Happy Birthday, Big Brother!

Tomorrow is my big brother’s birthday. Now considering that I am 6’4” and 290 lbs, you may look at Steve and question that “big brother” status. However, anyone who knows Steve understands completely. Every since we were kids, I’ve been following him around like a puppy. He’s someone that I look up to in every way, whether it’s his business acumen, unique way of looking at the world, devotion to family, or just the fact that we will often start laughing at the same thing before anyone else in the room because his sense of humor has rubbed off on me during our childhood years.

When we were kids, I would hang around and follow he and his friends around all the time. If he minded, he never let me know. He always stuck up for me if anyone picked on me and was just a hero to me in so many ways. He was an athlete, popular with his friends, always joking and laughing, and really charismatic with most everyone that he met. I watched everything he did, and to this day, I still emulate some of the ways that I saw him make people laugh.

I still remember the day Steve left for Auburn. I was a little panicked, and the house seemed awfully lonely and empty without his jokes and laughter. I tried to pick up the slack where I could. When he graduated and started working as a broker, I had no doubt he would be successful. His professional success is only overshadowed by his success as a husband and a father. He has raised three absolutely wonderful daughters that make all of us proud ever single day. I see that he and Marian share a special relationship that is centered in a strong faith and the ability to make each other laugh. I’ve met several of Steve’s close friends and people with whom he does business, and its obvious that they have absolute faith and confidence in Steve in every capacity. I know that he is an active and respected member of the Birmingham community, and I couldn’t be prouder of all that he has accomplished.

So to recap….. He looks like Bill Murray…. plays tennis like Borg (still remember the racquets he used to use with Borg on them…thought they were so cool)……plays golf like Furyk (swing is a little unconventional…but it works)…. laughs on roller coasters (starts when he stands in line and gets worse all the way until the ride is over)…. is a master fisherman (freshwater, saltwater, fly, you name it…) …. cooks like Emeril (never tasted steaks as good as his…anywhere) …. And loves his friends and family with a passion that is truly amazing. I love you, bud. Miss you guys, and look forward to our next visit. Happy Birthday, Big Brother!

The Parkers at War....

Our family has a rich history... So proud of their service to our country... I've posted some pictures but I didn't have pictures of all .... Another great story from Dad...

"I got to tellin' 'em the other day. Jean called Betty the other day and said "Betty... Stan needs to write those stories down! We've all forgot em". Betty came to me after Jean hung up and said, "I've got you figured out... None of the rest of 'em know anything, and you tell part of it and make up part of it. You can tell anything you want to tell and they don't know the difference." But I do, Rob, its amazing. I guess its a gift that the Good Lord gave me. I remember when Pearl Harbor.... I was six years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed... I remember that just as well... I remember when World War II ended... I remember all of the things that went on.. I can just recall and remember it...

See World War I had ended in the early 20s. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, everybody knew what was gonna happen. See the United States was already kindly in the War. They were helping Britain. If the United States hadn't helped Britain, Germany would have won. They would have ruled Britain like they took over France, but the British fought em. American kindly got to helpin them. Eventually they got into war with Germany. But when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt immediately declared War.

See, all the neighbors would get together at Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Fourth of July... make homemade ice cream and play Rook and pop popcorn and parts peanuts. See everybody raised their own popcorn and peanuts you know. You'd just make popcorn balls and everybody would just get together... And I remember how all the adults were so upset, cause they knew that their sons were going to War and they also know that alot of them were never coming back. Man they were upset. The men were sittin around talkin and shakin their heads and the women, many of them were cryin. They knew exactly what was going to happen. Well, immediately Bill and Cliff was drafted into the Army. Daddy 'n 'em managed to keep C.B. out to help farm. Daddy had a bunch of young kids... all the way to Carl. I mean a bunch, and C.B. got deferred. Me and C.B. is the only two that didn't serve in the Military. I was just 6 years old when the war started.

I had got hurt playin' football. When the Korean War started, Dan was in the army then. I was a senior in High School when it all started. When I got to be 18 years old they were going to send me to get examined cause the Draft was still active. Well, I had got hurt playin' football, and I was still under the care of Dr. Price Irvin. He was the team physician. I guess I had tore some ligaments or somethin. I had water on my knee. It was puffed up somethin awful. I couldnt hardly get my pants on and off. So I went to him. Course, I had tried to play baseball too and had aggravated it. He had seen the list of the boys that was goin off to be examined. He said, "Son, you don't need to go to Montgomery to be examined. Thats a waste of time! They'll get on you and ask you what in the world you are doin down there. You take this note right here and go give it to Ms. Helen Royer." Ms. Helen Royer was over the draft board. A bunch of guys was going next week, so I took it down there. She told me to pull my pants leg up. Well, I couldn't pull my pants leg up. I had those peg leg pants you know. So I had to drop my pants down...nothin on but my drawers. Embarrassed the heck out of me. She said, "I ain't sendin you. We'll catch you next time. A week before you're supposed to go when you get your next notice, you come up here again." So the next time I went up there, I told Betty, I wore big legged britches so I could lift up my pant leg and wouldn't have to drop my pants. When I went back, I didn't have as much fluid on my knee. She said, "I'm not going to send you. I'm going to reclassify you. We'll catch you later, but you're gonna have to go." I said, "That's fine! I want to go! The only reason I'm up here is cuz Dr. Price sent me here." So, by the time that that changed my draft status back to 1A, they abolished the draft and it was strictly volunteer. I never did go to Montgomery to be examined.

All six of my brothers served. Carl was in the National Guard, and he went to Basic Training. Nat's unit was activated. He served six months and was in the National Guard during the Korean Conflict. Nat's been to the Korea twice with the Guard. Dan served in the Korean Conflict. His unit was activated and going to Korea. Dan had an emergency appendectomy and they didn't send him. Travis served during the Vietnam Conflict. He was in Vietnam a number of times. Cliff was in World War II. He was in Europe.

Bill was in World War II in the Philippines. Bill went through the roughest of any of them. He was in the invasion of Okinawa and Saipan. He went to Iwo Jima. He was in the invasion Leyte, Tinian, all those Phillipine Islands. Bill is lucky that he made it back. Bill went through a living hell, man. When he first come back from the Army....that was in '45, I was 10 years old... I wanted to know. We all wanted to know. Bill wouldn't talk about it. Bill'd say, "I don't want to talk about it and you don't wanna know..." And that would be the extent of it.

Two years before he died, when Momma was in the nursing home, he'd usually ride to Florence with me. He knew that I watched the History Channel and that Patton was my favorite movie and that I had read books about Omar Bradley and George Marshall and MacArthur. He knew I was interested in that... He started talking to me about a lot of things. He told me alot of stories. Since, I have shared them with Billy and Betty. But he didn't talk to Mattie Dee about 'em. He didn't talk to nobody about it. He'd talk to me though. Me and him had a special relationship. He'd tell me those stories....some of the most amazing things I've ever heard in my life. He is lucky he made it back.

Now Cliff didn't have it too rough. Cliff didn't have to go right off, because they sent him to California. He went and took some special training to be in the Military Police. That's what they wanted him to be. When Cliff got to Europe, they come around wantin' volunteers to be Cooks. Cliff volunteered. He liked to cook and he was a Cook. That's what Ab was, part of the time. Ab told me and Betty that one of his responsibilities was to take hot food to the Front Lines for the troops. Most of the time all they had was K rations and stuff you open up and take out of a can. So Ab's responsibility along with a couple of other guys was to load that food up on a jeep and the Germans would try to kill them. Cause if they could blow that jeep up with that food on it, that made it rough for those troops. Ab told me that there was many times that he didnt think they were going to make it. They'd get it through though. Ol' Ab can cook, son. Let me tell you, he can make rolls.....what'chu talkin about. Now Cliff used to .... I never could get it down pat, but....Cliff used to fix a soup that he called "Army Soup". What it was was green split pea soup with potatoes in it and seasoned.... Aw man.... You talk about good... But, I'm gonna ask Ab next time I go if he remember the recipe. Cliff when he would come back, man. He'd fix up a pot of that stuff... You eat that would cornbread... What are you talking about... Man it was good ..

I'd seen Momma get real scared... See, the Courtland Airbase was really active. They were training pilots. And then the Redstone Arsenal was over here as well. And you'd see alot of those big ol black cars... See all of the roads wasn't paved. You would see a car coming by and you'd see dust just fogging behind. And, I've watched Momma a many a times standing in the cotton field. We'd see that black car coming down that road, when we lived at the Walker place.. And you could see the fear in her eyes. And the car never turned to our house.. It would just keep going. Those people was going to tell somebody that their son or their husband was missing or killed in action...

You know when I broke my kneecap, Dr. Prickett pulled two big ol syringes of fluid off my knee. If they had been able to do that back then, I would have gone into the Military during the draft. That was all that was wrong with me.

Now Mr. Campbell didn't go in til near the end of the war. They sent him to Japan. He helped recover after the atomic bombs were dropped.. That may have contributed to his early death. He may have had some radiation, who knows...

Lot of history in both sides of our family."

Mr. Campbell....

One of my greatest regrets is not knowing either of my Grandfathers. I know them both through the stories of my parents and siblings, though. This is a story that my Dad told about my Mom's father...

"You'd have really liked Mr. Campbell. He was alwas kiddin'. I fished with him and enjoyed being around him. He was one of my favorite people. He didn't live many years after Betty and I was married. Hah! Mr. Campbell was a pistol ball.... Lord, I used to laugh at 'im. He'd aggravate Steve.... Steve wore... Betty's got pictures of him... he wore short pants and boots that come up to here.... Mr. Campbell would aggravate him, and Steve would take those boots and kick him on the shin... I'd see his face, but Steve would kick 'im and hit 'im and he'd just laugh and keep on and on. He was a neat guy.... I just thought the world of him.

I may have already told you this, but Mrs. Campbell didn't want him to trade cars. He got to wantin' a new car. He called me and asked me, "Reckon I could trade here in Decatur?" I said, "Mr. Campbell I don't know but... "....he wanted an Oldsmobile..."I know one of the guys that's a salesman out there. I grew up with him" Bobby Hamilton was his name. "Next time you come up here, we'll go out there, and you can talk to him." Well we went out there, and Mr. Campbell drove it. I could tell, boy, he was just on Cloud 9, and he wanted that car. So I told Bobby, "I would love to have the car Mr. Campbell is tradin' in"...cause man, I knew it was a good un, and me and Betty needed another car..."If we can work out a deal, that'd be great... But now I want Mr. Campbell to be happy. After we trade, I want to buy that car." He said, "Well we'll work something out.. We'll trade with him and then we'll sell it to you at wholesale." I said, "Ok, if that's OK with Mr. Campbell." Well, that suited Mr. Campbell fine. It was a two tone Chevrolet...man, just a fine care.. It didnt have many miles... So, Mr. Campbell, he traded.

Comin' on home, he knew when we got home that Nora Belle wasn't goin' to be happy... He said, "Now Stan, you're gonna have to help me with Nora Belle. She's gonna be mad..." And she was. "Tom, we didn't need no car!" I just bragged on the car, but she didn't want it...

He loved Betty and Sue ... Me and him would fish. I had a boat, and I'd take him and Mrs. Campbell both... As luck would have it, Mrs. Campbell caught more fish than he did... He said, "Nora Belle, you ain't goin no more.... " Well that just tickled Mrs. Campbell to death. Yeah, l hate that you didn't get to know him."

Figurin' and Rurned Meat....

This is the kind of story that Dad just reels off... Love it...

"Daddy never had a sharecropper. He had a bunch of people moved on our place. The kind of people he got didn't want to sharecrop. All they wanted to do was to be laborers. If they worked all day, Daddy would pay em for a laborer all day or if they picked cotton they would get so much a pound. I had to keep up with all that. That was one of my jobs. Daddy was not good with figures. I kept up with that. I knew how much they owed us and how much cotton they picked. I did all the accounting. I helped Daddy.

See, Bill, Cliff, Dan, and CB all at once they got jobs at Wolverine. Wolverine at that time was the best place around here to work. And they worked all the overtime they wanted. It was a pretty good job....And all 4 of 'em got jobs one after the other. And Travis, my brother that was older than me, was goin' to UNA, or Florence State...as it was called then. Travis wanted a career in the Army. He was takin ROTC. He wanted to be an officer, and he did, and was very successful in doin it. So, that left me as the "Tall Hog at the Trough". I was Daddy's "go to" man. He trusted me, and course I was good in figures. Daddy asked me sumthin', some kind math problem, and I could do it in my head. I was just good in figures. I didn't have to write it down and divide it out. I could do it in my head, and that amazed him, and that would please me. He'd say, "Son, I need this and I need this...", and I would rattle it off. Then I would go back and divide it out and make sure I was right.

You remember that list of stuff that Daddy was listing on that bank note? See, he had to have money to buy seed and fertilizer. See, the only things that they bought was cloths and shoes, flour (cuz we didn't raise wheat), sugar (cuz we didn't raise cane), and coffee. And everything thing else came out of the ground. They raised it. He cured his own meat... Killed hogs. Daddy knew how to cure... I used to fuss about country ham. We had it all the time. Now I go out here to Cracker Barrel and pay $10 for a piece like 'at right there.. I used to fuss and cuss about havin' it. I used call it "rurned meat". It was cured meat.

I couldnt ever figure out.... Momma and Daddy used to love to give people stuff. They would go out to the smokehouse and slice em off some country ham, and it would tickle everybody to death. I'd think, "Man, they crazy as a bessy bug...Why they want that kinda stuff" They would give 'em produce, and that just delighted Daddy and Momma both to be able to give stuff to friends and family. They were amazing..."

Ider and the Poker Game....

The stories about Maw Ider are legendary... This is one of our favorites told by Dad... Also, I knew there was a reason why I was such a good poker player!

"See, Grandma Wiley....Mother's Mother... was a Kimbral... I think it was her brother's boy traveled all over the world gambling and playing Poker. Daddy said that everybody said he was the best in the world. He would go on riverboats and trains. He would be gone for months.

Momma didn't approve of gamblin' and Daddy used to play in a Poker Game. One day Momma found out where the Poker game was. She took Daddy's pistol and them three babies.. And she went to that house. She walked in that door. They said there was a chair in her way. She kicked that chair out of her way, wavin' that pistol around. Men was jumpin out of windas. The back screen door was latched, and this guy couldnt get it open. So, he just backed up and took door and all. I would ask Momma, cause I always wanted to know if that story was true.. Momma would always just smile and drop her head and she never would tell me. So when Bill, Cliff, Dan, and CB all got jobs at Wolverine, I was Daddy's main man and helping take care of his business and take care of his farming operation. I was 17 or 18 years old. One day, me and Daddy was sittin' out on the front porch. I said, "Daddy, I wanna ask you a question.."... now, Daddy was quiet... never did say a whole lot..."I wanna ask you a question. Ever since I been knee-high I've heard this story about Momma breakin up the Poker game wavin' your pistol around... I wanna know if this story is true..." Daddy just sat there for what seemed like 10 minutes, and these were the words he finally said, "Damn foolish woman..." So I know it was true. The reason that I bet Momma wouldnt say nothin was that they tied up about that a million time. I bet Daddy was embarrassed, you know..."

New Beginnings.... Goodbye Miss Annie!

Dad used tell me about Ms. Annie Wheeler and our family's history with her. I heard bits and pieces through the years but finally got him to tell me the whole story!

"Ms. Annie Wheeler was Fightin' Joe's daughter. When he died, she inherited all his land and his plantation, and she controlled it... Daddy and 'em wouldn't do nothin' without Ms. Annie's approval......I mean nothing! She named all the kids and everything! Course, I was scared of her as a bear cuz I'd hear everyone saying, "Oh, Ms. Annie ain't gonna like that!". But see, Daddy and 'em didn't tell her that they were moving... She had no idee... Ms. Annie Wheeler considered Daddy to be the very best sharecropper that she had... He worked on her plantation. Course, you know what a sharecropper is? You are able to live in their house and on their property rent free, but they get a third or a fourth... When you raise cotton or corn or produce, if they want it, everything that's raised on that land they got a third or fourth... And as best I remember, she got a third. Sometimes, cause they would have so much they wouldn't take that, but I remember that Momma used to can tomater soup for Ms. Annie ... She liked that.. Stuff like that ya know...

But, uh, in '42....because we moved to Moulton when I was in 3rd grade and that would have made me 7....I was born in '35....it was in '42... The War had just started... Willie Owens had moved to Moulton away from Wheeler and Willie and Daddy, and their wives, was real good friends... They came down, and I was a little ol boy... I wanted to know everything so when the grown-ups was talkin I would sit and listen....kinda like Josh does you know... I'd sit and listen. Well, Willie said, "Travis, you need to get away from this. You need to buy you a farm in Moulton. You need to get away from this. You won't never have nothin' as long as you work for Ms. Annie Wheeler. You'll be a sharecropper. You won't never have nothin'. You can buy you a farm. And I know where there's a farm is... You wanna go see it?" Daddy said, "Willie I don't have no money!". Willie Owens was on the board of directors for the Federal Land Bank, and he said, "Travis, I'll go on the note with you and you can buy this farm. Its a fine farm. Its the Warren place. Go look at it. You and Ider go look at it.". So they did. It was 160 acres about a mile and a half from Willie's place. I had never seen Momma and Daddy so keyed up and happy about something... Now that was in the fall of the year, and Daddy bought that farm. We had a 20 year note on that farm, and we paid it off in 5 years.

I won't ever forget it as long as I live. We loaded our stuff up on a pick-up truck, and Dan and C.B. had already carried away the cultivators and lot of the farm stuff. They hadn't told Ms. Annie yet. Well, Momma and Daddy went by, I think they owed her a little money and paid her off, and told Ms. Annie they were movin. Aw Lord, she had the awfulest fit I've ever heard. She talked to Momma and told her how sorry our family was and how much she had done for our family over all these years. She told what a bad bunch of...my Mother cried from the Wheeler Plantation to Moulton. I wont never forget it. I've never got over it. Ms. Annie, I don't view her like a lot of people do, cause I remember how she hurt my mother. It didn't bother Daddy, cause he knew how she was...it just rolled off his back, but it hurt Momma. She liked Ms. Annie. She thought she was a good person, and she respected her. She thought the feeling was mutual. I guess Ms. Annie felt betrayed. Maybe they should have told her earlier what they was doin, but they were afraid of her."

And so the Parker Family Farm was born.

Lord Ider... Ya dun killed him!

I've heard this story several times but I laugh every time... Some of the grandkids are protective of their grandaddy, and they don't like this story....;-). My dad told this one last year at Thanksgiving again..

"My Aunt and Uncle lived in Gadsden. Horace and Cass had two children and every year they went on vacation to Detroit to see the Detroit Tigers play. That was Horaces favorite team. They wrote a letter to Momma and asked if they could come and stay the night so they could get to Detroit the next day before dark. Now it was Dwight, Wayne, me, Nat, and Carl... and Billy Bragg was always around too.. So, six boys were always hanging around, so Momma called all of us together. She said, "Now listen, boys. I don't want to spend all the time fussin' at you boys. You must behave.. ". She looked at me and said, "Do you understand?". Now, I knew that the only answer to that question was, "Yes ma'am..". I knew right off the bat that I wasn't going to behave, and Cass and Horace hadn't been there an hour, and I had both of their kids crying...I just couldn't help it.. I was just so mean... Momma didn't yell.. She just looked at me and said, "Come here, boy...".

Now I knew what she was going to do... She was going to grab my arm and jerk me around fussin' on me and that embarrassed me! I was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world and the best athelete and that was humiliating.. So I ran... Now when Daddy and them first moved there it was up on top of this red hill... And they had gone down to the river when the water was low and got some
Smooth river rocks, kindly flat... Well, Momma reached down and grabbed one of those rocks and threw it at me... It hit me right on top of the head.. It didn't hurt, but I fell down, squallin' and carryin' on. Cass looked over at Maw Ider and said, "Lord, Ider... You dun killed him..."

Christmas Dinner at Maw Ider's.... Poor Man's Cake, Cob Battlin', and the Big Nickel

This is a story that Dad told me last year at Thanksgiving... I tried to capture how he told it as best i could...

Daddy was the oldest of 7or 8 siblings, and Daddy had to quit school help raise the family. My grandmother depended on Travis. The same thing happened to Momma. There was two Wileys, Ida and Frank. Momma's daddy, Vess Wiley, died when she was 6 months old. Momma's mother, she was a Kimbral, married Leander Terry. Momma called him Papa Terry, and he was the only daddy she ever knew. They had a bunch of children, I think 7 or 8. Well, Momma became the mother figure when her mother died. I told Betty, they'd come to our house at Christmas because going to Ida's was going Home. And my daddy, even with all those step-brothers and half-brothers coming in, made sure that there was plenty of food and that everyone was taken care of. Their lives were tough. Momma was in the 5th or 6th grade when she had to quit school too,and she became the mother figure of that family.

I know how much all of them loved her. Ida was just...... I've heard story after story from all my cousins about going to Ida's for Christmas Dinner. I told one in Sunday School the other day that liked to tickle everyone to death. Bobby was my red-headed first cousin, he Is deceased now, but he always used to help me with things over here or over yonder, he was a good electrician... Betty just loved him. Me and him and a couple of boys from work built that building out behind our house when we lived on Puckett... Well Bobby worked with me at Monsanto, and we'd work Christmas. You'd have to ask off for Christmas, and lots of time the older folks would get time off. So we would work on Christmas and lots of stuff would be shut down and not a lot of supervision would be there. We'd just sit around and eat and talk... Every year, they'd say, "come on, Bobby Red, and tell us about going to Aunt Ider's!" he'd tell the story about going to eat at Maw Ider's and the kids getting their plates and having to sit on the floor and eat. One of the favorite desserts that everyone would look forward to was the Poor Man's Cake. Maw Ider would always tell Bobby to get a small piece since it was everybody's favorite. He would watch all the adults going thru and getting their food and wait til all of them got theirs and then he'd always go back for another piece. What was so special about going to Iders was that there was so much food! There was a table from here to way over yonder full of nothing but desserts! Poor Man's Cake, Caramel Cake, Coconut Cake, fried apple pies, potato pies... Everything you could imagine... Poor Man's Cake had big ol Muskat raisins, English walnuts and pecans in it... It was kind of a dark cake like a Molasses Cake... It had thick caramel icing with half of an English Walnut on the top.

He'd tell about us playin in the barn, lookin out the winders, fallin in the hay, and cob battlin'... See, when you fed the horses, you'd put whole ears of corn in there and the horses would eat the corn and leave the cobs... We'd soak the cobs in water and throw 'em at each other... Man, they'd sting.... That was cob battlin'... We'd play all day and then Ider would start hollerin' for us to come in and eat again! And we'd go eat again! Ider would give little toys to all the kids... For years she gave all of em dollars. Jean and Boot's boys would call it the "Big Nickel". Go to grandmas and get the big nickel! Ha! Yeah, Bobby said he would always think as they were driving away, "Dad-gummit, it'll be another year til we can go back for Christmas Dinner again..."

My Father the Storyteller...

My dad has always been an exceptional storyteller. Whether it's the Christmas Story every year during the holidays or the yarns that he spins in Sunday School after being egged on by his friends, his ability to captivate a group of people is truly a gift. We have always marveled at his recall. After hearing a story once or twice, he has it...down to the last inflection and tone..

Dads catalogue includes Jerry Clower favorites, fables, fish tales, an endless array of stories from his childhood and adolescence on the farm, colorful tales from adulthood, Monsanto, and his experience as a son, husband, and father.

I am going to endeavor to capture his stories as often as I can and share them on my blog... Though you won't get to hear the inflection and the masterful way that he tells his stories, I think that you will hopefully get a glimpse of one facet of the man that I most admire.