Forty years ago in 1976, the most exciting thing happening was the apparent coming of Spring.

Football teams were preparing for spring practice. W.S. Neal had a new head football coach. Ronnie Kirkland, a native of East Brewton was to take over at Neal and Frank Cotten was the coach at T.R. Miller.

The Meadorwood Garden Club was taking on the job of sponsoring the Azalea Trail after several years of not having one here in Brewton.

There were 30 young ladies who were going to be on hand to guide visitors down the trail. They all were to be dressed in the traditional southern antebellum dresses.

Another way that we knew that Spring was here was the fact that people were taking to their gardens to plant. The planting was not limited to the big farms. Many people took the opportunity to plant a small garden in their own yards. One such man was Rufus Peebles. The photograph showed him plowing his small garden, not with a mule or tractor but using just a hand  plow. He wasn’t trying to plant a big area, but the picture showed a pretty good selection of little plants.

The U.S. Forest Service gave a building to the county. It was said that it was adjacent to the courthouse. I wonder, was that the building that used to stand where the offices of First Baptist Church are now located?

Sales tax collections for both Brewton and East Brewton were up and K-Mart was set to open here in Brewton on April 1.

Can it be that it has been that long ago? It seems like just yesterday. I remember that K-Mart occupied two different locations with the first being in the shopping center across from Burger King. The second would be in the shopping center next to Kwik-Chek. Do you remember Grant’s?

I can quickly show my age with the memories that I have for all of these businesses.

Speaking of history, the Alabama Historical Commission announced that the Leigh Place had been selected to go on their historical list.

Along with the story of the Leigh Place, there were stories of the cannons, and the notorious Leslie Hancock trial for the murder of Jesse Troutman. The late John David Sr. recalled that he remembered seeing the cannons delivered to the courthouse lawn in 1906 from Fort Barrancas. When someone asked why the cannons were brought there, one of the workmen referred to the trial. If it interests you, you can come by The Brewton Standard and read it for yourself. There is also a story about the history of the Leigh Place. It was built in 1885 and and 17 years later it was already too small for its purposes. It was even condemed. But today it still stands on Belleville looking very well. In fact, not too bad for a building that was once condemed.