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Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent six years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience! Here is one of his stories. “One day, my wife and I were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, ‘You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Haw. You were sho...
Aviation's golden age saw much excitement in the small towns of America. Barnstormers, daredevils and the wide open skies called to thrill seekers everywhere and many of these took to the air. It was into this age of exploration that Flomaton and Century found an early footnote in history. According to an article in Biloxi's Coastal Breeze newspaper, a transcontinental flight, which had started in California, left Biloxi after refueling on January 10, 1912 about 1pm. R.G. Fowler was the pilot...
Conecuh County, Alabama figures prominently in my family history. The book, History of Conecuh County, Alabama, by Rev. B. F. Riley says of my 4th great grandfather, Jesse Baggett, "...Jesse Baggett, father of Richard Baggett, of Castleberry, who was the first white child born in the county of Conecuh." (Riley, Rev. B. F. History of Conecuh County, Alabama. Columbus, GA, USA: Thos. Gilbert, 1881.) My connection to Jesse Baggett is Richard's older sister, my 3rd great grandmother Mary Elizabeth...
Richard Benjamin CPL Richard Benjamin KIA Vietnam from Atmore, Ala. We are remembering you on this very sad day, Feb. 6, 1968, long years ago. You have served Christ well young man. You were 19 years old and served as an Indirect Fire Infantryman with "A" 2nd Bn. 14th Inf. 25th Inf. Div. in a little, run down war ravaged country called Vietnam. You served your country holding your head higher than we do. You served only three months and six long miserable days during an awful and trying time in your life. We salute you, Rest In Peace CPL...
TRUE STORY. I have been sorting through old collected things lately and came across these calendar plates. The story behind them has always brought me up short. Not because of the age or the cheap old collectibles, but how they came to me. TB: EARLY 1990's Lamar and I had been to visit with friends in Minnesota and were on our way home traveling in our motorhome when somewhere in Kansas the wind was whipping us off the roadway almost. His shoulders had knots from tense driving on arrow straight...
During an era when the President of the United States did not apologize for being American, the United States made war against North Vietnam. Beginning in 1965 American involvement in the war escalated dramatically and over the next ten years a variety of political actors and theories moved across the stage of this international drama. Jack Elliott Clemmons left Atmore, Alabama along with his best friend and other young men by bus in August 1965 bound for the Vietnam War. As the sparkling...
Families leave a legacy. In this region many were connected to the timber industry, farming, or the railroads. Some legacies are quietly kept in family journals, others are better known. This story is of a well-known family who helped bring much positive change to the region. Charles Swift came to the southeastern part of Baldwin County, Alabama with his brother in the 1880s. By the later part of that decade he was general superintendent and his brother logging superintendent of the Southern States Lumber Co. The brothers then went into...
With these morning being a little cooler than what most of us expect for this time of the year it reminds me of what I heard my great-grandmother (1858-1964) talk about many years ago. She had mentioned on more than one occasion about hearing her grandmother talk about a year with no summer. Being a fifth or sixth grader at this time I really wasn't interested in it, but it was just one of those things that I always remembered for some reason. As I got older I begin to think about the year without a summer and come to learn that such a event...
Daddy and Mama planted a spring/summer garden and a fall/winter garden. The spring garden was my favorite because very early spring gave us English peas, new potatoes, onions and cabbage. Then the squash, tomatoes and early corn came rushing in. The okra pods gave notice of good and plenty. The peas in several varieties came after the heat index ramped up about mid-June, depending on the weather. The field corn was for us, cornbread, course grits and the livestock. "Never get above your rais'ins." I gave the bugs and rabbits competition with...
Unplanned time at home this spring has helped to develop a new generation of home gardeners. Alabama is also home to many seasoned backyard gardeners. Whether a new home gardener or a long-time lover of backyard veggies, Alabama Extension professionals have a treasure trove of resources for those working in the backyard garden this spring. Home Gardener Resources What Do I Plant? Worried about when to plant green beans or blueberries? How about shade-loving hydrangeas? The Alabama Gardening Calendar includes a month-by-month look at the right...
The Great War, also known as World War I, was a pivotal event in the lives of the generation which fought the war. No other war had been fought with such savagery and loss of life. Technology was ahead of the tactics used on the battlefield to such a degree that cavalry charges were often met with machine gun fire which viciously cut short the life of horse and rider. In the small hamlet of Canoe, Alabama, the war seemed distant to the residents. The small town was in its golden age and the flow...
I wrote before about the men from our area who formed the 1st Florida Union Cavalry Volunteers. Some names listed in the book as members of the 1st FCUV caught my attention because of having lived at one time or another in Escambia County, Florida, place of my birth and current residence. Others caught my attention as potential family members of my ancestors. The name with a McDavid, Florida (my hometown) connection was Nicholas Baggett. This name caught my eye because through the research of...
This is a true story told by my Smith side from back when I was a young child. One of the favorite stories always brought out and shared at our Smith Family gatherings. My Dad was born in 1902 and said he was about the age of ten years. He well remembered this event. I have to believe this happening probably took place circa 1910/12 or there about. Carrie Smith, the oldest Smith child of seven other siblings, was the responsible one that was the so-called leader for the children and usually set the standard for what the others believed and...
Spring brings about thoughts of gardening, farming, outside activities and other iconic images of the season. However, it is important to remember that for many of us, the memory of the sacrifices of our ancestors become very relevant in the April and May time of year. In April 1865, and for more than a week following the fall of Richmond, the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee, attempted to outrun, outfight, and outmaneuver the numerically superior forces of Union General...
Among the Alger-Sullivan museums eclectic displays is a small collection of shaving razors called straight razors that date from the mid-19th century to the 20th century. This collection is not only a recollection of the razors former owner, like many other things in the museum it represents the end of an era. When one thinks of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, steam boats and railroads, massive iron bridges and the first skyscrapers may come to mind. But this period of history also changed many small things in people’s p...
I was encouraged to write about this subject from a life-long friend responding to my comment on Facebook about people all over complaining about needing their beach time to "catch some rays." Really? Some people must have quarantine fever. At my little piece of paradise all I have to do is walk outside and look up. There is the sun. Genesis 1: 3-5. Then God said, "Let There Be Light." That light was the sun. I know many folks think the sun will shine at the beaches only, but, the sun hasn't refused to shine over the entire world but once in...
An unstable commodity market, combined with low market prices, may make this growing season more difficult than usual for Alabama crop producers. Max Runge, an Alabama Extension economist, said agricultural producers across the country are facing a troubling and uncertain future. “When I started in this position more than 25 years ago, I remember farmers were told to do more with less,” Runge said. “This message hasn’t changed. The farmers who are still in business have continuously done more with less and are beginning to wonder what else to...
The early 1960s was a different world than our modern, pandemic stricken time. Memories of World War II and Korea were still fresh in the minds of Americans as news coverage of a distant land called Vietnam began to take up more of Walter Cronkite's CBS Evening News during the decade. Locally it might have looked a lot like the movie Stand By Me in that the events of South East Asia and Europe seemed far removed from Canoe, Alabama. Meanwhile, in the basement of the Atmore Post Office, the...
With the passing of popular Mobile television and radio personality Rennie Brabner I lost a opportunity to tell him something that I thought he would have enjoyed knowing about. As much as I had intended to email him and tell him about all the chaos he cause on one of our camping trips I never got around to it, which I regret. In fact I didn't know that he had broke the story that caused all the chaos at the camp that night. It must had been the 40th anniversary of the event when I heard him talking about breaking the story back in October of 1...
I'm reading books now that I have left in the bookcase untouched for a long time. But now, this quarantine has me reading things that I would not normally bother with; but times have changed and I must kill time with what is handy. This virus has caused good things and bad things. I tend to look on the sunny side of life, so I think good things are heading our way. Stay well Y'all. Anyway, I'm spending my quarantine time reading everything, even mail that usually is trash canned without opening. I read instructions on OTC medicines like...
Smithfield Foods has closed a major pork processing facility in South Dakota causing concern about meat supplies and possible shortages among consumers, industry professionals and political pundits. An economist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System said consumers should think about the industry as a whole and the long-term logistics of moving not only meat supplies but also all food in the United States. Supply Chain Challenges “While the closing of the South Dakota plant as well as others around the nation is significant, it does n...
World War II saw the rapid mobilization of the US economy to fight the threat of the Axis in Europe and the Pacific. Such radical changes in the national economy tightened the food supply and basic supplies such as tires, hardware and other goods which consumers were used to finding on the shelves of hardware and grocery stores in their hometowns soon disappeared. The need for raw materials and food for the far flung American armed forces led to the rationing system. This system was implemented...
I am subscribed to “Northwest Florida History and Genealogy” (https://nwfloridahistory.com/) The latest email I received from them was concerning “The Hidden History of the Florida Panhandle During the Civil War.” This was mainly the story of the 1st Florida Cavalry Union Volunteers, but also gave a lot of information about life in Northwest Florida and South Alabama during the 1850's and 1860's. If I don't do this justice or if you want more information you can check the above website. If it interests you enough to spend a little money,...
My earliest memory of dental problems was when I was about seven years old. I was a child of less than nothing as far as money in the bank. If something broke, Daddy fixed it with bailing wire or Mama fixed it with Vicks salve. Grandma Minnie Smith fixed it with a poultice made of road bank clay and vinegar. I had a toothache that gave me a fat jaw on one side. I looked like a half full jawed chipmunk. My tooth throbbed, I cried. Mama held a hot water bottle to my jaw. The swelling went down somewhat. My first-grade picture shows my chipmunk...
If you are not already aware, our society has canceled our Sawmill Day festival and Car Show in May due to the national health threat. The society has held this event every year since 1990 as our major fund raiser and as an opportunity to bring the community together. We hope this setback simply gives us time to prepare an even better event next year. We have also decided to close our museums for the near future. In the meantime, repairs are being made on the buildings and museum displays are being updated to better share the history of the...
