Birmingham Barons Then and Now

The Birmingham Barons have been a professional baseball presence in the city since 1885, with only three brief gaps of years they did not play. Since 1910 three stadiums have been home to the team: Rickwood Field, Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and the current Regions Field downtown near Railroad Park. Numerous Major League and Negro League stars played on those fields, especially Rickwood, the first concrete and steel stadium in the minor leagues. Today the Barons are a Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. 

On Tuesday night, August 20, son Amos and I attended a game and watched the Barons defeat the Biloxi Shuckers in a comeback win 6-5. Some photos are below. This experience brought to mind some items of Barons' memorabilia that have been in the family since the mid-1990s. More on that and other goodies are also below.

I've previously written a blog piece on the Barons discussing a 1917 photo of the team. 

You can find almost 600 digitized items related to the Barons' history at the Alabama Mosaic site. 

Further Reading

Allen Barra, Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark. 2010

William J. Plott, Black Baseball's Last Team Standing: The Birmingham Black Barons, 1919-1962. 2019

Watkins, Clarence. Baseball in Birmingham. 2010

This board with its removable discs appeared in 1995 or 1996 during a craze for "pogs", a modern version of the milk cap games that dated from before World War II.

These Barons players appear on the "pog" board. I have included the states where they were born and the years they played in Birmingham. Since two of the players appeared on a Barons roster only in 1995, I'm assuming that's the year of this item. Several of these players had some time in the majors as well as other minor league teams. Search for them at the Baseball Reference site for more details. 

Jimmy Hurst [Alabama, 1995-6]
Mike Cameron [Georgia, 1995-1996]
Jeff Abbott [Georgia, 1995]
Eddie Pearson [Alabama, 1995-7]
Greg Norton [California, 1995-1996]
Troy Fryman [Florida, 1994-6]
Glenn Disarcina [Massachusetts, 1993-6]
Scott Vollmer (California, 1995-6]
Scott Christman [Arizona, 1995]

Two of these players are Alabama natives. Jimmy Hurst was born in Tuscaloosa in 1972 and was a star high school player. He had a long career on various minor league teams and played briefly for the Detroit Tigers in 1997. Unfortunately, Hurst died of a brain bleed on July 6, 2024, age 52. You can see some of his baseball cards here.

Eddie Pearson, born in Mobile in 1974, also had an extensive minor league career. He played at Bishop State Community College in Mobile. You can see his Barons baseball card here.

This board was sponsored by radio station Magic96.FM and Galleria Fun Country, which was located near the Riverchase Galleria. We spent some time there with the kids in the mid-1990s. The place appealed to children in a way similar to Chucky Cheese and was a good venue for birthday parties. Originally known as Riverchase Golf and Games, the place apparently created fond memories in others, too. Earlier this year someone on Redditt was asking for photos and the responses were interesting. 

As the game progressed and darkness fell, the moon rose over Children's Hospital. 

A view of the field early in the game

Along the stadium concourse are large photographs of baseball stars who played for the Barons, including Reggie Jackson in 1967. 

Piper Davis, Birmingham Black Barons, 1942-1948

Frank Thomas, 1990

Michael Jordan, 1994

A photo taken before the game started 

Naturally before the game we made a stop at the Good People Brewing Company just across the street from Regions Field.

A few ticket stubs from games we attended back in the day....

A Goodwill Book Store in Pelham

A few months ago I visited the Goodwill donation site near our home in Pelham for the first time and found myself in a bookstore. Needless to say I have returned a few times since, usually finding some  books to purchase. I'm supposed to be downsizing my book collection, and I have done so. More books are going out than coming in these days!

You can see a few photos below. I've also included some of an old school book I found on one visit, but did not purchase. The next time I returned it was gone....

This small used bookstore is worth a visit if you are in the area. Bring some donations, too. The location opened in July 2020 in a former A&W Root Beer location. Pelham has had a few other bookstores over the years, but the only one currently operating is Goodwill. 

Over the years I've written a number of posts about Alabama used bookstores. One item described a recent visit my brother and I made to Branch Books in Hartselle. Another piece in 2017 was devoted to the late, lamented Books, Etc., also in Pelham, and a successor to Betty's Books. 

The small retail space does offer some items besides books. 

Several of the Laidlaw Basic Readers can be found on the Internet Archive.

This text was provided by the state of Alabama to schools in Franklin County. The copy seems to have been well used!

This book was copyrighted in 1940. Laidlaw Brothers of Illinois began in 1919 and was acquired by Doubleday in 1964. At one point Doubleday was the largest publisher in the U.S.

A lot of these old school books have some neat illustrations.

More about Betty's Books here. 

A Visit to the Fayette Art Museum

Alabama has many lesser known treasures, and on a recent weekend my brother Richard and I visited one of them--the Fayette Art Museum. 

The museum is located in the town and county of Fayette in northeast Alabama. Fayette is the county seat, so there is an impressive old courthouse to be seen. More about that and the town in another post.

A former school building is the site of the museum. The Fayette Grammar School opened in 1930, but by the early 1970s was abandoned and in disrepair. An art museum had opened in city hall in 1969, and newspaperman Jack Black was named director. An effort began to restore the school and in 1982 the Fayette Art Museum and Civic Center opened. Black remained director until his death in 2004. The current director is Anne Perry-Uhlman. The museum houses over 4000 works of art. Also located there is the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame.

So how did all that art end up in the small town of Fayette? The core of the collection originated with Lois Wilson, who in 1969 donated some 2600 works of art by her and other artists she had collected. Wilson [not the film actress who grew up in Birmingham] was a Fayette native who died in Yonkers, New York in relative poverty in 1981. Over a sixty year period she created 3000 works herself. 

The restored school exhibits and stores her surviving collection and the numerous pieces by others added in recent years. The museum currently houses works by a number of additional Alabama artists such as Jimmy Lee Sudduth [1910-2007], Sybil Gibson, Jessi LaVon, Doug Odom, Wanda Teel, and Mose Tolliver [1920-2006]. Also from Fayette County are the Rev. Benjamin Perkins [Bankston] and Fred Webster [Berry]. One artist included who is not from the state is impressionist Sam Barber.

Sudduth is an internationally known folk artist born near Fayette. Tolliver is equally well-known; he was born near Montgomery. The Rev. Benjamin F. Perkins [1904-1993] a Vernon, Alabama native, is another folk artist represented in the museum. Fred Webster [1911-1998] was a wood carver. Sybil Gibson [1908-1995, Dora], Jessi Lavon [Forkland], Doug Odom [Headland], and Wanda Teal [Montgomery] are additional folk artists. 

In 1999 National Geographic chose the museum as a regional attraction. Since 1970 the annual Fayette Arts Festival has been sponsored by the museum. The museum is well worth a visit; it may house more folk and other art by Alabama artists than any other place in the world. 

Further Reading

Kathy Kemp, A town's tiny treasure. Jack Black put Fayette on art map. Birmingham Post-Herald 9 August 1993, p B1,, B4

Harold Kennedy, If it was discarded, Lois Wilson would paint on it. Birmingham News 7 February 1982, p B1. 

Lots of art is to be seen as soon as you enter the museum.

While Richard and I visited, set up was underway for a wedding to be held the next day. The facility is also an event center. Art adorns the walls of meeting rooms [former classrooms] and the auditorium.

One of the downstairs galleries is devoted to Jimmy Lee Sudduth. 

The museum displays many of Wilson's large and small works. 

Lois Wilson

An entire gallery is devoted to art by the Rev. Benjamin Perkins.

Here's a reminder that you are in a former school building.

Even the director's office serves as a gallery.

Wilson served as a private in the Army Air Force during World War II. She enlisted in Yonkers on August 16, 1944, in the Women's Army Corps according to that record. 

Source: Ancestry.com

Wilson is buried in the Fayette City Cemetery.

Source: Find-A-Grave

Huntsville Ice Storm on March 2, 1960

I recently came across the items below while going through some family photographs. They are undated, but were snapped by dad presumably on March 2, 1960, when a severe ice storm hit Huntsville and the rest of north Alabama. I would have been eight years old and younger brother Richard four, so that fits our appearances here. At the time we were living on Cloverdale Drive just off Jordan Lane. I'm not sure where these photos were taken, though. 

The storm was notable enough for Baker B. Williams of the U.S. Weather Service in Huntsville to write an extensive article about it for the Weatherwise journal and  published in the October 1960 issue. The first page can be seen below; the rest of the article is behind a paywall.

Three and a half inches of precipitation were recorded in Huntsville that day and the low temperature was 33. Lows were below freezing each day following until March 9. March 5 had a low of 12 degrees. 

If you have any memories of this ice storm, please tell us in the comments!

Richard and I pose in the ice wilderness. 

Here's yours truly and mom.

Weatherwise October 1960 pp 196-203

Source: Taylor & Francis

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.