Memories of Irondale, 1925 to 1942, Part IX by H. Bishop Holliman 

This is the ninth in a series of reflections on an earlier Irondale, Alabama by my father, Bishop Holliman, born 1919. - Glenn N. Holliman

"Beginning in 1937, I was attending Birmingham Southern College, working in the library on a National Youth Administration job, another creation of the New Deal. However, we were still Republican! In 1938, the local GOP sponsored an oratorical contest for “Young Republicans”, and I represented Alabama in the finals in Knoxville, Tennessee and won second prize - $100 – a huge sum – enough to pay a semester at college.

 

 

Baseball…During the 1930s amateur baseball was very popular throughout Jefferson County and most of the small towns fielded a team.  The baseball diamond in Irondale lay between the Seaboard and Southern tracks, along First Avenue South.  It was a Saturday ritual to attend the games that Irondale  The whites shared the diamond with blacks.  The blacks seldom attended the white games but I often went to see the blacks play. 

Some of the players I remember were Hubert Kilgore, Jack Godwin, Jesse Smoke, the two Wilson boys, Alfred McNutt and Click McDanal. 

All of these fellows were the age of Loudelle Holliman Ferrell (a sister) and Euhal Holliman (a brother).   Baseball was a big part of our lives during the 1930s.  The Birmingham Baron games were broadcast over the radio by Bull Connor, and never missed a game if I could help it.  I still remember Melton Holliman (the oldest brother) taking me to my first game at Rickwood field July 5, 1931!" 

Baseball was not the only recreation for a large family.  In the middle 1920s before middle class vacations, a summer treat was to take the family to Grant’s Mill on the east side of Irondale.  Here Ulyss Holliman supervises his children in the water, Bishop Holliman front, Euhal Holliman, Loudelle Holliman Ferrell and Vena Holliman Daly, behind the boat.
 

 

Next Post, more Memories of Irondale, Alabama in the early 20th Century....

Memories of Irondale, 1925 to 1942, Part VIII by H. Bishop Holliman

This is the eight in a series of reflections on an earlier Irondale, Alabama by my father, Bishop Holliman, born 1919. - Glenn N. Holliman


Right, in 1924, Pearl Caine Holliman, age 37, holds her 7th and last child, Ralph Holliman, in her arms at the foot of the tall front stairs of her new home she shared with her husband, Ulyss S. Holliman, and family at 2300 3^rd Avenue North. At the top of the stairs is her 6^thchild, Virginia Holliman Cornelius.









Below in 2010, Bishop Holliman viewed the steps, now all brick, leading to the front porch and his memories of his beloved ‘Mama’.  After his mother died in 1955, his father, Ulyss S. Holliman, sold the home to another son, Euhal Holliman.  After Euhal's wife, Edna, died in 1992, the house was sold out of the Holliman family.

"Each summer Mama would can fruits and vegetables, maybe over 100 jars, as did most housewives. I should note that my sister Vena had married in 1928 and was living next door in the brick house (visible as the white house on the extreme right in the above photo). 

Her husband, Robert Daly, was manager of the Woodlawn bank and had a good job throughout the Depression.  They were able to take vacations to the beach each summer, a treat denied to most folks in those years."

Below, Ulyss Holliman and his grand daughter, Mary Daly Herrin, who lived next door to her Holliman grandparents from 1932 until 1946.  Mary still lives in Irondale with her husband E.C. Herrin whom she married in 1951. Behind the two is the chicken house, typical in the 1940's in small southern towns of families only one generation removed from farming.

Ulyss is listed in the 1910 U.S. Census as a farmer in Fayette, Alabama.  After moving to Irondale in 1917, he is recorded in the 1920 Census as a carpenter (for the Birmingham, Alabama Electric Company working on street cars).

 Right, Euhal and Edna Holliman in 1944 hold their fourth child, Jean Holliman, standing in front of the Robert and Vena Holliman Daly house on 3rd Avenue in Irondale.

As noted, Euhal purchased the next door Ulyss Holliman house in 1956.  Jean would live with her parents in the Holliman house until her mother's death in 1992 when the house was sold.

Next post, more on living in Irondale, Alabama in the 1930s and 1940s....