Category Archives: family

Alternative Transportation

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We were on our way out to eat on Saturday night when we spotted this sight at the drive-through window of the former Dairy Queen in Muscle Shoals, Ala., now called Shakers. The rider said he was from nearby Leighton and was visiting family in Muscle Shoals. Not sure if he was on hoof to protest high gas prices, but a bystander observed that a decades-old law on the books in Florence prohibits cars from traveling city streets. If this becomes a trend, Shakers is going to have to change its menu since the man rode off with an ice cream cone — and the horse didn’t get a thing.

Fresh Market Shopping

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Sure, first steps and first words and first days at school are important, but in our family, first day sitting alone in a shopping cart at Fresh Market is equally as significant! Here’s grandson, almost 6-months-old Nolan Thomas Behel, with mom Liz on his first Fresh Market trip sitting all by himself — after his mom and grandma spent about 10 minutes sanitizing the entire cart, of course. “This is is great,” Liz said. “We don’t have to carry him or bring in the stroller or anything. How easy!” I predict many more Fresh Market trips in our future.

Tupelo Travels

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I’ve found a new favorite place to eat in Tupelo, Miss. Or, rather, my dear husband found it. He asked Ginna Parsons, the food editor at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (read her blog, Speaking of Food, at http://djfoodblog.wordpress.com/) for lunch recommendations, and she sent us to Southern Ice Cafe, 3952-D N. Gloster, in the shopping center near Barnes Crossing Mall where Bed, Bath and Beyond is. “You’re going to love it,” my husband promised. And he was right! Housed in a former Quiznos’ (the sandwich oven and basic setup are still there), Southern Ice Cafe is a sandwich shop, ice cream (actually, gelato and sorbetto) store and tapas bar in one. I’ve never seen the tapas small-plates format translated to fast food, but it works here. You can order from four different “World Plates”: bistro, from France, featuring quiche lorraine and rataouille (eggplant and zucchini stew); tapas, from Spain, with ham-wrapped shrimp and roasted/marinated vegetables; Middle Eastern,  with hummus, baba ganoush (eggplant dip) and tabouli (bulghur salad); and antipasto, from Italy, with tuna, bruschetta and mozzarella. This is my kind of food! I asked for the addition of grilled bread with olive salad, part of the Spain plate, to my Middle Eastern plate, and it was all fresh and delicious. My husband ordered the Santa Fe Salad, with black beans and chicken, plus the broccoli cheese soup — also fresh and yummy. Southern Ice has an extensive sandwich menu, with subs, wraps, muffulettas and sandwiches made deli-style, toasted or hot. There also are specialty salads and you can create your own with more than a dozen additional ingredients. And we didn’t even get to the gelato and dessert menu, but I’m planning a return trip soon. Most prices were about $6-$7 — reasonable for the amount and quality of food you get. Southern Ice opens at 11 a.m. every day and closes at 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 6 p.m. Sundays. Call 662.840.5885. I’m telling you, it’s worth the drive!

Hometown Shopping

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This barbershop in Florence, Alabama, is where my husband gets his hair cut. (No. That’s not his truck!) He likes it, he says, because it’s simple and direct — he walks in, gets his hair cut and beard trimmed and then walks out. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done in an authentic sort of way. And that describes this part of Florence — called Seven Points –perfectly: Easy to get to, shopper-friendly and full of local folks with real shops doing real business. Such as Hodgepodge Antiques Mall, 11142 N. Wood Ave. It’s three rooms full of treasures, and you can rummage around all day if you want to. No pressure. Another must-visit Seven Points retailer is Scent-Sations Candles and Gifts, 1123 N. Wood Ave., where you can buy hand-poured candles in almost any fragrance imaginable — visit http://www.pouredbyhand.com to see the list. One of the best things about Scent-Sations is that you can turn your own containers into candles — a great way to recycle. Then head to Peck Ace Hardware Co., 1118 N. Wood Ave. , one of those true hometown hardware stores that’s been there for decades and still has what looks like the original wooden floors. You’ll get a friendly “hello” when you walk and an equally friendly “come back soon” when you leave, regardless of whether you’ve bought anything or not — browsing is encouraged. And then there are some of the most interestingly named businesses in Florence: Crazy Carolyn’s Fashions and Wigs, 1148 N. Wood Ave., actually run by a woman named Carolyn; Polly’s Radio and TV Service, 1128 N. Wood Ave., not run by a woman named Polly (although the building is where I took ballet lessons about a million years ago); and the fast-Chinese-food Wok N Roll., 115 Edgewood Drive. The McDonald’s at Seven Points also is fun — it’s decorated entirely in purple and gold to support nearby University of North Alabama.

Isn’t it amazing what you can find in your own backyard?

Healthy in Huntsville

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Daughter Liz with son, Nolan Thomas, at Garden Cove

One of my older daughter’s favorite places to shop in Huntsville, Ala., is Garden Cove Produce, 628 Meridian St., and I love going along with her. Liz is a vegetarian and cooks organic for her family when possible, and Garden Cove is a mecca for that kind of diet. Just walking into the produce section is an education — there are fresh fruits and vegetables from all over the world. But don’t be intimidated! The helpful staff has all sorts of cooking tips and suggestions if you need help. The grocery part of Garden Cove also has a great selection of non-perishable foods along the lines of a Fresh Market or Whole Foods, much of it organic and natural and most of it hard to find anywhere else in Huntsville. On the other side of the store is a holistic-type drugstore, with cosmetics, health/beauty products and supplements along with some food items such as teas, breakfast cereals and bulk grains. We go there for lunch — it’s self-serve to-go freshly made sandwiches and soup. Visit http://www.gardencoveproduce.com/index.html for details — Garden Cove is closed Saturdays and open various hours on the other days, so check before you go. The other thing — besides the selection — I love about Garden Cove is the people who shop there: Folks with different backgrounds, nationalities, ethnicities and incomes all come here to get good food at good prices. It’s invigorating to be a part of that.

Mother-Daughter Style

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Both of my daughters are great shoppers. I’ve taught them well! My younger daughter, Carolyn, goes to school in Birmingham, Ala., and she loves shopping in consignment and charity stores there. Mainly she looks for T-shirts she recycles into other projects, but she also finds great retro/vintage buys perfect for a 20-something college student. She got the three tops on the left from a Goodwill store in Birmingham. The red wrap dress was about $9 — she’s going to wear it over T-shirts and jeans. The polka-dot white top was about $3 — again, wonderful with jeans. The pink cotton embroidered tunic is Free People and was about $5. These tops only needed good washings and they were good to go. She found the embellished yellow slip for $7.50 at Golden Temple Natural Grocery in Five Points South in Birmingham. Somebody had added lace and little satin roses to this slip — maybe to wear as a dress? Anyway, it’s adorable and the perfect length to wear under a couple dresses she’s got.

Carolyn had come home for a quick visit this weekend and showed me her shopping treasures. But before she went back to Birmingham, we had to negotiate a deal. She liked a new dress I had bought and wore to church on Sunday (see post below). I have to admit it looked a lot better on her than on me. So, in exchange for the dress, she gave me the pink Free People top, which she said didn’t really fit her but it was a $5 Free People top so she had to get it! Of course, it’s exactly the hippie-boho style we all wore 30 years ago, so naturally I love it. Thanks, Carolyn!

Happy Birthday, Ann Beattie

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Ann Beattie, author of one of my favorite books ever, is 61 today. (Thanks, Garrison Keillor, for always letting me know things like this.) My husband and I were college students when her “Chilly Scenes of Winter” was published in 1976, and this novel captures that time and our then-20-something-year-old angst (although I don’t think anybody in the ’70s would have used the word “angst”) perfectly. In fact, it was my husband who, many years after college, introduced me to Beattie and this book. I’ve been a fan ever since. You will be, too, if you haven’t read her yet. And what better day to start than her birthday?

Jacket Weather

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Even though the temperature is summer-like today, I still want to wear this jacket. I absolutely fell in love with it when I tried it on at Reed’s department store in downtown Tupelo, Miss., the other day. You know how you put something on and you know immediately that it was meant for you and you for it? There is such a thing as love at first sight. I adore the tailored half-belt in the back and the sort of pleated sleeves and the slash pockets and seaming in the front. I usually don’t like double-breasted jackets — reminds me of Mr. Howell on Gilligan’s Island — but this one doesn’t even seem double-breasted for some reason, even though it obviously is. It fit perfectly (even though it looks square in the photo, it’s definitely not when you put it on) and of course who can resist a pumpkin-colored jacket for fall? I’d never heard of the brand “liquid,” but my fashion-savvy college-age daughter assures me that it’s a hot name, so there you go. Actually, this jacket sort of reminds me of the car coats every self-respecting female had to have in her wardrobe about a million years ago — when I was younger.

Now I just need a day that’s less than 70 degrees. C’mon, fall!

Do Not Try This At Home

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I obviously cannot multi-task.

“I can’t talk right now,” I said to my younger daughter when she called Sunday night. “Apparently I’m having a fire.”

Of course, she completely understood as I explained to her that the roll of paper towels I’d put on the dining-room chandelier to dry out had started to glow and smell like a campfire when I forgot it was there and turned on the lights. It was on the chandelier because it had gotten damp under the kitchen sink and I wanted a safe place to dry it out because I am too frugal (cheap?) to throw away a perfectly good roll of paper towels. The paper towels were under the kitchen sink instead of out on the counter where normal people keep their paper towels because if a roll of paper towels is left out in our house the cats immediately attack it and reduce it to shreds since obviously paper towels are a Major Threat in Cat World. The roll had gotten damp because I had over-enthusiastically washed dishes and water dripped down the cabinets and into the under-sink area. Ironically, of course, I had to douse the smoldering paper-towel roll in the very same sink and throw it away after all. So there you go. And luckily my husband was watching TV (football, of course) and didn’t notice — or I would have had some explaining to do.

Naturally, the thing that really disturbs me about this whole episode is not that I’d forgotten the paper-towel roll was on the chandelier when I turned the lights on or that my husband was so engrossed in TV he didn’t notice smoke but that my daughter was not surprised any of this happened. To me.