Bunch of Bull...

If you're coming into Ashland on Hwy 9 North, you've probably noticed the remnants of an old "Bull Durham" tobacco ad painted on the wall of the building on the corner.  If you haven't, check it out next time you come through town.  It's a little piece of history and it is literally "fading fast."  Cheryl had Jennifer Alam, a local photographer and good friend of ours, take a picture of the ad and frame it for me.

The city of Durham's History At A Glance site has this to say about the origins of the company: "The origin of Durham’s nickname, the “Bull City,” has nothing to do with cattle!
John Green of the Blackwell Tobacco Company named his product “Bull” Durham Tobacco after Colman’s Mustard, which used a bull in its logo and which Green mistakenly thought was produced in Durham, England.
By the time James B. Duke of the American Tobacco Company purchased the Blackwell Tobacco Company in 1898, Bull Durham was the most famous trademark in the world. It sparked such popular phrases as “bullpen” (from a Bull Durham ad painted behind the Yankees’ dugout) and “shooting the bull” (most likely from chewing tobacco). The famous bull’s image was painted all over the world, including on the Great Pyramid of Egypt!
Duke put cigarette cards, predecessors of modern baseball cards, into each pack of tobacco. By the 1930’s they were immensely popular, and today they are much sought-after collectors’ items."


I'd like to know, if anyone out there knows, when the Ashland sign was painted.

You know, there are so many interesting things about our county.  Many of us will live here all our lives and do not even try to find out about the people and things that came before us.  Don't let that be you.  Know where you came from.....it can help you realize where you're going.

Where I'm From.... Part Two..

Let me tell you a little about Clay county... 

It's amazing to me how many people live somewhere most of their lives and have no idea how that place came to be.  As the often-misquoted George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  You know, when I think about some of my past growing up in Clay county, I don't think I would see repeating it to be condemnation.

Clay county was established on December 7, 1866.  Randolph and Talladega counties were already established and Clay county was carved from part of each.  It was named after Henry Clay, a popular statesman of the day and the county seat, Ashland, was named after his estate in Lexington, KY.  The county was formed because the people of the area had a hard time getting to the county seat in Randolph county because of the Tallapoosa river and in Talladega because of the mountains.  We are still a very rural area and even today, Clay County is the only county in Alabama to have no US Highways in its boundaries.  At least, I can't find one.  If you have a different story, please leave it in the "Comments" section.

By the way, a lot of this history was learned from a play that Bob Curlee, a pastor at the First Baptist Church of Ashland, wrote back in the 60s.  It was called, "City Set on a Hill" and we will be performing it at the Ashland Theatre in early October.  You really should come and see it.

The best I can tell, my kin go back at least 4 generations here.  I am the great-great grandson of a Confederate veteran and proud of that fact.  I grew up in the 60s but was too young to be a hippie.  Momma probably wouldn't have let me, anyway.......

Well, I have to go for now.  We'll start next about momma and how she had to raise me by herself.

See y'all next time....

Where I'm from.... Part One..

I have lived in Alabama all my life.  Yeah, I have traveled the country extensively but have never lived anywhere else longer than 3 months.  I did my time in a place called Los Angeles during those 3 months...plenty long enough for me to realize I could never live there permanently.  After dealing with traffic in California, I can understand why people take shots at each other.  I don't condone it, mind you....but I understand.

I don't even live in a big place in Alabama.  There are only about 13,000 people in the whole county.  We are the epitome of rural Southern living.  To give you an idea of how rural.....there is not a single Wal-Mart within 30 minutes in any direction.  Notice I measure distance in minutes....that's how we do it down here.

Many people have asked me how I can live in such a small place.  I tell them they've obviously never lived in such a place if they have to ask me that question.

I live between Ashland and Millerville in Clay county, Alabama.  We are in east-central Alabama near the foot of Cheaha mountain, which, by the way, is the highest point in the state.  Cheaha is the toe of the Appalachian mountains.  We are equidistant from Atlanta, Birmingham and Montgomery.

The two largest towns in the county are Lineville and Ashland.  They each have a little over 2,000 people and literally butt right up next to each other.  On the main highway connecting the two, there is a billboard at the town limits.  On one side, it says, "Welcome to Lineville" and on the other.....you guessed it....."Welcome to Ashland."  That has always cracked me up.

We'll talk a little more about my county next go around...until then, say"hey" for us to your momma and them.