Townley Rest Area

On a recent Saturday my brother Richard and I visited the town of Fayette; a pair of blog posts about that trip will be coming soon. Along the route we passed the Townley Rest Area seen below. The stop has achieved a certain amount of fame; the website Roadside America even has an entry with photos of earlier incarnations. A three year-old YouTube video also shows a very different look to the attraction and includes some history in the comments. 

Townley is an unincorporated area in Walker County. The former coal mining town was incorporated from 1895 into the 1920s. In the 1920 U.S. Census the town had about 1500 resident, but the mine soon closed, and Townley gave up or lost its incorporated status. The nearby Boshell's Mill, site of a grist mill and sawmill, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975. The first mill was built in 1885 by William R. Boshell and the site operated by the Boshell family until 1963. 

Two U.S. Congressmen from Alabama were born in Townley. Carter Manasco [January 3, 1902-February 5, 1992] graduated from Howard College and the University of Alabama law school. He set up a law practice in Jasper in 1929 and began running for office; he served in the Alabama House from 1930 to 1934. Manasco worked for William B. Bankhead, the powerful Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1933 until 1940. 

He ran for the U.S. House himself in 1941 and remained until January 1949. Manasco resumed his law practice and also worked as legislative council for the National Coal Association from 1949 until 1985. He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Jasper. As these things happen, our maternal grandparents, Tempe and Rev. John Miller Shores are also interred there. 

Near Townley is the ghost town of Manasco. Multiple families by that name lived in Fayette, Walker and Winston counties. Apparently only a few wells and a cemetery mark the spot today. 

Tom Bevill [March 27, 1921-March 28, 2005] also graduated from the law school at the University of Alabama. He served in the Alabama legislature from 1958 until 1966 and then the U.S. House 1967-1997. Bevill has another place in history. He answered the world's first 9-1-1 call made on February 16, 1968, from Haleyville by Alabama House Speaker Rankin Fite. 

One way to find the rest stop is take I-22 out of Birmingham toward Memphis, exit at AL-69 South and after a brief stretch take AL-124 West. The stop will be on your left.

Photo by Richard Wright 19 July 2024

The Boshell sawmill on the left burned in 1976 and the grist mill in 1986. The photo of the ruins below was taken in 1992.

Source: Wikipedia

Carter Manasco [1902-1990]

Source: Find-A-Grave

Tom Bevill [1921-2005]

Source: Wikipedia

Alabama Postcard: YMCA Camp Cha-La-Kee

I'm not sure how I acquired this postcard, but here we are. Camp Cha-La-Kee is a YMCA facility that opened on Lake Guntersville in 1957. You can click on that link to explore their programs.

This card probably dates from the 1950s, and was printed by the Artvue Post Card Company on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The company opened in 1948 and during the 1950s sold many black and white postcards instead of the more popular color cards. Between 1951 and 1963 the company issued a series of cards featuring the plaques of members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Wikipedia has a nice history of postcards here. 

Missiles at Redstone Arsenal in the 1950s

Recently I was going through some old family photos at mom's house in Huntsville and found a batch that included the ones below. Dad probably took them in the late 1950s or early 1960s. In fact, the same group developed at Walgreen Drugs [see cover at the end of the post] included ice storm photos that I suspect are from the March 2, 1960 event described here. One day I'll have to do a piece on those photos. 

My dad Amos J. Wright, Jr., was a civilian employee of the Army at Redstone Arsenal for many years. He retired on December 31, 1983, as Chief of the Systems Design, Programming and Integrative Division, U.S. Army Missile Command. I guess in 1960 one could roam the Arsenal taking photographs of whatever caught the eye. I have no idea why dad photographed so many of these U.S. Army missiles; perhaps it was a display for employees or the general public. 

I also have no idea, with two exceptions you can see below, which missiles these are. At least one [and perhaps more] is included in this listing. If you recognize any, please let us know in the comments. 

Is this one the antitank DART? More information is at the Wikipedia entry.

I did manage to identify this missile, the Lacrosse. Almost 1200 of the weapons were produced and deployed, but the project finally ended in the early 1960s when technical difficulties could not solved. 

Six Thousand Attend Birmingham Rally in 1935

For more than a year now my brother Richard and I have been conducting a deep dive into the massive amount of family memorabilia at mom's house in Huntsville. Much of it comes from dad's parents, Rosa Mae and Amos J. Wright, Sr., who lived in the Gadsden. I've previously written about my grandfather's World War I army training at Auburn and the contents of their daughter Beulah Vee's cedar chest. 

In a recent round of exploration, we've found a lot of material related to Amos Sr.'s years working for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. According to an entry in one of Rosa Mae's journals, he began his employment with L&N on May 15, 1923, and retired September 1, 1962.He was a yard foreman for many of those thirty-nine years. 

One item we found was the October 1935 issue of the railroad's employee magazine. Inside was an article titled "Six Thousand Attend Birmingham Rally". So what was that all about?

On September 26, 1935, the L & N Railroad held its third in a series of rallies in cities along its rail system. The event took place at the Municipal Auditorium n Birmingham. Both Vice-President T.E. Brooks and President James B. Hill addressed the 6000 employees and family members in attendance. Brooks had served for many years as division superintendent in Birmingham.

The anonymous author noted that the purpose was primarily one of entertainment, but apparently Hill had some extensive remarks before the fun. He noted that the "railroads are almost completely regulated in everything they do" unlike competitive forms of transportation by road, air and water. Plus, almost 7.5% of gross earnings were paid in taxes. Remember that in 1935 the nation was in the depths of the Great Depression.

The article does include a portrait of the L & N Railroad both nationally and in Alabama at that time. President Hill noted in his remarks that L & N operated in 13 states with 26,000 employees, 5000 miles of track, 1000 locomotives, over 50,000 freight cars and more than 700 passenger cars. In Alabama 4700 people worked for L & N, which paid $776,000 in taxes to the state, $350,000 of which went to schools.

So what about that entertainment? "Talented members of the L & N family entertained the large audience with 17 acts that would have done credit to the best vaudeville circuit," wrote the author. Most of them were from Birmingham or Boyles, a community that no longer exists but was the site of L & N's Boyles Yard. Others came from Kentucky. The audience enjoyed a piano trio, tenor solos, a tap dance, and baritone solos. Two male employees "provided many laughs with their blackface act."

Black employees appeared in "Darktown Strutters" accompanied by a pianist. "The finale featured the  Southland Colored Ensemble and Quartette, fifty voices directed by Paul Cooper." the author wrote. "This chorus was composed of many colored employes [sic] at Boyles and members of their families. They rendered an enjoyable selection of spirituals and melodies."

I don't know if my grandparents from Gadsden attended this rally, but perhaps they did. 

My grandfather Amos J. Wright, Sr., is on the left posing with his crew in the Gadsden L&N railroad yard sometime in the 1930s. 

Birmingham's Municipal Auditorium ca. 1937. The facility was later renamed Boutwell Auditorium after Albert Boutwell who was mayor from 1963 until 1967. 

Source: BhamWiki

Branch Books in Hartselle

On June 24 my brother Richard and I made our way to Hartselle to check out a used bookstore new to us, Branch Books. We do that sort of thing when we can. We were not disappointed by the visit. 

The store has two large rooms and a few small ones filled with tall, stuffed shelves. As you can see from some of the photos there are numerous sections, including some not shown such as children's, rare and vintage books and westerns.

Naturally Richard and I picked up some goodies. I was especially glad to find several Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason novels and a couple of John Creasey's adventure novels featuring The Toff, an English upper class sleuth. 

A second store by the same name has recently opened in Cullman. The Hartselle store's Facebook page is here. The prices are good and selection large, so I recommend a visit if you are in the area. 

I've written a number of blog posts about Alabama bookstores past and present. There's even a blog post linking to many of them. I've also posted about a "quick visit" to Hartselle. 

A few more comments are below. 

Richard is looking for some Travis McGee novels by John D. MacDonald that he hasn't read. We're both making our way through those books. 

The store has a science fiction, fantasy and horror room.

There's even a Christmas section!

Of course, I had to check out the Alabama & Local Authors section. 

Alabama Authors: C Terry Cline & Judith Richards

In 2017 I wrote a post on this blog about Babs and Borden Deal, an Alabama couple [until their divorce] who both wrote numerous novels and short stories. This post is about a similar writing duo. 

Judith Richards died on September 23 of last year; she was born in Illinois. Her husband C. Terry Cline, a Birmingham native, died May 2, 2013. Cline and Richards married in 1979, and in addition to their own writing became well-known in the Fairhope area for their willingness to help younger writers.

Cline wrote for radio and television and ran an advertising agency before publishing his first novel, Damon, in 1975. He published nine more by 1989. Three of those are "borderline" science fiction according to his entry in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia. Other novels are thrillers. His final work, The Return of Edgar Cayce, claimed to be communications from the early 20th century psychic. Cayce had an Alabama connection; he operated a photography studio in Selma from 1912 until 1923. An eleventh novel, The Cordoba Connection, was left unfinished at Cline's death and completed by his wife and published in 2016. You can read more about his novels on GoodReads. 

Richards published seven novels between 1978 and 2015. Her first novel Summer Lightning features a young boy growing up in a migrant labor camp during the Great Depression. The later novel Thelonious Rising tells the story of a young boy in the time of Hurricane Katrina. Her novel Summer Lightning was chosen for a 1978 volume of Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Read more about her work on GoodReads. Read more about her fascinating life in the obituary linked below. 

Both writers have stories included in the anthology edited by Sonny Brewer, Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe published in 2002. Cline's is "S.Trident" and Richards' is "How the Story Ends." The biographical note for Richards notes, "Summer Lightning, which is about her husband, author C. Terry Cline, Jr., has been published in seventeen languages..."

Unfortunately, neither author has an entry in Wikipedia or the Encyclopedia of Alabama. 

Source: An article about horror writers with Alabama connections at al.com

C. Terry Cline's books

Damon (1975)
Death Knell (1977)
Cross Current (1979)
Mind Reader (1981)
Missing Persons (1982)
The Attorney Conspiracy (1983)
Violated (1984)
Prey (1985)
Quarry (1987)
Reaper (1989)
The Return of Edgar Cayce (2011)
The Cordoba Conspiracy (2016)

Photo from her obituary at al.com

Judith Richards' books:

Summer Lightning (1978)

Triple Indemnity (1982)

Seminole Summer (1987)

After the Storm (1987)

Too Blue to Fly (1997)

Thelonious Rising (2014)

The Sounds of Silence (2015)