http://bhamweekly.com/birmingham/articles.sec-60-1-yore-+-lore.html Martin Hames left us ten years ago in November. After a conversation I had with a friend and fellow Trustee Board member, we agreed that even years after his death, our Altamont/ B.U.S./ Brooke Hil]]> The extensive woodlands that house deer and even a wild boar population, used to be forbidding to all but a few humans willing to dare the expanses of kudzu and poison ivy.]]> ABC, CBS, NBC and other news stations are proudly welcoming our soldiers home from Iraq with a "Thanks for your service."� It is great and refreshing to hear good news on the TV. Many families are thrilled and filled with gratitude to have their loved ones coming home.]]> I remember him telling how his father, John W. McDonald, nearly lost his plantation because he countersigned a note for a friend who skipped off to Alabama with his debts unpaid. As Papa further described it with a great westward sweep of his arm, that remote fastness "might as well have been the end of the world at that time.]]> Creek Indians and other Alabama refugees from Georgia Charles Franklin McDonald, my maternal grandfather, otherwise known as "Papa," was a landowner in Meriwether County, Georgia--but jus]]> Here is it is, graduation time again, and have I had my share of graduations! The first one I remember, at age 5, was being with my Uncle Glenn when my mother -- who had finished at Livingston State Teacher´s College in about 1916, at the ripe old age of 15 -- graduated again from Howard College in 1937.]]> Every time that I drive into the city limits of Birmingham my heart literally picks up a pace and I start remembering. As I think back on growing up in the "Magic City"� I realize just how magical my childhood was in a city that I just took for granted.]]> Like most men born and raised in the Deep South, Fred Shuttlesworth knew and loved good food. And although he credited his successful weight management on the fact that most of his life he ate only two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, he wasted no time or food at mealtime.]]> The Rose family often moved very long distances, especially for the times. I never found out why but assumed it had something to do with deaths in the family. I know my dad lived in Ensley Highlands in 1918 when two of his older brothers died and he was a teenager.]]> I remember as a young girl hearing my father talk about family outings to the Calcis lodge. For reasons unknown to me now I thought the lodge, rather than the town in Shelby County, was called Calcis. Throughout my life I envisioned a beautiful retreat where Dad and his family and friends vacationed in the summer.]]> He had just seen it and wondered if I knew about it. I am glad he called because no one else did, and the library never told me about it. You can never assume what people know, even about themselves or their own family. Sometimes they are the last to know.]]> Last night on TV we were watching a 1930's movie when the main actress appeared in a coat like one my mother also had in the 1930's. It was a princess style which meant it was fitted at the waist with a flared skirt. Around the collar of the coat were fox fur tails.]]> ABC, CBS, NBC and other news stations are proudly welcoming our soldiers home from Iraq with a "Thanks for your service." It is great and refreshing to hear good news on the TV. Many families are thrilled and filled with gratitude to have their loved ones coming home.]]> All places have some sort of native plants. In this part of Alabama, with our favorable elements, we have many beautiful native blooming plants and lovely evergreen ferns. My favorites are the ferns, I believe, because many wood ferns, being cold weather hardy, are outstanding all year long.]]>