Cool Collinsville celebration culminates in Snow’s day

Mary Beth Snow poses with some of the children who attending her “Reading Party.”

By Nathan Simone / COMMUNITY REPORTER

Living Democracy fellow Mary Beth Snow celebrated the end of her 10 working weeks in Collinsville with a “cool” celebration that included the Collinsville Public Library as a place to eat homemade ice cream, create art and share a love of reading with more than 29 kids.

Snow invited children from all over Collinsville to come to the public library to eat pizza before having fun with a local artist.

Guntersville artist Kelly Jackson provided projects for the children to complete, which included bookmarks to put in the new books they would soon be receiving.

Community partner Myles Smith (standing) and Nathan Simone (left) make homemade ice cream. (Photo by Nan Fairley)

Jackson’s daughter Cadley and Guntersville High senior Mason Holcomb assisted her in passing out bookmarks to color and helping direct them when it was their turn to assist in one of two larger paintings that will hang in the front of the library.

After eating and painting, homemade ice cream was made and excited children had their pick of vanilla, chocolate or Grapico.

At the end of the event, each child received their own bag filled with four books, donated by Jean Dean Reading is Fundamental in Opelika, and ample school supplies to assist them in the upcoming academic year.

Head librarian Jennifer Wilkins said that Snow’s time in Collinsville working with the library has been a tremendous boost to the city and the larger community.

“We’ve just had the best time with her,” said Wilkins. “We hope she comes back next summer.”

Community partner Myles Smith, 79, assisted Snow in more than a few projects and introduced her to many people around town. From eating at 6 a.m. with the “Knights of the Round Table” at Jack’s to appealing to City Council, Smith said that Mary Beth is one of the most personable and straightforward people Collinsville could’ve asked for.

“I don’t know if we could have gotten anyone to better blend with the community,” said Smith.

Snow said not only did she have a tremendous amount of fun hosting the event, but received a deep sense of personal fulfillment as well.

“I loved having a last chance to visit with all the kids,” said Snow. “I had the opportunity to read and hug and love children, and to me that’s the most important thing I can do in life,” Snow said.

Head librarian Jennifer Wilkins (left) and Mason Holcomb (right) hang up the larger paintings the children made. (Photo by Nan Fairley)

For however little things like ice cream and books may seem to adults, Snow said that seeing children excited by the simple things in life also made the event a success.

“To see those kids asking me if they could read a book to me or being amazing by seeing homemade ice cream made the event a success in my mind,” Snow said. “Because even though those things may seem small to us, nothing is small to children.”

With the look of smiles on everyone’s face as the children started to leave the library, this just may be a “Snow day” that Collinsville will never forget.

Living Democracy in Marion: Week One

Comfort food, Southern style. (Photo by Catherine Tabor)

By Catherine Tabor

On a hot and humid summer Sunday in Marion, Ala., there are few places open to find refreshment. One oasis, however, can be found at 207 Washington St. at Lottie’s Restaurant, where visitors can enjoy a hot plate of comfort foods like warm mac & cheese and fried chicken. Lottie’s opens at noon on Sundays, just in time to accept and serve the after church crowd and this day was no exception. Several groups and families gathered together at various tables to enjoy a good, Southern homemade meal.

Named after the owner’s mother, Lottie’s Restaurant was established in October of 2005. Since then, the family-owned restaurant has proudly served the citizens of Marion as well as customers from the neighboring communities of Greensboro, Centreville and Selma. A favorite dish of Lottie’s patrons is the freshly cooked catfish, which can be either grilled or fried. All meals come with two sides, and each one is sure to be delicious.

Lottie’s Restaurant is not just a place for eating. It is also a place to gather with your friends and family and just enjoy each other. There are two TVs in the restaurant. On the Sunday of my visit, they featured a baseball game and a NASCAR race. Prospective customers can book entertainment as well to play on the small stage at the back of the restaurant. Just the other day, Lottie’s hosted a small play and a jazz concert.

This particular day, I visited Lottie’s with a few members of my family. My father, mother, and nephew all accompanied me on my first visit. As out-of-towners, I expected to be scrutinized, but the atmosphere was incredibly relaxed and I felt at ease. Jazz music was playing lightly in the background, and the servers were all very friendly. The varied accoutrements of the restaurant, from the lighted sconces and photos of Lottie on the wall to simple diner-like tables and chairs, set a mood much like that of a family gathering, comfortable but also refined. It was especially perfect for a Sunday.

Restaurant is named after owner’s mother. (Photo by Catherine Tabor)

Now, onto the food, which I have heard described as the perfect “soul food.” There were a good number of choices on the menu, and it was hard to make my pick.  I was hungry and everything sounded amazingly tasty. Eventually, I ordered the Sunday special, which was comprised of two pieces of chicken (dark and fried for me), dressing topped with gravy and jellied cranberry sauce, candied yams, collard greens, and a corn muffin. My mother ordered the catfish, while my father ordered a hamburger, and my nephew ordered a kid’s meal chicken sandwich. At the end of the meal, we ordered dessert, of course. Sweet potato pie and pound cake were the goodies we decided to top our meal off with, but the red velvet cake and the apple pie sounded equally as appetizing. All in all, the food was just as great as the rest of the restaurant.

After eating and paying for our meal, we all walked next door to the As Time Goes By antique shop. The close proximity between the restaurant and the antique store seemed to be popular amongst the customers at Lottie’s because my family was not the only group that ventured into the shop after their meal was thoroughly enjoyed.

Lottie’s customers know that life doesn’t have to be complicated. (Photo by Catherine Tabor)

Lottie’s Restaurant and the antique shop, As Time Goes By, are both spaces frequented by the citizens of Marion. They are places to stop and chat with friends or places to remember history. At Lottie’s, customers are able to remember their own home-cooked meals of the past, and Lottie’s legacy will always be remembered. At the antique store, each item brings back memories of a different time. The owner of As Time Goes By told me how he was good friends with the late Mary Ward Brown, author of “Tongues of Flames” and other books, whose recent death made it into the New York Times’ website. He told us how Brown would always come into the small store in search of jewelry and how she would be missed.

It is places and moments like this that form the foundation of a community. A small gathering place, outside of work, or even church, where friends and family can commune with each other on a lazy Sunday afternoon without the hustle and bustle of the workweek is a much needed and often overlooked aspect in many communities. Luckily, Marion still holds onto hers, and it does not look like her citizens will let go any time soon.

Living Democracy in Collinsville: Week Four

Deborah Meadows makes her famous pie dough from scratch. (Photo by Nathan Simone)

Fresh, fried friendships in Collinsville

By Mary Beth Snow

If there is one thing I love about the South almost as much as sweet tea and football, it’s a good fried pie. I met Deborah Meadows, owner of Deb’s Pies, a few weeks ago at Trade Day in Collinsville through a mutual friend. A true picture of southern hospitality, Debra immediately invited me to make pies with her whenever I wanted. I was very excited to recently have the fortune of spending the morning with Deborah. She welcomed Nathan, our visiting Living Democracy journalist, and myself into her pie-making kitchen and shared a slice of her life with us.

Both of Meadows’ machines, a roller and crimper, paid for themselves after a month of making pies. (Photo by Nathan Simone)

Her pies have been a Trade Day staple for more than 15 years, but for the past 25 years she has worked on Trade Day on Saturdays. It’s a family affair. Her husband works in parking at Trade Day and has since he was 12 years old.  Two of her children help in the booth- one of them coming home from Jacksonville just to work on Saturdays. For Deborah, however, pie making isn’t a weekend affair- it’s a huge part of her everyday life. Not only does she sell her fried pies at Trade Day, but she also sells frozen pies to individuals and restaurants all over the region and even in other states. She works for multiple hours every day making her dough and filling from scratch and then preparing trays full of frozen pies to either be delivered to restaurants or taken to Trade Day and cooked in the fryer there. When we were there, she was preparing to send her son Ethan with a huge delivery of pies to Riverfest in Gadsden, and I’ll be seeing her at the next Trade Day when I buy the fried apple pie I’ve been dreaming of all week. In fact, as you are reading this, there’s a decent chance Deborah is somewhere doing something pie-related.

Watching her make the dough amazed me. She combines biscuit and doughnut flour to create the perfect mixture, never using a measuring tool of any sort. I suppose after making pie every day for 15 years she doesn’t need them anymore. She just knows how it should feel and look. As she stirs the dough, it’s hard not to notice how muscular her arms are: muscles, she says, that are partly hereditary, partly from growing up on a farm and baling hay, and partly from working with heavy mounds of dough every day. People always ask her if she works out, and they are usually surprised when she tells them that she just makes pies. Putting the mixture through the dough roller multiple times and then on the pie crimper does in fact require some muscles. When it was my turn to turn the handle on the pie crimper, I needed Deborah’s help to move it. She told us that making 500 pies a week has a toll on her body. She actually visits a chiropractor once a week and describes it as essential to dealing with the wear and tear her body takes. In another part of her pie-making room, a TRX band hangs from the ceiling that she uses to stretch out her shoulders and back.

Mary Beth Snow fills and prepares to crimp her first fried pie. (Photo by Nathan Simone)

I really loved the time we got to spend with Deborah. It’s so fascinating to see what real people in my community do with their days. It reminds me of an Annie Dillard quote- “How we spend our days, is, of course, how we spend our lives.” Deborah spends her days making pies and being with her family. She can remember maybe six or seven times she’s missed Trade Day in the past 25 years, most of them due to being snowed in on the mountain where they live or the serious car wreck her son Ethan had a couple of years ago. Her schedule may be a bit unconventional. She laments that she doesn’t get weekends like other people do, but the full life she has pays off in more than good cooking. It might be my Southern upbringing, but at least to me, making food for others is one of the best ways to express love, and that’s what Deborah does every day. I am so grateful that she opened up her pie-making kitchen and shared a little bit of her world with Nathan and I, and I can’t wait to eat my next fried pie.