Gary Lloyd's Blog, page 5

Column: Trussville honors longtime historian

By Gary Lloyd

TRUSSVILLE – For a long time, people wondered why I majored in journalism and minored in American studies.

Why not political science to compliment journalism? Or public relations? Or marketing? Or English? Or an eventual application to law school? I never really had a good answer, other than American studies minors could take a class on the history of baseball.

I think I know now. Well, I think I knew before. But now I’m certain.

Carol Massey, left, accepts the proclamation from Trussville City Councilwoman Jaime Melton Anderson on Sept. 13, 2022 (photo by Gary Lloyd)

On Sept. 13, the Trussville City Council approved a proclamation honoring Claude Earl Massey, a Trussville historian and preservationist, for his decades of volunteer service to the city. A lot of older folks here knew Earl, who died Aug. 2 at the age of 88. I can’t quite remember, but I’m fairly certain I never formally met Mr. Massey, though I’m familiar enough with his name and work to be considered a stalker. His name graces pages throughout the Trussville Public Library archives room and inside Heritage Hall.

Mr. Massey, born June 24, 1934, worked for the city of Birmingham Streets and Sanitation department for more than 32 years. He was a supervisor. He served on the Trussville Historical Board from its creation in 1983 until 2007, when his daughter, Sandra Turner, replaced him. He served as an adviser to the board from 2007 until 2020, when his Alzheimer’s disease began to worsen. The Trussville City Council in 2006 approved a proclamation in appreciation of Massey, stating in part that his “commitment to the preservation of our history benefits our community and will be a lasting memorial for use by succeeding generations.”

Massey was honored with another proclamation Sept. 13, albeit posthumously. His wife, Carol, accepted the framed document, and took photos with Councilwoman Jaime Melton Anderson, the liaison to the Trussville Historical Board, and a half dozen family members. I was appointed to that board in 2021, a year after Earl stopped advising it.

“We are indebted in the city to Earl Massey,” Anderson said. “We appreciate his service.”

One of Carol’s first realizations that Earl not only enjoyed history but craved it was when they would travel to cemeteries on Sunday afternoons. Carol did not necessarily want to spend a weekend afternoon among the headstones, but Earl loved it. He wrote down names and all their information. He made a book out of approximately 30 cemeteries in Jefferson and St. Clair counties. People called him from across the country looking for their kin. Back then, Earl could ask you what your grandmother’s name was and he would know your grandfather, too. He knew, after asking perfect strangers for their names, who their relatives were.

RELATED: Cahaba Sun feature story about Earl Massey

Everyone at the Birmingham Public Library knew Earl. Instead of taking a lunch break, he’d go look up information, study the old microfilm. He researched Trussville’s beginnings, the city’s housing, genealogy for those who asked him, and more. The Masseys wrote books. Earl did the research and interviewing, and Carol typed and proofread. Once, while working in Birmingham, Earl was told to take a heap of old photos to the dump, Carol said. He found a box of Trussville photos, mostly of old houses. He took them home. Many are now displayed in the museum inside Heritage Hall, which is at capacity with relics of Trussville’s past.

I have spent a lot of time in that museum and wish I could convince someone to replicate a key for me. One day, I hope. Each time I’m there, I find some new artifact, some new story, that sparks something in my mind that tells me to “Look into this more,” to “Let the 26,000 people here know.”

Maybe, in some small way, I’m like Earl in that way. I love archives. I love old, handwritten or Underwood-produced documents. I love finding something old that is new to me. For whatever reasons, I feel that responsibility to advocate for that history, for our roots here. I love our history here in Trussville – though I am still a newbie at learning it – something that I try to push every chance I get through Cahaba Sun articles, scans of old photos, interviews with folks, even a Trussville-themed Jeopardy game I created and recently played with the first Leadership Trussville class. Most folks, at least in my estimation, go searching for their roots, their history, later in life. For reasons I’ve yet to figure out, that has happened to me well before retirement. My mom has long called me her “92-year-old son.” Moms are always right, apparently.

The point of this column? I guess there really isn’t one. I suppose the muse was on me, the need to write something in the emotion and feeling of the night.

Like Earl would have, I guess, I just wanted to document the moment.

Sitting dead red at old baseball field

By Gary Lloyd

It’s been 20 years since I was robbed of a home run to left field here, since I covered second base to tag out a would-be base-stealer. 

How is it that I can visualize the ball carrying deeper and deeper toward the chain-link, that I can feel the slip of my cleats on that red dirt? I can’t remember what was on my dinner plate last Tuesday, but I can recall those moments on the diamond. 

I went back to that baseball field not long ago, to walk the surrounding hills with my dog and to put a shine on those memories. I guess I do this often. For me, it’s a reset, a needed break, a creative spark plug. These trips always reveal writing ideas to me.

The chain-link fence down the first base line was bent from the inside out, no doubt the result of hundreds of first basemen and right fielders crashing into it chasing foul balls, but more likely from thousands of dads leaned against it at evening practices, reliving glory days. The wooden benches in the dugouts were eroding to mold and time. Weeds, some as tall as a toddler, crept into the dugouts from the outside. 

A Dr. Pepper can, so old that it had faded to the color of an Ocean Spray pink cranberry can, was discarded just outside the first base dugout. Maybe, after all that time, the wind simply took it from the top of a full garbage can. Glass from a shattered press box window was stuck in the mud, glimmering, behind the red padded backstop. The vinyl siding of the press box was dotted with several baseball-shaped holes. The bleachers on both sides of home plate were smudged black, as if a motorcycle had peeled out on each row. A waterlogged baseball rested against some rocks near the press box. 

It all just seemed so suddenly deserted, as if the apocalypse happened in the top of the fourth inning. But one thing seemed like new. The dugouts’ iron supports were painted a penetrating red, giving them a still-wet appearance. They stood out on this gray, windy morning, an almost lifeless day, except for me and my dog. Almost.

Circling overhead, gracefully and quietly, was a red-tailed hawk. We had noticed him on a fencepost in the parking lot, and now he was doing aerial laps above us, like the Goodyear Blimp at a sporting event. I had seen a number of red-tailed hawks over the last couple years, all in the deep woods behind our last house in Trussville. When we moved last year, I figured I’d have to go hiking at Ruffner Mountain, or drive to Gatlinburg, to see another. But here he was, hoping for a doubleheader.

I’m not really sure why, but I Googled “Significance of seeing a red-tailed hawk.” I found many stories about hawk encounters, symbolism, omens and folklore. One line from a story struck me: “Encountering a hawk means you should let your creative spirit flow.”

I don’t need a muse to write. Writing is a job, like anything else. But a muse doesn’t hurt. Red dugouts and red-tailed hawks. Who knew?

Gary Lloyd is the author of six books and is a contributing writer to the Cahaba Sun.

Longtime Trussville restaurant closes

‘We may not know it’s Friday anymore’

By Gary Lloyd

TRUSSVILLE – They came from behind bank counters wearing button-down shirts, down from ladders leaned high in the August sun and from their homes just a couple miles down the road. They came in two-door BMWs, Toyota trucks too large for the parking spaces and mid-size SUVs with the crimson script “A” stickered to the back windshield.

They came because the smell of barbecue hanging thick in the summer air is impossible to drive through. They came because the abruptness of it all. They came because within these old South Chalkville Road walls it feels like a family gathering, and on Friday, Aug. 12, it was the final outing.

Golden Rule Bar-B-Q and Grill, a staple in Trussville since 1992, closed its doors for good at 3 p.m.

Golden Rule Bar-B-Q in Trussville on Friday, Aug. 12, 2022

“It saddens us to let you know we will be closing our doors at 3pm tomorrow,” the restaurant posted on its Facebook page on Aug. 11. “We appreciate your support and will miss you dearly. Please stop by and say your farewells to the team.”

That last sentence, that call to action, was heard well by the community. Not even a train blocking the railroad crossing beside the restaurant – shockingly, it wasn’t blocked at lunchtime – could have stopped the parking lot from overflowing Friday. Many parked in the lot where Kemp’s Kitchen once stood, before it burned. Others found a space on Beech Street. They converged on Golden Rule, moths to a flame.

“Best baked beans and burgers around,” said 2016 Hewitt-Trussville High School graduate Garrett Terwilleger, who walked over from work in downtown Trussville.

Terwilleger said he went to the Irondale location as a kid with his dad. When he heard the Trussville spot was permanently closing, he had to go back for one more burger.

“I guess nostalgia [brought me here today],” he said.

Long before it was lunchtime, Anita and David Dobbs ate their final breakfast in the same booth they’ve slid into for more than two decades. For 20 years, David Dobbs, the longtime Hewitt-Trussville track and field and cross-country coach, ordered the same breakfast – egg and cheese sandwich, grits, bacon and coffee. He was always interested to see which coffee mug his coffee would come in.

David and Anita Dobbs at Golden Rule Bar-B-Q (photo courtesy of Anita Dobbs)

“We even donated all my mother’s and dad’s mugs from their travels after they passed away,” he said.

Anita Dobbs said that it was sad to walk out the doors a final time Friday morning. Their booth was filled with memories of family, friends, former students and former athletes.

“It wasn’t just about breakfast,” she said. “It was about relationships. Watching kids grow up, our granddaughter included, catching up with old friends, and making new friends.”

Students often asked the Dobbses, both retired Hewitt-Trussville teachers, on Fridays if they had been to Golden Rule. They didn’t even have to ask.

“They could smell it on us,” Anita Dobbs said. “It will be hard to replace somewhere like this, especially since there are no straight-up breakfast places with eggs and toast and grits. Thanks Rick, Britney, Pam, and all the others who have been there. We will dearly miss this tradition.”

Comparing a barbecue joint, even a little bit, to church might be somewhat sacrilegious, but this is Alabama, and a little bit of sacrilege seems allowable for barbecue and college football, but the line stops there.

“You know, it was a little like church,” David Dobbs said. “Everyone had their own place to sit. We have had people we didn’t know ask where we had been if we were on vacation. They knew we were gone because our booth was empty.”

The Dobbses just drove back home from Tennessee, and the question was obvious: “What are we going to do next Friday?”

“It was something we always looked forward to doing,” David Dobbs said. “We may not know it’s Friday anymore.”

One man, who said he moved to Trussville in the late 1970s and ordered from Golden Rule at least once per month, waited for over half an hour for his to-go lunch Friday, and he sat patiently and happily on the black bench just in front of the register. One man waited just as long, if not longer, and was told his food was free because of the wait. The man laid a $20 bill on the register and walked out with his food. No wait was too long this Friday. It was about the food, sure, but it was more about the patronage, the people.

“It’s kind of sad, you know?” said one man.

Inside Golden Rule Bar-B-Q on Friday, Aug. 12, 2022

Sometimes, it’s that simple. Sometimes, it’s deeper than that.

One longtime Trussville resident said that after her father died, she stayed with her ill mother for a while. Her mother had a standing weekly hair appointment for decades so she’d take her there and pick her up. One day, that daughter had to be somewhere after dropping her mom off, so she called her sister to see if she could pick up their mother. She couldn’t but sent her husband, a big guy with a big heart who rode a Harley-Davidson. He was new to the family and was told he could take his new mother-in-law through the Sonic drive-thru for a burger to eat at home. Instead of taking that easy route, he took her to Golden Rule, a restaurant she and the family always enjoyed, and sat with her while she had lunch.

“I was blown away by his kindness, and it’s a bittersweet memory because that’s the last time she got to eat there,” said the woman’s daughter. “He made the effort to give her that joy one last time.”

This letter was on all the doors on Friday, Aug. 12, 2022.

On Friday around 1 p.m., the noon rush created a line almost the width of the building to pay for their lunch a final time, to say goodbye. Customers hugged waitresses and waved to cooks. “I love you” and “We’re going to miss y’all, too” were overheard dozens of times. Finality, even the closing of a barbecue restaurant, is hard. One older patron, after she paid, turned and looked out over the seating area, as if she was taking a mental picture. When she headed for the exit, she did so slowly, perhaps because she was elderly, or maybe it was the strong pull that nostalgia has.

Said one woman, “At least [Golden Rule] leaves knowing people love them.”  

Trussville recognizes Mt. Joy’s 165th anniversary

By Gary Lloyd

TRUSSVILLE – The Trussville City Council on Aug. 9 proclaimed Aug. 15-21 as Mt. Joy Baptist Church 165th Anniversary Week in the city.

Mt. Joy Baptist Church on Valley Road began its ministry in 1857 and is the oldest African-American church in Jefferson County. According to the proclamation, “despite Mt. Joy’s humble beginnings during this bleak period in our nation’s history, this fellowship of believers persevered and held fast to their belief in worship and service to God that judges all humanity, not by the color of their skin, but by the love, devotion and dedication of his heart.”

Mt. Joy Baptist Church Pastor Larry Hollman, center, accepts the proclamation from the Trussville City Council. (photo by Gary Lloyd)

“This is a great honor, great accomplishment,” Trussville City Councilman Alan Taylor said.

Mt. Joy will celebrate the anniversary each Sunday in August at its 10:15 a.m. services. Pastor Larry Hollman accepted the proclamation at the meeting and asked each Mt. Joy Baptist Church member to stand. Nearly half of a full room stood.

“We thank you for this honor,” Hollman said. “I hope we grow right along with [Trussville].”

Read more about Mt. Joy Baptist Church and Pastor Larry Hollman in the October issue of the Cahaba Sun.

If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway

By Gary Lloyd

I recently experienced an epiphany, and it hit me harder than an Estwing hammer on a common nail.

I’ll get to the point, but please allow me a few paragraphs to procrastinate, to set the scene. I have never been Mr. Fix-It, the guy who shimmies on his back across rough, hot concrete to change his own 10W-30 in July, or who rips out the upstairs carpet and nails down oak flooring in a herringbone pattern in October. Instead, I make the trip to my local auto repair shop for tune-ups and pay a flooring company thousands of dollars to finish that October project a couple days before Black Friday.

This has almost always bothered me. It is human nature to compare ourselves to others, and I’m certainly no different. I have had friends that have swapped out engines in SUVs and zero-turn lawnmowers, who have framed and bricked their own homes. Many of the folks I know today spend 40 hours a week just like me – at a desk, staring into a computer screen. The difference, however, is while they complete orders for the delivery of large liquid gas tanks and make sales for water-blasting systems, I am sitting here, blasting away dangling participles.

They spend their free time hauling lumber home for new backyard decks and farmhouse tables, and I’m still here, using an online thesaurus like it’s a sanding block on that not-yet-Minwaxed farmhouse table. Their nails are made of hard steel and copper. Mine are made of themes and descriptive ledes. Bluntly, it’s kind of emasculating.

Lord knows I’ve tried. At our last house, which included a workshop, I followed step-by-step instructions and constructed a four-feet-wide wooden bench, which ended up with splintered legs because I used thick construction screws instead of trim head screws. Oops.

I used old cedar from a long-forgotten bookshelf to make a three-tiered shelf of sorts, the tiers connected by silver galvanized pipes. It holds my printer, printer paper and not much else in the back corner of my upstairs office, where no one, not even the dogs, will see it.

The best thing I ever made, a rustic side table for our living room, took me an entire weekend to complete. I cut through seven different pieces of thick lumber with a Dewalt miter saw, spun dozens of trim head screws through them, sanded until my fingers ached, and spread enough Minwax English Chestnut stain to fill the English Channel. That thing was stickier than maple syrup.

I promised a point, and here it is. Over the last year, my toddler son’s favorite thing to say to me is “Dada, fix it!” My notable fixes have included unfolding a birthday gift bag, re-attaching the ramp onto a Fisher-Price Noah’s ark, repositioning a couch pillow a million times, and reconnecting the straw inside his bottle of milk.

None of this, not one lion loaded into the ark or one pillow moved five inches to the left, really matters, right? I mean, these moments don’t result in a new bench, ugly printer shelf or table beside the couch. They just come and go, again and again and again.

Maybe, just maybe, they mean everything.

Gary Lloyd is the author of six books and a contributing writer to the Cahaba Sun.

LISTEN/WATCH: 75 Trussville Facts

TRUSSVILLE — Want 75 Trussville facts in honor of the 75th anniversary of the town’s incorporation?

Look no further.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://buff.ly/3AUvLDP

Listen on Spotify: https://buff.ly/3zeMjVN

Watch on YouTube: https://buff.ly/3aI9hvf

I’ve tried to cover this 75th anniversary as much as I can this year. Additional content produced for this anniversary can be found in the links below.

A column about the June 10, 2022 event 75 years as a town (includes links to articles and videos)

Trussville council discusses potential locations for pickleball courts

By Gary Lloyd

TRUSSVILLE – In the wake of last week’s decision to pull the pickleball courts project from the greenspace on Cherokee Drive, the Trussville City Council on Tuesday, June 28 discussed potential locations at its workshop meeting.

[RELATED: Pickleball in Trussville: ‘The heartburn is the greenspace’]

Councilman Perry Cook attended a Parks & Recreation Board meeting last week, where he learned that everybody wants pickleball courts, just in a different location.

“The location seemed to be the main pushback and also the size of the space for the courts,” Cook said. “We need more space, if possible.”

Fencing at the greenspace near the Cahaba River and Cherokee Drive (photo by Gary Lloyd)

He said he was open to suggestions for locations, even going so far as to wonder aloud if a committee should be formed to search out potential properties. Some potential locations mentioned on Tuesday night included:

Another location on Cherokee Drive near the Trussville Fire & Rescue Administration BuildingThe Pinnacle shopping centerAreas around the former Hewitt-Trussville Junior High School gymsBehind the softball fields at the Trussville Sports Complex

All locations mentioned come with clear issues – location, parking, space, excavation, cost. The search will continue.

[PODCAST: Trussville pickleball discussion on Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here]

Mayor Buddy Choat said the 12 courts that were proposed on the Cherokee Drive greenspace location, eight covered and four uncovered, were what Trussville needed. Future expansion of the pickleball facility was not in the plans.

“The site was selected strictly on 12 courts,” Choat said.

Councilman Alan Taylor said it was unfortunate that pushback against Choat happened the way it did. The Trussville City Council on June 14 approved Milam and Company constructing the 12 pickleball courts on the greenspace.

“That’s not right,” he said. “Every person sitting up here was a part of it.”

Councilwoman Jaime Anderson said she heard concerns about potential impact to the nearby Cahaba River and parking at Cahaba Elementary School.

“That location had a lot of issues I didn’t think about that I wish I had,” she said.

There are large pickleball facilities across Alabama. Two mentioned were Hoover and Opelika. Taylor said pickleball facilities that big is not something Trussville needs.

“That doesn’t fit our community,” he said.

Councilman Ben Short said he trusts Choat to go through the process of finding a suitable location.

“Everything is on the table,” Choat said.

Pickleball in Trussville: ‘The heartburn is the greenspace’

By Gary Lloyd

TRUSSVILLE – The Trussville City Council on Tuesday, June 14 approved Milam and Company constructing 12 pickleball courts on the greenspace between the Trussville Senior Activity Center and Cherokee Drive.

A week later, Trussville found itself in a bit of a pickle.

On Monday, June 20, many Trussville residents took notice of fencing that had gone up the previous week in that greenspace. Questions flooded Facebook groups and Trussville City Council email addresses.

At the Thursday, June 9 council workshop, Milam and Company Vice President Barrett Milam presented renderings of the pickleball courts, which includes eight under a covered structure and four outside. Restrooms and additional parking could potentially be added. Funding for the project, which Trussville Mayor Buddy Choat estimated to take six months, came from a grant that Alabama Sen. Shay Shelnutt acquired. Shelnutt did not respond to a voicemail message Tuesday, June 21.

A flyer taped to the fences at the greenspace on Monday, June 20

Choat said he had looked for “over a year” for a site for the pickleball facility. He said he looked in the South Chalkville Road area of the city, Norris Farms where Trussville Fire Station No. 4 will eventually be constructed, the Trussville Sports Complex and the Pinnacle shopping center.

“I just kept coming back here,” Choat said. “I don’t know where else to put it, but I know these six or eight courts that we’ve got over here [on the Mall] are just not going to meet the demands that we have.”

Choat said the Mall area came up about a year ago for additional courts to be constructed.

“There wasn’t any way I was going to put it over there,” he said. “That was a no-brainer. Believe me, I’ve looked and looked, and I kept coming back here because of where it is. And I know that’s the heartburn is the greenspace.”

Perry Cook, the liaison to the Parks and Recreation Board, was not present for the June 9 council workshop presentation. Choat said the four council members present – Ben Short, Jaime Melton Anderson, Alan Taylor and Lisa Bright – agreed to put the matter on the consent agenda for the June 14 meeting. Choat said he saw no one signed up for public comment to speak on the matter June 14.

“The timing of this time of the year, to do what we want to do, it’s not rainy or cold,” he said. “We can go ahead and get this done before it gets cold out here. This was just one of those opportunities. I don’t think anyone denies it’s a good project. It’s just the where it is that’s caused the heartburn for everybody.”

Choat said no environmental study on effects to the nearby Cahaba River were conducted. City officials looked at Milam and Company’s design plan. Choat said some grading near the senior center could happen and that some areas may be elevated three to four feet. The covered structure, Choat said, should angle in a direction from the senior center toward Cherokee Drive.

“I don’t think the Cahaba, especially 25 yards from the sidewalk, whatever rain falls it won’t be affected by this,” Choat said. “I’ve seen standing water over here just in a heavy rain before. But we did look at all that before we decided on it.”

A poster fastened to the fence at the greenspace proposed for 12 pickleball courts on Tuesday, June 21

On Monday, June 20, flyers imploring Trussville residents to contact Choat, Shelnutt and the five council members were taped to the fence. By Tuesday, June 21, it included posters. Among them, “Don’t take away our green space please!” and “Please don’t pave our paradise.” It seemed clear that several were drawn by children.

“I have lived in Trussville for 20 years,” said Ashley Warren. “We have waited excitedly for decades for our promised greenspace. As most residents know, that project took decades to finally come to fruition after many, many hiccups and stumbling blocks. Our mayor ran his campaign promising to finish the greenway. It’s my favorite thing about this city. We pride ourselves on our small-town charm, and now that is going to change.”

Choat said that despite the recent backlash against the location, he’s “OK with” the location.

“If I had a better place, I’d put it there,” Choat said. “I don’t know of a better place. I really think it’s just filling in a need for what I see is more of a demand than we have a supply right now.”

Choat said he was “committed” to this project and hoped the council would approve it.

“I was committed to it and hoping the council would approve it,” he said. “Was there a reason to pause [construction]? That’s kind of why I didn’t let them [Milam and Company] start yesterday [June 20] turning dirt. I wanted to have a visual to make sure I still supported it, which I do.”

As for residents and visitors who use the greenspace now for other reasons – picnics, throwing a Frisbee, throwing a ball, walking a dog – Choat said, “I would say obviously there’s not going to be as much space for them, but I think when it’s all said and done, once this facility is up and the fences are down, they’re probably going to be surprised that there’s more space than they ever thought there would be, considering what they’ve seen and heard. At the end of the day when it’s finished, there’s still going to be room to throw a Frisbee or throw a ball or whatever. Not as much room, obviously, but there’s still greenspace available over here. The walking trail will not be affected by this, which is great. I just think once it’s done, I guess my comment would be I think even I’m even more surprised at how much greenspace is left.”

As for parking, Choat said “we can get by” with what’s there now, particularly due to the hours of the senior activity center. It is open Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is closed on the weekend.

“But we’ve got to find a way to make sure we have bathrooms over here and maybe some more parking,” he said. “Cahaba [Elementary School] is up the street, but it’s a little too far for some people to walk.”

As for pickleball tournaments in Trussville, Choat said it’s not just about revenue.

“All we want to do is kind of showcase Trussville, and I think we’ll have probably one of the premier pickleball facilities in the state of Alabama,” he said.

A look at the fence along the greenway sidewalk on Monday, June 20

“I’ve always tried to look at it from, ‘Do I think it’s good for Trussville?’ At this point, I was expecting some pushback, it’s kind of gained momentum, obviously, but the way I address it is I always go by my conviction, and I would never do anything I thought was detrimental. It’s not about just building and building. It’s about kind of what we provide as part of our quality of life. There’s a lot of people who have moved here that have expectations of the city to provide more opportunities. Even [when I was] on the council, I try to put a lot of thought into it ahead of time, and think about it, that’s why it took me a year to settle in and feel OK about this site over here.”

Warren said “no one is opposed to Trussville having pickleball courts, but we do not want it in our greenspace we fought so hard to have.”

“There are also concerns on how this was handled and why it was pushed through so quickly,” she said. “The taxpayers were not notified it was going to be voted on because it was not on the public agenda. We have had no opportunity to voice concerns, ask for modifications, consider many of the other locations that could be used. This state-acquired grant means the money may not come from the city’s pockets, but the land sure comes at the expense of Trussville taxpayers and residents. We should have a voice in how our land is being used.”

The public agenda was emailed out to a longstanding email list prior to the council workshop June 9. At that time, the pickleball courts construction approval was not listed on the agenda. It was added after Milam’s presentation to the council at workshop, but that agenda was apparently not emailed out to the longstanding email list prior to the June 14 council meeting, but it was listed on the consent agenda at the council meeting. Printed agendas are readily available prior to meetings at Trussville City Hall. This could have contributed to residents feeling out of the loop on the project. [Note: I have been unable to confirm if anyone else on the email list received the updated agenda prior to the June 14 council meeting, or if it was just me, and I wanted that to be clear. I have asked the question. If anyone did receive it and I have missed it, this article will be updated to reflect that for accuracy.]

“If it didn’t, I don’t know about it either,” Choat said. “I look at the final agenda. Quite honestly, we tried to work closer to the deadline than we should sometimes. We’re cutting everything off on Tuesdays now so we can make sure on Wednesday everything is right. If it wasn’t on there, I didn’t notice it either, because really all I saw, that I remember seeing, was when it was on the consent agenda. I could have missed it. I think it just got out after the fact. People weren’t aware of it and that’s where a lot of the heartburn came from. Whether it was on that first list that went out or not, I don’t know. But I do know what I saw, it was on there. I think people just kind of missed it. That’s all I can tell you, is they missed it. We don’t try to have public meetings on stuff like this. We do if it’s a shopping center or a neighborhood is involved or something like that. We’ve done that in the past. A public hearing, rather. This one, to me, it was almost a no-brainer as far as the project and is it good for Trussville.”

Trussville resident Stephanie Benzaia said that the traffic the pickleball courts will bring should be a concern to anyone living in the area. Cahaba Elementary and the senior center will not be sufficient parking for tournaments, she said.

Another poster seen Tuesday, June 21

“What will the city do to protect neighborhoods from the traffic?” Benzaia asked. “How will they protect our children that ride bikes and walk in these areas? What will be the impact on the Cahaba River? This is being built in a flood plain. Please, Mayor Choat, reconsider pausing this until we as a city have a chance to figure out what is best for the city.”

Choat said he understands that a lot of folks won’t be happy with the location of the pickleball courts.

“But there’s going to be a lot of pickleball players and guests that come to Trussville that are going to think we have a great facility here, and that’s the bottom line, really,” he said.

‘Where we’ll spend the rest of our lives’

Recapping Trussville’s 75th Anniversary

By Gary Lloyd

TRUSSVILLE – It was my own doing, but I about bit off more than I could chew June 10.

I had created an itinerary, a loose guide to follow to make the day as productive as possible. I printed it and kept it in my passenger seat. My black backpack barely zipped shut. It was filled with notebooks, a laptop and charger, a tripod, microphones, recorders, a Gatorade and an Aquafina. I looked like a longtime member of Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

Shortly after 8 a.m., I stood on The Mall in Trussville and recorded a six-minute, thirty-one-second Facebook Live video. I talked about the meaning of June 10 in Trussville, its history, and what was to come as the day wore on.

[More coverage of Trussville’s 75th anniversary of incorporating at a town here]

June 10 marked the 75th anniversary of Trussville incorporating as a town. It officially became a city on May 31, 1957. At the Aug. 22, 1946 Cahaba Community Association meeting, pros and cons of incorporation of Cahaba alone — the Cahaba Project, a government housing development — and also of including Trussville, was discussed. It was suggested that the people of Trussville advise the government that they desired to be included in the corporate limits. A motion was passed unanimously to form a plan of incorporation and operation of a city government to serve both Cahaba and Trussville.

From left are Karen Davis, Gary Lloyd, Jane Alexander, Dianne Dempsey, Judy Foushee and Jennifer Bain (photo courtesy of the Trussville Area Chamber of Commerce).

It was unanimously agreed on Sept. 24, 1946, that the incorporated municipality should include both Cahaba and Trussville. A March 11, 1947, letter from the Federal Public Housing Authority briefly outlined the proposed incorporation of the town of Trussville. The letter stated that the Cahaba Project was a fine example of planning for semi-subsistence homes that would be protected from the uncontrolled growth of its neighbor, Trussville. All minor streets had been planned that their connections with Trussville were made by way of Chalkville Road or Parkway Drive.

“The time has come now to join these separate communities as an Incorporated Town,” the letter stated. “In order to do so there must be more direct connections between the two communities and a pooling of their interests so that a well organized community will be attained.”

The letter recommended that both sides of the Cahaba River be dedicated as park lands, as well as The Mall and triangular area near present-day Brentwood Avenue. The grassy area between Magnolia Court and Hewitt Street was also recommended to be kept as park land.

On June 2, 1947, an election was held to determine whether to incorporate the town of Trussville into a city form of government. The election carried and all property owned by the Federal Public Housing Authority with four legal voters per 40 acres of land was included in the area to be incorporated. The Cahaba Project was absorbed into the town of Trussville when it was incorporated on June 10, 1947.

Yard signs acknowledging Trussville’s 75th anniversary of incorporating as a town (photo by Gary Lloyd).

I mentioned that it became a city 10 years later, and that’s true. The difference? A town includes fewer than 2,000 people. Trussville had 1,443 in 1947. A city includes more than 2,000 people. Trussville had increased to 2,161 folks in 1957. Trussville as we know it was truly born June 10, 1947. To me, as someone who has spent the last nine years learning this place’s rich history, this was an important day, one worthy of attention, promotion and remembrance. I tried my best.

At 10 a.m., I spent time on a Brentwood Avenue porch talking about that history, about the Cahaba Project, a lot of which was recorded for a podcast. Afterward, I ate a donated panini in the truck at The Mall, where I game-planned for the evening. I spent the afternoon documenting, researching and writing. I edited the podcast and posted it from inside the Trussville Public Library.

By 3:30 p.m., I was at a house on Lake Street, loading my truck with folding tables, metal stakes, a tent and enlarged photos the size of White House windows. I helped unload it all on The Mall and set it all up. Trussville Historical Society members and I spread Trussville history and souvenirs across those tables, and readied for the “Swing back to 1947 Movie on the Mall” event that the Trussville Area Chamber of Commerce planned.

For the kids, there were horse shoes and sack races. Food trucks lined North Mall by 5:30 p.m., and I made it until 5:31 p.m. before I gave in. Trussville’s original fire truck from 1947 – purchased with funds raised from raffling off a 1946 Dodge car – was parked on The Mall.

I mostly meandered across the green lawn for an hour, talking with folks I recognized. I spent a lot of time in folding chairs with the Trussville Historical Society ladies who, after realizing I’ll carry tables for free, even laughed at my dumb jokes. We packed up all the historical artifacts, souvenirs, newspapers, chairs, tables and large photos as a sunset burned orange over West Mall. The movie was not going to start for another half hour or so. I was a sweaty mess, tired, and ready to shower.

Trussville’s original fire truck (photo courtesy of Amy Peterson O’Brien)

After emptying my truck back on Lake Street, I had planned to go home to do just that. But this day, June 10, was special. A place only has one 75th anniversary. I had spent much of the day with others or providing some sort of digital content for others. I wanted a few moments to myself, to maybe make a memory. So, I texted my wife and said I was going to return to The Mall for just a few minutes and catch a portion of “The Egg and I,” a 1947 film about a young married couple who become chicken farmers.

I’ve read what the movie is about. I won’t spoil the whole plot here. However, I did decide to set up my tripod one last time and record in the dark. The moment that I pressed that red button to record, the husband began talking with his wife.

“This is probably where we’ll spend the rest of our lives. Doesn’t it give you a wonderful sense of security?”

Seeking the sleek, fast food finds the bleak

By Gary Lloyd

The tallest golden arches this side of St. Louis feel smaller now.

Maybe it’s just that I’m older and the appeal of a cheeseburger and fries inside a red box has waned as my triglyceride levels rise. Maybe it’s that the PlayPlace, if any are left, is just too small for me to squeeze inside, shimmy down a purple tube, and crash into a pit of plastic balls.

But I think it’s more than outgrowing my own childhood experiences at McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurants. It’s this generation of youngsters missing out on the colorful experiences we had as kids. I don’t mean the menu options, which have hardly changed in decades, though the Baja Blast from Taco Bell is heaven in a plastic cup. I’ve ordered the same combo meal at Burger King since I had a head small enough to wear that golden paper crown.

I suppose, now that I am definitely older and debatably wiser, it’s about the design of fast-food restaurants. What’s up with that? Did every burger joint, chicken establishment and taco place hire the same architecture and interior design firms? They’re clones. What happened to the character? What happened to the color?

What happened to those brown tile floors, hamburger-themed stools and Nintendo 64 stations inside McDonald’s restaurants? What happened to that massive cowboy-hat-shaped neon sign outside Arby’s, the one that could light up the dark highway pavement for half a mile?

Where did the stucco exterior of Taco Bell go? What about the green and red paint just beneath a clay roof? Remember when the booths and tables inside resembled The Max in “Saved by the Bell”? Did you ever sit in that solarium section in a Wendy’s, and cook in your seat like ants under a magnifying glass, hotter than that fresh-never-frozen beef patty on your tray?

Remember eating your Hot-N-Ready pizza inside a Little Caesar’s fifteen feet from the checkout lines at K-Mart? And when the Kentucky Fried Chicken sign held up a bucket the size of a hot air balloon basket?

Man, those were the days. So much character, so much color. Now, I see renovations and rebuilds almost all end the same way – bleak. The exteriors are gray rectangles of boringness. Why did I recently confuse a McDonald’s with a Milo’s? These new prototypes bring takeout and delivery to the forefront. There are mobile order parking spots and more drive-thru lanes than I-85 in Atlanta. Dining rooms are shrinking, and I fear that childlike thrill of a fast-food experience is fast shrinking with it.

Goodbye reminiscence, hello repetition.

Maybe there is good reason for this sameness. Times change. So does taste. I mean, remember when all our houses were florally wallpapered from baseboard to ceiling in every room? It took too long for those ugly flowers to wilt under the heat of a Wagner power steamer.

I recently read about these duplicated designs in an online forum, and someone made the point that the generic look of new fast-food restaurants helps to sell the building later if enough burgers or chicken fingers aren’t sold. Maybe if they kept their character and color, like in years past, they wouldn’t have to worry about it.

Gary Lloyd is the author of six books and a contributing writer to the Cahaba Sun.