Category: Interesting People

Interesting People with great stories whether they be hobbies or life achievements.

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Melton Statue

I have been through Pine Apple many times over my lifetime. I have heard numerous times that there was a statue there in the graveyard. I never gave it much thought. It was just one more rabbit trail that I had filed in the back of my mid that I needed to run but never got around to it.

I have so many of those rabbit trails that it would be impossible if I had three more life times left to run them all. I still like to run them though from time to time.

This week my wife and I were out checking out churches in Wilcox County that I had not gotten to for my upcoming book.

I started on a photo book of Wilcox County Churches back in October. I had a lot going on and to be able to work on that many churches requires a lot of travel. Instead of completing Wilcox County, I just settled in and went to work on Monroe County. I had numerous personal things going on, and there was no way I could leave home for two or three days at the time. I could however take numerous trips of a couple of hours at the time. I had to burn the midnight oil to get it done, but I was able to release my Monroe County Book the first week in January. 

Then my Jeep decided it was time to give me fits and I lost almost three weeks trying to get it fixed. I got it fixed and then we had weather issues. I don’t function well when the temperature is in the teens. 

Finally, it looked like it was going to break for a day or so. We left home on Monday morning and headed north. I had worked for hours upon hours scouring maps and other sources online hunting the churches in Wilcox County. 

We made it into Pine Apple and I was taking photos of the Friendship Baptist Church. I looked across the road and saw the large cemetery over there. I saw the marker on the fence identifying it as a Black Belt Heritage Area.

Beings that I am totally committed to the things of the Black Belt, and I thrive on learning history I immediately had to take a photograph of the placard with the phone number of the recording on it for a future reference and I had to see the statue listed on there. I walked across the cemetery to the statue and viewed it. Then I captured some photos of it and read the tombstones around it.

Since I had a lot of miles to run to get all of the church photos that I could for the day, I didn’t give the statue much thought for the rest of the day. 

The next day I started to ponder on that statue. Who was this man? Where did the statue come from? So many questions. So few answers.

At first, I sat down and googled “Statue at Pine Apple Alabama. Immediately there were a couple of things that came up. I stared to read about this statue.  I had seen the name on it was William Joseph Melton. He was born Sept. 29, 1846, and died in July 4,1900. That much I knew but what else was there to know?

It turned out that Mr. Melton was a very influential man in Wilcox County. He was also a very successful planter. All of the sources I saw said that when he died his daughter took a photo of him with her to Italy and commissioned an artist there to carve a statue of him out of marble. 

All of the sources said that the statue was transported by ship and then transported up the river to Claiborne where it was off loaded onto a wagon and hauled the rest of the way to Pine Apple.

Then when the statue was being erected in the cemetery is where things got complicated. Supposedly the members of the church had some issues with it being there because it violated the Ten Commandments because it was a “Graven Image”. Finally, a compromise appears to have been reached. The statue was allowed but it had to be laid down instead of standing up. Then at some later date permission was given for it to be erected. Now I don’t know if it was given or just somebody took it upon themselves to erect it. Regardless of that fact it stands 122 or so years later facing East and proudly overlooking the cemetery. 

The recording states that Mr. Melton was a Civil War Veteran that was captured as a prisoner of war. Supposedly he died suddenly in Montgomery. His body was transported back to Pine Apple where he was buried. 

So here we are all of these years later and I found it. Now that is one off of my bucket list.  I ran a long day looking for churches and found some. I can only imagine what interesting thing I will find the next time I go out. That was definitely an interesting find.

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The Hole In The Block

It’s an early December morning and I am wide awake. I looked at the clock and it is 4:00 AM. As I lay there thinking before, I get up to start my day my mind travels to yesterday. Working on my documentation of the churches of Alabama my wife and I traveled hard yesterday. I think I captured photos of 27 different churches and traveled close to 200 miles doing it. Then I got home and started sorting the photos into different folders on my laptop. Needless to say, it was a long day.

Then I started thinking about some of the places I had left to go in Monroe County to wrap up the photos of the churches. That is when I remembered I had some up around Peterman that I needed to get to. 

That thought then brought me to thinking about Peterman AL. My wife was raised at Peterman. I had lived there back in the 1970’s. In 1976 I worked at the Peterman Agricultural Company or as everybody knew it The PAC. I was 19 when I started working there. I worked in the equipment shop primarily on the agricultural equipment side. I worked a lot of the time as a road service mechanic. I worked primarily on cotton pickers, and combines, and I also drove a truck a lot hauling equipment. Looking back, I am amazed that at 19 years old I could take a big truck to Atlanta and come back. In fact, the first time I ever drove to Atlanta I drove a big truck. 

While I worked at the PAC I met a lot of people who had a strong influence on my life. Some as always for the worst and some that forever I will remember in the positive. Now for whatever reason I have grown to a point in my life that I have a disdain for talking about people in the negative. I know that if I hear it for any length of time I will be pulled in and doing the same thing. I do however like to talk about people whom I remember that did positive things and that is where my mind immediately went this morning.

I remember Mr. J.B. Philen. He was always very good to me. He assembled new equipment that came in like disc harrows and stuff of that nature. When I was working under the big shed across the road from the main building if Mr. JB was caught up he would come help me and it was almost like he was looking out for me. I had a tremendous respect for him. Mr. Mac Helton was my foreman. I can’t tell you how much I respected him also. He and Mr. JB were both WWII vets. Those were just two of the positive older role model men that I was able to be around in that time in my life. There were numerous others as well that helped me along with wisdom and passed along knowledge to me that even to this day all of these years later I still remember.

At the writing of this story, I am 66 years old. In my 66 years I have seen some incredibly talented craftsman. I worked 22 years in the papermill as a millwright and saw some folks that could do things that you would say, “that can’t be done”, but they did it. Of all that I ever ran into or worked beside however one stands head and shoulders above the rest who made an impression on me.

One of those men that I met while I was up in Peterman was a man named George Lee Chandler. Mr. George Lee as we all called him, lived up on the Hill on what I would way was the southwest side of Peterman. He had a small shop out a way from his house. I saw him do things that I will remember when I am 120 years old if I am blessed to live that long. They made that kind of impact on my life. He was a man that as the old saying goes could take chicken manure and make chicken soup. He could take nothing and make anything. If he could not fix it then it wasn’t really broken. Almost 50 years later I still marvel at some of the things I saw him fix and even am amazed at what others told me that they saw him do. Mr. J.B. Philen told me one day that he had seen him straighten the barrel on a shotgun that had gotten knocked over and bent. That one I never saw but I did see several he did do.

One of the first things I saw him do that amazed me was there was a tractor that came in with a hole in the side of the engine block that a connecting rod had come loose and went through. I am not sure how much an engine block would cost at that time nor possibly if one was readily available. All I know is the man the tractor belonged to told them to “go get George Lee to look at it”.

Mr. George came in and looked at it. He told them to pull it down and he would fix the block. So, they pulled it in the shop and stripped the engine to the bare block. He took it out to the steam cleaner and steam cleaned it for what seemed half a day. Then he washed it with degreaser. Then he ground the hole all around and beveled the edges. An engine block is cast iron, and you can’t burn it with a torch. There wasn’t a way to make a clean cut to get a piece to fit the hole. To get a piece to fit the hole he went out to the junk yard and found an engine out there that was messed up. He then took a hammer and busted some big pieces out of that one. He then took those pieces and brought them in and cleaned them up really good with degreaser. He then ground a couple of those pieces to the size and shape to fit the hole in the engine block. After that he tack welded those pieces into place. 

When I got to work next morning, he was heating it with a rose bud on an acetylene torch.  It appeared that he must have been working on it for a while because it appeared to already be getting hot. He was slowly heating the piece and a large area around the repair. I wasn’t able to stay with him and watch the entire procedure, but I was able to see most of the steps as he did them by observing what he was doing passing back and forth through the shop while doing my work.

He would heat the metal and check the material with a crayon that was designed to melt at a certain temperature. It seemed like he didn’t get in any hurry while doing this. It seemed like he heated for hours. When he got it where he wanted it temperature wise, he then welded the piece into the hole. He would weld a little while and then heat with the torch a while. Every few minutes he would check the temperature with the crayon. When he finally got it welded to his satisfaction he backed off and still maintained temperature on it. He then took two diesel fuel heaters that had blowers in them that were in the shop. He focused them directly on the spot on the block and left them blowing. The next morning when we came in to work there was one of the heaters still blowing on the block and it was backed a good distance away. 

He came in after an hour or so and took that one off and left the engine block laying on the floor the rest of the day. The next morning, he polished the side off with a wire brush on a grinder and painted it John Deer Green and you could not tell it had been repaired.

I would have given anything to have been able to work with him throughout the entire process. I can’t say with certainty how long the tractor ran after that repair. I know I saw it around for a lot of years after that and I never knew of it tearing up. I do know that I was incredibly impressed with that repair. It just amazed me that Mr. George could take what appeared to be nothing and do that kind of work.

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Pine Apple Hunter Appreciation 2023

I have been to Pine Apple Alabama many times in my life. When I was in high school, I had friends and family who went to school there. I visited there many times over those years. As time went on, I would go through there from time to time if I was out rambling and in the vicinity of that part of the country. It seemed like the time intervals got longer and longer between visits.

It had been a good number of years since I had been there up until I started rambling, taking photos, documenting, our beloved Southland a couple of years ago. After I went back one time and took a few photos in the area it seems like I am drawn back more and more frequently. 

When I started visiting again, I started hearing about this big day that they have every year in November called Hunter Appreciation Day. This year was the 27th year that they have had it.

 From the best of my understanding, it started as a way to show appreciation for all of the hunters that came in and enjoyed their recreation time in the Pineapple area. That area of the Black Belt is a very rich area in wildlife. Many hunters bring their families and friends into the area and enjoy their recreation there. Over the years many have purchased property, or leased property in the area specifically for that purpose. Because of the benefit that they were for the community as a whole, the Appreciation Day was born. Since the last Saturday of the month of November is normally the opening day of gun season it appears that it was the ideal day to hold it.

I had heard of this special day for years but for whatever reason never went. Normally I would hear of it in past tense. In other words, my memory would be jogged when I heard somebody mention that they went to the event. 

I had full intentions on going two years ago and let it slip up on me. Then last year I had plans to go for sure. Yep, I missed it again. This year I made up my mind that I was going to make it. I would think about it every day or so. Beings that I have been involved in researching things in the Black Belt a lot recently I would be in the area more often. I got reminders every few days in some form. 

My wife and I had been staying in the motorhome at Isaac Creek Campground in Monroe County for a few days. We made a stew for Thanksgiving Lunch and cooked some hoecakes of cornbread on the griddle. Then the day after we rambled the West side of Wilcox and a small portion of Clarke County. 

We watched movie for a while in the motorhome that night. It was just a well-earned time of relaxing to get away from the grind. 

This morning we got up early. Had a normal breakfast and showered and headed to Pine Apple. It was a little over an hour drive.

As we got there, cars were parked everywhere. We rode a good way out and parked beside the highway and walked in. It was definitely a sight to behold. The main street was lined with vendors down both sides. The street was blocked off and people were able to walk freely down the street and enjoy the day.

It was an awesome time. We saw friends that we had not seen in years. We walked the line of booths and enjoyed the arts and crafts of too many different types to even think about keeping up with. We visited a while, reminisced a while with those we saw we knew. As normal I visited a while with a lot I did not know. My dad always said I could start a conversation at a gas pump a thousand miles from home with a stranger, and talk thirty minutes.

There were politicians there who were campaigning for office. I got to see Caroleene Dobson who is running for congress. There were others running for local office. Since I don’t live in Wilcox County they were not on my radar nor me on theirs.

There were antique cars. There was a show and then a parade which was very neat. 

My pick, of all of the vehicles there was a dually 1930 Model A Truck. I thought that was the neatest thing.

I saw another craftsman who had some very interesting game calls that was awesome to me as well. 

Of course, we had to stop by a food booth. There were several of those there as well. There was about any kid of that kind of food you would want there. Rib sandwiches, grilled turkey legs, alligator on a stick, burgers, fries, sausage dogs, various kinds of barbecue, and of course funnel cakes.

Hunter Appreciation Day at Pine Apple Alabama is definitely something that is a family event and I definitely intend to put it on my schedule for next year. I am not affiliated with it in any way, but I highly suggest to anybody that can come and support this wonderful event next year. It is definitely a great day with all there appearing to enjoy themselves.

This is just one of the many great events held in our beautiful historic Black Belt Region of Alabama. Hope to see many more of those as well this coming up year.

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Why The Black Belt?

Several people have asked me the question, “Why the Black Belt”?

Here is the best explanation I can give. Ever since I got back into photography a few years ago I have been sort of searching for a niche. I love drones, history, the outdoors, and writing stories. 

I have retired from both my lawn service business and as the pastor of a small church. My wife and I love to get out and ramble. Our health is good. Normally when I am out and about she is with me. 

I have been for quite a while shooting drone photos and videos of forest fire lookout towers. I bought my first digital SLR camera a couple of years ago. I had of course always since I was a kid loved photography. In the 1980’s and 90’s before digital I shot a lot of 35mm photos. I had owned numerous cheap digital cameras and taken a lot of photos with them also.

I felt the need/desire or whatever you would term it to travel and document the various things of our beloved southland. Even back with 35mm I did that often as well as some wildlife photography. First off, I started doing drone videos and putting them on YouTube. As that progressed, I started shooting photos of other things. I especially liked documenting pre-1900 churches.

I had already traveled over several counties in Alabama and some in Mississippi taking photos of the small towns. Midsummer of 2023, I started to try to visit all 67 counties in Alabama. I actually wrote a blog post on doing that in August. Rambling The Southland.

I decided to work the area East of I-65 from the bottom of the state to the top. Then, I would work the area from the bottom to the top on the West side of I-65. I went out four times. I would leave home, hit as many small map-dot towns as I could in a day. Then I would spend the night in my van and go again the next day.

I did this four different times. Three of those times I ran almost 600 miles each and put in a lot of hours. The fourth I ran over 700 miles. I would take so many photos doing this, that it would take me two weeks several hours a day, after I got home, to just go through, sort and locate where all the photos were taken. After that even more time to process and share to social media and on the website.

I was thoroughly enjoying doing what I was doing and planned to continue till I got all 67 counties. When I got up as far north as Hwy. US-80 which had me working the Eastern Black Belt I started to realize that I was trying to cover too much territory at the time. I was taking hundreds of photos, but I was trying to cover too much too thinly. Doing it this way just did not give me enough time to find out anything about what I was photographing. I was just getting photos but not getting the story behind the photos.

That is when I realized that I needed to focus deeper on one area and stick with it. Because there is so much of what I love in the Black Belt, that was where I needed to be. So here I am.

My goal now is to focus for as long as it takes on primarily the Western, Alabama, Black Belt. Western, meaning the areas primarily West of I-65. I do plan at some point to go back into the Eastern part again and do it the same way. My plan is to capture photos of as many of the pre-1900 churches as I can locate as well as any other things of historical interest. Along the way I will document whatever else that I run across that is interesting, unusual, or basically that catches my attention. I will focus at times on wildlife and primarily birds. The Black Belt is very rich in birds, and I feel that is something else I would like to keep documenting.

As I document the churches, I post them on my website under the tab Black Belt Churches. That page has an index of the counties. Under the tabs of the counties are the links to the individual pages of the churches themselves listed in alphabetical order for that county. That will be an ongoing work where I populate the various county pages as I visit them. Over time it will be into the hundreds of historical churches.

I have been and will continue to write blog posts on whatever and whenever as I travel. They can be viewed as I post them on my web site jacksonsramblings.com. I would like to go back to making some videos but I will not say when that will happen because doing what I am trying to accomplish now is a full time job, believe it or not.

From the information gathered and shared on my website it would be nice to have some books as well as calendars and other material printed.

I have always loved wildlife and at some point, I would like to have my wildlife photos somewhere as well, possibly another page on the website or on another website.

This is a project that to do it justice will take several years quite possibly. A lot of it will take multiple trips into the same area over the coming months and even years.

It would be incredible if I could pick up some sponsors who would love to see this accomplished. I could really use some updates on some of my camera equipment. There is also a considerable cost involved in traveling, maintaining and at some point, replacing my Jeep.  There are also expenses to maintain my small motorhome, as well as fuel and campground fees, meals when traveling, and so forth. There are always computer related expenses as well. My current MacBook is three years old so hopefully I won’t have to replace it for a good while yet.

Between my Facebook groups and pages, I now have in the thousands that follow and I appreciate the friendships that I have already made and look forward to a whole lot more as time goes on. I can only imagine what the coming months and years can and will bring. There are so many that I want to meet face to face and learn their stories and the stories of their family’s contributions to our great Black Belt Reigon.

If you have read this far, I welcome you and hope you will see fit to follow along on this project as I travel our beloved Historical Alabama Black Belt.

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CME Church At Lowndesboro, Alabama

I say it most of the time when I write about something that I have found. “I love rambling in Alabama.” You never know what is around the next turn. There is always something new to learn. There is always something different to see. Just when you are kind of starting to wonder, “well I wonder what’s next.” Bang here comes something else. It never disappoints. There is always something out there if you keep on looking.

This week I was looking in the area of Lowndes and Dallas Counties. We were staying at the Prairie Creek Campground. We left home around mid-day and drove the camper up and set up for the night. Then we set out for whatever.

I call it whatever because I am looking for whatever. I don’t know what it is but when I see it, I will know. Historical, different, original, yep I want to see it and take photos of it and learn what there is to know about it.

Riding into Lowndesboro, Alabama Tuesday afternoon did not disappoint. The first thing I noticed was the big old pre-1900 churches. I don’t know what it might be called to be the way I am about them, but I don’t seem to be able to pass one of those old churches without stopping and taking photos of it. Lowndesboro is a treasure in that sense.

One such church that I found was the CME Church. Now all of them are neat and I will probably talk about them later but this one is different for sure. At first I saw the church and did not realize exactly what I was looking at. At any rate a friend of mine had told me about this church. I got some photographs of it and the others in town and then went over to the Library at Hayneville. In the Alabama Room at the public library is a treasure trove of Alabama History stuff. 

On one of the shelves, I found a book titled Lowndesboro’s Picturesque Legacies. In that book was the story of this church and how it came to be.

From the story I read in this book a wealthy planter by the name of Major William Robinson was instrumental in the building what was first named the Methodist-Protestant Church. This was a church that was typical of the time. It had a gable roof on it with a portico that ran across the entire front of the church. This portico was supported by four tall wooden columns.

This book and other sources I read online dated the construction of this beautiful church at 1833. Although I did not get to go inside to see for myself. The writing says that there are winding narrow steps inside on each side that lead to the balcony that is across the rear of the church. 

The thing that makes this one more unique than any other in the entire world is the small octagon shaped steeple with the copperplated dome on top. This dome was once on top of the State Capital at Cahaba. I could not believe it. That to me was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. I have seen a lot of 1800’s churches but never even knew before this week that this one existed.

This is one of the oldest churches in the Black Belt Region of Alabama. The book said that The Methodist-Protestant Church acquired the dome from the capital after the flood of 1933 caused it to collapse. 

Major Robinson wanted to retain this part of the Cahaba Capital. He acquired the dome and according to the book Major Robinson had to use six yokes of oxen to move it and because of the road conditions it took him a month to move the dome from Cahaba to Lowndesboro.

The book goes on to say that when he got there with it there was a dispute among the members and all except two families left the church. They established a new church at the present site of the United Methodist Church.

At the death of Major Robinson in the 1880’s the building and property were deeded to a group of former slaves and their children. It was at that time renamed CME Church.

Services continued in the church until 1966. The building was abandoned in 1983. In 1990 it was leased by a local task force for fifty years so that it could be preserved.

Today it stands a beautiful building that I was so fortunate to get the opportunity to photograph and find out the history on. It is truly a beauty to behold.

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Airing The Quilts

Being raised in South Alabama in the 1960’s quilting and quilt makers were part of my family’s life. Both of my grandmothers were very good at it. My maternal grandmother made a more traditional type of quilts that were beautiful and sought after by many who knew her. My paternal grandmother made a more artistic type of quilts that were beautiful. She was a perfectionist and she made everything on one by hand and the stitches were incredible to look at.

I said all of that to say that I understand what goes into making beautiful quilts. It is a very long and time-consuming process.

For years I have heard of the quilters at Gee’s Bend Alabama. I knew that they were known far and wide as folk artist of the highest degree. Beings I am focusing on the Historic Black Belt of Alabama I am interested in anything going on in the Black Belt. Recently I saw a brochure advertising an event called the Airing of the Quits at Gee’s Bend. I told my wife that we needed to go.

We marked the date and prepared to go. As normal I was up very early, and I sat pondering on the day to come. 

First off, I started reminiscing of quilts of the past my grandmothers had made. Then I started thinking on this thing of airing the quilts. I remembered in years past my grandmother Knight and my great aunt would air their bedding. Another term they used for this was “sunning their mattresses” or sunning their bedding. 

This served several purposes, but the fresh fall air and low humidity of this time combined with the bright sun would air anything out that was musty. It would make them feel and smell fresh. I honestly do not know if it is true or not, but they thought that the rays from the sun would kill anything that was germs ect. in the bedding as well.

I was wondering if that was why this event was called the Airing of the Quilts or if it had a different reason for the name of the event. To be honest did not talk to anybody nor find anywhere online that mentioned the reason for that name for this event.

We drove up to Gee’s Bend from Monroeville. We were going to try to catch the ferry across but realized when we got to the sign giving the time schedules of the ferry that we were not going to make the current ferry out and it would be over an hour wait till the next one. So we drove around through Alberta and went in from the other side.

As we started nearing the area, we started seeing flags standing beside the road giving the distance from the event. The closer we got to the main event the more we also started seeing quilt displays in yards of different houses.

We realized that this was a community wide event. Numerous houses had quilts in the yards hanging on racks and there were different places set up beside the road that were selling what appeared to be different food items. The closer in we got into what was the main area the more congested it was starting to get.  The traffic was not that terribly bad going in. 

Upon our arrival we were greeted by a friendly young lady who asked if we wanted to park, and she directed in to be parked. Parking was very efficient. Everything was set up like it was a well-planned event. In the parking lot were porta-lets but they were very clean and placed conveniently. 

The first thing we noticed were that there were cars there from many different states. We saw cars with tags from Minnesota, Kentucky, Florida, Texas, and others as well. There were tags from many different counties of Alabama also.

We went on in and were amazed at the beautiful handwork we saw. It was incredible. I understand why these quilts are famous worldwide. 

As I walked around and looked at the handwork I overhead different people talking. I saw different types of work. I met so many friendly faces. It is still amazing that these ladies for what is now generations have been making these quilts for decades. They have quilts hanging in some of the finest galleries throughout the Unites States. This is true folk art in my opinion. It depicts the true spirit of creating things out of necessity that shows the greatness of humanity.

These ladies of the past made quilts out of whatever they could get their hands on. Many times, it would have been scraps from clothes already worn. It might have been scraps of material that they got to for clothes they were making for themselves and their kids. These were made from necessity to keep their families warm, in shanty houses that were not sufficient to survive without such. 

As we walked around and looked, we saw so much community. There were games of various kinds. There was a Disc Jockey playing music. It was truly a grand ole time. Everything was set up perfectly. There were food booths of various types. It was obvious that this was not the first time that these people in charge had organized this event. It was like a well-oiled machine. Kudos to everyone involved who made this day happen. Well done.

We made the rounds and saw the displays actually twice. The stitch work was so nice. The colors were so vivid. Above all the people who were displaying were so nice friendly and happy. As we were leaving, we saw a steady stream of cars coming in. There was at least one charter bus we met coming in as we were leaving.

I highly recommend that anybody who is interested in this sort of thing, or likes pure beautiful folk art, take time to find the dates for this event next year. This is truly a spectacular event.

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Bees of Cornwallis

One of the joys of blogging and photography is the opportunities that are presented. As I have stated earlier, I have been invited to be a part of Cornwallis 1828 recently. Part of that opportunity gets me involved with the sometimes day to day operations. Last week I was talking to Demp Bell the manager of Cornwallis. I was setting up my next visit to photograph some of the flowers that are starting to bloom. He asked me to come and document the Beekeepers managing the hives at Cornwallis.

That leads to today. This morning I arrived early and met Demp and we waited on the Beekeepers. A short time later a couple arrived, and I was introduced to Ralph and Kate Pugh, the owners of Sweet Gum Ridge Apiaries.

After a short introduction they left heading to the beehives, and I followed behind.

When I got there, they were already getting started. They were suited up in bee suits and had one for me as well. After a short discussion I decided that I would not be able to photograph with a bee suit on so I put my zoom lens on my camera and backed out so that I could photograph and not be in where the bees were swarming.

I had never seen anybody work a beehive before. It was a very interesting thing to watch. It was obvious that these two had done this a time or two or a thousand maybe. I watched as they worked. They described it all to me as they worked. 

They separated the different parts of the hive slowly and smoothly. One piece at a time like they could have done it blindfolded. Ralph would explain what he was doing and then Kate would explain what she was doing. It was truly a fascinating experience to watch. 

Kate was separating and scraping a yellow substance. Ralph explained that it was called Propolis. He explained that the bees produced it and that they literally sealed the hive with it. He also explained that it was a purifier and it had numerous health benefits for humans as well. 

Here Ralph shows some Propolis.

Next, he held up a frame and showed me what he called the Brood on it. It was a large number of young bees that were growing to become replacements for the rest of those that die off in the hive.

As they were working, they slowly used the smoker and Ralph explained that the smoke pushed the bees back up into the hive and kept them docile.

Another thing I learned was that there was only one queen in the hive. She laid all the eggs. That is her sole purpose is to lay eggs. There is one queen and can be as many as 60 to 80 thousand bees in one hive. That was hard for me to even comprehend. 

Here Kate points out the queen she has located.

Another interesting thing that they both explained to me was that to procreate a hive that a new queen would be hatched and there would be a swarm and half of the hive would leave with the old queen and half would stay with the new queen.

Another interesting fact is that the honey kind of ebbs and flows with the nectar as different plants bloom.

Most of the honey we have in our part of the world that is made locally is wildflower honey. Two popular flowers are Clover and Goldenrod. Kate explained that Clover Honey is normally light in color, while Golden Rod Honey is normally darker in color. Ralph went on to say that the hives will have a different smell as well with different kinds of nectar. He laughed and said that Golden Rod Honey would have the hives smelling almost like dirty socks.

After they finished we visited a few more minutes and then we all went on our way. 

This was as I said more than once a fascinating experience. 

Their website is https://www.buysweetgumridgehoney.com. You can find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sweetgumridgehoneybees. Check them out. 

They know their bees and honey. A quick glance at their Facebook page shows that they have some award-winning honey.

As with so many interesting people and places I get to go, and interesting things I get to do as I travel Alabama this was a wonderful day and, it was a pleasure to meet this couple.

I can only imagine what my next adventure holds but I don’t think it will be long before I find out. Until then have a great day.

 Jackson

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Corn Maze

I hear it said on a daily basis, that there is nothing here for the kids to do. Well Laurie Farms has solved that dilemma for folks in this part of the world. For the next few weekends there is indeed something for them to do.

Laurie Farms will be hosting a Corn Maze and much more.

Starting September 30, and every Saturday from 10:00 AM till 6:00 PM, and every Sunday from 1:00 PM till 6:00 they will be open. There are also some spaces open for school field trips as well during the week.

As I ramble across this country, I run into some of all kinds of interesting things and people. I am forever amazed at the ingenuity of the people around us. It seems like around every turn there is something new and exciting to see and another encounter that is better than the last.

I see all kinds of things out there to look at and experience. Today I encountered something new and fresh for the area of Monroe County, Alabama. 

I drove down to below Uriah, Alabama and visited Laurie Farms. I had communicated with George Laurie concerning him putting on a Corn Maze this year. Immediately when he told me what he was planning I had to see for myself. As always nosey me had to know what, when, why, and how. 

I scheduled with George to be there this afternoon to get a grand tour. I was literally awestruck when I saw. I almost, could not, believe what I was looking at. I honestly do not know what I was expecting but I sure wasn’t expecting what I found. All I could say was WOW.

George told me when we talked earlier in the week that he was hosting a Corn Maze. I had heard of a Corn Maze before, but I thought of a Corn Maze as something that somebody had gone out in a cornfield and pulled up corn plants in a certain pattern or something. I had no clue even how you made such a thing.

George explained to me that they had been able to get a precision planter that they found a corn maze somewhere and downloaded it and took it to a chemical company and they made a program and put it on an SD Card and then put that in the controller for the planter and it planted the seed where they needed to be planted to make the maze. They had to double plant so that the rows were at different angles.

That alone intrigued me. But then we went on past the field and lo and behold I saw this incredible amount of different stuff out there. Most of it hand built, but with incredible workmanship. There are games and rides and so many things to do.

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Under the shed there are these large tubes that will be a slide into a pit of shelled corn. There are these wooden sawhorses with a wooden cow head on them that the kids can throw a hula hoop over the head like a cowboy ropes a cow. There are these hand pumps with a white trough that travels a distance that will be a duck race.

There are these large round tubes out there that are called Human Hamster Wheels. There are Tether Ball games. Tug of War Games and Basketball Throw games are there. There is a Barrell Train ride, and a Hayride.

There will be sodas, and hamburgers, and hotdogs, and sausage dogs.

There is a dozen or so picnic tables, but seating will be limited so folks will need to bring lawn chairs to sit in.

There will be no coolers allowed and there will be no pets allowed.

There are pallets of pumpkins for sale also of various sizes and colors.

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There is a probably a whole lot more that I didn’t even pick up on and ask about.

I came down to see Laurie Farms Corn Maze expecting to just see a field of corn with a maze through it. I left shaking my head at how nice all the stuff they had looked. George said that they had been working on this project since last December. It is amazing how much stuff they have built and the quality of workmanship in the things they have.

All I can say is there is now something for your kids to do here for the next few weeks so do not hesitate to support these folks who have gone to great lengths to bring this to this area.

Laurie Farms

3331 Jeddo Road

Uriah, AL 36480

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Chilly’s ICE Cool Band

The day started out as normal for me. This was going to be my fourth trip out in my quest to visit all 67 counties in my 67th year. This time I went north up I-65 and got off at Ft. Deposit and then worked north before I started East towards the Georgia line.

I made several stops and looked at various things and took numerous photos. Just like a normal day out there doing what I do. Searching, always searching. Most times not sure what for but I guess anybody that likes photography and writing blogs they are looking and might be uncertain on what they are looking for but when they see it they know. 

Today it was getting up in the day when I made it to Union Springs AL. As I normally do when I get to a town like that I ride through and look to try to form a game plan on which direction I want to go on foot. I made a pass through and then parked on one end of the main drag and poured a cup of coffee out of my thermos and reached in my little refrigerator and got a half of a foot long sandwich that my wife and made for me and ate lunch. After I finished my coffee and most of the sandwich, I put the rest in the fridge and got my camera and my phone and set out.

Normally I walk and look and take photos. I kind of get in my own world and although I normally am very situationally aware of what is going on around me, I rarely interact with anybody. 

I do this for several reasons. First of all, in today’s society it seems that if you speak to the wrong stranger first to open a conversation many times folks will look at you like you are weird. Many go so far as to describe you as being creepy. Secondly if you know me, you know, that I could get into a conversation with a total stranger at a gas pump 500 miles from home and talk 30 minutes.

Trying to cover as much ground as is needed with no more time than can be allotted that takes too much time. I normally eat on the go, and don’t stop for much. Walk through, look at the angles on buildings and take my shots. Sometimes the buildings across the street are ideal to photograph and numerous things are better on the side I am on. When I get to one end I turn around cross the street and do it again coming back.

I normally do not take photos with people or cars in them if possible. In fact, sometimes I have waited several minutes to take a photo or even passed on one and came back to keep from it. 

Stan “Chilly Cooks”

An inspiration.

Here is one that is doing something about the issues at hand in this world by mentoring young people in his community.

As I walked up one side, I noticed a building across the street that had writing at the top that said Chilly’s ICE Cool Band. It was a neat building with a porch cover out over the sidewalk. Sitting under the cover was a guy. I wanted to take a photo of it but I would not take the shot because there was a guy there.

As I walked to the other end of town and crossed the street. I was walking back towards that building. I was taking different shots of the buildings and trying to stay focused. When I got back to that building the guy was still there. As I was walking by, I nodded, and he was smiling. 

As I approached I had noticed a School Bus with Chilly’s ICE COOL Band painted on the side.

That was this man. Then and there is where I met Stan “Chilly” Cooks. Immediately I had to know what Chilly’s ICE Cool Band was all about. He asked me where I was from, and I told him. He said I know where that is. I have played music there.

He said come in and let me show you what I have here. I walked in the door not having a clue what I was about to see.

That is when I realized for sure that this was special.

You see there are people all over that complain about the issues they see in the world but never do anything about them. Chilly is one of those people that sees an issue and instead of complaining about it he is doing something about it.

Chili’s ICE Cool Band is a free after school program for kids. He has music instruments of numerous kinds in this room. He has a full sixed school bus, that has Chilly’s ICE Cool Band on the side.

Here is a man that brings kids from 6 to 18 years old in the afternoon and does a free music program with them with instruments provided. 

The interesting thing thought is he is not just teaching them music. He is teaching them so much more. The music is from what I see just a tool to get them to come with excitement. He has rules that they are expected to adhere to.

Even ICE has meaning. ICE is a acronym for Integrity, Communication, ad Execution. 

He even has them recite a pledge. I was blown away.

Chili’s Pledge goes like this.

I pledge to honor and uphold all rules of Chilly ICE Cool Band. To always give my best effort everything I do. To study hard, to play hard, exercise hard, perform hard, to respect my elders at home, and when out and about, and to always remain ICE Cool throughout.

We visited for a few minutes after he showed me the place and told me about it. I left and went on my way. To be honest he made my day. He was so uplifting and positive to talk to.

I can see how he would be a magnate to young people and definitely appeared to me to be a positive influence to the kids of his community.

I would say that Chilly’s ICE Cool Band would definitely be a game changer for many kids in Union Springs, AL.

Here is a man that takes music and uses it to be a role model to youth. I can’t say enough. I definitely will not forget this man nor this program any time soon.

Chilly Cook it was definitely a pleasure to meet you. I pray that your program touches the lives of thousands of children and makes a ripple effect on your community.

God Bless you.

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Rambling The Southland

As many of you know that follow me on Facebook, and other sources online and even in person, I travel a lot. In fact, I have made it my mission to visit all 67 counties in Alabama within the next year. Somewhere in that timeframe I intend to visit a lot more of Mississippi as well.

More than one person has asked me why, are you doing that?

Well, it goes like this. As many who know me know, I have a fascination for history. Now at different times I have interest in different things. Plus, I have an overwhelming interest in photography. Now, put the two together and guess what you come up with? I have an almost unquenchable interest in taking photographs of things from the past.

Living in Monroe County, Alabama I have seen the towns of Frisco City, Repton, Peterman, Tunnel Springs, Beatrice and so forth pretty much dry up in my lifetime. I mean there are still people there but there are basically just rows of rotting down buildings that are for the most part falling in. I guess it had never even dawned on me that this was a problem in other places. Not sure why, but it just never seemed to really click.

As many know I also fly drones and love old Fire Towers. A couple of years ago I started on a project to locate and do a drone video of as many of those old Fire Towers as I could find. I don’t know why but even with that I had no clue as to how many were standing still in the State of Alabama nor the condition, they were in.

New Hope Church Natchez AL.
Bull Slough Bridge
Coaling Tower

As I started to travel and get photos of those towers. I also started to notice how many old churches that there are standing that are abandoned or are on the verge of being abandoned. It was like a light bulb went off in my head I guess you could say. It is like most small towns you go into there is one or two old churches normally that were founded in the mid to late 1800’s that are just sitting there.

Then as I rode through the towns, I was familiar with and for some reason I started to really notice how many buildings were vacant and rotting down it really started to hit me. These are going away fast. The buildings, the churches, and the fire towers. They are all going away at an alarming rate. 

That is when my mission I guess you would call it became clear to me. I am retired. I have less and less responsibilities. I have my health. I have decent vehicles, and I have decent equipment to document this stuff with. I am not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination but by managing reasonably well I have the resources to travel and do it. 

Here is my Dodge Caravan that is converted into a sleeper van. It has AC and an almost full sized bed so that I can sleep comfortably. I also have a small cooler sized refrigerator. It is quite comfortable and is ideal for most excursions.

So that leads me to where I am now. I am on a mission to travel our beloved Southland and document as much of it as I can. Churches, fire towers, stores, water towers, other places of business and anything else interesting I see along the way.

As many know I am the founder and moderator of the group “The Good Ole Days of Monroe County Al.”.  I love that group. It is a great group, and it has done well. It however as was created is for Monroe County Alabama and thus I wanted it to remain that way.

I quickly realized that doing what I wanted to do was going to cause me to do a lot out of Monroe County. One visit to Mississippi made me realize that it was going to be more than just Alabama. Thus, Jackson’s Ramblings came into being. Then my slogan, “Rambling the Southland and Beyond.” Well, that seemed to get it going. Then when I hit on a slogan, immediately I thought Facebook group. So, I named the Facebook Group, “Rambling the Southland and Beyond.” That way anything documented would fit the category.

There have been many contributors who have a like desire of photographing old, unusual, and or interesting things, that have shared and continue to share on the group. I hope that as time goes on that those and more will continue to share. If you area reading this and are one of those you are greatly appreciated.

At the time of this writing the group has 2740 or so members and is growing many weeks at the rate of 50 to 100 a week. It was created in June of 2022. My only hope is to see the group grow to how ever big it can grow. Tens of thousands would be incredible.

I also love to write. As those who take time to read my writing can readily see I have a lacking in writing skills. I aways joke and say that they only thing that kept me from doing great in high school was elementary school. I am the first to admit that I have issues with grammar and punctuation. However, I like to feel like that I make up for that with desire and determination.

With all of that said, there is a wealth of places, buildings, and other things that are standing today that in a very few years will no longer be standing. For the years I have left, and I hope it is a lot, I intend to take photos of those things, document them as best I can, and write about them as time allows. 

It would be incredible to be able to fund the travel, and equipment, to do this in some way while doing it. I do not have a large enough audience for any business or group to pay me sponsorship. My viewership on my blog is too small for the ads associated with it to make me money, or at least for this time. I have not updated my Youtube channel in a while as well. It takes a lot of time and effort to keep it all up. Some weeks I drive 500 plus miles or more. Sometimes I spend a night in my van some place to keep from having to stay in a hotel or drive home. Then there are hundreds of photos to look at figure out where they were taken, organize them and then file. It is a labor of love but also almost a full time job.

Hopefully in the future this can change. I plan to try to write more blog posts as I travel and interact more that way. Hopefully I can go back to doing more videos as well.

Thanks, to all who have supported me in this endeavor, and I look forward to meeting others along the way who have like interests.

Come join me as I Ramble the Southland and Beyond.

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The Bear Man

Anybody that knows me knows I love history and interesting stories.

As always when I get the opportunity to get out and ramble I do so. Recently I went up to the New Hope Church at Natchez. 

New Hope Church

est. 1855

Now I have been to the New Hope Church many times. I have friends who have relatives buried there. It is an old historical church that I just love to visit and photograph. 

New Hope church

I have walked the cemetery many times and have recounted the stories of those that I knew that are now long gone.

Over on the far end kind of alone I saw a cross shaped marker standing alone. I immediately remembered what it was. It is the grave of The Bear Man.

Now understand something, at the writing of this I am 66 years old and I have heard the story of the Bear Man all of my life. I have heard it told different ways. Normally because it was told by different people just like I am sure that my version differs from others who tell it. 

As I was reflecting on what I remembered, and I discussed it with my uncle Rickey House in Beatrice who is a walking history book. I also looked in the Centennial Edition of the Monroe Journal. I found a brief encounter of the story in the 1969 edition.

I knew the name of the bear but not the other names mentioned in the Centennial. 

The names I will mention are from the Centennial. The rest of the story is pretty much as I remembered it from numerous others, I have heard tell it.

 It is a unique story that in all probability no other communities in the entire US could duplicate.

As I have said earlier, I have heard several different renditions of this story. After reading the account in the Centennial I was able to see where the different versions might have come from.

For some reason in some accounts Buena Vista always comes up. In fact I have run into people over the years that would try to figure out where at Buena Vista the grave was. On more than one occasion I have heard that he was buried at Buena Vista. 

Anyway here is what I was able to come up with on this story.

All accounts I have heard that identified the man in any way would say he was a Frenchman.  Apparently, this man came into Buena Vista leading his bear. The Teacher one Professor Claude Hardy paid him to have the bear perform for the school children at Buena Vista. He would take a little boy’s hat and put it on the bear’s head, and he would stand on his hind legs and walk around and dance. Then after that he would have him climb a tree.

Upon leaving Buena Vista he proceeded on to Natchez with the bear. 

Now from here once again variations come in. According to some sources he was performing for children there. From others no mention is made of performing there.

Regardless of that fact at Natchez the bear attacked the Frenchman. Some sources say that somebody was killing hogs and the smell of the blood upset the bear and he started towards the smell and when the Frenchman tried to restrain him, he attacked. Others I have heard say he was performing for children at the school at Natchez. I am not sure and probably nobody else is totally sure now.

The Centennial says that he threw him to the ground and was literally trying to eat him alive. That leads me to believe that something like the smell of fresh blood might have been involved.

Numerous different sources say that he was screaming the bears name calling him “Jimbo” and begging him to stop. More than one says that you could hear him screaming for a distance the words Jimbo, stop, please stop.

It is not clear exactly when but according to the Centennial after the bear killed the Frenchman, a local man named Jim Reeves killed the bear with his rifle. 

Again, I have heard discrepancies in the story on this part but some sources say that the locals buried the man and the bear in the cemetery. Other sources I have heard said just the man and did not mention the bear.

Since nobody knew the man’s name they just always called him The Bear Man.

Now I do not know with 100 percent certainty what nor who is buried in the cemetery where the cross marker is. I however do know that there is a marker in the cemetery with the name The Bear Man on it and all sources I know of today agree that this is where he is buried.

The article in the Centennial puts it as happening in 1891 or 92. I have always heard it said as some time before 1900 or in the 1890’s. 

As I said at the beginning this is a story that I remember hearing told from childhood. Some of the people I have heard tell it would have been born in the early 1900’s so the story was not that many decades old from when they heard it however, I am not sure if they heard if directly from somebody that was a witness.

One thing for sure it indeed had to have happened and that is a pretty close rendition of how it did happen.

Thanks for reading. Jackson

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Murder Creek Overnight

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine messaged me and asked me if I would be interested in doing an over night kayak trip. 

Now understand something up front.

Kayaking has been something that I wanted to do for years. I. had been watching these guys and gals having the times of their lives floating. I always had a reason not to buy a kayak and go. One of the main reasons was that I weighted too much to be comfortable in one. About a year ago I told my wife that I was going to lose some weight and get a kayak and that is what I did. I set out in earnest to lose weight in late September of 2022. I bought a kayak used in November. I had taken it to the lake and tried it out and made a trip in late December with a close friend. Then earlier this year I had made a couple more trips.

I had been an avid camper years ago. Over the years I had not camped primitive much and then it got to never doing it. I had gotten to the point that my equipment had either gotten in such bad shape that I had either gotten rid of it or thrown it away. 

I bought more equipment over the past few months and a few weeks ago I actually went on an overnight at a local campground just to make sure I had what I needed, and it was going to work.

With all of that said, when I got the message, wild horses could not have stopped me from going. I was as excited as a fat kid in a Candy Store. I could not wait.

I went out the day before and made sure that I had everything packed I would need and loaded it on my kayak a couple of times to just make sure that it fit properly.

The morning finally came around. David my friend messaged me and said that we could ride together, and he would pick me up about 6:45 AM. I was awake by 4:30. When he got to my house, we loaded it up and we were off.

We made our way across US 84 to the Bellville Community and then down to the Castleberry. It was a clear beautiful morning, not cold and not hot. Just right in every way. We saw cattle and even a large coyote in the fields and pastures along the way.

We got there and soon others were getting there. When everybody finally got there the guys loaded up and took the vehicles to the takeout point and then had a ride back to where the boats were.

There was a total of nine of us. Me my friend David and a couple I knew from social media. I was later to find out that all were some really, great guys. 

We set out mid-morning and traveled for a couple of hours or more and found a large sandbar and stopped and set up camp.

Then for the remainder of the afternoon we just hung out and rested and visited and had an incredible time doing nothing. Just a laid-back time to unwind and get acquainted with new friends. I met some guys that by the time we parted ways made me feel like I had known them a lifetime. We sat in the shade for a while and then set up camp. Then we took chairs out and sat in the cold creek water cooling off. Finally, we got out and ate and then sat by the “Cave Man TV”. (Campfire). It was just a great time.

It was a colder than normal night and although not unbearable it did get chilly or for me it did anyway. 

Up the next morning and another pot of that awesome percolated coffee on the creek bank that was as good as it gets. Personally, I do not think coffee gets any better than when it is made in a percolator on a propane stove on the creek or riverbank. 

Another time of visiting and then four of us set out to finish. The other five had decided that they were going to wait another day and then come down. 

We traveled the remaining distance in a few hours without incidence and loaded up and took one detour and went to Brewton and had an incredible milkshake and then went home.

Looking back on this trip I know I am hooked. I literally can’t wait for the next trip. Great times, great friends. I met some guys that I have no doubt I will see again and paddle with again. 

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High Cotton

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with my friend Jordan Elbreth and listen to his story. He is absolutely a unique and interesting guy to hang out with.

He shares his beginnings and how he got the name High Cotton for his business and much more.

He has so much wisdom and information to share. His is a story of true hard work and perseverance.

It is amazing to understand that we can actually make money from what others throw away.