the Mentone area in 1170 here. 

Source: Chattanooga Free Press 3 March 2014

Source: Chattanooga Free Press 28 July 2014

The Underground in Huntsville April 1975

My brother Richard and I were recently at mom's house in Huntsville, and he found this newsletter while exploring some papers from his days at Grissom High School. This tongue-in-cheek publication seems to be a one-off issue for April Fool's in 1975. But who knows?

The long item on page 1,"Suspenders Snap at Students for Illicit Literature"  includes a call for submissions from students and faculty and mentions "here at Grissom." In the piece on the upper left of the back page, meant to be an acknowledgement of "Our Infectious Staff", the names Tom Watson and Marc Smith are given. Watson was one of Richard's best friends in high school.

Between these two bits of reality, high school humor abounds. Some of it is actually funny. Read and decide for yourself! 

This publication came forth at the old Grissom High School; I've done a blog post on that facility. I've  also written one about April Fool's at Auburn University in 1962. The things these high school and college students of yore get up to!

T

Alabama Poultry Queen in 1967

Today's poultry industry in Alabama is worth billions and the largest agricultural enterprise in the state. The trade group is the Alabama Poultry and Egg Association, once known as simply the Alabama Poultry Association. For some years the group ran a contest to crown a queen.

In recent explorations at the Alabama Mosaic site, I found the photograph below of the unnamed Alabama Poultry Queen for 1967. The photograph is one of many taken by Jim Peppler for an article about the National Peanut Festival in Dothan in October 1967. The article appeared in the Southern Courier [Montgomery] October 28-29, 1967, pp. 3 and 6. Several of his photos were used, but not this one. The article does not mention the poultry queen's appearance at the festival. A PDF of that issue is available here. 

The Alabama Poultry and Egg Association has some photos of poultry queens in the 1960s and 1970s on its Facebook page, but no names or specific dates are given. 

I did a bit of research, but was unable to identify this 1967 Queen. If anyone knows the name of this young lady, or anything about the poultry queen contest, let us know in the comments. 

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History via Alabama Mosaic