Tag: Features

Eye in the Sky

Capitalizing on the business of aerial drones

Story by Jim Smothers
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

You can thank General George S. Patton if you’ve seen a small UFO buzzing around Lake Logan Martin recently. Chances are good you were watching one of David Smith’s remote controlled copters. Smith and his son, Cameron, have three copters set up for taking videos and still photos, and they hope to get in on the ground floor of potential business opportunities using the small flying machines.

What does Patton have to do with it?

The colorful general put one of his ivory-handled pistols to the head of Smith’s father, Walter, during one of his infamous fits of anger during World War II. That evening, motorcycle courier Smith saw a sign in the mess hall asking for volunteers to sign up for the Army Air Corps, which seemed a much more attractive place to serve.

Smith flew 49 missions in B-17s, most of them in a bomber he named for his wife, the Birmingham Jewell. That plane flew 128 missions, a record at the time.

Smith returned to Alabama to operate an aviation business that inspired his sons to learn about flying, a family tradition now reaching down to his great grandson.

David Smith seemed destined to get involved with today’s generation of remotely controlled aircraft. His background includes remotely controlled aircraft, he’s been a licensed General Aviation pilot for 30 years, he worked as an electronics communication technician for a number of years, and more recently he has worked as a videographer for ESPN. If you’ve seen Chris Fowler and Desmond Howard on ESPN’s College Game Day, you’ve seen his work. He hasn’t missed a national championship game in 20 years.

Smith started flying string-controlled model airplanes when he was seven years old, and graduated to flying radio-controlled airplanes as a teenager. He and his brother, Walt, once mounted a small camera in the cockpit of one of their models and succeeded in taking photos during flight using old-school technology.

Call them what you will — drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, multirotor systems or remotely controlled airplanes and helicopters — they’ve gotten a lot of attention in the past few years. Military uses first caught the world’s attention, with pilots comfortably and safely operating surveillance and weapons systems from a safe distance, sometimes a half a world away.

Now there are remotely controlled copters so small and inexpensive they are being sold as toys and recommended for indoor use only.

Flightworthy units are also becoming more available and more affordable, opening the doors to new opportunities for recreation and service to more people.

Smith sees a number of ways to use the machines as flying camera platforms to provide valuable visual information in a number of ways. The regulatory environment is currently something of a gray area. The Federal Aviation Administration has been given until next year to propose rules and regulations for the small flying machines, and Smith wants to get in on the ground floor of providing low level aerial photography services.

He’s a member of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), and he’s taking pains to be responsible with his flights.

“We don’t fly higher than 400 feet, we always keep a line of sight on them, and there’s always a spotter with me,” he said. “We also have $2 million of liability insurance.”

When taking a copter up, Smith is the pilot, and Cameron is the photographer. Cameron also makes sure his dad isn’t interrupted while flying.

“If you’re out where other people are around, sometimes they’ll want to come up and talk while you’re flying,” he said. “Cameron talks to them until we get it back on the ground.”

Smith said they’re careful not to fly over people, and to get permission before flying over other people’s property.

He and others interested in using the new technology are concerned that negative publicity could result in overregulation that would impair growth of a the new industry.

“The Association (AUVSI) estimates that by 2018 there could be 70,000 jobs created and $2 billion changing hands,” he said.

As for how they could be used, Smith said they could be helpful in many ways.

“Farmers could fly these over fields to survey crops and see if there are any problem areas, such as where water is needed. They could be used for inspections for cell phone and radio towers, solar panels and windmills without having to send a man up there,” he said.

They could also be used to assist in the inspections of bridges and steeples, reducing the danger and expense of putting a person at risk. Aerial photography can be used to monitor progress at construction sites, to survey tracts of property, and in providing detailed mapping. They could also be used in searches for missing persons and surveying damage after a storm or flood.

And of course, there are more traditional uses of the airborne cameras, providing new angle for photos and videos of landmarks, recreational activities, landscapes and more.

“There are thousands of ways these things can be used to make our lives better,” Smith said. “I see them all the time in movies and reality TV shows, too. You can tell. These can’t be flown higher than 400 feet, but airplanes and helicopters aren’t supposed to fly below 1,000 feet. There’s a much more detailed view at the lower level.”

But he has concerns about how negative publicity could result in unreasonable restrictions being placed on their use.

Even though they’re being used all over the country and around the world, most of the time news articles are written when there is a problem with them.

Smith mentioned a case in Serbia when someone flew a remote copter onto a soccer field carrying an Albanian flag during a match between the two countries.

“That just about caused a riot,” he said. “I don’t want to see idiots ruin it for the people that want to make a living doing this.”

He said reactions to the machines have been mixed. Most people seem to be interested and impressed by what they can do. Some see them as a threat to privacy.

“These things are as noisy as they can be,” Smith said. “I don’t see how you could use them to spy on anyone. But like anything else, it’s all in the hands of whoever is using it.”

Smith has used his copters to capture videos of windsurfers on the lake, unique views of Bald Rock at Mount Cheaha, of watching the floodgates open at Logan Martin Dam and many other scenes.

While there are toy remote copters available very cheaply, those capable of carrying higher quality cameras cost a bit more. The Smiths currently have three copters and accessories valued at about $30,000. Two of the units are DJI Phantom quadcopters equipped with GoPro cameras. The third is a more expensive and more powerful octocopter, which carries a Canon digital SLR. The camera mount for that copter — the gimbal — is equipped with servo motors to provide movement for different angles of view, and is so finely balanced it works only with one specific camera model and one specific lens. The gimbal alone was a $3,000 expense.

The octocopter with the camera mounted and batteries installed weighs in at 22 and a half pounds and provides about 15 minutes of flight time on a set of rechargeable batteries, which cost about $600.

The models he uses are equipped with GPS sensors that can detect their precise launching point. In the unlikely case that the remote control should fail, they are programmed to return to that spot on their own. They also sense their own battery levels, and are programmed to return to that spot before they lose power.

Smith said he typically spends about three hours on maintenance for every hour of flight time. He uses a torque tool to check every screw on every copter, and keeps logs on how many times each battery is used and charged. And like any good pilot, he uses checklists to make sure he’s not overlooking anything that could result in a failed flight.

Editor’s note: Smith expects his website to be up by the time this edition of Discover is published, where viewers can see some of his videos. Check it out at StarAerial.com

Features

Welcome Home for Christmas

Holidays at the Capps
house a special treat

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Michael Callahan

When Deanna Capps and her late husband, Curtis, were planning their new house, they wanted something light and airy that would bring the outdoors inside.

Curtis didn’t have a whit of architectural training, yet designed a two-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath home with spacious rooms that flow easily from one to another. Although Deanna has changed the function of a couple of those rooms, the design retains its original intent.

“This house floats” is the way Deanna describes it. “I like to entertain, and people can float from one room to another.”

It’s difficult to describe the style of the house. With its stone steps and pillars, stucco walls, wide, wrap-around porch and clerestory windows, Craftsman cottage meets Mediterranean villa comes to mind. Deanna says she doesn’t have a theme to her decor, either. She likes to mix things up so she doesn’t get bored. That’s why some kitchen cabinets are brown, some are black. Some drawer pulls are in the shape of roosters, others are plain. Kitchen counter-tops are granite and marble in three different color combinations.

African animals are repeated, but not enough to become a theme. The great room is home to a mother elephant and her baby, an adult giraffe and a zebra. A baby giraffe guards the loft bedroom. There’s a ceiling fan with pond-frond blades in almost every room. And everywhere, on almost every wall, is Deanna’s artwork. Three-dimensional musical instruments hang over the piano in the Great Room, while landscapes, animals, angels and crosses are everywhere.

“Angels are my signature,” she says. “I started painting when my husband was sick. It kept me busy and my mind occupied on spiritual things.” Curtis Capps, who owned Royal Foods next door to the house, died in July of 2013 after a two-and-a-half-year illness.

Deanna’s right about the house floating. The great room that runs the width of the front leads into the eat-in kitchen, which leads to a hall that’s flanked by pantries the size of small bedrooms. Down that hall is the master bedroom. A series of pocket doors open the bedroom into a bath, the bath into another bedroom, and that bedroom into a back hallway that, in turn, leads to a bathroom-cum-closet and large laundry room. Of course, guests don’t wander into the master bath. But if they did, they could hold a party in that room alone.

“The master bathroom is bigger than my bedroom,” Deanna admits.

A 109-year-old grand piano dominates one side of the great room. A whimsical polyresin butler stands silently in one corner, between the powder room and the stairway leading to the loft. “He doesn’t wait on anybody, he just holds our instruments,” Deanna says, pointing to the bowed psaltery in his outstretched hands.

A long, farmhouse table separates the seating area from the music area. While the table seats 10, Deanna frequently sets up smaller tables to accommodate larger crowds. “I used to bring folks home from church for Sunday dinner, to get to know them,” she says. Her church is First United Methodist of Pell City, where Deanna is keyboardist for the contemporary service.

The seating area has a red leather couch and two matching love seats that face a stone fireplace with the television mounted into the stone above it. “We don’t have a problem with the piano at one end and TV at the other, because we don’t use both at the same time,” Deanna says.

A powder room under the stairs features a crown bowl with bamboo-style faucet and fixtures and has faux-painted walls with a ceiling of gold and gold leaves. Local artist Laura Darnell painted the twig-themed red wall behind the sideboard next to the powder room door to pick up the red in the sideboard.

Overlooking the Great Room is a loft bedroom with twin “swing beds,” as Deanna describes them. The beds are held to the ceiling by chains, but are also attached to a wall and held up by floor posts. Sateen quilts with gold-threaded patches of bright turquoise, hot pink, blue and orange cover the beds, while a Tiffany-style lamp tops a small table at each head. A bath and closet are at the far end of the loft. “The grandchildren always loved this room,” Deanna says. “They’re 18 and 20 now, but they still use it when they come to visit.”

In the kitchen, pendant lights with glass prisms hang over a bar-height table. In fact, the house is full of prisms, another way of bringing light inside. “The glass in the front door was cut to reflect lights,” Deanna says. “It’s particularly beautiful at night when car lights reflect as colors. The window above the front door has prisms around its perimeter, and the kitchen blinds are silver-reflective, like metal. I can sit in my breakfast nook and see who is coming up the drive by looking in the window next to it.”

The slate flooring starts in the kitchen, then continues through the hallway and into the pantries. It’s repeated in the master bath and dressing room, the back hallway and laundry room. One of those pantries measures 10 feet by 7 feet and serves as a preparation and clean-up area when Deanna hosts dinner parties. It has an ice maker, sink, dishwasher, toaster-oven and other small appliances. “It’s like a second kitchen,” Deanna says. “The prep and clean-up can be done in here, which cuts down on the visible mess and leaves the main kitchen free for serving people.” Across the hall is the butler’s pantry, with a second refrigerator and storage for china and glassware.

The hallway leads into the master bedroom, which Deanna also uses as her office. It has a curved desk for her computer and shelves in one corner, and twin, horizontally-mounted Bogie fans Deanna never uses. “They’re strictly for looks,” she says. “I’m afraid to use them, because they aren’t balanced.”

Dominating the bedroom is the mural that covers one wall. Another creation by Laura Darnell, whose signature is Genesis. It’s a blue sky with fluffy white clouds and flying doves. Deanna’s own small painting of an angel, which is her signature, repeats the sky motif in such a way the painting melts into wall, as if they were one.

The master bathroom features not only his-and-hers sinks and vanities, but his-and-hers toilets, each in its own little marble cubicle with twig sconces. The double shower is large enough to dance in, and Deanna recently removed a leaky hot tub from one corner of the bathroom to add a walk-in tub.

Behind the bath is what Deanna calls her Pink Room. Originally a sitting room, it became Curtis’s sickroom after he suffered a stroke. Pink was Curtis’s favorite color, so after he died, Deanna moved out the hospital bed and moved in iron twin beds with pink bedspreads. The beds face an electronic keyboard where Deanna sometimes practices for Sunday morning worship in the middle of the night when she can’t sleep.

“It soothes my soul,” she says.

Behind the keyboard is the carport that the Capps screened in to become a sunroom before Curtis died so Deanna could wheel him through the French doors to enjoy the fresh air and scenery. Off the back hall is the laundry room and a former bathroom that she turned into a closet. “I needed storage space more than another bath,” she explains.

Outside, behind the screened carport, Deanna has an outbuilding that she calls her flower house. It’s where she stores seasonal decorations and silk floral arrangements, which she designs herself. She normally decorates for Christmas before Thanksgiving, and leaves the decorations up until February. Why?

“Because I enjoy them,” she says.

Deanna Capps House

68 photos

Features

Where the Road Takes You

Driving directions to
St. Clair’s scenic spots

Words and Photos by Michael Callahan

For many of us growing up, the Sunday evening drive was something both parents and children looked forward to. It became something of a ritual down through the decades. I was fortunate that my father was something of an explorer. He never found a main or side road that he did not want to investigate. As my Mom often said, “There is not a pig trail” in this county your father has not been down. This was a trait he passed along to this writer/photographer son.

Somewhere between finishing high school, furthering my education, marrying and the demands of life, my spirit of adventure and my father’s beloved Sunday evening drive got lost. Add to that Arab oil embargoes in the mid-1970s and for so many of us, a wonderful tradition was all but lost.

The good news these days is that oil prices are on a decent downward trend. Add to that fact we live in a beautiful county with diverse landscapes from the northern to southern county boundaries, and we have the makings for many a great Sunday evening drives.

So this writer/photographer, armed with a full tank of gas and ample photographic gear, spent many days traversing scenic roads in the northern part of our county to capture some new memories. Why the northern part? Well, elevations bring out a bit more color during the Fall season. What I want to leave you with is a sense of, “Hey that looks like a great way to spend a couple of hours on Sunday evening.”

Starting out on U.S. 231 from Pell City, I made my way north toward the Ashville area. As I passed the city limits of Ashville and started my climb up Straight Mountain, the views were becoming exactly what I had hoped for. At the top of the mountain, I turned on to County Road 12. I drove roughly 100 yards and turned on to County Road 24 for a short but winding trip of about two miles. As I rounded the final curve, an immense vista of St. Clair County lay before me. It is a view you will want to relish and just stand and soak in. Bring a camera. You will need it. Too soon I had to move on. As I started back down Straight Mountain into the valley, the mist made for some wonderful viewing.

At the bottom of the mountain, I turned hard left onto County Road 35/Gallant Road and immediately was in awe of the views unfolding before me. Further down the road, I turned left onto County Road 44/Camp Sumatanga Road. As you can see from our pictures, you must take the Camp’s loop road. Back onto Gallant Road, awesome views were around for many a mile.

Wanting to explore further, I came back down Gallant Road and turned onto County Road 42/Chandler Mountain Loop Road. After ascending the mountain, Horsepens 40 invited me to make a short visit. What a place. Rock climbers from all over the world come here to try their skills against some of the incredible rock formations — a must see.

Continuing down the loop road, I was treated to wonderful scenic views of the rim of Chander Mountain to the east. Just a quarter mile down the road, the tomato fields stretched out before my windshield for hundreds of acres. Stopping by a roadside produce stand, I was able to buy some of the last succulent Chandler Mountain tomatoes of the season. You can also grab a five-gallon bucket and pick them right out of the fields yourself.

As I made my way back down to U.S. 231, I knew my next drive would be U.S. 411. Just go to the square in downtown Ashville and head northeast on 411. Beautiful farms and huge expanses of “Big Sky” await you. While driving down 411, I decided to turn right onto Mountain Spring Road leading over to County Road 33. I was rewarded with scenic farms and large expanses of sky. Well, it was getting time for me to head back and wrap up my drive and returning down to 231, I came across the turn-off to County Road 26. I had to stop and capture some of this beautiful valley before I wrapped up the afternoon.

Just so you folks that take short drives don’t think we have left you out, I have included some short but really nice drives you can do close to home. So go ahead and treat yourself and your family. Just sit back and enjoy the drive in this breathtakingly beautiful county we call home.

Photographer’s Note: Thanks to Mr. Roland Thomas, who inspired this article, and Jerry Smith of Discover Magazine, who served as a tireless tour guide for my camera and me.

Scenic St. Clair Drives

53 photos

Features

One PCHS graduating class, lots of talent

Story by Graham Hadley
Photos from Jim Tollison, Chad Richey, Adam Miller

Billions of dollars — money in the ten-digit range — is an astronomical sum, by any standards.

For a group of three close friends from St. Clair County, though, it is all in a day’s work. In fact, they are not only all from St. Clair County, they all graduated from Pell City in the same year — PCHS Class of ‘92.

Jim “Jimbo” Tollison is a vice president and the Talladega Branch manager for Alabama Farm Credit. Chad Richey is a senior vice president with a CFP designation from the Board of Certified Financial Planners and is working as a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch and as senior resident director for their office in Birmingham Southeast. And Adam Miller is an underwriting team leader for Regions Bank.

Though all of these men are very successful in the financial world, every single one of them cut their teeth in very different job markets: Chad working for his father’s timber company. Jim worked on his family farm and with his dad working on heavy machinery, then he and Adam ended up working for Rock Wool Manufacturing — a large insulation company in St. Clair.

And though Chad had an interest in finance, none of them really had any idea they would end up in top financial positions, and certainly not as quickly as they did.

All of them were what can conservatively be called “free spirits” in high school, and not everyone was even sure they would go to college.

“When Jimbo and I were young, we would run up and down I-20 as fast as we could go. You might not have thought we would be doing this today,” Chad said.

Chad Richey
“I grew up working for my dad in the excavation business, working heavy equipment since I was 14 years old. That will put a work ethic in you,” Chad said. He had always had an interest in finances, but getting from working in timber to what he likes to think of as a financial and investment educator had its pitfalls.

He got his degree from Birmingham-Southern College and was ready to work for Merrill Lynch.

“I went and took a test and they told me I was not qualified,” he said.

So he went back to work for his father’s company. “I was on a business call and ran into a guy from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, he said come by and see if we have a job for you.”

As part of that process, Chad found himself in New York City in August 2001 — at one point at the top of the World Trade Center.

“I come home, go to work on Tuesday, and see those buildings come down. I cheated death. That is when I decided to get my priorities right and stop acting like Jimbo (Tollison) and I did when we were young. You only have a small time on the planet,” he said.

He knuckled down on his work — and he also settled down. “That is when I called up my, now, wife Janet. We got together and now we have three kids, Jack, 11; Robert, 9; and Guy, 5.

He tapped into his blue-collar work ethic instilled in him growing up — he still does — and things started moving his way.

“It’s a good upbringing. I come into this office and put a blue-collar attitude into it. I come in here and I work. In the beginning, I started out working late — it drove my wife crazy. I would come home around 9 at night. I was doing all these cold calls, it was hard work.

“Then I came over to Merrill Lynch running a small office, a starter job. Then I came here. I used that blue-collar attitude and it has served me well,” he said.

His office serves thousands of households and handles billions of dollars in investments.

“I have a big job at Merrill. I am not only a financial advisor on a team, I am the senior resident director of the office. I supervise every employee in this place. My team gives advice on over $240 million in assets, and my supervisory responsibility is around 3.3 billion in assets.”

The other half of his work, Chad sees himself as something of a financial guide for his clients.

“I was always intrigued by the way money works. I did not know what I wanted to do, but I was also good with people. That is perfect for what I do. I want every family to have a family financial strategy for the future,” he said. “The way I can make a difference in the world is to teach people to go out and save up enough money on their own without the government having to take care of them.

“That’s what keeps me going. You have to have a higher purpose, you can’t just come in here and charge people to make them money.”

Eventually, because of the commute from Birmingham to St. Clair, Chad moved his family to Mountain Brook. “I got tired of having to rush home and change clothes in the car in the civic center parking lot before my kids games. So we moved here,” he said. But St. Clair is never far from his heart.

“I wanted to bring the family closer to my work, and I am only 45 minutes away from Pell City when I want to come back,” he said.

And since he and his St. Clair friends like Jim have remained close, those trips come often.

Jim “Jimbo” Tollison
While Chad had an inkling he wanted to go into finance, Tollison had … none.

“I had not really planned on going to college. (Pell City High School teacher) Deanna Lawley encouraged me to go. She had grown up around Lewis Grizzard. I had always liked him, liked journalism, so I went to Jacksonville State University in journalism,” he said.

And he was just spinning his wheels.

He ended up back working with his Dad again on the family farm and in his business.

“I went on a service call — my Dad worked for a forklift repair company — to Rock Wool Manufacturing with him and they needed some workers. Dad said, ‘Hell, hire him.’ And that was the beginning of me working in insulation for the next few years.

“I would go to school during the year and work over the summer, work seven days a week, sometimes up to my armpits in insulation.”

In fact, at one point, he helped Adam get a job there, and the two of them worked together — the reality of working that job and a serious accident changed Jim’s outlook on life and on what he wanted to do.

“I had an accident, nearly burned my face off. Chad was there. We were burning some stuff and were stupid and used gasoline to start the fire. It blew up in my face. I spent two months in bandages — did not know if I would have a face,” Jim said.

Chad said he was the one who put Jim out that day.

It made Jim take a second look at the path he was on.

“I thought I would have to go to Atlanta to be a journalist. A lot of my professors told me you had to start out in a big city. I just realized it that was not where I wanted to be. I realized I loved the farm, agriculture, and wanted to do something with it. I got the best bad advice from those journalism professors,” he said.

When he went back to school, it was not to JSU, but to Auburn University and he enrolled in agriculture business.

“I ended up at Auburn. I did not want to go straight into business, so I did agriculture economics and business. I took 21 hours a quarter just about every quarter there. I had transferred in as a junior.

“I had an 8 a.m. weed-out class, micro economics, and it was not that tough. I started nailing it — blew the curves. …”

Jim wanted to go back to St. Clair, but his professors told him that was not a realistic place for him to start his career.

“I told them I would rather dig ditches in St. Clair than work anywhere else. I wanted to come back to the farm. I always wanted to come back here,” Jim said.

“The Federal Land Bank, now Alabama Farm Credit, came to Auburn and interviewed me for a job. I liked the idea because it gave me the perfect mix of business and agriculture, which I love,” Jim said.

Like Chad, Jim had inherited a strong work ethic growing up, and he put it to good use in his new job at their branch in Albertville.

“I had gotten a really good work ethic from both of my parents. If you want something, you work for it. My Dad started out this farm with nothing. He bought it from his parents,” Jim said.

He started out in Albertville as an entry-level loan officer and appraiser. “I worked there for four or five years, then took over the Talladega branch in 2001 right before Sept. 11 and the economy stopped. It was the smallest of everything we had in Alabama, but it was mine. I was not branch manager, but I was in charge.”

Under Jim’s direction, even in the worst of economic times, the Talladega office has flourished, bringing in millions and millions of dollars in well-grounded loans.

“We turned it around. It was grass roots. We went out and talked to people. We have been blessed. … We are still one of the smallest, but we have the best in collections and credit quality of anyone. And because we are a coop, we can return some of the profit in a good year to our clients. Last year, that was $6.3 million in 27 counties in North Alabama,” he said.

Jim and his family have remained in St. Clair, building their house on the old family farm he shares with his parents near Ragland.

Adam Miller
You would think Adam would have been a natural pick at an early age for a future in finances given that his father is banker Ray Miller — someone all three give lots of credit to as being a mentor and a huge influence on their ultimate decisions to go that route.

And you would be wrong.

Jim and Chad both refer to Adam as the one they thought would go far in college, the “smart one” and the voice of reason (Adam had just left the day Jim lit his head on fire — “I regret that. I probably would have been like, ‘Guys, that is not such a good idea.’”)

“We would be walking down the road, Chad and I would be picking up rocks and throwing them. Adam would be picking up rocks and looking for fossils,” Jim said.

Adam agrees, “When I was growing up, there was no way I was going to be a banker like dad. From a the time I was a little kid, I wanted to be a meteorologist. That lasted through three years of college.”

Like Jim, he was just spinning his wheels after high school.

And like Jim, he ended up at Rock Wool working long, hot hours.

“After I had wandered around Tuscaloosa for a few years, enrolled more than attended, I ended up at the insulation plant. After working in the insulation plant from 3 to 3, it did not make it so hard to get up for that 9 a.m. class,” Adam said.

He got back in school — and like the other two, had something of an epiphany.

“I took a finance class and it went well and took another one that summer, loved that. It played into the analytical things I liked in science. I did not think I had an aptitude for math — as my high school teachers will attest to. But I had an aptitude for finances,” he said.

He was taking classes at JSU and credits several of the professors there with inspiring him and helping develop a work model he still employs today. One in particular, Professor Brown, would not only grade students’ tests, he would grade his own teaching — if everyone missed something, he would strike the question and reteach that.

“He had high expectations of us and himself. That is what I carry over into our business today. If I ask someone to do something, I have to be willing to do it at least as well,” Adam said.

Today, Adam is a regional underwriting manager for Regions Bank and is based out of Hoover, but before he got there, “I did a bit of everything” from getting his real estate license to working in manufacturing.”

“At Regions I have two underwriting teams serving the Eastern Time Zone for businesses under $20 million in revenue. It could be anything from medical practices to manufacturers. It’s a broad swath of the small-business sector.”

Their loan portfolio is in the $4 billion range. “That is what I am kind of held accountable for,” he said.

Much like his two friends — though their jobs are very different in nature — at the core is a desire to help people and businesses.

“What I do really is evaluate risk and propose solutions. The rewarding part of the job is digging in, getting to understand someone’s business and providing them with the appropriate credit for their needs, to help them manage their risks and grow their business in a healthy manner,” he said.

And like Chad and Jim, it is that strong work ethic learned growing up and forged working tough jobs early on that Adam says helped make him a success.

“It’s the same thing I tell everyone every day: I bring my lunch-pail mentality to work. Be glad for what you have and realize that there is a long line of people who would love to have the same opportunity I have. I come in and I work hard,” he said.

“There is no magic bullet. It’s that attitude of we can do this, whatever it may be. …

“And I was the guy who would be more apt to pick up the rock and examine it. It goes back to my analytical nature, and it goes to how I see business today. I don’t just see the rock, the business; I look at the whole business, look at how it works,” he said.

Working … and playing … together
Though they are all in very different finance jobs and separated by miles, the three friends remain close and see each other as often as they can.

“We are still good friends. We have never lost touch. We don’t get to hunt or fish as much as we would like — mostly because we have eight kids between us. But we are still tight and it make us cherish the time we have together better,” Adam said.

And they have no trouble mixing business and fun — often at the Tollison Farm.

“Next week, we are going to have a dove hunt here at the farm,” Jim said. “We will have Chad’s customers; we will have my customers. We will have food. Why not have a group of customers out here on the farm and make it work for you?”

They also often find it necessary to refer clients to each other. Jim will have a farmer client who needs estate planning services or needs financial advice, so he sends him to Chad.

“Sometimes, in my work, I will see people who need financial advising. Chad can help them do the things they need to do,” Jim said.

Likewise, Chad has referred some of his clients who are interested in branching out into agriculture to Jim.

Of course, it is not just the three of them anymore — like Chad, both Jim and Adam have families, so when the three friends get together, the party is somewhat bigger these days.

“My wife, Emily, and I were married in June of 2005 and have three children: Hudson, 7; Hayes, 4; and Mary Brooks, 2,” Adam said. Jim and Brooke Tollison were married the same year and have two children, Jay and Claire.

But at the core of everything is their friendship.

“We stuck together. Me and Adam and Jimbo are still good friends today. I took Adam to the Alabama game a couple of weeks ago,” Chad said, adding jokingly, “For Jim, of course, that would have been a punishment. He did email me, saying ‘Y’all don’t care about me anymore.’”

Adam said they each bring something uniquely their own to their relationship; they approach life differently, and that has been part of what cements their friendship.

“In all honesty, Jim needs to know how proud I am of him and his accomplishments, what he brings to the table as a friend and confidant. Chad is different, but also great. Chad had to work really hard to get where he is.

“They bring so much balance to the table. I would love to do a personality test on us, but I would bet it would show we all approach problem solving from a different angle,” Adam said, again, pointing out he is the voice of reason.

“I am probably the dead weight with that bunch, but was always glad to be along for the ride.”

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Pumpkin Paradise

Another Chandler Mountain natural wonder

Story by Carol Pappas
Photography by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

She jokingly refers to herself with the moniker, “the pumpkin lady.” If someone gets lost atop Chandler Mountain and can’t find her house, just tell the neighbors you’re looking for the pumpkin lady, she said. That’s the easiest way to reach your destination point.

It’s not difficult to get the connection. From the front gate to the house’s wrap-around porch to outside structures, they are filled with pumpkin displays — a collage of colors, sizes and varieties.

Out back and down the hill a bit, you’ll find the origin of them all —13 rows — at least 50 yards long — of more than 40 kinds of pumpkins. Cinderella (pumpkin, that is) hides beneath massive green leaves and vines. So does Fairy Tale. After all, those two started it all for Melinda Smith. But there’s plenty more, and the varying colors, sizes and looks are nothing short of amazing.

This is her 14th year of growing pumpkins, a tradition that started because a friend picked up some unusual heirloom pumpkins in Georgia — Cinderella and Fairy Tale — and gave her the seeds. Cinderella gets her name from the uncanny resemblance to Cinderella’s carriage, a similarity you immediately recognize. “It’s fun to watch them grow,” Smith said.

She could grow some to 50 pounds or more, but she likes to pick them from the field herself, so she opts for smaller versions during her growing season from the end of June to late August. “I save seeds every year,” and she orders more.

Husband Phillip is a third generation commercial tomato grower, and she shares some of the land for his crop to grow hers. She started small but the harvest seems to grow bigger each year.

Take a stroll around her yard, and you’ll find a cornucopia of color. An open air shed displays all kinds of pumpkins — large and small and in between — on shelves fashioned from old wooden tomato crates of her husband’s family business. They have names like Goosebumps Super Freak because of their bumpy exterior or Peanut Pumpkins, whose bumps resemble peanut shells.

An iron chandelier hangs from the center of the shed’s ceiling, each prong supporting a tiny orange pumpkin to give the illusion of lights. Just outside, you’ll find a display of all white pumpkins, a cotton plant acting as perfect complement.

On the other side, a shelf of pumpkins are set beneath the letters f-a-l-l, spelled out in twigs against an orange block background. It all overlooks a pond and tomato fields just beyond.

A storage building nearby isn’t your typical construction either. It looks more like a miniature home, and it, too, is filled with pumpkin displays. Its features, like the semi-rusted, corrugated metal rear wall, a fireplace mantel and the wood it took to build it are items she has saved over the years. “I’m into reusing stuff. I save old wood. I might use it one day.”

When told it’s called ‘repurposing’ these days, she laughs and says, “Of course, my husband has another name for it.”

No matter what you call it, it’s a paradise of pumpkins cleverly displayed and hinting at the discriminating, designing eye of the harvester.

And each year in the fall, she shares it all — her bounty and her talent. She holds a pumpkin patch party where people can come and buy pumpkins, enjoy the outdoors, have a few refreshments and bring the kids to play among the fruits of their parents’ finds. “We have smaller pumpkins for the kids to decorate,” she said. They even have their own table.

The party seems to have grown with the pace of her crop. Her mailing list has topped the 200-mark, and she has had more than 150 attend in years past. This year is her first weekend event, which is planned for Oct. 3-4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Oct. 5 from noon to 2.

She is expecting a big crowd to peruse the grounds for just the right color, texture and size for seasonal decorating. And if not decorating, all the pumpkins she grows are edible, she added.

“I tell them to bring a friend,” she said. And they apparently do. Once they find the pumpkin lady, word spreads.

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Tough Man Triathlon

Event a huge win for Pell City community

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Michael Callahan

At daybreak, hundreds of athletes lined the beach at Pell City Lakeside Park in mid-August, donned swim caps and readied for the first leg of Team Magic’s Tough Man Triathlon. More than 350 three-sport athletes representing 16 states got unique views of the city — on a swim, on a bike and on foot.

The triathlon involved a 1.2-mile swim in Logan Martin Lake that began at the beach and came out at the sports complex. A 56-mile bike ride took them from the Civic Center to US 231 South to Easonville Road and Highway 55 and back again. Then they ran for 13 miles down Airport Road to Hamilton Road and returned to the starting point.

It was more than a race and a grueling competition. It was an economic shot in the arm that has promoters excited about their prospects for next year, according to Race Chairman Ofes Forman. “It was awesome,” he said.

Planners speculated that every hotel room would be filled in Pell City, but Forman confirmed it. On Friday before the event, they were 100 percent full. On Saturday, each were between 80 percent and 100 percent full.

He visited restaurants, service stations and grocery stores and heard the testimonials of booming business for himself.

The race was three years in the making with research, planning and garnering support. It was believed to be a way to showcase Pell City and the lake. And when competitors finished the race and told organizers, “‘We’ll be back next year, and we’re going to tell people about it,’” they knew the city had a winner on its hands, Forman said.

There is discussion of next year’s date taking place now. And there is talk of a possible children’s triathlon, too.

Thanks to a hard-working committee — Jerrett Jacobs and Michael Murphy as co-chairs, and Erica Grieve, Holly Murphy, Elsie McGowan and Estelle Forman — Forman called the event great exposure for the city and the lake. “It drew in new money … like a holiday,” he said. For their support, he thanked the mayor, city manager and the Council, especially Council President James McGowan and Councilman Terry Templin. It took entities coming together in partnership to make it a reality.

And it offered an opportunity to boost tourism. “I really believe Pell City can become a tourist attraction,” Forman said. “It may not be on a big scale, but it can be on a small scale. We have a lake.” To attract people to the area, “we don’t have to build anything.”

What they have apparently built is a strong foundation to bring the event back next year – bigger and better than ever.

Toughman Triathlon

80 photos

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