Alabama town celebrates the incomparable Mr. Haney

Only in the South would a day be dedicated to one of the best swindlers around. But then, Mr. Haney on “Green Acres” took advantage of Yankees.

On the second Saturday in October, the folks in Addison, Ala., celebrate Pat Buttram, a comic entertainer with a distinctive voice who's likely best known for his role as Mr. Haney on “Green Acres.” The popular TV show features a man (Eddie Albert) of Park Avenue wishing to get back to the basics so he buys a dilapidated farm, much to the horror of his fashion-savvy wife, played by Eva Gabor. Pat Buttram Day will take place in his hometown with free family fun, old-fashioned contests, a parade and live music from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019.

It all begins, naturally, with a 7:30 a.m. all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at the Addison Community Center and Park located on Highway 41, just off of Highway 278. At 9 a.m., a parade will make its way down on Highway 41 North through the downtown area and back to the Addison Community Center and Park. Entertainment gets underway at 10 a.m. in the park and this year’s lineup includes Chimney Branch, a gospel quartet, Elvis and Willie Nelson impersonators and Danny Frazier. Barbecue plates, hamburgers and hot dogs will be available for purchase. 

Throughout the day, family members of Buttram will be on hand sharing stories of the famous actor and Buttram’s western films and various shows will be playing in the Community Center. Mayberry tribute artist Kenneth Junkin of Gordo will be on hand entertaining the crowd with his impersonation of the Otis Campbell character from “The Andy Griffith Show.” Other activities include a children’s game, a quilt show, yard sale and buck dancing.

Admission is free and all events are held in the Addison Community Center and Park unless otherwise noted. Festivalgoers are encouraged to bring lawn chairs. Proceeds from Pat Buttram Day will be used to funds various projects in the community. For more information, call Festival Chair Shirley Sudduth at (256) 747-2779 or (256) 620-0180.

Piece of trivia, Pat Buttram has been numerous films and TV shows, including "Back to the Future III," "A Goofy Movie," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "The Love Boat."

The truth is out there…in Alabama

Note: This post originally was published in 2017. It has been updated to include this year's festival.

On Feb. 11-12, 1989, more than 50 people, including the chief of police, reported seeing odd objects flying over the small community of Fyffe in northeastern Alabama. The rash of UFO sightings, and the thousands of people who arrived looking for UFOs, resulted in the town being named the UFO Capital of the World. Not to be outdone, the state later proclaimed it the UFO Capital of Alabama.

On Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019, the annual Fyffe UFO Day Festival will kick into gear. Visitors may not spot little green men flying around in saucers — or maybe they will! —but there will definitely be hot air balloons, arts and crafts, children’s games, 5K run, antique car and tractor show and food vendors.  

Photos courtesy

DeKalb Tourism

Headlining this year's event is David Ball, whose hit records stretch from the late 80s to 2004. Also scheduled to perform are The Sharps, Steel City Revival and Willie Underwood and Family.

Gates open at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Fyffe Town Park on Graves Street, but the hot air balloons take flight around 6 a.m. Tethered rides are offered for the public around 6 p.m. and hot air balloon rides across the Sand Mountain will be available, weather permitting. For information, visit www.ballooningal.com.

Registration for the 5K begins at 7 a.m. with the race beginning at 8 a.m. at Fyffe First Baptist Church. For more information, click here.

Parking and admission are free and visitors are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and picnic blankets. For more information on UFO Day Festival, call DeKalb Tourism at (888) 805-4740 or visit www.VisitLookoutMountain.com.

Want to know more about that rash of UFO sightings in 1989 and a few Alabama UFO reports preceding Fyffe’s encounters? Click here.

Here’s something fun (or maybe weird), a commercial aimed at keeping teenagers from driving and drinking using Fyffe and its UFO reputation as a backdrop.

Cheré Coen is a food and travel writer who loves weird and unusual things. 

Happy Birthday Vulcan!

When I was kid and our family headed from New Orleans to Chattanooga to “See Rock City” and Ruby Falls, plus the other attractions in the Smoky Mountains, we knew we were almost “there yet” when we spotted Vulcan towering over the landscape. Vulcan is the world’s largest cast iron statue and the 50-ton homage to the Roman god of fire has been standing sentinel over the Birmingham skyline since the 1930s. You might wonder why an Alabama city would erect a statue to the god of fire, but Birmingham was known for years for its steel production.

When my kids were little, we visited Birmingham for its awesome children’s museum and nearby DeSoto Caverns and, of course, we visited Vulcan and the surrounding park on Red Mountain, now known as Vulcan Park and Museum. The statue’s enormous and visitors are allowed access to the top where a stunning view of Birmingham and region can be seen. What my children enjoyed most of all, however, was the view from behind — literally. Vulcan wears a skirt of some sort while he works at his forge with a cute view underneath. It’s nothing sordid, mind you, but it did bring my kids to giggles.

My kids on Vulcan's foot

The statue created by Italian artist Giuseppe Moretti in 1904 and brought to the Alabama town in pieces turns 114 on June 3 and yes, there is a birthday bash for the iron man. From noon to 4 p.m. there will be “V,” Vulcan’s six-foot plush mascot, plus Birmingham City Mayor Randall Woodfin and City Council President Valerie A. Abbott making appearances. And even more importantly, ice cream from Piggly Wiggly and Bud’s Best Cookies will be handed out after V blows out his candles. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for children and free for Vulcan Park and Museum members and children 4 and under. Admission includes entrance into the Vulcan Center Museum, Vulcan’s Observation tower, and entrance into the new Linn-Henley Gallery exhibit, “Southern Thunder – The Legacy of Alabama Auto Racing.”

Want to know more about the mythology? Here’s Wikipedia’s explanation.

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by food and travel writer Chere Dastugue Coen.

Dead artists at Mobile Museum of Art

Halloween is the time of year when the veil between the dead and the living grows thin. Which means in Mobile, the ghosts of famous artists come back to life.

The Mobile Museum of Art will host a Day of the Dead-meets-Night at the Museum Halloween extravaganza beginning at 6 p.m. tonight. The museum has partnered with AIDS Alabama South to bring about this family affair and will include performances from a number of community theaters as deceased artists come to haunt the galleries. There will be a gallery scavenger hunt, live music from Melissa Robertson, Day of the Dead altars made for artists no longer with us, sugar skull making, face painting and Tarot card readings.

Costumes are recommended. $5 donation requested.

Chere Coen is a travel and food writer who loves weird Southern stories, not to mention a ghost or two.

Celebrate Tomato Sandwich Day in Decatur, Alabama

My Deep South mother grew up eating tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches. She convinced me to enjoy chopped black olive and mayo sandwiches (which are actually really good) but not the former. Still, when I heard that the Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market in Decatur, Alabama, was hosting its annual Tomato Sandwich Day on Saturday, July 29, it made me smile. The market will be offering free tomato sandwiches — tomatoes on white bread with mayo — from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and hosting a new contest where chefs are invited to enter their favorite tomato pie recipe using tomatoes purchased from local farmers at the farmers market.

Tomato pie I can wrap my head around. That sounds yummy.

The tomato pie contest will be judged by local farmers. Contest registration is required and the entry fee is $10 per person. Prepared entries are due at the market at 2 p.m. for judging.

In addition to tomatoes, there will be jams and jellies, fresh-baked goods, local honey, local artisans and fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables including okra, squash, green beans, cantaloupe, watermelons, onions, peppers and peaches.

The Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market is located at 211 First Ave. SE in Decatur; call the Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market Manager Elizabeth Thompson at (256) 476-5595 for more information or visit www.decaturfarmersmarket.org or their Facebook page for the latest updates. Not a tomato lover?

The Market celebrates Watermelon Day on August 19.  

Cheré Coen is a food and travel writer who loves weird and unusual things, but maybe not a tomato sandwich. 

Legendary Flora-Bama bar located on two states celebrates 50 years of Gulf Coast craziness

           We didn’t know which was funnier, the sound engineer dressed in flip flops, a straw hat and a Scottish kilt or Cathy, the leader of the open mic who calls herself the “big butt bitch of the beach.”

            Welcome to the Flora-Bama, titled as such for the fact that it sits on one side of the Alabama state line and the other in Florida and is world-renowned for its rowdiness.

            The Flora-Bama has been a landmark in the Gulf Shores-Orange Beach area since 1964, back when the Alabama coast was called the “Redneck Riviera.” The romping roadhouse with its multiple concert spaces, oyster bar, gift shop, pool hall, beachside bar and eatery and liquor store celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year, still going strong even though the emerald coast has since turned upscale. In addition, the sprawling venue over two states hosts special events, including the immensely popular Mullet Toss where people — yes — toss fish for prizes.

            A few things to note if you’re heading to the state line bar:

            Try the Bushwacker, the bar’s signature drink, a combination of rums and other wonderful ingredients. So creamy and good you’ll forget yourself and your rowdy attitude will fit right in.

            If your date’s a bore or you don’t like the music, try reading the walls. They’re covered with wit from past customers, plus there are some awesome relics from by-gone music days.

            If you’re looking for more sophistication, the Flora-Bama Yacht Club waterfront restaurant is across the street, just behind the Waffle House.

            While we were listening to Cathy belt out crowd favorites in the lounge area closest to the street, we noticed children with parents wondering around and had that bar scene in “Sweet Home Alabama” flitting through our heads, the one where Reese Witherspoon spots an old friend in a bar with a child on her hip and says, “You have a baby…in a bar!” If you must bring kids, you might want to avoid the large bar-concert space toward the back with the bras hanging from the ceiling. The time we visited after Katrina there was a man belting out how much he despised insurance companies in very colorful language.

            And don’t even bother asking the sound engineer what’s beneath his kilt. He’ll do a little striptease that ends up showing another layer beneath, like a tease.

            “Nothing more scary than Velco,” he said when he pulled apart his kilt revealing more fabric. “Just like a shotgun being pulled.”
             After a few Bushwackers, we weren’t scared. Just disappointed. And we yelled out frustrations with the other women in the crowd.