Bama Planter

 This is a picture of my father on the 1939-40 football team.  He is on the 2nd row sitting next to his friend Mr. Dennis.  He is the guy in the leather helmet.  He had just started 9th grade. This pic was taken a few days before he broke his left leg in practice.    Then, my grandfather sold his mules and bought two tractors and put my father on one, as he could drive a tractor with his leg in a cast.   They plowed up the back fields and planted winter crops. Then in the spring they planted corn and cotton, four times as much as they ever had with the mules.  My father made all A's and was a good student, but after breaking his leg and the tractor investments, my grandfather saw no reason to send him back to school.    Later, my father was drafted for WWII and was in the 36th infantry division.  He experienced combat in France and Germany.  After the war, he used the GI bill and went to class to study dairy far...

I went with some friends to study a very old ( for Alabama) house.  The original room sits on hand hewn beams and appears to be pre-1830. The second room was added and sits on 2x12 floor joists.  The next two rooms were added to the front of the house probably in the 1920's when the front porch was removed. One of the two rooms is old enough to be antebellum.  The fifth room is a kitchen added to the house when the original detached kitchen was probably torn down.

Historical Bibb County Banking and Trust Building.  Constructed in 1899.  About 19,000 square feet.  This building will be auctioned on November 16th. Information can be found at www. JPKING.com I have no personal benefit or connection to this.   I toured the building with a potential buyer yesterday and was amazed at the size and beauty of the building.  The pictures I shot are in the order of my walking up the three stories and then coming back down.  The round room on the third floor is spectacular. I can envision a twenty foot Christmas tree in the middle. The last view is the street scene.  The old photos are of the bank from years ago.  I also immediately saw that the stairs and railings and doors were never painted white, so there are no 15+ layers of paint to be stripped off.   Right across the street is the historic Bibb County Court House.  The entire area is on top of a large hill with the Cahawba River ru...