Blog Archives

Halloween at Sloss

10/20/2017

Young costumed fans line up to get Kathryn’s autograph.

(Unless otherwise noted, the Kathryn Tucker Windham blog is written by her children, Ben Windham and Dilcy Windham Hilley.)

Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark in Birmingham is a fascinating collection of rusting stacks and old mining equipment. It tells the story of the city when it was a gritty, growing steel town, when it was the “Pittsburgh of the South.”

Another story associated with Sloss is the tale of Theophilus Calvin Jowers who died a grisly death in the molten liquid of a Birmingham furnace. Folklore has it that Theophilus’s ghost took up residence at Sloss when it became the last operational furnace, and he’s been there ever since. Mother wrote this story in a little book called The Ghost in the Sloss Furnaces.

Though Sloss now hosts a Halloween horror town that’s popular with the chainsaw crowd, they used to have a pumpkin carving competition and storytelling. I believe it was sponsored by Sloss, the Birmingham Historical Society and the now-defunct Birmingham Post-Herald. It was great fun, and families turned out in droves to the Sloss amphitheater.

Mother was often the featured storyteller at this event. In her telling, she always included the story of Theophilus and his tragic death. Children were mesmerized. Adults were intrigued. And always…always…during the telling, a long, loud train would come rumbling right by the amphitheater, interrupting the story. As the train began blowing its whistle upon approach, Mother never missed a beat in her storytelling. To everyone’s delight, she would work a train right into that story.

“And so that morning, Theophilus kissed his wife and headed out to work at the Alice Furnace…,” Mother would begin

Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Rumble, rumble, rumble. Clickity-clack, clickity-clack, clickity-clack. The train was enroute in the midst of the story.

“Theophilus was almost late for work that day because he had to wait on a passing train,” Mother would continue.

Good storytellers can’t be derailed.

6 Comments

The Briefest of Visits

10/9/2017

2 Comments

Kathryn making goodies for a do-good Sunday

(Unless otherwise noted, the Kathryn Tucker Windham blog is written by her children, Ben Windham and Dilcy Windham Hilley.)

Mother believed in doing for others. She believed we were put on this earth to bring joy to other people, and she tried to live her beliefs.

Mother and her good friend Georgene Frasier decided that they would have “do-good Sundays.” On Saturday nights, they would bake up some date balls or some cheese wads---look for these recipes in Mother’s cookbooks---and bag them up for the next day. After church and lunch on Sunday, Mother and Georgine would set out on their do-good missions.

All went well until it was noted that three elderly recipients of their visits died within a week after Mother and Georgene had come to call. Then their do-good Sundays lost their luster on both the giving and the receiving ends. Mother said she believed some shut-in friends even began to lock their doors on Sunday afternoons. Though it was just a coincidence, it put an abrupt end to do-good Sundays.

It did not, however, stop Mother from wanting to bring a small bit of joy into otherwise dreary lives. We had a longtime friend who lived around the corner and a block away. She was a brilliant, funny, fascinating woman who, in her final years, grew demented.

Mother still felt her friend needed some attention, so one afternoon she fried up a chicken and cooked some black-eyed peas and cornbread to take to our friend. Being always courteous, Mother called first to make sure it was a convenient time to deliver supper. This, of course, was long before cell phones. If you wanted to talk on the phone, you had to do it on your landline.

Well, Mother called and her friend answered. “Eva Merrill,” Mother said, “I’d like to bring you some fried chicken for your supper. Is this a convenient time?”

“Oh, Kathryn,” Eva Merrill responded, “I’d love to see you, but I’m not at home!”

Mother thought that was a fine answer, something she might use herself somewhere down the line.

2 Comments

Photo Courtesy of Ted Tucker

"Some people are important to intellectuals, journalists, or politicians, but Kathryn Tucker Windham is probably the only person I know in Alabama who is important to everybody."

–Wayne Flynt, Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Auburn University.