Alabama Book: End of the Rainbow

I've written several blog posts in the past few years about Alabama-related books that have become victims of the downsizing of my personal library. That effort continues at greater speed, and I came across this title just the other day. So here we are.

I'm not sure why or where I bought this book, which has been on the shelves for a long time. For many years I bought all sorts of stuff related to Alabama, and I guess the phrase "grew up in Montgomery, Alabama" caught my eye. 

This title is the author's 1981 memoir about her addiction to prescription medications. Mary Ann Crenshaw was born in Montgomery on April 18, 1929, and headed north "to conquer New York" after graduation from Vanderbilt University in 1951. Beginning in 1959 she worked for several years as a fashion writer at Vogue magazine and then as fashion coordinator at Ohrbach's department store. After that position, she worked for over a decade as fashion and beauty reporter at the New York Times. 

Crenshaw overcame her addiction and documented her struggle in this book. During her life she published several other books, including The Natural Way to Super Beauty in 1974. She eventually left New York for Santa Fe, where she operated a public relations firm and collected Native and Outsider art. 

In this memoir Crenshaw devoted only a brief chapter to her youth and college experiences; the pages can be read below. Interestingly, I don't think she mentions Montgomery at all and refers to Nashville but not Vanderbilt. I wonder why the book jacket even says "grew up in Montgomery, Alabama" instead of something more generic like "grew up in the South."

Mary Ann Crenshaw died on September 18, 2018, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Montgomery. 

Auburn vs. Birmingham-Southern in 1938

In 1938 Auburn [then formally known as Alabama Polytechnic Institute, but seldom called that] and Birmingham-Southern College met in the first football game of the season for both teams. The contest took place on September 23 at Crampton Bowl in Montgomery. Auburn managed to win 14-0 with a "late spurt" as the article below describes it.

That article was written by Bill Rollow for the Montgomery Advertiser. Also below is an excerpt declaring that "Auburn's play was unimpressive" and noting the team will have to greatly improve before the next game against Tulane. Birmingham-Southern had been a three touchdown underdog.

The teams would finish that season with similar records. Under fifth-year coach Jack Meagher the Tigers had a record of 4-5-1. The Panthers coach Jenks Gillem completed his eleventh season at 4-5. 

The Panthers home stadium was Legion Field, but they only played two games there that year. Some of their other games were played in New Orleans, Memphis, Mobile and Gadsden. Auburn played Tulane in New Orleans, and other teams in Houston, Atlanta and Jacksonville, Florida. They lost to Villanova in Philadelphia. Two games were played at Crampton Bowl, and Auburn defeated LSU at Legion Field. 

Source: Auburn University Libraries Digital Collections

Harold McInnish, center, Birmingham-Southern 

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History

Lewis Holliday, end, Birmingham-Southern. He did not start, but according to the newspaper account below he did play. 

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History 

Rollow notes later in the article that Auburn attempted no passes in the first half and "did not open up with anything but country store football." Their fanciest play in that half was four laterals after an interception that gained about a yard. 

Montgomery Advertiser, Saturday 24 September 1938, written by Bill Rollow

Larger version can be found at the source

Source: Newpapers.com

Tennant S. McWilliams, PhD [1943-2023]

I wanted to note the passing on October 23 of UAB Professor Emeritus and historian Tennant S. McWilliams, who served as Dean of the School of Social Behavior and Sciences from 1990 until 2007. He graduated from Birmingham-Southern in 1965, then earned a master's at the University of Alabama in 1967 and a PhD from the University of Georgia in 1973. The following year he began his career at UAB, which lasted until retirement in 2010. During those years he had not only served as a dean, but in several other administrative posts at the university. 

He published several books; three of them are noted below. I've found the UAB history very useful.  

Published by the University of Alabama Press in September 2023

University of Alabama Press, 2008

University of Alabama Press, 1978

This pamphlet was published in 1978.

• Hannis Taylor: New Southerner as American. University of Alabama Press, 1978.
• The New South Faces the World: Foreign Affairs and the Southern Sense of Self. Louisiana State University Press, 1988. Paperback 2006.
• New Lights in the Valley: The Emergence of UAB. University of Alabama Press, 2008.
• The Chaplain’s Conflict: Good and Evil in a War Hospital. Texas A&M University Press, 2012.
• Dixie Heretic: The Civil Rights Odyssey of Renwick C. Kennedy. Forthcoming. University of Alabama Press, 2023.

Alabama at the Louisiana Book Festival, 2023

On October 28 Dianne and I attended the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge. Our son Amos appeared on two panels as noted below in support of both his books, the new novel Petrochemical Nocturne and his 2018 collection of stories, Nobody Knows How It Got This Good. We were also at the 2018 festival shortly after his first book was published. 

As you can see from the schedule below, this book festival is a one-day event packed with panels of authors, demonstrations of various sorts, and a massive book tent where signings and lots of purchases take place. Oh, and food trucks. Despite pretty warm weather, the event drew hordes of people, kids, and dogs.

The festival also attracts authors of all sort of books--fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs, children's, cookbooks, etc. Naturally, Amos wasn't the only author with Alabama connections. Others included Kari Frederickson, a history professor at the University of Alabama and author of Deep South Dynasty: The Bankheads of Alabama, and prolific novelist Carolyn Haines, who was inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame in 2020. Novelist and freelance author Terah Shelton Harris and poet Rodney Jones also appeared. 

You can read more about Amos and his writing here.  

Copies of Petrochemical Nocturne be purchased from Livingston Press, Amazon, or Bookshop,org, which supports independent bookstores. 

Copies of Nobody Knows can be purchased from Livingston Press, Amazon, or Bookshop,org, which supports independent bookstores.

The book wall in the Louisiana State Library goes up each year; these photos from the festival's Instagram account show it in progress. Amos' book can be seen on the lower right, second row up.

These two photos were taken by AJWIV

The Louisiana State Capitol is an imposing building.

Photo by AJWIV

The steps up to the capitol's main entrance features each state and its year of statehood.

Photo by AJWIV

Many of the panels took place in the House meeting rooms in the basement.

We could watch lots of traffic along the mighty Mississippi from our hotel room. 

Ration Books in World War II

In the summer of 1941 rationing increased in the United Kingdom due to military needs and German attacks on shipping in the Atlantic. The government there asked the U.S. to conserve food, and the U.S. Office of Price Administration began warning Americans of potential shortages in gasoline, steel, and other areas. The OPA created a rationing structure after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. 

Local officials chose volunteers for 5500 ration boards around the country. A system of books and stamps given to individuals in families were used to obtain rationed goods. Some stamps specified the rationed product, others were later associated with other goods. For instance, one airplane stamp allowed a person to buy a pair of shoes; stamp number 30 from ration book four was needed for five pounds of sugar. Other strictly regulated products included tires, gasoline, meats, cooking oil, butter and canned goods. All household members received ration books, as did merchants of all types. As you might expect, a black market quickly developed. Read more details about U.S. rationing during World War II here. 

Ration books were issued in four waves during the war. Book 1 came out in May 1942 and applied to sugar. In January 1943 Book 2 appeared with blue and red stamps. Blue covered canned goods, and red later went into use for meats, fish and dairy products. Book 3 in October 1943 utilized brown stamps for meats, canned milk, cheese, butter and lard. Book 4 had been issued in July and August 1943 with green stamps for processed foods such as canned, frozen or dried. Black stamps labelled "spare" were included for future use.

As if that weren't complicated enough, gas rationing was achieved with four types of use. Class A allowed 3-5 gallons a week for shopping, church, and doctor visits. Class B applied to factory workers and traveling salesmen, who received 8 gallons per week. Classes C [essential war workers, police, doctors, mailmen] and Class T [truck and bus drivers] had no restrictions. 

Our family is blessed--some might say cursed--with all sorts of paper ephemera from past decades. The ration books shown here are examples. See more comments below. 

The use of stamps to buy rationed goods was established to prevent hoarding. That behavior, along with a black market in stamps and trading and selling of stamps, were serious problems.

These books were issued to my dad's parents in Gadsden, Rosa Mae Wright and Amos J. Wright, Sr. My grandfather served in the Army briefly at the end of World War I. I've written about them here. 

Here are a couple of photos from mom's ration books 1 and 2. These were issued when she was 12, or just a "squirt" as she would say. On Book 1 her sister, known to us as Heth, signed for her. On Book 2 we see that her father, John Miller Shores, a long time Methodist minister in Alabama, signed the book. At the time there were living in Florence. You can see a photo of him and one of mom and her siblings in later years on this blog post. 

Source: Internet Archive

A 1936 Check from Marion Bank & Trust

Old checks hold a fascination for both my brother Richard and I. In going through mom and dad's house in Huntsville we've found a large batch of checks from the 1950s and 1960s Dad had saved that document payment of Cub Scout and school fees and many other landmarks of family life. Perhaps I'll do a blog post on some of those one day.

This blog post is about a different check that Richard gave me for Christmas one year. Let's take a look.

As you might expect, Wikipedia has an extensive history of check use and development. In the U.S. banks issued their own checks for many decades. The current system of routing information at the bottom did not appear until the 1960s.

What is now Marion Community Bank traces its history to 1902 when the Marion Central Bank opened. That institution was forced to close in 1933 during the Great Depression, but one year later under a new charter reopened on March 17, 1934, as the Marion Bank and Trust Company. That bank operated in the original bank building until 1972, when a new headquarters opened. After opening a number of branches in that part of the state, the bank rebranded to its current name in 2021. On this check you can see that Marion Bank and Trust Company has been stamped over the original bank name. 

So, what else can we determine from this check? Based on the date in May 1936, it was written just over two years after the bank reopened and still during the Great Depression. A nice rendering of the original bank building decorates the upper left corner. A fairly recent photo can be seen below.

The names of two men appear on the check. W.R. Hale wrote the check to "Cash" for $10.00. On the back the check is endorsed by J. V. Howell "Sr." The check has been marked as paid by a punch machine of some sort. 

So who were these men? 

I found a W.R. Hale in the 1950 U.S. census, 80 years old. He was born about 1870 in Alabama, a widower and roomer with James E. Stone and family, 1000 Clements St. in Marion. His occupation was listed as "unable to work". 

As William R. Hale he appears in the 1920 and 1930 U.S. Census records in Marion along with his wife Elizabeth and children. His occupation was listed as farmer. They were married on February 20, 1888. According to his gravestone seen below, Hale was born December 15, 1869, and died June 1, 1952. His wife had died in 1949. 

In the 1930 census I also found two men named John Valentine Howell in Marion. The elder Howell [19 February 1869-10 February 1941] was a retail merchant. His son was a physician, living with wife Marguerite and children at 319 E. Lafayette St. Gravestones for both men can also be seen below. 

Presumably Hale wrote this check to pay toward a store bill, since the endorsement signature on the back is "J.V. Howell Sr."

Lots of stories hidden in these humble objects...

Grave of William Ramus Hale [15 Dec 1869-1 June 1952] in Pisgah Cemetery, Perry County

Source: Find-A-Grave

Grave of John Valentine Howell, Sr. [19 February 1869-10 February 1941] in Marion Cemetery. His wife Eugenia died in 1960 and is also buried there.

Source: Find-A-Grave

Grave of John V. Howell, Jr., [13 September1896-20 August 1953] in Marion Cemetery. His father is buried in the same cemetery along with their wives. 

Source: Find-A-Grave

Old Marion Bank Building in April 2010

Source: Flickr