Our
last family reunion was held in Tennessee in 2013. For the 2016
reunion we returned to Alabama where my parents, Ladell and Reva
Price spent their final years and were buried. We had held several
reunions in Alabama over the years, primarily because it was
convenient for my mother who survived my father by almost 26 years;
it is also a most convenient location for my brother Clarence and his
descendants who live in and around Arley, Alabama.
Reunion
planning was handled by a group of Ladell and Reva's grandchildren,
known collectively as “the cousins.” Clarence was undergoing
treatment for cancer at the time and the cousins did an excellent job
of selecting a venue, the Addison, Alabama Community Center, and
steering attendees away from his house. We were close enough to
Arley to visit with Clarence a few at a time and he was able to spend
some time with everyone at the meeting place in Addison.
Rosemary
and I planned our trip carefully so as to both minimize long travel
days and make the trip as short as possible. We drove 506 miles to
Santa Rosa, New Mexico on the first day. Santa Rosa was selected
because it was approximately a third of the way to Memphis where we
would stop for a two-day visit with Rosemary's sister Jeannine
Dorfman and her husband Mark.
About
20 miles west of Albuquerque, at the 66 Casino and Hotel. we crossed
the Rio Puerco, a tributary of the Rio Grande. The Rio Puerco is an
intermittent stream and would easily be crossed without notice except
for the old Parker Thru Truss bridge1
located alongside the present Interstate 40 Highway. The old bridge
(right), now closed to vehicular
traffic, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
I
passed this way often while working in the area and often promised
myself that someday I would stop and look more closely at the old
structure. Now the time had come; we made a rest stop at the casino
and then crossed the interstate and parked at the old bridge.
Rosemary waited in the car while I satisfied my urge to walk across
the bridge. In the photograph below, taken looking east toward
Albuquerque, our car can be seen just on the other side. The truck
seen at right is headed west on I-40. The red canopy seen at left is
at a gas station located on old Highway 66.
 |
Rio Puerco Bridge located 20 miles west of Albuquerque
|
We
crossed the Rio Grande, continued straight through Albuquerque and
were soon headed up the canyon south of Sandia Mountain that would
take us out of the Rio Grande Valley. The highway through
Albuquerque has been improved in recent years and we cruised all the
way through the city and up the canyon to Sedillo with the cruise
control set at 65 miles per hour. At Sedillo the speed limit again
increased to the states normal freeway limit of 75 MPH. We were in
Santa Rosa about an hour and a half later.
Being
no fan of Mexican food nor of what passes for American cuisine in
small-town New Mexico, I usually arrange to stay in Albuquerque and
then drive to Amarillo the next day when making a trip back east.
However, much to my surprise we found a new restaurant named Annies
had opened just up the street from the Holiday Inn Express where we
were staying. With an attentive staff and a wide selection of
well-prepared food, it is a welcome addition to the sparse culinary
landscape between Albuquerque and Amarillo. Another surprise at
Santa Rosa was half a dozen Tesla Charging Stations (left)
tucked neatly into the corner of the Holiday Inn Express parking lot.
Strangely enough, cars were parked at all of the charging stations
but not a single Tesla was anywhere in sight. Why, indeed, were
charging stations for such expensive cars even installed at a
moderately-priced motel.
The
next day, our second day on the road, we drove 430 miles to Midwest
City just east of Oklahoma City. Along the way we noted again, as we
had last year, the graceful wind turbines, their rotors spinning
lazily in the wind, that dot the landscape through the western Texas
Panhandle. They began to appear soon after we entered Texas and were
a constant presence along the northern side of the interstate for the
next fifty miles or so, almost to the outskirts of Amarillo.
We
stopped in Amarillo at the Texas Welcome Center where we were greeted
by a very friendly robin. He looked us over carefully and,
apparently deciding we were not a threat, volunteered to pose for a
picture (right).
As
we made our way east from Amarillo we encountered more windmills, in
one instance a large group of mills that were all still. We were not
sure whether this was due to maintenance on the feeder to the grid or
because it was a new group not yet placed into service. Whatever the
reason they were still idle when we made the return trip several days
later.
At
about mile marker 129 we stopped at a rest area devoted to telling
the story of old Route 66. I had traveled the old route over the
years and watched as it was gradually replaced by the Interstate
Highway System, I-55 from Chicago to Saint Louis, I-44 from Saint
Louis to Oklahoma City and I-40 from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles. I
drove Route 66 from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City when transferred
from the USS Thetis Bay to Great Lakes Naval Training Center in 1959.
That
1959 trip is reported in my book A Little Work and Some Luck, page
1672
as follows:
I
had been authorized a 30-day delay in reporting to my new duty
station. Intending to take full advantage of that delay, I picked
up my car and pointed it toward East Tennessee for a family visit
before reporting in at Great Lakes. Leaving Los Angeles on Route 66,
I followed it all the way to Oklahoma City, then took Route 62 to
Henryetta, OK, Route 266 to Warner, OK, Route 64 to Memphis, Route 70
to Crossville, TN, and State Hwy 68 to Tellico Plains, TN where the
family were still living on the small farm that I had bought a few
years before.
Three
years later, after completing my tour of duty at the Naval training
Center and attending Officers Candidate School at Newport Road
Island, I again drove on sections of Route 66 while returning to the
west coast. This trip is reported in A Little Work and Some Luck,
page 1923
as follows:
After
finishing OCS in early December, I loaded up the old Corvair and
headed for the West Coast and duty aboard the USS General W.A. Mann.
I remember that I canceled plans to stop at Great Lakes to say hello
to my old shipmates when I heard that a terrible snowstorm was about
to hit the area. On reaching the Chicago area, I quickly headed
south on I-55 toward Saint Louis, stopping overnight to visit an old
girlfriend in Carbondale, IL and then took Route 66 through Missouri.
Along the way, I found several stretches of I-44 had been completed
through Missouri, greatly expediting my progress, and on entering
Oklahoma, was able to take the Will Rogers Turnpike to Tulsa. I
can’t remember whether the Turner Turnpike from Tulsa to Oklahoma
City had been completed; however, the way to go from there was
definitely on route 66, which I took all the way to Flagstaff. I
decided, instead of continuing west on Route 66 from Flagstaff, to
cut south on Hwy 89A (then a US Route) and US 89 to Wickenburg and
continue on into the Los Angeles area on US 60.
A
plaque (seen below) posted at the
mile marker 129 rest area neatly summed up the history of the old
road.
 |
| Plaque posted at the mile marker 129 rest area in Texas |
We
had been too early to eat lunch in Amarillo, so set our sites on the
Portobello Restaurant in Elk City, Oklahoma. The Portobello is a
very good Italian restaurant that we had eaten at before and always
enjoyed. Alas, it was Sunday and the restaurant was closed on both
Sunday and Monday. We continued for another 25 miles to eat at
Montana Mike's in Clinton. After lunch we drove an additional 92
miles to our destination at Midwest City near Tinker air Force Base.
On
the third day we drove another 454 miles to arrive at the Holiday Inn
Express Medical Center in Memphis. I had made all of our
reservations for this trip at the same hotel chain to maximize award
points, selecting Holiday Inn Express because of their generally
consistent offering which routinely includes a microwave and
refrigerator, free Wi-Fi and a good continental breakfast service.
With that said the Memphis Medical Center facility is one of their
older facilities and is showing its age. The rooms are on the small
side, some come without microwave and refrigerator and there is no
guest laundry.
Despite
these deficiencies, we normally choose to stay here when visiting in
Memphis because the motel is conveniently located and because the
staff are friendly and accommodating. During this stay we found that
the light bulbs in our room were old 15-watt compact fluorescents
that gave out a faint yellowish light, totally unsuited for reading.
Maintenance, however, quickly replaced them with 13-watt, 900-lumen
bulbs that were quite adequate.
We
arrived in Memphis in time for an afternoon nap before being picked
up by Rosemary's sister and her husband for a delayed birthday dinner
for me. My 84th birthday had been a week earlier and Mark and
Jeannine treated us to Dinner at the Cottage Restaurant, located on
Union Avenue, just a few blocks down the street from our motel. I
had a vegetable plate that included green beans, squash casserole,
turnip greens and pinto beans. The meal was delicious and had left
overs for lunch the next day.
As
can be seen from the enthusiastic diners shown in the photograph
(below), I was not alone in finding the meal delicious.
 |
| Left to right: Jeannine Dorfman, Mark Dorfman and Rosemary Price – the photographer's plate is shown in the foreground |
Mark
has Crohn's disease among other ailments, is on oxygen, and gets
around in a wheelchair. The wheelchair he uses, a lightweight
folding affair, has small wheels which makes it hard to push the
chair up even a slight incline. Making matters even worse, the heavy
oxygen tank must be transported along with him. Eventually, sooner
rather than later, he will need a motorized wheelchair and a carrier
that can be attached to a vehicle. Jeannine is simply unable to push
him around without danger of injuring herself or losing control of
the chair on an incline.
Rosemary
and Jeannine spent the next day sorting through some of their
mother's belongings that had been kept in storage since her death.
They had decided that it was finally time to let go of some of the
personal keepsakes.
For
dinner we drove about 13 miles to Bartlett, Tennessee to eat at the
Side Porch Steak House. The Side Porch is a favorite place to eat
for Mark and Jeannine. And despite the name I was able to put
together a decent meal by judicious selections from the appetizers
and side dishes. It does have one major drawback in that the
wheelchair ramp is located in the rear and entrance to the dining
area is through a cluttered storage closet. To make matters even
worse, only one handicapped parking spot was available and we wound
up parking at the bottom of a hill and pushing Mark's wheelchair back
up the hill, an almost impossible task. In retrospect we should have
unloaded him in the parking lot near the ramp before proceeding to an
available parking spot below.
The
meal turned out to be well worth the effort, however, and we had a
most enjoyable evening. The diners, except for the author who also
served as photographer, are shown in the mirror reflection below.
 |
| Dining at the Side Porch Steak House in Bartlett, Tennessee – shown left to right in the mirror are Rosemary Price, Jeannine Dorfman and Mark Dorfman – Mark is also shown in the foreground at right. |
Rosemary
and Jeannine spent another day sorting through their mother's
belongings while I found a place to repair a defective hearing aid.
Hearing and Balance Centers of West Tennessee did the work and seemed
almost apologetic to charge me $100 to replace a receiver; meanwhile,
I was quite pleased that it didn't cost more than that.
The
next day we slept in late before starting our leisurely 200-mile
drive to Jasper, Alabama where we were staying for the reunion. The
most direct route is Interstate 22, a road that replaced US Hwy 78
from Birmingham, Alabama to Byhalia, Mississippi. The only difficult
part of the drive is the short remaining stretch of old Hwy 78
between the end of I-22 and the junction of Hwy 78 with I-240 in
Memphis. Part of this seventeen-mile section is always heavily
congested by truck traffic, much of it to and from the BNSF
Intermodal Facility located on Lamar (US Hwy 78) just north of E
Shelby Drive. I-22 was started in the 1060s as Corridor X by the
Appalachian Regional Commission. The Corridor X road was built to
interstate standards and was eventually designated Interstate 22.
Once
past the congested area at Memphis, we zipped right along at a 70-MPH
pace, counting down the towns as we went – Byhalia, Holly Springs,
Potts Camp, Hickory Flat, Myrtle, New Albany and numerous others,
most of which we had driven through on old Hwy 78 in years past.
When we crossed the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway at Fulton, we knew
we were approaching the Alabama state line. Just a few miles beyond
the state line we came to a junction with US Hwy 278. A sign
proclaimed it to be the exit for Hamilton (north on Hwy 278) and Guin
(south on Hwy 278). Then, just a few yards away, standing all by
itself, another sign proclaimed this to also be the exit to Gu-Win.
Gu-Win is an incorporated town of with a population of 181 (as of 1
July 2015)4
is located along US Hwy 43 (formerly a part of Hwy 78) about half way
between the towns of Guin and Winfield. According to a Wikipedia
article5
the town was incorporated in 1956 to avoid annexation by the town of
Guin. The town chose the name of a local drive-in theater, the
“Gu-Win,” which was itself apparently derived from the local
towns of Guin and Winfield.
We
were staying at a brand new Holiday Inn Express in Jasper. It was so
new in fact that our original reservation in Jasper had been at
another location. We arrived in the early afternoon having arranged
for an early check in. The first thing I noticed was a very
confusing sign (left) posted near
the elevators. The arrows for the Fitness Center, Guest Laundry and
Restroom seemed to point the basement. However, there was no
basement. I finally learned that, a least in this motel, a down
arrow means to go left.
The
next odd thing we noticed about this new facility was the height of
the beds (right). With beds this
high the facility really should issue step ladders. It causes one to
wonder just who came up with such an outlandish arrangement and why
no one caught the problem early enough to lower the beds to a
reasonable height. Was no one in charge? We finally solved the
problem by commandeering a chair from the breakfast room for Rosemary
to use as a ladder.
After
checking in we ate lunch at the Ruby Tuesday's Restaurant. The
restaurant was a great disappointment for me: it no longer featured
crab cakes, my favorite Ruby Tuesday's offering and could not even
provide a vegetable patty for a burger.
We
had arrived on Thursday giving those arranging for the reunion all
day Friday to make final preparations. Diana who was driving down
from Washington, DC in her refurbished Chevy S-10 pickup arrived late
in the evening and immediately retired for the night. Rick and
Julia, along with their friends, Jim and Amy Wallace, drove all the
way from Joplin that day and also did not get in until late. The
next day I drove to Clarence's house and went blackberry picking with
Sydney (left), Christi's daughter.
It
was really hot and we got diverted to the shade along the creek and
didn't pick a lot of berries. However, we did find a bigleaf
magnolia (cowcumber) tree (below
left) growing alongside the creek
along with a fruit (below right)
that had fallen off the tree before ripening. Had it not fallen off
before ripening, the fruit would have been expected to turn a deep
red color.
 |
| Bigleaf magnolia (cowcumber) tree Immature cowcumber fruit |
Returning
from the shade along the creek, we picked a few more berries before
the sun drove us from the pasture. On our way back to the house we
walked in the shade provided by trees growing along the fenceline
back to the gate and crawled over.
The
pasture fenceline on our left as we proceeded along the lane toward
the house was completely overgrown with kudzu (below),
an invasive species introduced
to the United States at the Japanese pavilion during the Philadelphia
Continental Exposition in 1876. In the 1930s and 1940s, farmers in
the southern United States were given about eight dollars an acre to
plant the vine in an effort to prevent topsoil erosion. It is said
that over a million acres were covered with kudzu under this program.
As a legume, Kudzu increases the nitrogen of the soil while its deep
taproots improve the topsoil by transferring minerals from the
subsoil.6
 |
| Kudzu growing along the lane |
I
have been told that the flower (right)
of the kudzu plant is used to make a jelly that tastes similar to
grape jelly. However, I grew up in the south where kudzu is
prominent and never noted the plant to produce many flowers. I
really wonder whether the effort would be worthwhile.
Some
of the “cousins” were scheduled to arrive late in the morning on
the day of the reunion; others, Christi and those who had arrived the
day before, were assigned to arrive at the Addison Community Center.
I arrived with this first group because I was assigned to set up a
computer and scanner to scan any old photographs the attendees might
make available for sharing.
Three
of the “cousins,” Laura, Diana and Christi are shown below
preparing lunch assisted by Samantha, Rosemary and Joyce. “Cousin”
Connie Branam was assigned other duties and Mandy Bracken was ill.
 |
| Preparing lunch (left to right) are: Samantha Price, Rosemary Price, Laura Melillo, Diana Price (green shirt), Christi O'Rear (right front) and Joyce Melillo (red shirt) |
I
had set my laptop computer up at a table in the corner of the kitchen
and was busy scanning photographs provided by my sister Alice.
 |
| The photograph scanning operation. Diana supervising from her corner, Ellis wondering what went wrong and Alice supplying photographs and identities - photograph by Julia |
Other
people started to arrive and Rosemary tried to photograph as many of
the attendees as she possibly could. Due primarily to her efforts,
augmented by other sources, I wound up with individual photographs of
most attendees. These are presented below starting with a shot of
Bridgette Denson's daughter, Alexis Thompson (left)
and followed by other photographs, some of individuals, some of small
groups.
 |
Breonna Denson Samantha Price
Bridgette Denson's Steve Price's daughter
daughter
|
 |
Briley Denson Kalandra Thompson
Bridgette Denson's son Bridgette Denson's
stepdaughter
|
 |
Gayla Price and Kalandra Thompson (Gayla's step-granddaughter)
|
 |
Destiny Thompson Matthew Price
Bridgette Denson's Steve Price's son
stepdaughter
|
 |
Taylor Price Bridgette Denson
Matthew Price's wife Melissa Price Vaughn's
daughter
|
 |
| Left to right: Diana, Julia and Rosemary Price (Ellis Price's wife and daughters) |
 |
Lane Price Connie Branam
Matthew Price's son Alice Akins' daughter
|
 |
Laura Melillo Joyce Price Melillo
Joyce Melillo's daughter Married to Bart Melillo
|
 |
| Jim and Amy Wallace (Rick and Julia's friends from Joplin, Missouri) |
 |
Alice Price Akins Diana Price
Married to Julius Akins Partnered with Mary
McClanahan
|
 |
Lexi Price (Matthew Price's Andy Branam
daughter shown with her Alice Akins' son-in-law
grandfather Steve Price
|
 |
| Andy and Connie Branam– Melissa Vaughn shown at right |
 |
Denise Price Steve Price
Steve Price's wife Clarence Price's son
|
 |
George Hendon Vickie Price Hendon
Married to Victoria Price Clarence Price's daughter
Hendon
|
 |
| Clarence Price, Alice Price Akins, Gayla Smith Price and Joyce Price Melillo |
 |
Brian Akins Cindy Akins
Alice Price Akins' son Brian Akins' wife
|
 |
Christi Price O'Rear Christi O'Rear
Shown holding Alexis Shown with her daughter
Thompson Sydney
|
 |
| George and Vickie Hendon |
Around the middle of
the afternoon, people started drifting away but I did manage to
gather Steve and his family for a group photograph before everyone
scattered.
 |
| Left to right: Matthew Price (Steve's son), Lane Price (Matthew's son), Steve Price (Clarence's son), Denise Price (Steve's wife), Samantha Price (Steve's daughter), Garrett Cutcher (Samantha's boyfriend), Lexi Price (Matthew's daughter) and Taylor Price (Matthew's wife) |
Melissa's
granddaughter, Alexis Thompson, needed some food for the road. She
had burned a lot of energy during the reunion. Although I never
noted that she moved any faster than the other kids at the event, she
was absolutely everywhere I looked. Melissa (right)
is shown preparing her food as Alexis waits with her attention
focused on something outside the door.
Diana and Rosemary,
along with Julia and Rick and their friends Jim and Amy, headed back
to the motel in Jasper. I lingered to pack up my computer and
scanner and to bring Joyce and Laura back to the hotel after Laura
helped with the cleanup. However, it was decided, probably because
everyone thought I must be getting tired, that Christi would return
them to the motel instead and I was free to go.
Amy, never having seen
kudzu (left) before, stopped on the
way to admire a thick-growing stand that had taken over the road
bank.
Meanwhile, traveling
alone back to Jasper, I decided to stop at the Arley Christian
Congregational Church Cemetery and visit my parents grave site (below
left). My brother Calvin, their
youngest son, is also buried there (below
right).
 |
Gravestone for Jamel Gravestone for Gerald
Ladell and Reva Wicker Calvin Price
Price Son of Ladell and Reva Price
|
The entire cemetery was
immaculately groomed and every gravestone was decorated with an
individual bouquet of flowers. When I saw this, it brought to mind
an old southern custom, a spring gathering to honor the dead. It was
called Decoration Day and was described as an “All-Day Singing with
Dinner on the Ground.” It was a day to clean and decorate
cemeteries. Some think it was the predecessor of our modern Memorial
Day7.
However, it was not restricted to honoring the war dead; it included
all the dead. On the other hand, the Civil War, although
three-quarters of a century past when I was born, was still a current
event in the south and the graves of those veterans, along with those
of the First World War, received special attention. I do not
remember any differentiation between Union and Rebel Civil War dead.
This is not surprising because East Tennesseans fought on both sides
in that war.
The photograph (below)
provides a view of the cemetery as it appeared at the time of my
visit on 25 June 2016.
 |
| Cemetery at the Arley Christian Congregational Church in Arley, Alabama |
A number of the clan
were staying overnight in Jasper and I wanted us to get together for
dinner at Cafe Bill's. Laura and Joyce had still not arrived because
Christi had been unavoidably detained and I decided to drive back to
Arley and pick them up at her house. By the time we were gathered
Christi was free to join us and would bring Sydney with her. We were
all seated at a single table with two extra places for Christi and
Sydney. Chef Bill's, a family-owned and operated restaurant
belonging to a couple who were originally from Joplin, Missouri.
They feature a good selection of food and an attentive staff. A
photograph of the diners (below)
was taken by either Jim or Amy Wallace, neither of whom are shown.
 |
| Left to right: Rick Allison, Julia Price-Allison, Andy Branam, Connie Branam, Ellis Price, Joyce Melillo, Laura Melillo, Christs O'Rear and Sydney O'Rear |
We were all leaving at
various times the next morning so made no attempt to gather for
breakfast on the 26.” However, Diana did show up for a last-minute
photograph (right) with her mother.
We also saw various other members of the group as we were checking
out.
We filled up at a
nearby service station, set the GPS for Van Buren, Arkansas, where we
had a reservation for that night, and were on our way home by 0745.
We stopped just across
the state border to visit the music-themed Mississippi Welcome
Station on I-22. A Sign proclaims the state to be the “Birthplace
of America's Music.” The facility has another sign honoring
country singer Tammy Wynette and a poster of Elvis Presley. There
are several well-appointed, music-themed rooms in the facility. The
photograph (below) shows one of
these.
 |
| Music room display at the Mississippi Welcome Station on I-22 |
As already noted, we
planned to stop at Van Buren, Arkansas for the night; that was a
drive of almost 500 miles, so we contented ourselves with only a few
short stops along the way. One of these was at a favorite rest area
in Arkansas that always sports a gorgeous array of flowers in the
spring and summer seasons; another was at a Petro Truck Stop where
their trademark Iron Skillet cafeterias always serve a delicious
array of dishes.
Our stay at the Holiday
Inn Express in Van Buren, Arkansas was acceptable only because of the
location. It is very convenient for those traveling through. There
was a single employee on duty when we arrived and I never saw more
than a single employee at any one time during our stay. A handy
pre-printed plastic was employed whenever the desk clerk responded to
quest needs that required leaving the desk. During these times
anyone could walk in or out of the facility. There was always a car
parked permanently under the portico making it very inconvenient for
guests checking in or out. When we checked out the next morning,
there was a very long wait for a luggage cart. The manager on duty
claimed that the facility had four, but I checked all floors and
didn't find one available and didn't see more than one at any time.
If four carts really are provided they were obviously being retained
in individual rooms until the occupants needed them. They must have
repeat guests who understood the system.
We stayed at Amarillo,
Texas on the 27th and then drove to Gallup, New Mexico on
the 28.” While traveling through New Mexico we stopped at Grants,
just after passing through the El Malpais lava bed, where I
photographed Rosemary (left) posing
behind a lava rock with a piece of a petrified wood in the
foreground.
We had leftovers for
dinner in Gallup and never left the motel. The drive on home the
next day was the shortest of the entire trip and we were home by
early afternoon.
1
http://www.skellyloy.com/bctb/eng.htm
4
http://alabama.hometownlocator.com/al/marion/gu-win.cfm
5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu-Win,_Alabama
6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu
7http://www.npr.org/2011/05/28/136742729/decoration-day-the-southern-way-to-honor-the-dead