Bama Planter

I purchased this 16 x 20 oval wall size football player from an on-line auction. I like the happy look of the guy and the date of the photo seems to be perhaps the era 1910 to 1930ish.   I want to know if anyone can tell me what the billboard behind him says.  The first word might be CURTIS ?  but maybe not.   Any guesses or hints, please post or write me at GoneToAlabama@aol.com. 

Lucretia Wilson Cunningham,  niece of Jesse Wilson, and wife of planter Joseph H. Cunningham. Her parents were Benjamin and Hannah ( Harless) Wilson of Montevallo. Benjamin was Jesse's brother and my great great great great grandfather. He remained in Montevallo as did several of his descendants down to myself.  Note: My cousin, a direct descendant of Jesse Wilson, is sending me a photography of his son William Wilson ( mentioned in the article below..he moved to Coosa County, and William's wife Ann Harkins, daughter of Andrew Harkins.  I will put them here as soon as I get them! )  Traditionally, in the South, when we speak of the founder of a town, we cite the name of the first male settler, as if he is the only one who made the effort and thus gets all the credit. We know that the place now called Montevallo was the home for hundreds of years of Native American people, as the fresh water springs, the rocky creek, and the fertile fields were ideal for settl...

So I kept some of the dough bowls in the corner cupboard that has no corner to put it in, but I didn't like the ones on top and all around.  I added a few extra butter molds to fill the corners.  I had some large old wooden boxes which I put above the kitchen cupboard and filled them with the other bowls. They look better there. The kitchen ceiling is 12 feet, so they are up and away from harm. Mustard and all its cousins are my favorite colors, so this Empire couch is one of my keepers. I think at one time it may have had those round pillows on each end. I forgot what they are called.  So my sister in Fairhope sent me some nice ones from Pottery Barn.  The leather chairs are deep green and deep blue and are the most comfortable chairs I've ever had. That's a 1780 dough box sitting between them.  Old Paris vases on a colonial dough box. I like contrasts such as that.  The girandoles are really nice, but everyone knows I love ...

My grandmother's oxalis is blooming. She planted it around her house in the 1940's. I should have asked her where she got her start of it.  As it spread from the house like weeds,  her gardener Raymond would cut over it and it would spread out even more.  It has no smell but blooms all summer in the shade.  It forms small bulbs about the size of garlic. I'm going to start digging up clumps and mailing them to cousins so it can perhaps survive in our family as an heirloom plant of hers.  I was fortunate to have been born on her birthday and also in the same place....Birmingham.  Since I was next door here on the farm,  I was at her house just about every day while growing up.  She lived to be 98.  Lord, she's been gone now 18 years but it doesn't seem to have been that long ago.  This sedum blooms a greenish white and is from my other grandmother.  She had a difficult early life as her mother died when she was 3 and ...