A blackjack split open Joe Gelders’s head before three men shoved him into a nearby sedan. It was late in the evening on the 26th day of September 1936.
I’m going to talk about Alabama’s license plate codes to belly-ache about our Birmingham regions lack of growth.
When I was a child traveling out of state and I saw an Alabama license plate beginning with the number 1, I would proudly proclaim to my family that the folks in that car were from Birmingham, and I would think to myself: Birmingham, the #1 city in Alabama. Continue reading Is Jefferson County about to lose #1 license plate?→
During my long tenure as Executive Director of the Birmingham Jewish Federation, an Israeli Consul General told me something I’ve never forgotten. “You know,” he said. “We consider Alabama the most pro-Israel state in the country.” Continue reading Alabama may be the most pro-Israel state in the country→
I first learned about reputation, at least the reputation of a state, in the summer following my 7th grade year, the summer of 1963.
My mother loaded up my sister, my half-blind grandfather (meaning he couldn’t help with the driving), me and my good friend Reid, and we set out across America in a 1961 straight-shift Rambler with a canvas cargo carrier on top, packed with a five-person tent, sleeping bags and fishing rods. Continue reading Are the ghosts of George and Bull keeping Alabama poor?→