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A nostalgic journey through the beliefs, customs, sayings, superstitions, and folk wisdom of a Southern childhood

Count Those Buzzards! Stamp Those Grey Mules! is a warm and engaging celebration of the folklore, superstitions, and everyday wisdom that once shaped life across the rural South. Drawing on her Alabama childhood, beloved storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham recounts the sayings, rituals, beliefs, and customs passed from generation to generation long before information was instantly available at the touch of a screen.

With humor, affection, and a keen eye for the memorable details of ordinary life, Windham introduces readers to a world where bottle trees repelled evil spirits, rabbit’s feet promised good fortune, and signs and omens guided daily decisions. Her stories capture not only the traditions themselves but also the families and communities that kept them alive.

Part memoir and part folklore treasury, this enduring classic preserves a rich cultural inheritance while offering a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Southern life. Featuring a new introduction by Dilcy Hilley Windham and a foreword by Emily Blejwas, this edition invites readers to rediscover a fascinating world of memory, myth, and tradition.

Alabama’s history and culture revealed through fourteen iconic foods, dishes, and beverages.

The Story of Alabama in Fourteen Foods explores well-known Alabama  food traditions to reveal salient histories of the state in a new way. In this book that is part history, part travelogue, and part cookbook, Emily Blejwas pays homage to fourteen emblematic foods, dishes, and beverages, one per chapter, as a lens for exploring the diverse cultures and traditions of the state.

Throughout Alabama’s history, food traditions have been fundamental  to its customs, cultures, regions, social and political movements, and events. Each featured food is deeply rooted in Alabama identity and has a story with both local and national resonance. Blejwas focuses on lesser-known food stories from around the state, illuminating the lives of a diverse populace: Poarch Creeks, Creoles of color, wild turkey hunters, civil rights activists, Alabama club women, frontier squatters, Mardi Gras revelers, sharecroppers, and Vietnamese American shrimpers, among others. A number of Alabama figures noted for their special contributions to the state’s foodways, such  as George Washington Carver and Georgia Gilmore, are profiled as well. Alabama’s rich food history also unfolds through accounts of community events and a food-based economy. Highlights include Sumter County barbecue clubs, Mobile’s banana docks, Appalachian Decoration Days, cane syrup making, peanut boils, and eggnog parties.

Drawing on historical research and interviews with home cooks, chefs, and community members cooking at local gatherings and for holidays, Blejwas details the myths, legends, and truths underlying Alabama’s beloved foodways. With nearly fifty color illustrations and fifteen recipes, The Story of Alabama in Fourteen Foods will allow all Alabamians to more fully understand their shared cultural heritage.