The parking lot of Carpenetti’s Pizzeria in Moody is packed! Cars are squeezed into any opening their drivers can find – around the back of the building, in the grass, in the dead zone between the restaurant and the Chevron station next door.
Inside, hungry diners jockey for attention from the hostess for one of only about a dozen tables as a steady stream of people queue in line for what seems like an endless run of take-out pies. The phone rings off the hook, the small staff constantly runs back and forth from the kitchen to the house, and pizzas fly in and out of the brick oven at a quicker pace than the ending sketch of an episode of the Benny Hill Show.
Frank Carpenetti’s signature, hand-tossed dough is foundation for a great pizza.
And the kicker is, it’s only Tuesday.
It’s abundantly clear the word leaked out that Carpenetti’s Pizzeria has been named the best pizza restaurant in Alabama. “Business has picked up a lot,” saysownerFrank Carpenetti.
“As you see tonight, there’s a waiting list, and it’s pretty much like this every night. People have to sign in now.It’s organized chaos. Sometimes. It looks like everybody’s running in 10 different directions, but only up to a point.”
The competition for Bama’s Best Pizza, sponsored by the Alabama Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association and the Alabama Farmers Federation Dairy Division, asked for nominations from the general public in the early rounds to determine a final four. At that point, a group of judges would visit each of the four finalists to nosh on some pizza and award a champion.
Carpenetti’s beat out some restaurants with great reputations, including Giovanni’s Italian Restaurant in Sylacauga, Valentina’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar in Madison and Top-Notch Pizza & BBQ from Vernon. Carpenetti said he had no idea the restaurant was under consideration for the competition until the very last day of public voting.
“We were real surprised,” says Carpenetti. “Someone came in with an advertisement, and so we called a few people and they said, ‘Yeah, we’ll get in on that,’ and all the customers that were in here all voted for us.”
Once Carpenetti’s advanced to the final four, the judges visited each restaurant, sampling an array of pizzas. The only requirement was a pepperoni pizza. Everything else was wide open. Carpenetti decided to give the judges a stuffed “all the way” pizza and a spinach alfredo pizza with chicken and bacon. Carpenetti said while he didn’t know what to expect during the judging, it wasn’t long before he had a good feeling.
“We just gave them everything we could that we thought would wow the judges,” he says. “I got a good feeling from it. I thought I would have a chance if I could get them in here to eat. They seemed to really like everything, and when they got all done, they said everything was great.”
Winning this competition is a validation of almost a quarter-century of hard work.
The road to Moody and Bama’s Best Pizza
Carpenetti grew up on a dairy farm in Watertown, N.Y., a working-class town of 30,000 just 30 miles from the Canadian border and 300 miles from New York City. He had 17 years under his belt as a machinist when he accepted a job offer in Moody. It wasn’t long before Carpenetti realized things weren’t working out with his new company but moving back north wasn’t an option. He and his family had already come to love Moody, and his brother had moved to the area as well. Carpenetti asked himself, “What do I do now?”
What he did was open a pizza joint.
“I started this because I couldn’t find what I like. I don’t like conveyor belt pizza. I like New York-style pizza. So that’s what I did,” Carpenetti says. “I had already moved everything down here. My brother moved down here, so we just stayed. I love it here.”
In reality, the original Carpenetti’s Pizzeria aspired to be a joint. Opened on Aug. 7, 1997, Carpenetti’s Pizza occupied a tiny space affectionally called “the hole” hidden behind the old CVS Pharmacy on U.S. 411.
Those early days in the restaurant business were tough as he worked to establish his restaurant and perfect the recipes that would eventually be heralded as the best in the state. “It was hard because I actually had to go out and get other jobs doing some different things. I was doing anything from raking leaves to cutting grass, whatever it took,” he said. “But I had to do it because I wasn’t going to give up. There were a lot of a lot of days when I thought, ‘What did I get myself into?’ But it’s worth it.”
The Carpenettis at the helm of a ‘family affair’
After two-and-a-half years, Carpenetti’s moved across the highway to a strip mall next to Fine Pools & Spas where they stayed for another seven years. For the past 15 years, Carpenetti’s has occupied the former location of Shaw’s Barbecue on Park Avenue across the street from Moody City Park. The old barbecue pit was just big enough to fit Carpenetti’s brick-fired pizza ovens. “We’ve only got about an inch-and-a-half clearance for these ovens,” Carpenetti says. “They just happened to fit. They just happened to fit perfectly in there.”
Carpenetti’s day starts at 6 a.m., with the exception of Tuesday when he arrives at the restaurant at 5 a.m. Other staff – mostly members of this close-knit family – arrive around 8 a.m. to prepare for the lunch rush at 11 a.m. One of the aspects that differentiates Carpenetti’s from others is the pizza dough, which is made fresh each day. Carpenetti also forgoes the use of equipment to stretch the dough, opting for the traditional method of tossing the dough in the air, a technique that not only makes for a better pizza but it also an entertaining crowd-pleaser.
“All of our pizzas are hand-tossed. A lot of places use a press. We don’t do that. We do everything by hand. Maybe it’s because I’m old school,” Carpenetti says. “Sometimes when we’re not real busy, we’ll see a kid watching, and we’ll say, ‘Hey, come here. Do you want to make your pizza?’ It’s great to see the smiles on their faces.”
A family business, Carpenetti is surrounded by relatives who put the family name on the line each day. Carpenetti’s wife, son, daughter, brother, daughter-in-law, grandson and granddaughter all work at the restaurant, as well as several long-time employees who have become honorary Carpenettis. He credits their work ethic and dedication to the restaurant’s success.
“Everybody here works so hard. I mean, you don’t see any of my people just standing around. They’re always doing something,” Carpenetti says. “It ain’t it all glitz and glamour. There were some hard times, but right now, I’m just so proud of everybody here.”
More than 24 years since taking a chance on bringing New York-style pizza to St. Clair County, the recognition Carpenetti’s is getting is well-deserved. But none of it would be possible without the loyal customers – the early supporters from their days in “the hole” and the new fans alike – who have made this little pizza joint into an institution.
“Thank you for your support over all these years,” he says. “We couldn’t have done it without you. I think we have the best customer base anywhere.”
For St. Clair County, 2021 has been quite a good year – a boom year, in fact. It has experienced an economic upswing across the board, from housing to manufacturing; retail sales to tourism; new business to expansion of existing business. All that comes despite recovering from the unprecedented pandemic that struck in 2020, leaving many economic projects on the drawing board and spiked the unemployment rate to over 13%.
Nobody’s looking back, though. Optimism is high as county leaders look toward the future and interpret the numbers.
Don Smith, executive director St. Clair County Economic Development Council, cites a study ranking the top 10 counties in Alabama with the most incoming investments. St. Clair county ranks No. 7 on that list.
“The study measures growth in gross domestic product, number of businesses opened and number of new building permits per every 1,000 homes in each county,” said Smith. “St. Clair County saw 3.8% business growth, $118 million in GDP growth, and 10.7 new building permits per every 1,000 homes over the last three years.”
The study was conducted by technology financial technology firm Smart Asset.
Those numbers, on paper, are backed up by real brick-and-mortar projects springing up all over the county. The latest gem in St. Clair’s financial crown, Kelly Creek Commerce Park, is a $125-million industrial park to be situated on 172 acres in Moody.
Expansion next to Processor’s Choice and Exotic Foods
Smith said about two years of preliminary engineering and planning have already gone into the project, and work was expected to begin in November. “We’ll be trying to get manufacturing and distribution-type companies in there with a focus on headquarters,” said Smith, adding that with this new facility, the county will be adding several hundred new jobs within the next five years.
According to Moody Mayor Joe Lee, the business park is following a master plan for construction. “They’ve got a set of covenants outlining what they can build, how it’s to be constructed, and just exactly how they can do things out there, even to the color of the buildings,” which the mayor said will be “earth-tone colored.”
There’s going to be 1.4 million square feet of space in those two earth-toned buildings,” he said. “Currently, site preparation is under way. “They’re clearing the land, putting in curbs and gutters. This is going to be a long project, probably about two years.”
The mayor says there’s no commitment yet from potential tenants, “but a lot of folks are interested in it. A possible fit could be a distribution business like Amazon. What is being created out there has many users.”
The property is located next to Red Diamond’s corporate headquarters off Kelly Creek Road. Lee says road improvements are planned to better access the nearby Interstate 20 and that turn lanes will be added to Kelly Creek Road.
Several new retail businesses are also set to open in Moody, including Dunlap and Kyle Tire Company, Walmart Warehousing and Landing Warehousing. And according to Lee, “the old Burger King building has been sold, and Dunkin’ Donuts has turned in a set of plans. “Plus,” he said, the old Krystal building “is close to having a contract signed on it.”
In somewhat of an understatement, Lee acknowledged, “Yeah, this past year has been pretty busy.”
As rosy as Moody’s business climate appears right now, the mayor says the housing market in Moody, now the county’s largest municipality, is “unbelievable. I’d say in the next year or two, we’ll see 300 new homes built here.”
The story in Moody is indicative of what’s happening all over St. Clair, according to Smith.
“Retail sales are up everywhere. New retail projects were put on hold because of the pandemic but not anymore. We did expect to announce about $35 million of retail projects by the end of 2021, and that’s throughout the county, not just one city or the other.
“So, everyone’s doing well,” Smith continued. “The things that are going to be announced are going to be names that are missing in our county, and everyone leaves our county to shop at. It’s great to see small businesses really coming back strong. That’s one of the things we really focused on, making sure that folks we live next door to and spend time with are successful in their business.”
Tourism, a new industry in St. Clair County kicked off in 2020 at the very height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, while most industrial efforts struggled during this time, tourism did not. According to Smith, it was actually “great timing” to kick off the tourism campaign.
“We don’t have a lot of indoor tourism things,” he said. “Everything is outdoors, and that was the only place you could go. So, everybody was wanting to get out, either hiking, camping, boating, rafting. People wanted to get outdoors where it was safe and fun. So, 2020 was an incredible year for people to discover St. Clair County’s outdoor activities.”
And the trend fit perfectly with St. Clair Tourism’s theme – “It’s in Our Nature.”
In 2021, tourists continue to flock to the county’s lakes, streams and rivers as well as outdoor festivals. Proof that the tourism initiative, headed by St. Clair Tourism Coordinator Blair Goodgame, continues to be viable can be seen in some examples of documented growth provided by event organizers.
At the Logan Martin LakeFest and Boat Show, 15,000 people attended in 2018 and 20,000 in 2019. The number jumped to 35,000 in 2021.
Bulls on the Lake Rodeo was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic, but in 2019, 1,700 attended the event. That number jumped to 3,000 in 2021.
The Rustik Bucket Vintage Market at the St. Clair Arena saw 1,300 attendees in 2020 and 1,800 in 2021.
Looking ahead, Smith is optimistic about the upward trend continuing. Because of St. Clair County’s central location between two major interstates, its abundance of natural resources and general livability “we don’t see any slowing down. I think we can expect growth all over the county for years to come.”
Story by Joe Whitten Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Submitted Photos
Many late-Victorian-style cottages remain in St. Clair County, and one of the loveliest is the c1891 home of 80-year-old Maurice Huneycutt, who has cherished and restored this ancestral home.
“My great-grandfather, William Henry McConnell, built the house. He was married to Salome Ash,” a descendant of the John Ash family and for whom Ashville was named. After William Henry died in 1930 and Salome in 1932, “grandmother and granddaddy bought out the other heirs for this place – house and about 38 acres.”
Maurice’s grandmother, Velma McConnell, grew up in this house. She married Arthur Huneycutt, who lived a short distance from them on today’s U.S. 174. They lived in Birmingham for a while, then on Blount Mountain. When the Great Depression swept the country, they moved to the homeplace around 1931 or ‘32.
The house as it looks today
Maurice was born in 1941 in this house. “Some of my first memories,” recalls Maurice, “was playing under the house using a tablespoon and a toy truck to build roads. There was no underpinning, so it was light under there.”
In the 1940s and ‘50s, families had gardens and raised beef and pork for food. “We had a garden and cows and pigs and beehives,” Maurice reminisced. “We had turkeys and chickens for eggs and meat. We had a salt box to store the pork in and a smokehouse to smoke bacon and hams. The fat was rendered into lard – nobody used Crisco or cooking oil in those days. My grandmother milked the cow every morning, and we had fresh milk, cream and butter all the time.”
Water for the family came from the front yard well still kept under a roofed shelter today. “The well water was cool and tasted wonderful. Our well was freestone, and the water was the best around. On Sunday, the church people would come here and draw a bucket.”
Pat and Maurice’s parents were Annis Redwine and Maurice “Boots” Huneycutt, Sr. The nickname “Boots” came from his love of wearing boots, and everyone in Beaver Valley knew him as Boots. He was a butcher working in Birmingham when he met Annis. “The Redwines were from Hampton, Ga., and had come to Birmingham. She worked at Pizitz’s candy counter, and that’s probably where she met Daddy,” Maurice recounted.
Boots and Annis married in 1932, and had two children, Patricia, born in 1934, and Maurice Edwin, Jr., born in 1941. For a while, the family lived near Atlanta where Boots had a job. “We were way out in the country,” Pat laughed, “and it was lonesome. They said I would sit and carry my coat. I wanted to go back, so finally my granddaddy, Arthur, came and got me. We came back to Odenville.
Boots worked hard, and in the early years of married life, he raised vegetables to sell to supplement his regular job. “I heard my mother tell about one year my father plowing two oxen,” Maurice chuckled. “They said people laughed at him about the oxen, (but) he made a good crop.” Boots took the vegetables in his buggy to the Margaret coal mines “and sold them to the miners for clacker,” Maurice said. “Clacker” was the term used for coins the mines paid the workers with. You could take the clacker to the company store and get food, shoes or whatever you needed.” With the clacker, Boots traded at the company store.
Arthur Huneycutt, Boots’ father-in-law, worked as a foreman at the Pullman Plant in Birmingham. He helped Boots and a number of Odenville men get jobs at Pullman. These men, Maurice said, “would ride Mize Bus Line on Sunday night and come back home on Friday night. Glen Stevenson drove the bus. It was white with blue stripes.” The men boarded in the city during the week, and on Friday night, some of the men had nipped the bottle before they bid Glen Stevenson goodnight.
And liquor almost killed Boots and changed the Huneycutt story. For all of Boots’ hard work providing for the family, when the craving took hold, it took over. It happened the evening of Christmas Day in the mid-1950s.
Boots and family had spent the day with daughter Pat and her husband, Henry Coshatt. Back home in Odenville, one of Boots’ drinking friends came by. “When they got together,” Maurice reflected, “they would get very drunk, and it would be bad for a day or two.” Annis and Maurice begged Boots not to go, but their pleas went unheeded. He left, and “the next day, no word from him, and the next day nothing. So, we started the ‘find Boots’ routine.” This included calling the jails, the drinking places and the hospitals.
It took three or four days, but they located him in an Anniston hospital. He and his friend had wrecked, and Maurice remembered that the ambulance driver said he thought Boots was dead, so he stopped for a soft drink. “Boots went through the windshield. Broke his leg above the knee and cut his throat, leaving a scar of about 6 or 7 inches and 1-inch wide.”
Annis had Boots transferred to the VA hospital in Birmingham. A month later, he came home in a body cast, and lay in bed flat on his back for eight months. His leg never healed properly, and he limped when he walked again. In his early 40s, Boots never worked again.
From this tragedy, there came to be a café called Huneycutt’s Country Kitchen. Annis Huneycutt was a woman of indominable spirit – the “unsinkable Huneycutt matriarch” of Odenville. From the tragedy, a family and a community combined forces to build a café still fondly remembered by older folk today – Huneycutt’s Country Kitchen.
“We had to make a living.” Maurice remembered, “and we had no money,” So, with three related superb cooks – Annis, her mother-in-law, Velma McConnell Huneycutt, and Velma’s sister, Claire McConnell Scoggins – why not a snack bar or even a café established in Odenville?
Ed Fulmer owned nine small lots along Beaver Creek where MAPCO is today at the corner of Alabama Street and U.S. 411. The Huneycutts bought them, but they required fill dirt to raise them above floodplain. Dwight Blocker, although crippled by arthritis, drove the dump truck and filled in the lots.
With the site ready, Maurice and his grandaddy tore down the homeplace barn to construct a building. “It had wide boards, and all that lumber was straight,” Maurice said. “We had three syrup buckets for different sized nails. The nails had a little bend, and you’d lay ’em down and hit ’em one time and they’d be straight. With a handsaw, a hammer, a hatchet, a level, a square, a plumb bob and chalk line, we built that snack bar out of old heart pine 12- to 15-inch-wide boards. My Uncle Bill Redwine wired it, and George Mize came by and gave us directions.”
They bought finishing material at Sears and put it on their ‘Easy Payment’ charge account. Mr. Granger from Sears helped them with selecting the materials.
“We put the gas in through a hole in the wall,” Maurice laughed, “and built a frame out of 2x4s to set a grill on. Then we took the stove and refrigerator out of our house down there and started cooking – hotdogs, hamburgers and stuff like that.
“Grandma would cook vegetables up at her house, and Aunt Claire would cook the pies. My job was to get in the car – I was about 15 and didn’t have a driver’s license – but I’d get the vegetables at Grandma’s and then go to Aunt Claire’s and get the pies.”
Things progressed, and community folk pitched in to help make the business a success. Ben Vandegrift gave them his barber shop, which the Huneycutts “tore down and put the nails in a bucket” and built onto the snack bar. “We put a sink and the stove in there.” Then, Mr. Hoover, who had a farm in Odenville, “gave us a house in Ensley. So, we went down there and tore it down. Charlie Mordiccai let us borrow his dump truck, and we’d load the lumber on it and bring it home.” With this material, Lester and Burt Cash extended the kitchen and built a wing onto the snack bar, and the Huneycutt Country Kitchen came to be.
“Back in those days,” Pat commented, “nobody had any money, and we didn’t know the difference.” Maurice added, “You did whatever you had to, and you did it yourself.”
Clair McConnell Scoggins, Arthur and Velma McConnell Huneycutt
Maurice continued reminiscing. “Granddaddy found the windows on the railroad. So, we put hinges on top of them, and we put an eye on the bottom and had a coat hanger hanging down that we hooked the window to. None of ’em ever fell and hit anybody! That was in the snack bar. In the new part, we used the windows out of the building we tore down in Ensley.”
The school recognized that Boots and Annis needed Maruice’s help during their lunch hours. They worked his schedule so he had study hall, lunch and PE, one right after the other, so Maurice could help during rush hour. After school, he worked until 9 p.m. “We’d clean after breakfast, after lunch and at night. On Monday night, we waxed the floors.” Oldtimers remember the café as being immaculate.
The new wing provided more seating for regulars, so, Boots and Annis hired other local good cooks, Missouri Patmon and Ozella Smith. Word began to spread, “There’s a good little café in Odenville.” So, when someone passed though Odenville and stopped to eat, on Sunday, he’d bring his family for lunch after church. Claire’s son, Henry Scoggins, was in Atlanta and someone asked where he lived. When he told them, Odenville, Alabama, the person responded, “Oh, they’ve got the best restaurant there!”
Sundays became very busy. “Most of our trade was from Birmingham and Leeds,” Maurice recalled. “We had so many come they couldn’t all get in, so we built a cover where they could wait in line. We could seat 30 at a time”
Of course, many Odenville citizens made Huneycutt’s their regular eating place. Maurice remembered Mable and William Forman, Garland and Sis Fortson, and Steve and Evelyn Mize dining there almost every day.
It was hard work. “When I went to work, I’d took a picture of the café and put it on the wall. No matter how bad it got, I’d look at the picture and say, ‘I’m better off now than I was then.’”
Boots became an iconic part of the café, and his memory brings a smile to those who remember him. One story involves a customer who had moved to Odenville “from up north,” who asked for “iced coffee.” Boots slammed a cup and saucer down, filled the cup with coffee, threw an ice cube in it and said, “There’s your iced coffee.” This customer is remembered as knowing how to “pull Boots’ chain.”
Pat recalled Boots’ encounter with the Alabama health inspector. “The health department would always come in at lunchtime – busiest time of the day. They came in one time, and it made Boots mad. He picked up a hammer and said, ‘You come in here at lunchtime! Don’t ever come in here at lunchtime again.’ They said, ‘Oh, no, no, we won’t come at lunchtime again.’’
Sales tax collection was another thorn in Boots’ side. “A long time ago,” Maurice laughed, “the sales tax man would come to your place to collect. He’d say you owe us so much, and that would be it. So, Daddy got a length of pipe and took a hatchet and clinched one end and nailed it next to the cash register. He said, ‘Every day when we close, figure out how much the sales tax is and put it in that pipe.’ So, every night we’d put in the quarters and dimes and nickels in that pipe. So, the next time he comes to collect the tax, he got out his calculator, but Daddy hops over and gets the pipe and empties it out. The money spilled all over the table, the floor and rolled against the walls. Daddy said, ‘There it is.’”
In spite of his impatience, Boots was also a man of kindness and compassion. “He always looked out for the underdog” Maurice commented. For instance, if the sheriff, transporting prisoners, stopped for lunch at the café, Boots would take hamburgers or hotdogs to the prisoners. He gave the food to them, but the sheriff had to pay. Boots and Annis also provided meals to folks who were shut-in or needy.
The most well-remembered act of kindness is their taking into their home Wayne Franklin. Maurice recalls the first time he met Wayne in the 1950s. “I heard this awful crying or screaming noise, so I went out to see what was happening. I see this kid, seven or eight years old, running down the road.”
Maurice couldn’t understand what the child tried to say, but knowing he was scared, he took him into the house. He calmed down and told him his name was Wayne and where he lived – quite a way from the Huneycutt home. When he’d got home from school, his grandmother wasn’t there, so he started out. The Huneycutts took him home and waited for his grandmother, Sal Betts, to arrive.
Later, Mrs. Betts and Wayne lived in a tar-paper cover building across the highway from the café, and that’s when the relationship with Wayne began. Wayne’s parents were dead, and Mrs. Betts was destitute. Boots and Annis both had tender hearts for the less fortunate folk. “Wayne started hanging around the café,” Maurice reminisced. “Boots always loved the underdog, and my mother just took Wayne under her wing. He stayed with us most of the time. Tom, the Coca-Cola man, would pay Wayne to stack empty bottles in the cases, and he bought Wayne a blue and white coat.”
Wayne was a happy boy with the Huneycutts. However, school was another matter. He had a speech impediment, and he couldn’t read, so the school placed him in the Special Education class. He was smart in other ways and could learn. He suffered from dyslexia before this was understood or help for these students was available in public schools.
Mrs. Betts died, and Wayne lived in the Huneycutt home. One day an aunt and her husband from Florida, who had somehow heard about Wayne, showed up in Odenville and packed him off to live with them. “I do not think,” Maurice observed, “that they understood his reading problems. But these people were real and took Wayne with them.”
They didn’t hear anything from Wayne for a long time, until one Sunday afternoon, Wayne was back. “We were glad to see him,” Maurice said. “The aunt said Wayne wanted to live with us, and Daddy said, ‘That’s just fine,’ and we moved him in. The aunt said that it hadn’t worked out as they had hoped it would.”
The Florida folk left, and then the Huneycutts learned what happened when it didn’t “work out.” Wayne had a grandfather living in the woods of Montana. The aunt wrote a tag with Wayne’s name and where he was going, pinned it to the blue and white coat that Coca-Cola Tom had given him, put him on a Greyhound Bus and sent him to Montana. At the Montana destination, nobody was there to meet him. A policeman took him home with him then got him to the grandfather.
A Montana newspaper wrote a story about his trip and mentioned he was hard to understand because of his Southern accent. Maurice recalled Wayne’s telling him his grandfather taught him to hunt and that they lived off the land. When his grandfather died, Montana sent him back to Florida and from Florida, he arrived back home with the Huneycutts in Odenville.
Boots and Annis sent him to Gadsden Trade School where he finished cabinet making and learned a trade. He married and had children. His first son he named Paul after his friend, Paul Loren in Odenville. He owned and operated The Shelby County Woodworks and made a good living for his family until his death in a car wreck.
Maurice said of Boots, “Daddy was always in trouble. He didn’t conform. But at his funeral, there were people standing in the parking lot because they couldn’t get in the church.”
Of Annis, Pat commented, “Her background was Hampton, Ga. They had a big country place there. She was more like a refined Southern lady.” Those who remember her would agree. In her speech, Annis retained the soft vowels of her Georgia years. She had a distinctive laugh that was joyful and contagious.
Reflecting on the difficult times, Pat said, “Mama just took everything in stride and kept working.” Maurice agreed, adding, “That’s what she did. She had a pretty bad time with some of the things that went on.” He paused in memory, then said, “She always worked hard.”
This quotation by Leonard da Vinci applies to Annis: “People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life.”
But it was perhaps a granddaughter who described her best: “(She) showed us all how to be strong and resilient,” for Annis had held a family together by the strength of her character and spirit.
Dog trainer left computer coding to start dream business
Story and Photos by Graham Hadley
Last year, as the COVID virus presented businesses with difficult challenges, some entrepreneurs took the opportunity to move their lives in new directions.
Alex Allen, who had been in the tech industry, did just that, moving out from behind a desk all day to training dogs in everything from basic household obedience to drug and bomb detection and other professional police and security work.
Allen took the leap of faith, founding Alliance K9, working with some of the top trainers to hone his skills and is now open for business in St. Clair.
Practice with the padded suit
“With the lockdown, things were slowing down. I was working at a desk all day, and just wanted to do something new,” he said.
Allen did his training with Tarheel Canine school in Sanford, N.C., under trainer Jerry Bradshaw.
“It was kind of baptism by fire. They put you in there with the padded suit on. You came around a corner, and there was a dog. You could either handle it or not.”
Allen handled it, no problem, but admits the training can be intense.
“It’s on-the-job training and it’s fast-paced. They put you out there and see what you are made of.”
At one point, he was playing the “bad guy” during building search training, usually used by police and military.
“You are hiding in this dark room wearing the padded suit. And you can hear them going through the building, the dog’s feet on the floor. Then he scratches at your door, and you know this is it. The next second, uniformed officers storm the room, there are bright strobes, the whole thing.”
Since those first days, Allen has come a long way, continuing to fine tune his skills so he can be the very best trainer he can be – and that is no small task given the range of services he offers dog owners: pet obedience, personal protection, behavior modification, police and security, search and rescue, and much more.
Each skill takes a specific kind of training and tools – simple things like bright balls for teaching dogs to fetch and retrieve to special padded, bite-proof suits he wears to train dogs to take down suspects.
If that is not enough, Allen trains all breeds of dogs, and each of those has specific behavior characteristics that vary widely.
“Some of your smaller breeds (like terriers), I spend a lot of time just getting the dog to get involved in the training, getting them interested in the process. That can take a lot of time and patience,” he said. Other breeds, like his Dutch shepherd, Ranger, are very focused on their training and are well suited to police and security work.
Displaying his dog’s training at the soccer fields behind the Pell City Civic Center, Allen would throw an oversized tennis ball for Ranger, who would dash across the field, grab the ball and come barreling back to his trainer, who was now outfitted in the padded suit to practice take-down techniques.
Some positive reinforcement and rest time after training
For Ranger, Allen was his entire focus, even when a group of kids came out to an adjoining field to play football – an activity the year-old shepherd clearly thought would be great fun to take part in. But his training held. The kids were running all over the other end of the field, but the dog was all business, fetching, retrieving and practicing his takedowns and restraint moves on a suited-up Allen.
While most of the training is straight forward, some of the more complicated tasks, like drug and bomb searches, require more work and special equipment.
Some of the larger schools have special permitting that gives them access to real drugs and explosives to train the dogs with. Allen says he is not there yet, but there are legal alternatives to both drugs and explosives he is using now.
Particularly with the drugs, though, the alternatives are not the best option, and he hopes to have those permits in hand in the future.
“The problem with the fake drug scents is, take meth, for instance. The synthetic scents are just of the methamphetamine chemical. But in real life, those drugs are mixed and cut with all sorts of things like cleaning supplies. So, if the dog is looking for just the meth smell, they may miss the real thing because those other chemicals are not in the training scents,” he said.
For explosives, right now he and Ranger are just getting started, so he is using simple gunpowder.
“We have just started with that. I have him where he can find the explosive, but the trick is getting him to locate the gunpowder without digging for it. With explosives, you just want them to locate them, not actively start digging through stuff for them,” he said.
Allen prides himself in being able to work with all breeds and for all kinds of different training, whether he is helping a family obedience train a Chihuahua, someone who wants their dog trained for personal protection or working with law-enforcement agencies to make sure their K9 units are the best around.
That takes a lot of training for the dogs, but even more training for Allen, who continually works with schools and other trainers to sharpen his skills.
And he is quick to point out, a big part of the training, especially when it comes to professional K9 security dogs, picking out the right animal for the task and assessing their abilities and temperament are key. For those dogs, you want a steady, smart animal, preferably from a working breed that has the instincts.
“When we start working with a dog, that is one of the first things I look for,” he said. Since he has started, he has made a lot of progress in that regard, especially in spotting the “steady” dogs that have the ideal personalities for things like police work.
As is necessary for his new line of work, Allen is an avowed dog lover, and sees teaching and promoting responsible pet ownership as a responsibility he is more than willing to take on.
People need to research and learn about what kind of dog fits their lifestyle and schedule – working breeds need to be kept active and given “jobs” to do, or they don’t do well. Terrier breeds need to be given things to occupy their time, as well. Those breeds are not well suited to being left in apartments for long hours while their owners work.
Other breeds, like English bulldogs, are more suited to owners who might have longer working days. Beagles and spaniels tend to need regular social interaction.
“People need to know what they are getting themselves into with different breeds,” he said, and be willing to meet the needs of whatever pet they bring home. “I consider that a core part of what I do when I am working with people and their dogs,” he said.
Allen said he has, on more than one occasion, had to help owners – some of whom hired him to help train their dogs – find their pets new homes better fitted to their needs.
“I have never turned away a dog for training” or to help with a rescue animal finding a new home, he said.
That is all part of the job, and one that Allen loves.
On walking away from a career in computer coding and tech, Allen said he has absolutely no regrets.
“Not one. I love this,” he said.
Editor’s Note: You can learn more at AllianceK9.com
Kathy Haynes’ house is full of babies … about a thousand of them actually.
She is not like the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe and “had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.” Quite the contrary, Mrs. Haynes knows exactly how to treat each one of hers. And there is always room for one more.
“I am one of those crazy doll ladies,” said Mrs. Haynes, who lives in Moody. “This is what I do. It is my hobby.”
Her collection of dolls encompasses more than 160 years. Every doll has a unique story, and Mrs. Haynes can easily recount the fine details of each.
Kathy Haynes’ doll collection is about 1,000 strong.
One – an Effanbee Rosebud – spent much of its life in England, but somehow ended up in a Huffman antique shop where Mrs. Haynes bought her. She found some of her other dolls in thrift stores, garage sales, estate or doll sales and websites.
At a thrift store, she discovered a 1970s, red-haired Blythe doll that still worked and wore original clothes. “She was perfect, missing a shoe. I paid 59 cents for her and turned around that night and sold her for $1,000,” Mrs. Haynes said.
She found a Madame Alexander portrait doll in an Irondale thrift store. “I got her for $12.”
A 1950s Miss Revlon came from yet another thrift store. Miss Revlon cost Mrs. Haynes about $15. “Isn’t that unreal? But you have to know what you’re looking for,” Mrs. Haynes said.
The oldest of her brood is a flat-top, China-head doll Mrs. Haynes got for $15 at an antique store in Crestline. That treasure, dating to the 1860s, required a week of work to get all the cat hair off the dress.
The next oldest would be from the late 1800s, a Martha Chase doll and a papier mache doll with original clothes and, from around 1915, an Armand Marseille doll and two Kestner 171 dolls. The papier mache doll was a $10, thrift-store find.
Her collection fills several curios in her living room and dining room. Additionally, hundreds of dolls are on display in a designated room. A select few grace a guest room.
Her treasure trove also includes an Armand Marseille Queen Louise (circa 1915); Bye-Lo dolls with bisque or composite heads; Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls (1930s and ‘40s); Skookum Indian doll with papoose (1940s); Betsy McCall and large Mary Jane Effanbee dolls (1950s); Annalee soft-sculpture dolls; Barbies and more Barbies (1950s and across the decades); Little Miss Echo (1960s), and modern American Girl dolls, among others.
“I have a wide variety,” Mrs. Haynes said.
A love of teaching, history
For 30 years, Mrs. Haynes taught language and history to preteens in Trussville. She used an interactive method of teaching that, for example, encouraged students to “be” Egyptians for a day as they learned about the country. Mrs. Haynes would dress that day as Cleopatra.
Her whole family, in fact, is dedicated to conveying and preserving history. Husband Bob taught advance placement history to 10th and 11th graders in Trussville. Their son, Josh, has assumed that helm, along with coaching scholars’ bowl.
Mrs. Haynes cherishes things reminiscent of her childhood and items with a story, such as antique pieces handed down in the family. She collects cookie jars, Hummels, green and pink Depression Era glass, Byers Carolers, Raggedy Ann and Andy and stuffed bears. One of the bears was created by Trussville doll artist Jan Shackelford.
Even the family pets have their stories. Chance, for instance, is a rescue dog. Mrs. Haynes said her husband gave the dog that name because “we were giving him a chance, and he was giving us a chance.”
Because of her love for history, Mrs. Haynes said the intriguing background of Alabama Baby dolls would make them the dearest in her collection.
An Armand Marseille Queen Louise doll dates to about 1915. An American Character Toodles with “follow me” eyes is in the background.
According to the Library of Congress and The American Folklife Center, Alabama Baby dolls were made in Roanoke, Ala., by Ella Gauntt Smith. In 1897, a neighborhood girl brought her broken bisque doll to Smith to repair. Smith was a seamstress, whose hymn-singing parrot would sit on her shoulder while she worked.
Smith experimented two years before finding the right method to repair the doll. From that, her doll-making business was born. In 1901, Smith received her first patent (albeit in her husband’s name). At the height of her business, about a dozen women worked with her, helping to create the plaster-headed dolls with fabric bodies. She was the first southern doll maker to produce Black dolls.
“These dolls are very special,” said Mrs. Haynes, who has four Alabama Baby dolls. One is a rare, barefoot Alabama Baby.
Though Alabama Baby dolls are Mrs. Haynes’ favorite, Chatty Cathy dolls would be a close second.
She has more than 100 Chatty Cathy dolls. She pulled the cord on one doll to demonstrate that its talk box still functions like new. “Tell me a story,” the doll proclaimed; with a subsequent pull, the doll asked, “Will you play with me?”
Smiling, Mrs. Haynes said, “I think she is a doll. Well, she is a doll!”
The different family groupings of Chatty Cathy dolls that Mrs. Haynes has assembled constitute a collection within a collection. She has Charmin’ Chatty, Chatty Baby, Tiny Chatty Baby, Chatty Brother and Singin’ Chatty dolls.
They feature varying styles and colors of hair, but almost all are wearing original outfits. Mrs. Haynes noted that Barbie and Chatty Cathy dolls shared the same fashion designer.
Holding a Black Tiny Chatty Baby doll, Mrs. Haynes remarked that very few of them were made. “Isn’t she cute?” Mrs. Haynes asked.
Mrs. Haynes also has rare Canadian Chatty Cathy dolls, which, unlike their American cousins, have glass eyes and pinker skin tones.
“I think I have about 10 Canadian ones in all,” she said.
When Mrs. Haynes was a child, her beloved Chatty Cathy doll was accidentally left in a park one day. She and her mother returned quickly to look for it, but the doll was gone.
Decades later, when Mrs. Haynes was in her 30s, her husband bought a blonde Chatty Cathy to replace the one she had lost.
“I just have a very sweet husband, … a blessing from the Lord, … a good Christian man,” Mrs. Haynes said.
Bob’s gift sparked 30 years of doll collecting, which has become an activity the couple enjoys together.
“He has always supported me,” Mrs. Haynes said. “… Bob just got into (doll collecting) with me. He went to doll shows with me. Now, he can tell you as much about Chatty Cathy as I can.”
Sharon Kirby of Vestavia Hills, who is president of The Birmingham Doll Club of Alabama, noted Mrs. Haynes’ extensive knowledge about Chatty Cathy dolls. She said Mrs. Haynes, who is first vice president, gave a presentation on Chatty Cathy to the club, which is the oldest United Federation of Doll Clubs (UDFC) group in the state. Kirby was so impressed with the presentation that she has encouraged Mrs. Haynes to give it at other UDFC groups.
“She just did a really wonderful job. … You could tell she was a teacher. … Everyone learned a lot,” Kirby said.
Kirby mentioned the interesting bit of trivia that Chatty Cathy and “Rocky” of the cartoon “Rocky and Bullwinkle” were voiced by the same person, June Foray.
Both Kirby and Mrs. Haynes said dolls not only offer a look into the past, but also preserve snippets of yesteryear.
“Dolls are a form of art,” Mrs. Haynes said. “They are also a part of our history.”
Kirby added, “Dolls kind of represent a snapshot of history at the moment – the fashion, the trends, I guess even the materials available.” They exemplify technology from their particular era, such as the mechanism that allowed Chatty Cathy to speak.
Through the generations, dolls have helped to teach children to use zippers and buttons, to nurture and “even to cut hair,” Kirby said, with a chuckle. “… If you like dolls, you see the beauty and value in them.”
Barbara Eiland of Trussville said she likes to see Mrs. Haynes’ “amazing” assortment of dolls. “They’re very interesting.”
Eiland, a long-time friend, described Mrs. Haynes as a caring person who diligently and lovingly attends to the needs of family, relatives, friends and neighbors. Mrs. Haynes is thoughtful, too, she said. After learning that Eiland, as a girl, loved Penny Brite dolls, Mrs. Haynes got her one.
“I thought that was so sweet of her to do that,” Eiland said. “… That meant a lot to me.” l
Every year, millions of bright-eyed, mystified children are tucked into their beds on Christmas Eve, too excited to sleep, for it is the night that unites children across the globe.
It’s the night Santa Claus takes flight, his sleigh guided by nine reindeer who will be visiting their homes, bringing toys and treats, and on Christmas morning, children across the world rush to see what St. Nick has brought them.
Santa Claus is pure magic, and his visits create memories that last well into adulthood.
Santa and his helpers reenact Beatles’ Abbey Road cover in downtown Pell City.
For St. Clair County native Michael Gaither, his heart for St. Nick never left him after childhood, and he finds passion, purpose and joy each year embodying Santa for St. Clair County and the region.
Gaither will put on his red suit, black boots, belt complete with intricate embellishments for the third year this Christmas season and will be quite busy visiting children and adults alike – making his list and checking it twice.
Gaither is not only jolly St. Nick during the holidays, but a registered nurse for over 26 years, a paramedic and firefighter starting with the Lincoln Fire Department, and his desire to serve others as a paramedic and firefighter has spanned many stops over 34 years, including the Talladega Paramedic Department. He was a pioneer in opening the first ambulance service in St. Clair County. He is still a volunteer firefighter the New London Fire Department today.
When asked how the idea to become Santa first crossed his mind, he said it was from an old friend from his fire department days who also had experienced playing Santa. “Why do you look like Santa?” Gaither asked. The friend simply replied, “Because I am.” On that day, a spark ignited in Gaither’s heart. “The more and more I thought about it and after listening to how much (the friend) loved it, and all the joy it created, I was sold,” Gaither explained. “There was no turning back.”
The preparations that go into becoming Santa each year are no easy feat. “Growing a Santa beard happens during the hottest months of the year, and I have to add Santa pounds which is a perk I enjoy, putting on my Santa body,” Gather jokingly explained.
Gaither also expounded on the intricacies of creating and caring for his iconic Santa suit. He recalled that the benchmark Santa suit is the Coca-Cola Suit. The suit comes with an upwards of $4,000 price tag.
He explained that becoming Santa is an expensive endeavor if it is to be done correctly. A good, professional-grade suit costs in the neighborhood of $1,000. “That’s just the suit,” he explained. “When you add real boots, glasses, gloves and belt trim and accessories, the total cost is well over $2,000,” Gaither noted. He also said most people do not realize that it takes more than one suit to make it through a holiday season. In addition, the suits have to be specially dry-cleaned.
Santa goes ‘toonin’
Reminiscing over fond memories of his own childhood and experiences with St. Nick, joy quickly took over his face as he recalled those emotions and fond memories of Christmases past. “The excited feeling of rushing to bed on Christmas Eve is one that a child cherishes for a lifetime, and I vividly remember we always read Twas The Night Before Christmas, and the fun of setting up the cookies and milk,” Gaither recalled. “I also remember standing in line to see Santa and thinking hard about what I was going to say and what I wanted. Visiting Santa is serious business when you’re a kid,” Gaither said.
Gaither recalled some of the funniest and quirkiest requests he has received from children over the years. These range from stop signs, ice cream trucks, cheese fries and a bag of concrete and chicken wire. “Once I had a young boy ask me to get his Dad out of jail because all he was doing was growing plants in the backyard,” Gaither recalled, laughing. “That was a good one – definitely caught me off guard.”
Children are full of imagination and should be completely innocent to the bad things that go on in the world. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Gaither said he has also had some heart wrenching requests. “Once a little girl asked me if I could make her sister be able to see the presents I brought her because her eyes don’t work. I also have many, many requests to make a parent come home from a deployment.”
Santa also admitted that out of all nine reindeer, all of whom he loves dearly loves – he does, in fact, have a favorite. “Rudolph takes the crown, hands down,” he said. “He is quite clearly the captain of the ship and the rest of the crew would be dysfunctional without his leadership. He loves traveling, he is a little shy, he loves to help others, and he is most definitely a natural born leader,” Gaither said.
Last year, Santa’s visits and getting to see children in hospital, nursing home and other settings looked quite different. “I did get to be Santa, of course, but it was hard last year,” Gaither said. “Santa had a mask just like you do, and I did visit a lot of healthcare facilities to say ‘Thank You.’”
Over the course of his career, Gaither said it has been one of the greatest blessings of his life. He has delivered babies, held the hands of people as they took their last breath. “Sometimes it’s as simple as offering a smile to someone in their darkest hours,” Gaither said. “To do healthcare you must have a servant’s heart, and it is not for the faint of heart.”
When asked about working on the front lines during the age of COVID, Gaither took a moment before humbly stating, “COVID really took some of the personal touch out of healthcare. In some cases, families could not be together in their darkest and last moments. This is something I would have never would have dreamed of happening,” Gaither said.
He has served as the director of Emergency Services for Grandview Medical Center. “Not many people get to say they have opened and moved a hospital,” Gaither joked. The year Grandview opened, Gaither was awarded Clinical Manager of the Year for his role in opening the Emergency Department and along with moving all the patients from the hospital at Montclair to Grandview.
Today, Gaither works for Brookwood Baptist Medical Center, the Tenet Corporation, as a patient safety officer and risk manager. He also holds a juris doctor from the Birmingham School of Law.
From health care to Santa care
Stepping out of his scrubs and into his Santa suit is one of Gaither’s greatest joys. “You can empower kids to spread love, joy and peace – and the true meaning of Santa by simply telling them ‘Santa is love and magic and hope and happiness.’” Santa Claus, he explained, is a symbol of the true meaning of Christmas – the reason for the season. His names come from the source of Christmas – Christ himself. Jesus Christ was a man who gave freely and represents the best that there is in mankind. “Santa is a symbol of the greatest gifts of Heaven and Earth,” Gaither said.
Although his schedule is quickly filling up, Santa is offering “new traditions” this year. These include in-home Christmas “tuck in” service – complete with story time, photos and cookie making.
He is also available for live video chats in addition to traditional holiday parties, photo sessions and retail events.
Editor’s Note:To find out more about these services, Gaither may be reached at (205) 329-3570 or via email, SantaMG@mail.com.
