From Robert Stringer

Since I am the #2 child I felt I should write a lot. I’m good at that -- and good at talking, too!

My earliest memories of growing up with my big brother Jim are from Elizabeth Avenue in Talladega. I will never forget riding on the handlebars of our bicycle with Jimmy pedaling 90 mph down Thrill Hill and running into a car traveling on the cross street. I think the lady driving the car was mad at us. We slammed into her pretty hard and dented her car door.

Mom used to take us all to pick blackberries (no, not cell phones) on the weird-looking area near Talladega known as Brecon. I think they once made bombs in Brecon for the military and we probably ate contaminated berries! Anyway, the darn berries were in sticker bushes and Mom said to be careful because snakes hung out there to eat birds who came to get the berries. Just another cycle in the food chain!

Once Dad took us squirrel hunting before daylight so we could beat the squirrels before they woke up! I remember Dad spanked me because he and Jimmy left me in the truck and I got scared and honked the horn………..thereby scaring off all the squirrels Dad was going to kill to make his “famous” squirrel dumplings! He and Jimmy had left me in the dark truck with only a flashlight! Jimmy got real smart early on and quit hunting and took up motorcycles and girls!

Dad, Jimmy and I opened a Sherwin Williams paint store in Talladega in 1954. I was the only five-year-old paint salesman in the State of Alabama. Jimmy and I also got to dust tops of paint cans, carry out garbage, sweep, and play in cardboard boxes in the trash area behind the store. On some Saturdays we got to sell Claxton Fruitcakes on Talladega Courthouse Square to help Dad’s Civitan Club fundraiser. One time a professor at Talladega College scolded Jim for hitting me in the head. He said it could cause brain damage! Now I’m here to tell you, Jimmy Stringer could sell some fruitcakes!! I bet he still has one left over!

One year, Jimmy got a Cushman motorcycle and we had to go to Oneonta, AL to get it. I remember Jimmy had to ride it all the way back to Talladega. Quite a ride considering Oneonta is in the mountains and the roads are scary. Anyway, I begged Jimmy to take me with him whenever he would go anywhere on his motorcycle. This began a long history of my wanting to tag along with my big brother!

Thank goodness we moved to Tuscaloosa when Jimmy was in high school. I remember the first time I went with Dad and Jim to meet his new football coach at Tuscaloosa High School. Coach said Jim looked like a good player! Boy was I proud to have a football star in my family. Jimmy’s knee was injured but he always sucked it up and played anyway.

Jim and I worked together at the Sherwin Williams in Tuscaloosa. Jimmy Wyatt wrote about my brother mixing paint……..my big brother would box together lacquer to match the heads of nails for Phifer Wire Co. in Tuscaloosa. Just try matching lacquer color to a nail head!! Quite a talent!! Sometimes the lacquer fumes made us both dizzy!

Jim went off to attend the University of Alabama and sometimes “allowed” me to visit him at the apartment he shared with his buddies. Lots of stories there -- that shall remain untold!

I love my brother Jim. He has always been the best role model anyone could have! Happy Birthday, Jimmy! Love, Robert