January 2010 • Page 3 of 4 • Deep Fried Kudzu

January 11, 2010

Oh That’s What That Is!

Well, the funniest thing happened Saturday night! We were coming back from a quick trip to Mississippi (more about that later this week) and decided to have supper in Oakman, Alabama at a place called ‘Old York’ – we’d been there before during the day:

This is the way it’s described at their website:

Old York Farms shines with the ghost of the Confederacy and the old west. Nestled in the foothills of south Walker County, York was the orginal site of the towns first post office where in 1862, Confederate troops were sworn in. The post office was located in the rustic white house center of the heritage park. For nearly a century and a half, the Corry’s have resided on the acreage in and around Old York. In this day, York was a mecca for coal mining activities. Five saloons sprang up with the addition of the railroad – the backbone of our nation. One such watering hole was the Chamborden Salon is recreated, complete with the orginal bar, liquor cabinets and mirror. The Corry’s kept everything as authentic as possible and have been instilled with the belief that our heritage is one of our most vital assets and it is our duty to preserve it. We believe we have done just that!

Well, we were all hungry and thought that the Bull Pen Steakhouse would be one of the more interesting places to have supper on the way home. It was!

We ordered our entrees (it was all wonderful) plus an appetizer. One of the appetizers on the menu was “bull fries”. Now, if you’ve spent any time in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Wyoming, that part of the country…you know what those are. And I won’t go into it here because it’s not a part of an animal that we…ahem…usually discuss in polite company, but this is food after all that thousands of people eat and enjoy every day here in the US, Mexico, Spain, etc. You know. Ah, if this is not yet ringing a bell, there’s a Wikipedia entry on them here. And ohmygracious in Throckmorton, Texas they even have a festival for this food every year.

Well.

So.

That was on the menu. The last time we were in Texas, we ordered these. You never see them on a menu in Alabama. Ever. Never-ever. So I told Av that we just had to order them, it might be the only place in the whole state that serves them. We did.

And how were those bull fries?

Hahahahaha!!! Well we just nearly fell out of our chairs when they brought out…bull fries!! You know, fries named after the restaurant, The Bull Pen. Hilarious!!

January 10, 2010

Nall On Tonight

(This is from a set of cards I have of Nall’s:)

APT is airing a show called ‘Alabama Story: Nall‘ tonight at 8p. It looks as though they have episodes available after they air, so if you miss it, it may be found here soon.

January 8, 2010

Yay!

After last night’s game, I have to share these pics of each of the boys when they were just the right size for their Alabama outfits:

Shug:

Shugie:

Roll Tide!

January 8, 2010

Leaving Gee’s Bend

I’ve been wanting to tell you about this book for months now.

…but the publisher put it under embargo (meaning they send you a review copy months or weeks early but you can’t publish what you think about it) until the actual release date. Well, it was ‘released’ yesterday so it’s now available in most good local independent booksellers as well as huge sellers like Amazon. And now I can say…

Leaving Gee’s Bend is a fantastic little book.

It’s published by Putnam Juvenile so it’s not overly complicated for a middle schooler to grasp, and for adults it’s a quick (230 pages), easy read. Now, I never read Harry Potter (to tell the truth, I’m not a big fan of fiction in the first place) but wasn’t that really geared toward younger readers, when parents found out what great books they were, and it took off from there? I’m not saying this is Harry Potter, but you know what I mean! I guess I mean to say that it reaches a broad audience.

This is how the publisher describes it:

Ludelphia Bennett may be blind in one eye, but she can still put in a good stitch. Ludelphia sews all the time, especially when things go wrong.

But when Mama goes into labor early and gets deathly ill, it seems like even quilting won’t help. That’s when Ludelphia decides to do something drastic—leave Gee’s Bend for the very first time. Mama needs medicine that can only be found miles away in Camden. But that doesn’t stop Ludelphia. She just puts one foot in front of the other.

What ensues is a wonderful, riveting and sometimes dangerous adventure. Ludelphia weathers each challenge in a way that would make her mother proud, and ends up saving the day for her entire town.

Set in 1932 and inspired by the rich quilting history of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, Leaving Gee’s Bend is a delightful, satisfying story of a young girl facing a brave new world.

There was one part that had me wondering…the book is set in 1932 – armadillos are mentioned. One of you out there will tell me for certain: I don’t think armadillos made their way to Alabama until much, much, much later. Is that right?

Two more things:

There is a discussion guide for the book here at the website of the author – Irene Latham.

If you’re in central Alabama, a release party is being held at the North Shelby Library on Sunday, January 10th and not only will Irene be there, but Mary Ann and China Pettway will be displaying a Gee’s Bend quilt. Lovely!

January 6, 2010

It’s Time

I do hope you will be enjoying a slice of king cake today. It’s Twelfth Night, and depending on your religion, twelfth night is either a nice holiday or it’s a great occasion to indulge. Or both. It’s the kickoff of king cake season! Yes.

January 5, 2010

World’s Largest Totem Pole

I’ve been talking with Amy Elliott, who did the documentary ‘World’s Largest – a Documentary About Small Towns with BIG THINGS‘ – it’s coming out soon (not sure of the date yet but of course I’ll post here). Two of the things that wound up in the film are in Alabama – the peach water tower in Clanton, and the Boll Weevil monument in Enterprise.

In December I ran across an article about the world’s largest concrete totem pole and how it’s been recently restored. It’s in a town not too far from Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was built by Ed Galloway from 1937-1948 and is 90′ tall with a 54′ base (all that was from 100 tons of sand and rock, 28 tons of cement, 6 tons of steel).

All these pics below are used courtesy KB35 on Flickr with a creative commons license. The originals can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kb35/ / CC BY 2.0

…from the article in the Tulsa World:

Galloway died 47 years ago at the age of 82. However, what he left behind still draws thousands of people to the relatively isolated area on Oklahoma 28A between old U.S. 66 and the Will Rogers Turnpike.

Totem Pole Park has been featured in several books and articles on American folk art. In 1999, the park and Galloway’s work were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Carolyn Comfort, who manages the park for the Rogers County Historical Society, said there were 3,020 visitors in June, July and August. Remarkably, 641 of them were from outside the United States — mostly from England, Germany and the Netherlands.

Comfort said that during the previous summer, the park had visitors from 45 states as well as 24 countries.

A multitasker, Galloway also carved hundreds of violins out of various woods from around the world and built an 11-sided “fiddle house” on his property to house them.

Comfort said that about 135 of the violins are now on display.

Still, some say the pole is a tribute to American Indian culture. It does include large images of Geronimo, Sitting Bull and other notable tribal chiefs among its 200 or so carved figures, Also on the huge tower are faces of warriors and chiefs, thunderbirds, fish, lizards, owls and an eagle.

But other published accounts say Galloway built it after he retired so he would simply have something to do and that he believed it would be a good thing for youngsters to visit.