Alabama & Family

By Jim.

My side-trip to Birmingham was a warm tribute to our family.

Monday afternoon, I flew out of Sioux Falls, SD, met Abby in Chicago and we flew to Birmingham together.

Thanks to others, our day Tuesday was as easy as one could hope for.  Back in January, Pete and JJ met me in Birmingham and did a lot of literal and figurative heavy-lifting in sifting through Mom’s things when she moved from the apartment she and DeWitte had shared into her much smaller skilled nursing unit.  Plus, DeWitte was one of the most organized people ever, and his diligent record-keeping and estate-planning set an example for all of us – such planning ultimately benefits your loved ones!  Things went so smoothly, Abby and I even had time for a driving tour of the old family houses in Crestline.

Tuesday night, at the newly-crowned James Beard Foundation Best Restaurant In America, Highlands Bar & Grill, Abby and I told tales about Mom and the rest of her remarkable grandparents and great-grandparents.

Speaking of great food, I also gorged myself twice on ribs during the trip at the legendary Dreamland, which is still true to its slogan, “Ain’t Nothin’ Like ‘Em Nowhere”.

After Abby flew home Wednesday, I went to Tuscaloosa, where a couple of you-know-you’re-old-when moments awaited me.  Moment #1 was meeting my lawyer for probating Mom’s will – the nephew of my dear friend, Bobby Wooldridge.  Moment #2 was attending the committee meeting for planning our law school class’s 40th reunion.

I indulged in some nostalgic sightseeing in Tuscaloosa, including visits to the law school…and the Center of the Football Universe,where I visited the plaque of “my” team (another looming 40th anny), which is on that walkway in the stadium pic.  The newest real estate trend in Tuscaloosa is luxury condos near Bryant-Denny Stadium  – seven figures for some of them, I’m told.  

My return trip Thursday came within 10 minutes of being routine, and 10 minutes of being a two-day bleepshow.  We descended through some nasty clouds as we landed in Sioux Falls.  Then, as we taxied to the gate, the bottom dropped out and (more problematic) the skies lit up.  The lightning meant the ground crew couldn’t operate the jetway, so we sat in the plane on the tarmac for an hour waiting for things to calm down.   Even when we got to the gate, we had to wait another hour to get the bags off.  Still, if the weather had started a few minutes sooner, the plane probably would have been diverted to somewhere else.  So when I got back to Brookings that night, I felt lucky.

On Friday, I finally reported for duty at our Habitat For Humanity job site, where Ginny had been working in my absence.

Brookings is a town of about 25,000 located in east-central South Dakota.  Our rigs are parked in the parking lot of an impressive local business called Larson Manufacturing, a window and door manufacturer with a modest national footprint.  We also have been given privileges to use Larson’s employee health club and we take walks through the adjacent Larson Park, donated to the city by the company.  It’s refreshing to see an organization resist the national trend of relentless “cost-cutting” worker-related benefits, and we’re grateful for their hospitality.

Ten of us are working at the project, all part of RV Care-A-Vanners, a sub-set of the remarkable Habitat For Humanity organization.  We’re working on a housefor a young couple who are immigrants from Egypt.   The work is hard, the sun is hot and the reward of contributing to this cause is satisfying (I’m even listening to Christian Rock , which is piped into the job site while we work).

We’ll be here another week, then head from the Great Plains into the Midwest.

By the way, speaking of family, Happy Birthday this July 15 to my son, Pete, and son-in-law, Clark Rosensweig!!