Heads and tales: Our towns
By Wade Kwon
Signed, sealed, delivered: We’ve discussed churches as pillars of rural communities, but let’s not forget post offices. In tiny Alabama towns, the postmaster is not just the giver of mail, but the keeper of gossip, the payer of bills and … the weigher of babies and turkeys. Said Emelle Postmaster Janet Hutcherson, “They don’t think of me as a federal servant. They think of me as a friend.”
• Heart of town [Tuscaloosa News]
Rane of preservation: You may know the YellaWood commercials, but what about the town that YellaWood built? Abbeville is in a civic revival, with help from one of the town’s companies, Great Southern Wood Preserving, and its founder Jimmy Rane. The company has put $1 million into revitalization projects during the last decade. A former gas station is now the company’s purchasing department, and a dentist’s office is now a subsidiary company’s headquarters. Says on historian, “You can stroll down Kirkland Street and see Jimmy Rane’s tracks and his impact on both sides of the street.”
• Yella Fella preserves wood and hometown [Birmingham News]
Up Highway 72: Florence is becoming known for its fashion, with two designers calling it home. And if you’re in town, ask for the fried chicken and fried okra at the Hollywood Inn. Not because we’ve tried it, we’re just late for lunch.
• Florence, Alabama — Fashion Capital of the South [New York Times]
Also:
- Legislature hustles to placate voters with spending, stances
- Bus driver ignores ‘exact change rule,’ but just this once
- Only lost items found in lost-and-found bin
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