A Visit to Marion with Marian

I recently embarked on a fun getaway with my mom, Marian, for a day. My mother is writing her first (and last, I’m sure) novel and has been working on it for years. She’s done this in her spare time amongst the goings-on of life, so it’s taken a while. One of the more enjoyable parts of her writing a book has been her research into small Southern towns and Alabama history. She calls them her “gadabouts”. So last weekend Mom and I went on a Gadabout.

Our first and only stop was Marion, Alabama. Just a quick hop from the county roads in Clanton (our starting point) lies the historical town of Marion. Upon our arrival we first made a stop at St. Wilfrids Episcopal Church. The church is a small building built in the mid-1800s with an impressive cemetery behind it that boasts of being a burial site for all races even during times where most cemeteries were segregated (which was most of history up until the 1960s, I assume), and also houses a small Civil War section where some of the Confederate men from Marion are laid to rest. Note to self: I’d like to see more of these. Lest we forget.

We then drove in a nicely air conditioned car through the neighborhoods of the small town (it was whopping 106 degrees that day). It was so impressive to see that the history of this place is not forgotten or ignored. The antebellum homes are well taken care of, most of them with formal names with plaques indicating their owner and the date they were built. Also, very impressive, is their phone touring feature on the homes. Many of them are numbered, and with a quick call to a touring phone line, you can punch in the number and learn about the history of the house and the family that lived there. This is terrific for anyone interested in architecture or history, or that just likes old homes. I loved it. I’m pretty sure my kids would have hated it. I will be sure to take them soon <evil grin>.

After the home tour and my picking out my historical southern dream home that’s for sale (completely refinished with a new modern kitchen and ceiling to floor windows on the wooden front porch with carriage houses in the back intact), we headed to town to visit Ms. E at the antique shop. My Mom, who has visited Marion numerous times to “research”, now knows all the goings on and gossip of the town. She also knows many folks by name, and they her. So Ms. E, in her fine Antique shop, offered us to sit a spell and sip some tea or coffee. We didn’t linger long but spoke a minute and moved onto the rest of our “tour”. We hopped from store to store, shopped and talked to the owners of each establishment. Luckily, I’m like my mother enough to thoroughly enjoy meeting new people and chatting for, well, however long they can take the time to talk. The most common questions we heard were “Where you from?” and “What in the world are you doing in Marion?” This lead to an even more extensive conversation about the book. The folks there were so intrigued by this I’m sure we would have sold 20 books in no time, just to readers themselves. Mom made some great connections. She already has stores to carry the book and the local Tavern is going to hold her book signing!

The people here are so accommodating and friendly. Dr. Reiser, the man who runs the Marion Female Seminary Museum, a terrific man and a professor of history, opened the doors for us as a personal tour.  We learned a lot of the area and the school (one of the first Colleges for Women in the U.S.) We then headed back to town to do more roaming. After visiting Harris’s clothing store and talking to the Harrises, whose store is mentioned in the book and has been there since the 1800s, we had dinner at the Swamp Fox Tavern. This establishment is a small, quaint, English pub style restaurant and bar. The restaurant is downstairs and the bar upstairs, with a balcony to sip your favorite concoction and view Perry County Courthouse and the small town square. We had a nice dinner and met more folks. The owner there was very excited to meet Mom and offered to hold a party for the book release. She is an Assistant Dean of Marion Institute. In fact, with two institutes in town – Judson College and Marion Institute, this small town is a mecca of well educated “Suthun” folk and non “Suthun” folk alike. And as small of a town as it is, everyone we came in contact with LOVES Marion. As I overheard one man in Ms. E’s store say, “There’s two places I love the most – New York City and Marion, Alabama!”

Me and Marian in Marion

 Marion Institute in the Alabama summer heat!

Ms. E's Antique shop

St. Wilfrids Church

Marion Female Seminary - now a Museum of local historical artifacts

Having a cold glass bottle Coke, strolling through town

A sign on the Reverie House



The New Old - FOOD

  Food – a necessary substance that you can’t live without, sometimes only needed as a necessity and yet can be one of the most enjoyable of Gods creation.  We eat food to bond with others just as much as we do to feed our bodies. Unfortunately within the last century our food choices have taken a turn for the worst.

  My mother started full time work when I was about 5 years old. Being a child of the 70s with a full time working mother and father,  our family quickly learned the “value” of frozen pizza and TV dinners. Sandwiches were also a necessary staple in the home (and still is, for me). Not to badger my Mother, she needed to work and her career took a lot of after-hours work. My father, being a man raised by a woman who did all the cooking in his home, knew how to cook one thing…scrambled eggs. So TV dinners and frozen pizza it was. I didn’t mind, I was a picky eater and this way I could choose what I wanted. However, this entire era of ‘fast food’ that kicked in so hard in the 70s and 80s has changed all of us, whether it be from working parents, busy lives, or whatever the case may be for you personally. I honestly believe I’ve eaten more fast food and processed food than I have fresh food in the course of my life. Sad, but true.

  As a child when I visited my Grandmother I was exposed to the old ways. My Grandmother and Papa were gardeners, and prided themselves on it as well. Why, my Papa could grow the largest cucumbers in Chilton County (or so he bragged), and Grandmother made THE best pickles from them .  They would pick in the field, bringing in bags of peas and beans and the like, and I would sit with my family and shell peas and snap beans by the bagfull. I remember Grandmother canning her goods for later use, and she would always give us our own jar of jelly or preserves from Chilton County peaches,  strawberrys, figs, or anything else she grew. I wish I had appreciated food more as a child, and I sure wish I had learned more about gardening from them while they were alive.

  Now that I’m an adult I can see where these old ways were the best ways. Eating local, eating fresh. In the past few years I’ve paid more attention to what I’ve been feeding my family.  Of course we’ve always had fast food but a real dinner at dinner time has always been important to me, however I thought it perfectly normal to open a can of vegetables to serve with the main course, not knowing that most of the nutrients are already cooked out.  I started buying frozen or fresh from the grocery store. Then I started paying attention to the labels on the items I was purchasing. I think it was the cantaloupe that tipped me off one day. You know those cute little stickers on your produce that you loved as a kid, that you peel off when you’re washing it? It said “Venezuela” on it. I thought ‘Venezuela? Can’t we grow cantaloupe here in Alabama? Why am I buying crap from South America that I can grow in my back yard???’  And so my first attempt at gardening began. It was also my first failure at gardening, unfortunately. But it did raise an awareness within me that put me on a quest to buy local food from my local farmers. In the summer, I started buying each week from the local farmers market in Center Point or Trussville. Fresh squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, okra, tomatoes, all kinds of goodies to cook up. I talked to the farmers, knew they grew it and picked it themselves, even got tips on how to prepare or cook them. I would bring them home, clean up and bag them and freeze for the winter. It was my first year of doing this, and I do still have some of those wonderful pink eye purple hull peas and a few bags of squash, but I’ve had to substitute until Spring hits.

  I think I’m going to try to start another garden this year, hopefully with a little success. It really is the best way to truly eat local. What’s better than eating food you grew yourself right in your back yard? The only next best thing is buying from the local farmers. Because if you’ve never had some fresh fried up okra that was picked a few hours prior, you’re missing out on a specialty in life. And, it helps our local economy, and the health of you and your family to boot.