LAKE NEWS – Page 3 – LakeLife 24/7 Magazine

Documenting cardboard boat races

Story by Paul South
Photos by Richard Rybka
and Carol Pappas

“The best way to make friends with the audience is to make them laugh. You don’t get people to laugh unless they surrender – surrender their defenses, their hostilities. And once you make the audience laugh, they’re with you.” – Frank Capra

Most documentarians – Ken Burns springs to mind – want audiences to examine society’s ills through film.

For award-winning documentary filmmaker Sam Frazier, the direction he heads is quite the opposite. Laughter, he says through his work, is the best medicine.

Frazier, a Birmingham native, has captured the hearts of audiences at prestigious film festivals like, Indie Memphis and Birmingham’s blossoming Sidewalk Film Festival and across the United States and Europe through old-fashioned absurdist escapism.

Videographer films interview with racers

Think sketch comedy – Monty Python’s Flying Circus or Saturday Night Live plus pro wrestling – meets reality. Or as he puts it, “Smart people being stupid for no apparent reason (except it’s fun).”

His current effort uses an unusual vehicle, or in this case, vessel. They are cardboard boats held together by miles of duct tape – as college professors, doctors, engineers and the like try to build seaworthy boats that can successfully allow them to navigate Alabama waterways, including Logan Martin Lake.

As Frazier and his crew began filming the races at Lakeside Park in September, a crowd of about 50 gathered to watch filming that leg of the inaugural Cardboard Boat Racing World Cup. Each competitor—mostly Frazier’s friends – earns points depending on their finish in each race. Even a boater who finishes “DFL” (Dead Freakin’ Last) earns points.

Just as in NASCAR or Formula I auto racing, the points leader at the end of the heats will win the Cardboard Boat World Cup championship trophy.

“That’s pretty prestigious,” Frazier says, laughing.

His friends are folks he’s known for years, through a charity kickball league he created or through years of hanging out with pals who are in his words, “weirdo artistic types.”

“They are a bunch of weirdos who are up for almost anything, like myself,” Frazier says. “And that helps. The weirdos that I don’t know, all you have to do is tell them what you’re doing, and they’re all about it. If you’re talking to the right person, they say, ‘Oh, this is something I’ve got to do.”

The final film will be roughly half script – featuring scenes with Sportscenter-like studio anchors – and half improvisation, including interviews with competitors.

His road to filmmaking is as colorful as his subject matter. A graduate in philosophy from Washington & Lee, who also studied abroad at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, Frazier described it this way. Law school, the track chosen by others in his family, wasn’t for him.

“You have three choices,” Frazier said. “You can either get in the unemployment line, or you can try to use philosophy for extortion … That’s not really an option, or you can do something weird and creative. I went with weird and creative.”

Unlike today, when documentaries find homes on multiple platforms from PBS to streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV and HBO, that wasn’t the case as Frazier came of age.

“I saw Roger and Me (Michael Moore’s expose’ on GM), for the first time, and it blew my mind. Then I found out all the ethical problems with that movie, I guess you could say, that were egregious, and it broke my heart.

“I also remember seeing Hoop Dreams (the story of two African-American high schoolers dreaming of playing professional ball) for the first time, and it equally blew me away,” Frazier says.

The genesis of his films comes from comedy and the land of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair or masked villains from “parts unknown.”

“I’ve always been into comedy,” Frazier says. “It’s an influence to have sort of an absurd style and kind of the pomp of professional wrestling, along with different sorts of comedic approaches of how to do a documentary.

“Nobody really does a documentary like me,” Frazier adds. “I’m the world’s only comedic, short documentarian.”

Most documentary films don’t yuk it up, he acknowledges, instead focusing on sober subject matter.

“It’s not funny when you hear about people in war-torn nations trying to survive. That’s not going to be a laugh riot. It’s also hard to watch. You have to be in the right frame of mind.”

Frazier’s approach?

“I focus on events that mostly people can do on any given day on their own, just with some friends.”

Network sports shows, like ABC’s iconic Wide World of Sports, also influence Frazier’s films. Remember Mexican cliff diving, logger sports and wrist wrestling, along with NASCAR, the British Open and table tennis from the People’s Republic of China?

“I always thought that was an inherently sort of a silly way to view the world,” he says. “These are sporting events. This is not a world war. But it’s treated on that level of importance. So, I thought, let’s take unimportant sporting events and raise them to the level of a World Cup or Super Bowl.

“I think that is inherently funny to treat something like a cardboard boat race like the World Cup. That’s essentially what we’re doing – a carboard boat race World Cup.”

Fans of the British comedy troupe Monty Python doubtless recall The Upper-Class Twit of the Year sketch, satire on dimwitted members of England’s upper class. There’s a dash of that in his cardboard boat racing series, Frazier says.

“Shooting this at times, I realize that I have these highly successful people building cardboard boats, people you’d think would be naturally really good at it.”

Not necessarily so. One of the film’s boat builders, for example, is a successful architect.

“He’s designed Lord knows how many buildings, and he’s a terrible cardboard boat designer,” Frazier said. “His boats barely got off the beach. That is inherently funny to me.”

Audiences seem to think Frazier’s films are funny, too.

Frazier’s films have captured “Audience Choice” Awards at the Sidewalk Film Festival, Indie Memphis, the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival and others. The Santa Fe recognition came after a vigorous write-in campaign by festivalgoers.

The first Cardboard Titanic film was done while Frazier was “retired” from moviemaking. He screened it at Sidewalk, intending to go no further.

“People asked, ‘What’s your next project?’ ” When he responded that he was retired, the response was surprising and made his calling clear.

“You don’t understand,” he recalled moviegoers saying. “You’re not good at anything else.”

From there, the film was screened at some 50 festivals in the United States and Europe, winning a “ton of awards,” including Best Documentary at the Louisville Film Festival.

And it led to a sequel: Cardboard Titanics: Smart People Being Stupid. “Cardboard Titanics was in competition with the short documentary winner at that year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The film that was in part shot with Go Pros, cameras, drones and the like on Logan Martin is the latest in what Frazier hopes will be a six-part series.

And cardboard vessels aren’t his only methods of fun filmmaking. He’s also had tall bicycle jousting films – riders on stacked bikes bearing lances tipped with cushions and boxing gloves.

“When you’re doing a comedy, (festival) audiences are going to like you,” Frazier says. “Especially if they’re getting a lot of very dark things and documentaries. People would really rather laugh than be miserable or be outraged on a certain level. It’s a happier way to live.”

Asked if the positive audience response is the result of these days of COVID-19 and polarized politics, Frazier didn’t mince words.

“Damn right,” he says. “Social media has polarized us to a different level of conflict. We’re becoming increasingly tribal, and I’m not a very political person. I’ve spent my life trying to get people to get along.”

So Alabama’s happy warrior of independent documentary soldiers on, dumpster driving for cardboard, hoping to outrun the winter chill in his latest project, all while funding his films from his own pocket.

Pell City and Lakeside Park drew rave reviews from the filmmaker who shot a portion of his current project in August. He still has two more races to film.

“It was the perfect location, and they were so nice to us,” Frazier says. “The staff helped tremendously. They were so enthusiastic about it. We would love to shoot there again. Maybe there will be season two of the Cardboard Boat World Cup. I hope so.”

His mission is simple. Unlike other documentarians who hope their films will change the world, Frazier charts a different course in part with a small fleet of soggy cardboard vessels and a crew of more than 30 people.

While audiences may see the glamour of film, Frazier compares his calling to “herding cats and walking into traffic. The only thing I can do is make people laugh and enjoy their lives for a certain period of time.”

Frazier recalls an encounter at the Atlanta Film Festival with a California filmmaker, who looked every bit the part of a surfer dude, with attitude to match. As an Oscar-qualifier festival, Atlanta is a marquee indie film showcase.

“He watched the film and said, ‘That was a joyous celebration of life,’ ” Frazier recalls.

“That’s what I can do.”

Easy steps at Noccalula Falls

Project improves hiking access to Gorge Loop

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Richard Rybka

Hikers at Noccalula Falls now have easier access to the Gorge Loop section of the Black Creek Trail system, thanks to a collaboration between the City of Gadsden, Friends of the Falls and the Gadsden Runners Club. A walkway consisting of 104 steps and seven landings has replaced the treacherous access that intrepid hikers endured for years.

“Formerly you would rock-climb your way down from the campground to the trail,” said John Moore, director of Economic Development and Governmental Affairs for the City of Gadsden. “The new steps are on the north side of the Gorge creek, and there are other steps next to the Falls on the south side.”

John Moore says the city is proud of the new trail access

The Gorge Loop is five miles long and connects to another 11-12 miles of trails in the park. The new access was made possible by a $250,000 Regional Trails Program (RTP) grant from the state through Friends of the Falls. “The new access is the result of a collaboration between Friends of the Falls, Gadsden Runners Club, the City of Gadsden, and Congressional Districts 28, 29, 30, via our state representatives,” Moore said.

Bob Smith Construction built the steps and landings, which opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in early July. “The job was put out for bids, but there were none,” Moore explained. “So we called BSC, which also did the suspension bridge over the Falls and remodeled the covered bridge and boardwalk.”

The campground-to-trail access is part of a larger, $8 million project that includes adding sewer and power to each camp site, although most of the 120 existing camp sites already have power. Eight tiny homes will be added to the campgrounds, too. All sites will be reworked as pull-throughs, which means some will have to be enlarged, reducing the overall number to 100.

“We’ll be re-paving the roads, building a new road to the cabins on the backside of the camp, adding more signage and a rock face at the park entrance,” Moore said. “We’ll shut down the park campground for nine months, beginning in January for the project, but the campground is always closed in January anyway. It’s the mayor’s goal to give the facility more of a city park feel.”

Gadsden Runners Club and Friends of the Falls have donated more than $50,000 to the Black Creek Trails, according to board member Glenn Ingram. “We helped apply for the RTP grant, helped raise matching funds and promoted the project through social media and within our membership,” Ingram said. “Both Friends of the Trails and Gadsden Runners raise money for local projects. We were able to help not only with Gorge Trail steps but with other projects, including trail expansion and a Mountain Bike Skills Course. The upcoming renovation is the city’s project, though.”

The new stairs give easier access to the park’s natural beauty

Several entrances throughout the park enable hikers to reach the trails, including one at the chapel next to the Falls. “There was a treacherous ravine to walk down to enter the Gorge Trail prior to the new campground steps,” Ingram said. “There’s a loop that goes around the creek down in the Gorge, so you can actually go underneath the Falls. That one will also bring you back to the new steps in the campground.”

Ingram said Friends of the Falls and Gadsden Runners highly recommend appropriate footwear for hiking any of the trails at Noccalula Falls. “The Gorge Loop in particular is a very technical trail, which means it has lots of rocks,” Ingram said. “It’s not a Sunday-after-church walk. Hikers need to be prepared with appropriate shoes and maybe a hiking stick. Most of the other trails within Black Creek Trails are not as technical.”

More collaborations may be on the horizon. The Gadsden Runners and Friends of the Falls look forward to partnering with the City of Gadsden on other projects at Noccalula Falls, he said.

Tackle BOX

Small store in Oxford has big impact on regional fishing

Story and photos by
Graham Hadley

For decades now, the Tackle BOX has been giving a leg up to fishing enthusiasts from its location in historic Downtown Oxford.

The name should sound familiar to anyone who has seen their iconic stickers on cars and trucks driving down I-20 or putting in boats at places like Lincoln’s Landing, Pell City Lakeside Park or Coosa Landing in Gadsden.

Anywhere there are fishing enthusiasts you are as likely to see the Tackle BOX logo along with other well-known brands like YETI, Orca or … LakeLife.

“I go on vacation and see Tackle BOX hats in places like Gatlinburg. I run into people everywhere. It is kind of surreal when you travel hours from home and people recognize the logo on my hat,” said Jason Earl Gator Howard, who helps man the store.

Gator – actually his real name – credits much of the store’s success to the simple fact it is much more than just a store. Yes, Tackle BOX stocks everything a fisherman needs, whether it is starter gear for the beginner or everything you need for competition fishing, but the real hook is everyone there is ready to help with advice or to just chat and share stories.

“There’s good fishing stories always told here. It is to the point that we have people here to just help talk to customers. They don’t run the register, but they can answer just about any fishing question. Everyone hangs out, tells fishing stories – and lies (every good fishing story has a lie in it somewhere),” Gator said. “One of our biggest draws is our atmosphere. Good Southern hospitality. New customers can come in, we tell them where to fish. You are going to get good advice in the Tackle BOX.”

That perfect combination of great merchandise selection and sense of community have helped the store stay on top of its game, but Gator is quick to point out those are not the only factors that contribute to the Tackle BOX’s success.

The store originally opened in the late 1970s or early 1980s across Main Street in Oxford from its current location. The Main Olive and the law office for Baxley Maniscalco occupy the old building now, and the Tackle BOX has its own building and parking lot next door which can accommodate larger vehicles and boat trailers.

Owner Michael Pickette bought the business from the original owners around 12 years ago and oversaw the move to its new facility.

Gator also gives a lot of credit to Oxford for all the effort the city has put into revitalizing its historic downtown area with better parking, sidewalks and lighting – all of which help bring in more business, not only to the Tackle BOX, but also to the other shops and restaurants there.

“The city as a whole made an effort to redo all of downtown. Got rid of power poles everywhere, put in new sidewalks. They close the downtown for Oxfordfest in October.” All of which makes a big difference, he said.

Even though the Tackle BOX is not located on any specific body of water, it is only 15 to 30 minutes from many of the main regional fishing spots along the Coosa River and its tributaries, most notably Logan Martin and Neely Henry lakes.

“In under an hour or so, you can move from one great fishing location to another,” Gator said.

As successful as the business has been since it opened, the past half decade has seen the popularity of fishing, especially competitive fishing, explode.

Gator says a big part of that is the expansion of competition fishing teams in schools, both in grade schools and in colleges.

Tackle BOX helps local high school teams by giving special discounts to groups who display the business’s logo on their gear.

“We sponsor almost all the local high schools here in Calhoun County, and they get discounts when they come in.”

Gator touts competition fishing as one of the best ways to get an athletic scholarship to a college or university. “One of the biggest things driving fishing these days is the school teams. There are a lot of college scholarship opportunities for students. That is especially true for girls looking for a fishing scholarship.”

Gator said the COVID lockdown was also another driving force behind the growth of their business.

“COVID was a terrible ordeal. We are still living with it today and are learning to cope. But it was phenomenal for the fishing industry everywhere, not just us. We were told to socially distance, not gather indoors, get out and get some fresh air,” and fishing was an obvious way to do just that, he said.

“People who had never fished before came in, bought rods and reels and started fishing. They still come in today.”

You can see the growing popularity of the sport all over Alabama.

Gator helps Dawson and Davis Stone of Alexandria

“All the cities like Gadsden, Southside, Lincoln, Pell City and Riverside are upgrading their boat ramps and parks, hosting big fishing tournaments and boat shows,” all of which are great for the businesses around the lakes, he said. “We have even found new brands for our store from some of those shows.”

As an added bonus, the attention to fishing helps raise awareness for preserving the waterways in the area. “That environmental focus, especially restocking lakes, helps make the fishing better,” he said.

Tackle BOX carries a wide range of well-known brands like ZOOM and YETI – they even do some consignment sales on used gear for customers. But they take particular pride in stocking equipment from companies with local Alabama ties – companies like Reaction Innovations out of Alabaster, and NetBait, which started in Greenville. Gator was quick to show off one of the rods from MMA Fishing, another local company.

As the sport continues to grow, so does business for the Tackle BOX, and that is keeping Gator and the rest of the staff and help busy. He would not have it any other way.

“It is one thing to know about fishing, but you have to have a passion for fishing, for the outdoors and for conservation. I am lucky. A lot of people dread coming to work every day. I love coming to work here and getting to talk about fishing all day.”

Boo Bash

Logan Martin ‘Dock or Treaters’ getting ready

Story Paul South
Submitted Photos

As the days dwindle down and the holiday season approaches, three things are certain:

At Christmas, kids aren’t crazy about socks and underwear beneath the tree.

Thanksgiving means a feast, family, football and finally, a nap.

And here on Logan Martin Lake as Halloween approaches, Boo Bash is a straight up, surefire hit. You could say it’s BOO-ming.

In just its second year, the nautical fun fright fest is right up there with supersized candy bars and princess and superhero costumes.

Candy corn can’t catch a break.

The pier-to-pier party for trick-or-treaters of all ages is set for October 8. Logan Martin residents who join the party can expect their fair share of witches, Supermen, Barbies and maybe, just maybe, a pint-sized Oppenheimer.

Organizers Kelli Lasseter, Sonya Hubbard and a growing band of merry pranksters, expect a bigger, better event in 2023. Last year, even as rain fell, an estimated 45 to 50 piers – known affectionately as “dock or treaters” – participated.

As of July 26, some 60 pier owners had signed on to host dock-or-treaters. That number may double, Lasseter says.

Two restaurants, 30 to 40 boats and one personal watercraft braved the wet weather to join the fun in 2022. More are expected this year. In fact, the Boo Bash buzz was heavy, even before July 4 fireworks cooled.

“Obviously, we hope that we have more people who know about it,” Lasseter says. “Not only that, but people who want to participate – to host a pier, that want to get out, decorate their boat and take folks out for the treating.”

More are coming. One couple plans a 60s-themed pier. Others have approached organizers to pitch proposed themes for their piers and boats. And Boo Bash has – for at least one newcomer – helped boost the real estate market.

“I had someone come to me who’s new to the lake, who told me that Boo Bash was one of the selling points,” Lasseter says. “The Realtor told them about Boo Bash. She joined the group and is super excited.”

Lasseter also wants to see Boo Bash spread like the sci-fi creature, “The Blob,” to the upper reaches of the lake to Lincoln, Riverside and neighboring areas.

“Last year, they really didn’t know about it,” Lasseter says of the Lincoln-Riverside area. “We had a few places up there that hosted piers, but we’re hoping we can get some more folks involved.”

In 2023, organizers will have a backup date for Boo Bash in the event of wicked weather – Oct. 15.

Even with last year’s wet weather, the inaugural Boo Bash drew rave reviews. This was about more than kids, costumes and candy and adults bobbing for cocktails.

“It was overwhelming that people loved this event because it gave them an opportunity to spend time with family and friends, get to know their lake neighbors and just have fun,” Lasseter says. “That was the overarching theme. It just brought the community together and people just had a good time.”

Organizers have also stepped up their marketing effort through a more intense social media effort on Facebook, Instagram and hopefully, Tik Tok. Last year, a local radio station – 94.1 The River – Carl Wallace’s Lake Ramblings blog on Facebook and word of mouth also fueled turnout. Nearly 900 locals are considered Boo Bash members. The event also hopes for some bounce from broadcast, print and online media outlets.

Partners By Design, the parent company of Lake Life 24/7 Magazine®, and its sister publication, Discover St. Clair, is promoting Boo Bash 2023 with a specially designed Boo Bash T-shirt, available for purchase online and in Lake Life 24/7’s brick and mortar store. Pier signs are also available to identify participating docks. A percentage of the proceeds from sales will go to offset Boo Bash expenses for the all-volunteer event. As of this writing, Partners is one of 11 local businesses supporting Boo Bash.

“We think our lake is a special place,” says CEO Carol Pappas says. “We want to find ways like (Boo Bash) to promote it, enjoy it and share it.

“This event is a great way to get out and meet your neighbors and have a lot of fun along the way,” Pappas adds. “What a treat for kids of all ages.”

Wayne and Margie Brewer are part of the original group that crafted the inaugural Boo Bash. Their pier will echo the theme they used last year – Skull Island – and using a pole with a pot affixed, they’ll hand out plastic bags filled with candy and Mardi Gras beads. Revelers won’t have to dock.

The Brewers have lived on the lake for 20 years. Boo Bash is a chance to build lake residents into a neighborhood.

It’s a community gathering, to get to know everybody on the lake. It’s just something to do together,” Wayne Brewer says. “We’ve got a great environment here on the lake, and it’s great to have everybody get together and have an activity that’s fun for everybody.”

An earlier start means higher water levels on Logan Martin, making it easier for some residents to participate, Brewer says.

“Last year, some people couldn’t participate because there wasn’t enough water at their dock.”

In these fragmented times, events like Boo Bash bring a kindness to the lake community sweeter than a box of Goo Goo Clusters. Lasseter is emotional as she reflects on Boo Bash’s big splash as it enters its second year.

“It feels really good to see people come together, work together, to do something special for others,” Lasseter says. “This wasn’t about me or anybody else. Sonya and I just had an idea. The Logan Martin Lake community took it and ran with it. It was very special.”

Just how unique and special this event has quickly become was illustrated by the number of folks who approached organizers to sing the praises of Boo Bash.

“With every boat that pulled up, everybody was all smiles, all ‘Hi’s’,” Brewer says. “Every boat was a good experience, for us and the people on the boats.”

Consider the words of one unidentified little boy who was among the wet but happy band of Boo Bashers. Lasseter recounts his words.

“He said it was the best day of his life,” she says. “Out of the mouths of babes, right?”

She adds, “If it wasn’t (the best) for everybody else, it was for that little boy. It was well worth it.”

Cooking on Palmetto Creek

In the Kitchen and by the Lake with Pam Beals and Misty Thomas

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Richard Rybka

For the past 18 years, sisters-in-law Pam Beals and Misty Thomas have been in a weekly cooking school of sorts. They’re the teachers as well as the students, and most often they’re the only participants. As a result, though, their culinary skills have grown, their bond has deepened, and their binder of “keeper” recipes has continued to expand.

“We’ve pretty much had dinner together every Saturday night since 2005,” Pam said of the gatherings at her Neely Henry Lake home. “We call it our Saturday Night Supper Club.” Sometimes it’s just Pam and her husband, Tom, along with Misty, and her husband, Shane, who is Pam’s brother. Other times, the number grows to six, ten or even more.

The cottage on Neely Henry’s Palmetto Creek

The one constant, however, is that they prepare the meals together. “We have the most fun when we open a bottle of wine or bubbly, turn on the music and start cooking,” Pam said. “Sometimes I have to step in if there’s a little too much bubbly,” Tom joked.

Although Pam and Misty weren’t novices in the kitchen before they started their weekly get-togethers, they’ve both come a long way, as far as skill, confidence and mindset go. “Now I cook because I want to, not because I have to,” Pam said.

Misty and Pam have always been close, despite the 10-year age difference between them. They just haven’t always lived near each other. Pam and Shane were raised in Ashville, and Misty grew up in Steele but went to Ashville High School. By the time Misty and Shane met in the ninth grade, Pam was out of college and working.

In fact, she and Tom were living in Atlanta for the first three years of their Saturday Night Supper Club, but they all met on weekends at Pam and Shane’s mother’s cabin on Neely Henry. “In 2007, my brother and husband went to an Alabama Power auction ‘just to see how an auction works,’” Pam said with a laugh. “They both came back with property.”

Misty and Shane realized they prefer hills and farmland, so they sold their lake lot and bought a home nearby with 40 acres. They are in the process of turning it into a working farm, Moonlight Farm, where they plan to raise cattle. Pam and Tom built a 3-bedroom, 2 ½ bath cottage on their lake property lot and used it as a weekend home from 2008 until 2020 when COVID-19 hit, and they moved there permanently. “I was ready,” she said.

The cottage, which is on Neely Henry’s Palmetto Creek, was built from a Southern Living house plan. “I’ve always had a soft spot for Southern Living and all things Southern, really,” Pam said and grinned. “Anybody can copy out of Southern Living magazine.”

Dynamic duo

The magazine had a big influence on their Saturday night dinners as well. That’s where they found almost all of the recipes they tried when they first started their weekly gathering. “Southern Living got us started on this journey,” Pam said. “At first, we were intimidated by some recipes, and we didn’t even know what some of the spices were. We’d have to go buy every spice and every tool.”

It got easier, though, and they got better one dish at time. “We just got in the kitchen and started teaching ourselves,” Misty said. “Now we have all the right appliances and gadgets.”

For the most part, the meals have been successful, although there have been some bumps along the way. “We learned to read the recipe all the way through,” Pam said. “We’d get halfway through one and realize we were supposed to refrigerate it overnight. We’ve only had a catastrophe once or twice where we say, ‘I hope (the restaurant) Local Joe’s is still open.’”

Through the years they’ve tried hundreds of recipes they’ve gathered from magazines, Pinterest, and cookbooks. The first time, they follow the recipe exactly, and for some dishes, they think of how to make it better. “We’ll say, ‘Next time, let’s add this,’” Misty said.

They started keeping their favorites in a binder, which is now nearly four inches thick. “That’s where all of the ‘keepers’ go,” Pam said. “And a recipe doesn’t make the book just because we made it. Everyone has to agree that it’s a keeper.”

The fact that they try to use local ingredients whenever possible has helped the binder grow. The short ribs they use in their Short Rib Lasagna recipe, which was featured on The Today Show and grabbed Pam’s attention, come from Earnest Roots Farm in Ashville. They get tomatoes grown on Chandler Mountain from Smith Tomato in Steele to make their own tomato sauce, which they sometimes substitute for the marinara listed in the recipe.

“Every time we prepare this, we get more compliments on it,” Misty said of the Short Rib Lasagna, which has become a favorite. “You would think we’d have a lot of leftovers because it makes a lot, but there’s never anything left.”

Pam and Misty have learned over the years that their cooking styles are different. “If it’s a dessert, we’re handing that to Misty because she’s very precise,” Pam said. “I’m more of a follow the directions kind of cook and she’ll get in there and do her own thing.”

Misty agreed, adding that when she cooks on her own, “I very rarely follow a recipe. Pam will ask me what I did, and I’ll say, ‘I don’t know.’ My grandmother was an amazing cook, and that’s what she used to do, too. Pam gets mad at me, and I used to get mad at my grandmother.”

Although they are most often the ones in the kitchen, Pam and Misty sometimes turn things over to the guys. They’re in charge of the grilling, as well as low country boils, which they all love. “We do those a lot,” Misty said. “We prepare everything and hand it off to them. It’s always delicious.”

The folks enjoying the meals sometimes change as well. They are often joined by Tom’s brother, Joe, and his wife, Kathy, who live nearby on the lake. Other friends have joined in the fun, but one thing never changes. They always gather at Pam and Tom’s house to enjoy the glorious view of Neely Henry.

View for rent

When Pam and Tom built their home, they planned for it to be a peaceful weekend retreat from their busy lives in Atlanta, where they lived at the time. They were both working in the vending industry, although Tom has since retired, and were on the go a lot.

While they hired professionals to lay the foundation and handle the electricity, plumbing, framing and roofing, they did everything else themselves. The details that that make the house a home are all theirs. Tom put up the pine tongue and groove walls in the master bedroom and adjoining sun porch, and he and his brother, Mike, laid the oak tongue and groove floors throughout the home.

His brother, Joe, helped hang the kitchen cabinets while Pam handled the painting and decorating. She went to great lengths to get everything right. “We were in Destin, and I saw a house that was under construction and was painted the exact color I wanted,” she said. “No one was there so I climbed into the dumpster and found an old can of the paint. I took it to Sherwin Williams, and they matched it. It’s a dill green, and we just love it.”

After COVID hit, Pam and Tom moved in full-time. Although she continues to work from home, traveling a lot for her job with Flowers Baking Company, she started to think about what’s next. Tom retired and has begun dabbling in real estate, and Misty just retired after teaching 25 years at Albertville High School. Shane still works with Birmingham Pistol Wholesale, but he and Misty recently opened The Gun Exchange in Ashville. They also are busy working on the farm.

“Over the years, we all had conversations about what we’re going to do in retirement,” Pam said. “I decided I might give Airbnb a try. At the time, there were no Airbnbs in Ashville, so I got on the website and started playing around with a listing. I accidentally posted it, though, and the next day I woke up to a booking. I had to get myself together really quickly.”

Even though the house is their full-time home, they’ve rented it out many times since. They have an RV, and “as soon as someone books the house, we book a camping trip,” she said. “We didn’t have this in mind when we built, but it’s really turned out perfectly.”

Guests love fishing off the dock, drinking coffee on the wraparound porch, playing with the giant lawn chess set and watching outdoor movies on the screen and projector she provides. “We’ve really got it set up like a model home,” Pam said. “We pretty much just use the kitchen, master bedroom and the sunporch, and we live out of three closets” that they lock when guests come. The rest of the house is ready all the time, so they only have to get three rooms ready before guests arrive, and they head for the woods.

After traveling her whole career, she had lots of ideas about what guests need and want. All of her jobs have developed her customer service skills, and her attention to detail and love for hosting makes it the perfect fit. “It’s like I’ve been training for this my whole life,” she said.

She and Tom also own a commercial building in Gadsden and Airbnb the loft above it. They bought the lot next door to their lake cottage, and Pam said she would love to one day build another home there. “I have to keep reminding myself that I ‘m trying to retire, not build an empire,” Pam said.

Although all the changes – the cottage bookings and Misty and Shane’s work at the farm – cut into their Saturday Night Supper Club schedule, they know they’ll continue to find a way to make it work. N future recipes, they’ll soon be able to use beef raised at Moonlight Farm and vegetables from the garden Misty plans to plant.

“I’ve never had a major garden before,” Misty said, and she’s dreaming big. She plans to plant tomatoes, squash, corn, okra, beans, carrots, a variety of lettuces and strawberries. “As a child, I used to love to go out in my grandmother’s garden and pick strawberries.”

One thing is for certain, there’s still lots of cooking and Saturday night gatherings in their future. No matter what changes come, they’ll continue to do what they’ve been doing for nearly two decades. “We’ll all get in the kitchen and see how it turns out,” Pam said.

Short Rib Lasagna

Recipe of Giada de Laurentiis, shared on The Today Show

Ingredients:

Ribs

2 tablespoons olive oil
2½ pounds beef short ribs
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus extra for seasoning
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 4-inch sprigs fresh rosemary
2 cups red wine, such as Pinot Noir
2 cups beef broth

Filling Mixture

1½ cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
1½ cups grated Pecorino Romano cheese (6 ounces)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (4 ounces)
1 small bunch Tuscan kale, ribs removed and chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra for seasoning
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning

Additional Ingredients

12 uncooked lasagna noodles (about 10 ounces)
Butter for greasing the baking dish
1 25-ounce jar marinara sauce
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Olive oil for drizzling

Directions:

Cook the ribs: In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed stock pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Season the ribs with salt and pepper. Add the ribs to the pan and cook for about 4 minutes each side until brown. Remove the ribs and set aside. Add the onion, garlic and rosemary. Season with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Cook for 5 minutes until the onions are translucent and soft. Increase the heat to high. Add the wine and scrape up the brown bits that cling to the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add the beef broth and ribs to the pan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pan and cook for 2½ to 3 hours until the meat is very tender. Remove the ribs and set aside until cool enough to handle, about 20 minutes. Discard the bones and cooking liquid. Using two forks, shred the meat into 2-inch-long pieces (to yield approximately 2¼ cups shredded meat).

Make the filling: In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the milk and cream to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low. Add the cheeses and whisk until melted, and the sauce is smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the kale, basil and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook the pasta: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Assemble: Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°. Butter a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish. Spread 1 cup of the marinara sauce in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Lay 3 noodles over the marinara. Spread 1/3 of the Filling Mixture evenly over the noodles. Sprinkle with a 1/3 of the shredded short ribs. Repeat with the remaining noodles and filling, making three layers of filling and ending with pasta. Spoon the remaining marinara sauce on top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and bake until the lasagna is heated through and the cheese is beginning to brown, about 25 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before serving.

Easy Skillet Apple Pie

From Southern Living

Ingredients:

2 pounds Granny Smith apples
2 pounds Braeburn apples
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 (14.1-oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts
1 egg white
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Butter-pecan ice cream (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Peel apples and cut into ½-inch-thick wedges. Toss apples with cinnamon and ¾ cup granulated sugar. Melt butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat; add brown sugar and cook, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and place 1 piecrust in skillet over brown sugar mixture. Spoon apple mixture over piecrust; top with remaining piecrust. Whisk egg white until foamy. Brush top of piecrust with egg white; sprinkle with 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar. Cut 4 or 5 slits in top for steam to escape.Bake at 350ºF for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Use aluminum foil to shield for last 10 minutes to prevent excessive browning, if necessary. Cool on a wire rack 30 minutes before serving. Serve with butter-pecan ice cream, if desired.

Kat Tucker

Remembering a LakeLife treasure

By Carol Pappas
Staff and contributed photos

Katheryne Anna Tucker, known better around these parts as “Kat,” was more than a business owner serving up a tasty breakfast at her restaurant, The Kitchen. She and her Kitchen became iconic, a tradition that lasted 23 years.

She passed away in May, and The Kitchen is now dark.

Kat had nurtured it into a neighborhood gathering place where she knew your name – and your order – when you walked in the door. Walk through that door once, and you were no longer a stranger, only a friend she added to her ever-growing list.

“She made people feel like they belonged, and everyone who ate at The Kitchen was treated like family,” her memoriam stated. “She remembered everything about everyone, who their family was, what they did for a living, birthdays, anniversaries and of course, what everyone liked to eat.”

I will miss my own Sunday morning Eggs Benedict, home fries and sliced tomatoes that seemed to taste like “summer tomatoes” year-round. All I had to do was call, and she would answer the phone with “Eggs Benedict, Miss Carol?”

I, like so many others, felt special because it was important to her to remember what we liked. She always had candy for the kids and treats for the dogs and tips for stories for me. It was not unusual to see her head out from the grill for a moment, walk outside to a truck to serve a four-legged friend a side of bacon while he waited on his owner to return. She was like that. All had a special place in her heart.

Regulars even had their own personalized coffee cups hanging in a place of honor. Just like their own kitchen, they would grab ‘their’ cup and ready it for a pour of Kat’s savory coffee.

Regulars always had a place to discuss issues of the day

Her giving ways went well beyond the doors of the kitchen. Charities, church activities, school functions, Animal Savers, Lions Club, Civitans, Fishes and Loaves Ministries and Scrollworks Music School, where her daughter taught, all were on the receiving end of Kat’s generosity.

Her work ethic was unparalleled. She was the ultimate multi-tasker. One only had to observe a typical breakfast rush to see evidence of that.

A veteran, she served in the U.S. Army. Sometimes, she would display that toughness no doubt learned from that military background, but that tough exterior never could disguise the big heart that resided within.

It is with much sadness to see The Kitchen’s empty restaurant and parking lot these days. It is a reminder of the loss for our community, not just in terms of a neighborhood restaurant we’d grown to love but because in so many ways the center of it made us all feel special.

The Kitchen may have gone dark, but the memory of Kat behind the grill, carrying on multiple conversations with customers while turning out one perfect breakfast after another is a light that won’t soon be dimmed.

Painting the town

Local artist adds splash of color to Coosa River Community

Story by Roxann Edsall
Photos by Richard Rybka

It’s not unusual to see postage stamps celebrating art and history, but the city of Riverside has taken the celebration to a new level. Even their post office building is a piece of art, one that invites visitors to picture themselves enjoying what the city has to offer.

As the first hints of summer weather invited visitors to the lake, local artist Penny Arnold put the finishing touches on a mural that welcomes both visitors and residents to the sleepy town on the banks of Logan Martin Lake. On Highway 57, just past the fire station and City Hall, you’ll see the 40-foot mural covering the exterior side wall of the post office.

The building, which used to be a grocery store, has served as the post office since the impounding of the lake in 1964. Originally owned by former mayor W.A. “Bill” Coleman, the largely brick structure also houses Local Sister, a home décor store operated by his great granddaughter, Maddie Cochran.

Coleman’s daughter and Maddie’s grandmother, Cynthia Coleman Cochran, now owns the building and approves of the facelift the historic building has received. “I was worried at first about the bright colors,” said Cochran. “But I really like it. I think it gives us something else interesting in Riverside. And it’s fun for people to take pictures by it.”

The distinctive railroad truss bridge is the crown jewel of the panorama adorning the building’s facade. The iconic bridge was built in 1927 and was modified to accommodate the creation of the lake. It is a central part of the history of Riverside, a community that needed the railroad to support the sawmill and logging industry that drove the town’s economy in its early days.

Celebrating that landmark and the surrounding beauty of the lake is central to the goals established by the Riverside Beautification Organization (RBO), which commissioned the mural. The RBO funded the project with grant money from a local business, Charity Steel, which gives a percentage of their profits each year to a local 501(c)3 organization.

RBO President Julie Pounders says the mural is part of their mission to spruce up the city. “We’ve wanted to do a mural for a long time,” she says, adding that she is already looking for a location to add another one in the future.

This one was over seven months in the making from start date to completion. Since paint doesn’t dry well in cold weather, Arnold wasn’t able to do much in the colder months. She says the cumulative time spent on the project was about four weeks.

Arnold is a former English teacher turned art teacher, who now teaches art part time at Duran Junior High School. She has worked with stained glass, mosaic, drawing and sculpture, primarily, but had not done a mural before. She had already been refining her skills in painting by taking classes by noted local artist Nettie Bean. When she was offered the chance to paint the mural, she jumped at it. Her first step was researching the kind of paint to use on the primarily brick façade.

Acrylic masonry paint was the medium she settled on. Application was by paintbrushes and bunched up plastic bags for texture. She added a paint sprayer to her tool belt to blend the sky colors. Safety tools included a stepladder for the higher reaches and an umbrella for sun protection.

“Painting is so many layers,” Arnold explained. “We wanted it to be bold, bright and colorful. When we started, it was just swaths of color and people wondered what we were doing. As it started coming together, people began stopping to tell me how much they loved it.

“Do you know how tough it is to paint straight lines on brick?,” Arnold added. “It was a challenge in painting the railroad bridge because bricks are not a flat surface.”

In addition to the railroad bridge, the landscape art includes fishermen and kayakers, a nod to the leisure activities and tournaments popular in the area. Large, white American Lotus flowers, native to the ponds in nearby Riverside Park, are also featured in the painting. Arnold included sunset colors in the sky to capture the beauty of evening on the lake. She admits to having a bit of trouble with the osprey. “At first, it didn’t look quite right,” she said. “Julie, the RBO president, knows a lot about birds and was able to give me suggestions that helped bring it around.”

Arnold had some friends help, too. When she was initially covering the building with large areas of color, she invited friends from her church, Pell City First United Methodist, whom she called the “Joy and Color Brigade,” to come and paint the base layers.

The colorful mural has certainly given Riverside residents another reason to be proud of their city. According to Riverside Post Office employee Honey Waters, people come to her window frequently to give compliments about it. “A lot of people seem to like it. In fact,” she added, “just a couple of days ago, I watched a group of people stop and take their picture by it.”

Arnold hopes she will be able to do more murals in and around the area. “It’s given me so much joy to see the happiness it brings people in the community when they drive by. Every community deserves to have something that encourages pride in their city.” The artist has certainly delivered that.

Point Aquarius Resort

A Talladega County Logan Martin Lakeside icon before Alpine Bay

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Submitted Photos

It was a golf course, a resort, a swanky place to hold weddings, class reunions and fundraising dinners that often featured famous entertainers. It was a day-trip for horseback riding or lounging by the pool. It was a destination point for a few days of rest and relaxation, tucked away in the small town of Alpine, 10 miles southwest of Talladega.

Alpine Bay Golf Club began life as Point Aquarius in 1969. First owned by International Resorts, Inc., of Vestavia Hills, it went through several more owners and a name-change through the years as it struggled to hold onto its identity and its membership. Plagued by poor management, high-pressure sales tactics and the very seclusion that made it unique, it finally withered and died in 2014, only to be revived again two years later in a smaller but more manageable form.

“We used to book acts in the ballroom like the Swinging Medallions, the Temptations, Fahrenheit and others from the 50s and 60s,” says Stuart Brasell, who, with his business partner, Jack Graves, was food and beverage manager there from 1986-1997. “We had B.B. King once as well. It was a different time.”

Former members and employees recall gourmet meals in a multi-tiered clubhouse that included a restaurant, lounge, snack bar, game room, covered outdoor patio with a ballroom above that could seat 500.

The golfing was world-class, too, with two courses designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. One of them lasted only a year or two, but comedian Bob Hope and blind golfer Charley Boswell played a few rounds at the other, along with several NASCAR race drivers killing time during Talladega 500 weeks.

“I loved working there,” says Jeanna Carmack, bar manager at the resort from the late 80s “off and on” until 2000. “We had a lot of fun, just the atmosphere, the people you met. A lot of the NASCAR drivers would stay there in the 80s, including Darrell Waltrip, Ernie Irvan, Mark Martin’s team and Jack Roush’s team. They’d have a big charity golf tourney during NASCAR week, they’d come out and play golf and have a big dinner in the ballroom that night. Other people would come from all around the world that follow the NASCAR circuit.”

Purchased and re-named by Alpine Bay Resorts in 1982, the property at that time included the clubhouse, pro shop, Olympic-sized swimming pool with fountain and pool house, five clay tennis courts, a barn and equestrian club, putt-putt golf area, walking trails, marina with restaurant and dock storage, 60 motel units and three condominium developments. The latter were dubbed Dogwood, the Pines and East Pines. Only two of the individual units were privately owned, while the others were timeshares listed with RCI, which allowed you to trade your week at almost any timeshare resort in the world.

“Around 500 lots along Logan Martin Lake and on the interior of the resort property were part of the original 1,400-acre development,” says Brasell. “There was an RV campground that adjoined the property, too.”

Former member Gene Davis of Moody recalls that during the mid-1960s, Democratic governor contender Sen. Ryan DeGraffenried, who was later killed in a plane crash, played golf at the Charley Boswell Golf Course (Highland Park) in Birmingham along with Bob Hope and Charley Boswell. Then DeGraffenried went to Point Aquarius, as it was still called at that time. “I’m not sure about Hope, but Ryan and Charley and maybe (former football player) Johnny Musso played together there. The owners were really trying to promote and sell that property.”

Alpine Bay sold again in 1988 to National America Corporation (NACO), a part of Thousand Trails out of Gautier, MS, according to Stuart Brasell. In 1994 NACO sold the clubhouse and golf course to Joe Yarborough from Bessemer and his business partner, Pat Sanford of Childersburg. NACO, however, retained ownership of the condominiums, and still owned them when Brasell and Graves left in 1997.

Yarborough didn’t make it in the food and beverage business there and built a small pro shop and snack bar to replace the huge clubhouse. “It cost $5,500 in utilities alone each month to run the clubhouse,” Brasell says. “A consultant came in once and said it would be best if we let the tennis courts grow up and fill in the swimming pool and grow roses.”

At various times, Alpine Bay was a private resort or a semi-private resort used for many types of events. It played host to high school speech contests, state chili cook-offs, the Alabama Associated Press Broadcasters convention, the Alabama Sports Writers Association convention, the Jet Ski Nationals, Talladega College fundraisers and numerous golf tournaments.

The resort owned the equestrian club and the horses that were stabled there, according to Brasell. During the off-season, the horses were kept off-site. “They weren’t there when the barn burned in 1988,” Brasell says.

The barn wasn’t the only building to burn down.

In January 1988, two fires on New Year’s Eve destroyed four condos and a motel complex at the resort, according to brief articles in the Anniston Star and the Birmingham Post-Herald. It is unclear from the articles, however, whether it was actually the same fire both newspapers were reporting on. The Star article said a fire destroyed “apartment units 126-129 in Building Two.” The top floors were burned and the bottom floors were gutted. The Post-Herald article said a 12-unit motel complex was destroyed. “The resort has 72 motel units and 56 condominium apartments, contained in six buildings near Lake Logan Martin on the Coosa River,” the Post-Herald article stated. “The motel had been undergoing renovations.”

“Actually, the building that burned was Building 2,” says Brasell, clearing up some of the confusion. “It housed 12 motel units. They were converted from four condos. Each building had four king suites, four double queen rooms and four single queen rooms.”

In 2006, the clubhouse was in such disrepair that it was razed during a controlled burn by the Renfroe, Lanier and Munford volunteer fire departments as part of a training exercise. In a June 13, 1986, Daily Home newspaper article about the controlled burn, former resort member Helen Ruth Deese, a Talladega real estate agent, said the clubhouse had been absolutely fabulous in its heyday.

“It was the most gorgeous thing you’d ever seen,” she said in the article. “There was an open circle staircase, and a huge dining room with a stacked rock fireplace in the middle. And the food was absolutely fantastic. We had some friends who came to visit once that lived in downtown Atlanta. We took them to dinner there and then visited with them around the pool, and they just couldn’t believe there was something like this in Talladega County. He was an attorney in Atlanta, so they were used to some pretty swanky places.”

She said the dining room was “always covered up, especially for Sunday dinners,” and people came from Birmingham and Atlanta to eat there. She described lots of open balconies where they sometimes had dances, along with a big ballroom upstairs. “And there was a pro-shop downstairs that you could just drive your golf cart right up to it. In its heyday, it was just unbelievable.”

The article also mentions a swimming pool with a fountain in the middle, a large play area for children and a soft-surface tennis court that was still in use when the article was written. The clubhouse was built in 1972 but had been closed for 11 years leading up to its razing, according to the article.

“It just wasn’t worth restoring,” Yarborough, who has since died, said in the controlled burn article. “It was too big, and it was built before its time. I know of several people who have gone broke trying to run things in that building. I bought the property in 1994, and I know there have been a lot of parties and weddings there over the years, but I’m not in that kind of business, and I wasn’t going to let it break me.” He said that prior to his purchase of the property, it had been owned by Linkscorp, based in Chicago.

The original maintenance barn caught on fire and burned down somewhere along the way. Tony Parton, managing partner for the Alpine Group that now owns the golf course, believes some of the other buildings need to come down even now.

“The Pines condos are falling in and are dangerous,” he says. “They need to be burned. The current owners have been working on them but haven’t done anything with them in months. The ones by the water tower are falling in, too. People call me all the time wanting to rent them, but I don’t have anything to do with them.”

Poor management and lack of vision contributed to the demise of Alpine Bay. “Before the clubhouse was burned down, a small pro shop and snack bar were built,” says Brasell. “Without the large functions, the restaurant and lounge revenue, an enormous source of income was lost. Oddly, the barn for the equestrian club and the marina burned at different times under different ownerships.”

Clara Curtis of Sylacauga recalls working as a sales representative for timeshares in the early 1980s, when LA Marketing owned the resort. “The golf course was in full swing then,” she says. “Henry Ritchie was golf pro when I was there. It was a regular country club-like atmosphere, and you could buy shirts and souvenirs. It was a booming place. Lots of times I got there at 7 a.m. and wouldn’t leave until 2-3 a.m. because of the reunions and showers.”

Curtis started as a sales person, but when the man in charge of closings left, she got his job. “Then it started going downhill,” she says. “It was sold to another company, and they didn’t do anything with it. So, I went to conference sales: banquets, and so forth. We had a lucrative thing going on. That was just before Jack and Stuart took over.”

Curtis thinks it was the overhead of the clubhouse that did it in. “It got to where lots of folks didn’t support it, but just played golf and sat in the bar,” she recalls. “I think that’s when Joe Yarborough bought it. They split the timeshares away from country club.”

Curtis recalls entertainers like the Temptations, and others of the Motown sound. “We didn’t book shows, it was people having events there,” she says. “It was a lot of fun. You’d meet regular, everyday people that you get to know, people with summer houses, golfers. For people who lived that far out, it was nice to have someplace near they could come after work. The dads would play golf, moms would have kids at the pool. And my sister got married there!”

She says the clubhouse was a glorious facility. “You wouldn’t know you were out in the middle of nowhere. Torches were always lit at the entrance.” Those torches were enormous gas torchères at the front gate, according to Brasell. “They were beautiful but expensive,” he recalls. “It cost about $2,000 a month to keep them lit.”

Gene Davis played golf there in the 60s and had a corporate membership in the 70s. “I was a sales manager for a company out of Birmingham and when they were developing Point Aquarius, Johnny Musso was working for the people who were putting that together,” he says. “They were selling property all around the golf course. He came to our company, and I was a golfer and was interested. With my influence, our company bought into it. It cost us $5,000 for thecorporate membership. This was probably in the early 70s, probably 1973 or 1974.”

Deese did a lot of appraisal work on some of the lots in the 80s. “Often the same lot sold more than one time,” she says. “People would go look at their lot and someone would be building on it!”

Brasell claims the original Point Aquarius was built because the developers thought Alabama would get casino gambling. “That’s why the corridors of the clubhouse were so wide and the rooms so big,” he says. “It was no secret that at one time resort owners ran junkets out of Birmingham to Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Ed Salem was an investor at the resort then, and Donald Trump’s wife always wanted Salem to bring Krispy Kreme donuts on those Atlantic City junkets because there weren’t any there.” He says a lot of folks got stuck on memberships, because every time ownership would change, new owners wouldn’t honor old memberships. “We made sure the resort remained public when we were there,” he says of his and Jack Graves’s managerial days.

The very location, while rural and scenic, may have contributed to the demise of the resort, too. A Golfweek article in USA Today’s sports section on Nov. 25, 2022, said, “Although a beautiful layout in a brilliant natural setting, Alpine Bay was hard to reach even from Birmingham, with a least part of the drive on winding, two-lane roads. After barely managing to stay alive for decades, it was shuttered in 2014. But the place had a loyal following.”

NACO still owned the condos when Brasell and Graves left in 1997. “They were governed by an association,” Brasell says. “Most of the amnesties were gone near the end. People finally quit paying maintenance fees, which I’m sure ended the timeshare condos.”

Current managing partner Tony Parton says all three sets of condominiums are still on the property, but they aren’t part of the 144 acres his Alpine Group owns. “Those in East Pines, they claimed they’ve restored them, but nothing has been done in months,” he says. “This was originally 1,400 acres that stretched nearly to Logan Martin Dam and included individual lots. We own just the golf course.”

Gene Davis says he has been playing golf at Alpine off and on ever since the company he worked for had a corporate membership. “I do know Tony Parton and his wife Jan, also Percy Jennings and Ray Ferguson. I’m excited they were able to do what they did by resurrecting and salvaging that old place.”

Brothers 4 Motel & Big Bull Steakhouse

Revisiting uniquely Logan Martin lodging

Story by Roxann Edsall
Photos by Mackenzie Free
Contributed photos

Soon after the impounding of the Coosa River in 1964, the sparkling waters of the newly formed Logan Martin Lake started drawing in visitors from around the state and beyond. Fishermen and families looking for a respite from the rigors of the work-a-day world came in droves to enjoy some form of recreation along the water’s edge.

A young entrepreneur from Pell City recognized a need in this new lake community and set a plan in action to fill that need. Charles Abbott was already entrenched in the community as part owner of the local radio station, WFHK, now known as 94.1, The River. He sold his interest in the radio station and, with the help of his uncle, J.D. Abbott, secured a bank loan to build a motel and restaurant in Cropwell on the shores of the lake.

Iconic Big Bull Steakhouse neon sign in Pell City

Being a strong family man, Charles thought it only fitting to name the new venture Brothers 4 Motel after his four boys. The sign off Highway 231 featured stacked silhouettes of the four brothers, David, Dennis, Joe Paul and Danny. The family moved into the apartment at the end of the building, and the new motel welcomed its first guest in 1965.

Danny Abbott still has his silhouette from that sign as a memento of the family business he helped operate. A graduate of Pell City High School, Danny remembers the pros and cons of working at the business while being a student.

“My brothers and I worked hard on the grounds and often cleaning the rooms. Dad set up a schedule for each of us to work in the office when we weren’t in school,” Danny recalls. “I saw my buddies having fun at times that I couldn’t. But in those days, if you had a boat, which we did, you had friends. We had a lot of fun on the lake.” And so did their guests.

“Dad felt like people would come from Birmingham (when the lake opened), and they did,” adds Danny. “We had lawyers and doctors who would come every weekend and request the same room week after week.” The Columbia University rowing team came down one winter to practice. They’d put their sculling shells in and paddle to the dam and back. Danny still has the broken oar they signed and gave to his dad.

Because Charles had the foresight to have the water trenched early on for deeper water access, they were able to build docks and a beach with a swimming area. Sliding glass doors in each room looked out onto the lake and allowed each guest lake access. Several guests would leave their boats docked at Brothers 4 through the summer.

“We also had the band, Question Mark and the Mysterians, as guests one time,” Danny tells. “You remember their one big hit, ‘96 Tears’? Well, Question Mark was known for never taking off his sunglasses. I remember a day at the motel when he forgot to put them on, and his band mate had to remind him.”

When the Alabama International Motor Speedway, later named Talladega Superspeedway, opened in 1969, many more guests came to stay. The motel was filled with press staying to report on the races. Danny remembers several drivers checking in for a stay, including NASCAR legend, Tiny Lund. NASCAR Hall of Famer Buddy Baker was another frequent guest. “Buddy actually completely rebuilt his engine in the parking lot of our motel once,” Danny remembers.

Four brothers and little sister, from left, David Abbott, Dennis Abbott, Joe Paul Abbott, Danny Abbott and Jennifer Abbott Martin

The Brothers 4 Motel was also a leader when it came to telecommunications. “Our motel had the first automated phone system in the county,” says Danny. “The rooms for the motel were connected to that system so that rather than having to go through a telephone operator, we could connect a call directly from the office.”

At meal times, many of the motel guests headed next door to the Big Bull Steakhouse Restaurant. Charles never operated the restaurant he built, but leased it to Bob Mulvehill, who later bought it, along with the motel.

Locals remember the iconic neon sign featuring a charging bull, which stood outside the restaurant for just shy of 50 years. For three years, it was operated as Chilly Williy’s Sports Grill and Bar; then in 2017 it was sold and is now Courtyard Oyster Bar and Grill.

When Charles began building the motel and named it, he didn’t know he and wife, Maxine, were about to become parents again, this time to a little girl. After their daughter, Jennifer, was born, he opened a new business on the property and named it Little Sister’s Laundry.

He’d gotten tired of paying the high prices for laundry services for the motel’s linens, so he opened his own laundry facilities. Ironically, that business soon became so popular with locals and hotel guests that he didn’t have time to do the motel linens and had to send them out again.

The success of that laundry prompted him to buy three others in Eden, Pell City, and Southside.

Cleaning and servicing those laundry facilities on top of their other chores kept the four brothers busy. Jennifer, now Jennifer Martin, remembers going with the boys and helping empty the coins. “They’d set me up on top of the machines, and I’d dump the coins out,” she recalls. “Then I’d go home to roll the coins.”

When she wasn’t rolling coins, Jennifer remembers hanging out with the families who were visiting. “I’d try to join as many picnics as I could,” she laughs. “I loved fishing, and sometimes they’d take me fishing with them. I also remember eating ice out of the ice machines and getting in trouble for that.”

Jennifer also remembers enjoying the winter when the water was drawn down. “I loved to collect those shells at the bottom of the lake. We didn’t get to go to the beach, so I thought they were wonderful.”

Vintage post cards from the early days at 4 Brothers Motel on Logan Martin Lake in Cropwell

Charles Abbott sold the Brothers 4 Motel and Big Bull Steakhouse Restaurant in 1972 to Bob Mulvehill, who operated it as Big Bull Motel. Since then, it has changed hands several times. The building has remained largely unchanged and is now called Lake Front Motel.

After selling the motel, Charles kept busy with his four laundry facilities and a new antique mall he’d opened near Interstate 20. The family was stunned in 1985 when he passed away from a heart attack at 58 years old.

Their mom, Maxine, continued to run her clothing store for a number of years and lived to age 87. Two of the four brothers (Danny and Joe Paul) still live on the lake. Jennifer moved away, but recently returned.

“Perseverance was one of the greatest lessons I learned from my family and the businesses,” says Danny. For him, the lessons learned were priceless. “Watching mom and dad work together was inspirational. They never got away from it, but always worked it out.”

“Dad was a very smart guy,” says Danny. “He was very giving and did a lot for the community without making it known.” Charles Abbott served his community well as a leader and an entrepreneur.

The Brothers 4 Motel served the community well as a home away from home for some of the first visitors to Logan Martin Lake.

LakeFest

Event returns to Logan Martin Lakeside Park

It’s easy to say an event is bigger and better than ever, but organizers for Logan Martin LakeFest 2023 mean it.

When LakeFest kicks off Friday, May 12, through Sunday, May 14, at Pell City Lakeside Park, be ready for the Southeast’s largest in-water boat show featuring a host of dealers and onsite financing, row upon row of vendors, a variety of entertainment and food vendors galore.

“We’re excited,” said Eric Housh, one of the organizers of what has become a Logan Martin tradition. “Overall, this is our 13^th year,” and each year seems to get better than the one it follows.

This year is no different, and there’s a reason for that. “We listen,” he said. Community feedback helps them improve on the strong foundation already in place. “We are refocusing to a full family event – fun for the whole family.”

The outdoor festival features entertainment throughout the weekend, lake lifestyle vendors and the splash pad open for the kids for free all day on Saturday.

The event moved from its normal third weekend in May, which this year makes it fall on Mother’s Day weekend. So, organizers have added a special gift for mothers on Sunday – “Mimosas for Moms” – with 1,000 Mimosas given away courtesy of United Johnson Brothers, a major LakeFest sponsor. America’s First is providing free flowers for mothers, too.

“We have had fantastic sponsors over the years,” Housh said. “They make it happen. Without them, we wouldn’t have an event, and they come back year after year” to support it.

Judging by the size of the crowds, support from the community grows year after year, too. An estimated 45,000 to 50,000 attended the 2022 event.

From the beginning when the late Jerry Wood and others envisioned it, it has been LakeFest’s way of “welcoming people into our community and showing them Logan Martin Lake. We are very fortunate to have it here in our backyard,” Housh said.

Because of its sponsors, they have been able to keep the event free to the public. They even offer major giveaways and hourly door prizes as well as nearly nonstop entertainment and a fireworks show in honor of veterans.

“It was important to Jerry to honor veterans,” Housh said, and it has been a tradition since LakeFest’s inception. Veterans from Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home are hosted for the spectacular display in their honor that lights up the sky after dark Saturday.

Entertainment throughout the weekend features a family friendly version of the Velcro Pigmys as the headliners, a number of bands, and children’s television character, Blippy, will appear at this year’s LakeFest on Saturday.

Everyone who enters LakeFest has a chance to enter for major giveaways. “We’re super excited about the giveaways,” Housh said. A Seadoo will be given away by Munford Motorsports. LakeFest is giving away an ATV from Tracker Offroad, and Talladega Home Center will give away a Big Green Egg. “These are going to be really popular,” he added. That’s in addition to impressive door prizes – everything from kayaks and paddleboards to Tshirts and hats to boating accessories.

“We’re looking forward to it. We learn something every year,” Housh said. “Let us know what you think.” l