SHADY GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH HONORS SENIORS

The Members of Shady Grove Baptist Church honored the following Seniors on Sun., May 7 at 10:30 a.m. Those honored included Dalton Faulkner and Carden Roden, Hartselle High School Graduates on May 22; Sydney Alred, Paxton Boyd, Abby Campbell, Kelsie Hanline, Jackson Locklear, Trevor Sherrill and Colton Spinks, Danville High School Graduates on May 23 and also Ryan Anthony, Austin High School Graduate on May 25. Our Congratulations and Best Wishes to all our Seniors.

I want to share a story from the book “The Heritage of Morgan County, Alabama” published by the Morgan County Genealogy Society. The title of the story is “Punkin Center: A Big Patch of Yellow Gold” and the story was submitted by Sue Marine. The story reads as follows: “Every October for many years, a small community lying about two miles from Neel turned to gold. At the intersection of what used to be four dirt roads was Mr. Stroup’s pumpkin patch. The dirt there was rich because of the sawdust and cotton hulls from the mill and gin and the seeds Joe planted ‘just went to glory’. The elder Stroup had over an acre of the biggest pumpkins anybody had ever seen, some weighing as much as 100 pounds. People would come from miles around just to look at the pumpkins and many had to be sawed in half to be taken away. Joe Stroup was one of 17 children. He swapped a horse for 80 acres of land and bought another 40 acres from the government for $40 and kept on going until he managed to acquire about 600 acres of the richest farmland in Morgan County. He had a cotton gin, saw mill, feed mill, a small store and a farm, making about 86 crops before he went blind. He died at age 96. He never got used to electricity. Since he was blind he didn’t know when the lights were on. The last thing he always said at night was ‘Son blow the lamp out’. Old Joe Stroup never sold even one pumpkin. He said the Lord blessed him and he insisted on giving the pumpkins away. In the summertime he grew and gave away watermelons. The community was originally called Stroup’s Crossroads. But in the 1930’s or 1940’s a ‘drummer’ came through Stroup’s Crossroads and saw the pumpkin patch. The salesman said, ‘those are some pumpkins out there!’ After that everyone started calling it ‘Punkin Center.’ When Halloween came around trick-or-treaters in Punkin Center could collect molasses popcorn balls, parched peanuts, apples and baked sweet potatoes. And anyone who wanted a pumpkin just had to ask Joe.”

The Members of Shady Grove Baptist Church express Christian love and heartfelt sympathy for the following families and they are Mike and Kelly McLamb and family in the death of her uncle, Glen Finley and also Janet King and family in the death of her stepbrother, Billy James.