BY RUSTY ALDRIDGE
EAN’S ‘MAN ABOUT WETUMPKA TOWN’ – And Well Known Philosopher, Poet, Radio Guy and Pot Stirrer!
Top Photo by Rusty Aldridge: The Sweet Home Books business will soon be open. Formerly it was a barbershop that was featured in the Home Town Takeover on HGTV.
The Home Town Takeover crew has come and gone, and in their wake, they have left a prettier, shinier Wetumpka. Ben and Erin Napier and their army of fixer-uppers have turned my hometown into something all of us should be proud of. The next show detailing their visit should air soon but if you have Discovery+, I believe more episodes are available.
We have seen facelifts for several businesses: Coaches Corner, Tapp 18, and two privately owned homes. One is owned by a couple who are foster parents to several children. The other is the Big Fish house owned by Shellie and Wade Whitfield who are transplants to our fair city from Colorado. In addition to being the Executive Director of the Wetumpka Area Chamber of Commerce, Shellie is an accomplished artist and art teacher with a studio right there in the Big Fish house.
“We are so blessed, and I mean everyone in Wetumpka, to have been chosen by HGTV and Home Town Takeover for this make over!” Shellie told me in a phone interview. “It means so much to the whole community!”
I often tell people that when I was a young boy, Wetumpka ended at the Dairy Queen and there was a two-lane road that went on to Montgomery. If you went to town on Friday or Saturday you better go early because as my maw-maw said there would be so many people you couldn’t ‘stir ‘em with a stick’! And just a few of the shops come to mind: Speer’s Drug Store, Ben Franklin’s
(The Dime Store), Bill’s Dollar Store, and everybody went to see Al Dennis at the Curb Market. Get yourself a cold soft drink and you did not have to pay the 2¢ for the bottle because Mr. Dennis knew you would bring it back next time.
When you stepped out on the sidewalk, you were bound to see Shirley Johnson with a couple of baskets of peanuts. Parched or boiled, they were just 25¢ a bag.
Then you sat down on the curb and ate peanuts while the world passed by!
Everything was closed on Sunday except one of the drug stores; Speer’s, Thames or Cousins/Harris…and forget about Wednesday afternoon because at straight up 12 o’clock everybody closed up shop and went home.
When Walmart and a lot of the chain restaurants came to town, the road had been widened and everything sort of shifted out past Fort Toulouse. The downtown section of our little town took a downward turn and it took quite a few years for it to recover, and that’s where Jerry Willis came in.
Jerry was first elected Mayor of the City of Wetumpka in 2008. He had a memory of what Wetumpka once was and a vision of what Wetumpka could be again. Jerry surrounded himself with like-minded people and went to work.
The city applied for grants, made plans, talked to the community and everything was moving along nicely. Then came Saturday, January 19th, 2019.
At about 2:52 p.m., what would later be classified as an F-2 tornado, snaked its way up the Coosa River, uprooting trees, taking roofs off houses, and cutting a great swath through Wetumpka’s historic residential area. The 163-year-old Presbyterian Church was completely destroyed. Across the street the historic sanctuary of The First Baptist Church withstood the 135 mph winds, but it, along with the almost new education building sustained irreparable damage and had to be taken down.
There was more damage around town, but…by the grace of God…not one life was lost.
The dust had not even settled by the time we heard about the storm. I was itching to get down there but I was sure I would be overruled and told to stay home.
I’m not as spry as I used to be. As I stood there contemplating sneaking out, I heard a voice behind me say, “Let’s go!” I turned to see my mama putting on her coat. Before I could say, “Who are you and what have you done with my sweet little white-haired mama?” we were in the car and down the road!
We arrived at the parking lot next to First Baptist’s newer sanctuary very close to the time as the first responders. I began taking pictures.
We were listening to reports on the radio and checking Facebook…we heard and read many inaccurate accounts of the carnage…
- Downtown Wetumpka has been destroyed…
- Part of the Bibb Graves Bridge has fallen into the river…
- The first responders cannot get to the damaged area…
- The First Baptist Church is completely gone…
I immediately started posting pictures just so people could see what was happening and stop them from panicking. We saw the Drews, Holly and Michael. They were at their home a couple of blocks away and had no damage, but they were visibly shaken. As I stated, no one died.
It was later on that I thought of the storm as, “The Miracle Tornado” since no lives were lost.
It was at this time, Wetumpka’s comeback hit a brick wall.
I told this story to set up this one. It took another year and a half to get things up and rolling again. Then we got the news about Home Town Takeover. Wetumpka was picked out of 5,000 entrants! This would put the comeback effort over the top! Ben and Erin came to town and…well who doesn’t like Ben and Erin? They did their magic and just look at Wetumpka now!
There is one business that got a makeover that I did not mention: Jerry’s Barber Shop.
I spoke with the mayor by phone and I told him the negative things I have been reading on Facebook.
- He sold the property in 2019 and should have told Ben and Erin…
- The mayor let them do the makeover then sold it at an inflated price…
- The only way the city would allow Home Town to do their show would
be if they fixed up his shop…
The list goes on and on, and you know, everything I heard began with these two words: I heard…
As I said, I talked to Jerry Willis and in true Paul Harvey fashion, he gave me the rest of the story. Here it is.
Jerry Willis cut hair in that barber shop for close to 50 years. I know this because he cut my hair when I was about 10 years old. He bought the shop from Mr. Demp Thrash in 1966 and Mr. Demp continued to work there until about 1971. Mr. Demp was also a Mayor of Wetumpka.
I remember sitting in the chair getting my hair cut when Mr. Demp would pull on his suit coat, put on his hat and make a bee line for the courthouse. When I asked where he was going, Jerry told me that Mr. Demp handled government business in the afternoons; and the men in the shop nodded and chuckled.
When Mr. Demp finally retired, Jerry figured it was time to put his name on the window. There it stayed until it was recently taken down.
Jerry sold the property in 2019, but he continued to occasionally cut hair. By this time he had been mayor for several years and was busy with that job and his second job of bringing our town back to life.
In late 2020 we all heard the news that Wetumpka had been picked from 5,000 other “struggling” towns around the country. All of us were truly blessed that day.
Before Ben and Erin came to Wetumpka, they were preceded by a group of the show’s producers from California and Canada. They came to town on an undercover mission to talk to residents, merchants, and the people on the street just to make sure that Wetumpka was worthy of being picked as the site of HGTV’s first Home Town Takeover. The warmth and community spirit of the citizenry convinced them that the people and the city of Wetumpka were worthy of the great honor being bestowed upon them.
When the subject of renovating the barber shop came up, Jerry reminded them that he had sold the building in 2019. The producers did not care about that, all they wanted was Jerry’s story. That is exactly what they got. Jerry met Ben and Erin the first day they walked in to inspect the property. They all went inside the barber shop, did some filming and then left. The mayor and the entire group in town who were involved, signed non-disclosure contracts. Ben and Erin did their magic, and then we all saw it on tv. It was all for the show. They told the story of Jerry’s Barber Shop, which had previously been a barber shop, a lawyer’s office, a pizza parlor, and then a barber shop again. Jerry’s Barber Shop is a very important part of the lore of Wetumpka.
Diane Castro, owner of Sweet Home Books, the new business that now occupies the building, has been taking heat for the Barber Shop Blow Up.
Diane says she and her husband wanted to open the store in Wetumpka, “Because Wetumpka is the home for us, and we wouldn’t have dreamed of opening Sweet Home Books anywhere else!”
The Castros, Diane and Tim (yeah, Tim…he graduated from Wetumpka in 1996 and went on to play football at Auburn…yeah, that Tim Castro) are very excited to be back home in Wetumpka. Sweet Home Books opens Memorial Day weekend…I will definitely be there.
My mama and daddy rode around town recently and they were pleasantly surprised to see how busy things were. They saw people walking around, admiring the landscaping and taking pictures. All the parking places were full and my mama said she had not seen that many people in Wetumpka at one time since back in the 1970’s!
What HGTV, Home Town, and the Ben and Erin have done for Wetumpka is…well, if you asked my friend Larry Stevens what they have done for Wetumpka…he might say it’s advertising you could not afford even if it were for sale! Larry and his business partner Andrea Ingram have relocated their advertising business from Montgomery to the office space above the Chamber of Commerce. Also, the more quaint and alluring businesses that come to Wetumpka, simply brings more revenue for our merchants. That’s what it takes to make a small-town grow.
In my humble opinion, the city of Wetumpka has been given a huge second chance. A mayor that has worked very hard, a TV network that helped make the ‘Tump’ shine, and good and kind people to provide smiling faces for what I am sure will be many, many new visitors in the next few years. Wetumpka and her people have been truly blessed by God.
I think the part of writing this story I enjoyed the most was my conversation with Mayor Willis. We swapped stories, talked about the old days and some of the big things that are still to come for Wetumpka. I love seeing all the events going on and I plan on attending some soon. I mentioned stories…Jerry told me the real story of how the bullet hole came to be in the door of the barber shop. You will have to make a special appointment in his office for that one. I also understand you might have to pass a background check and sign a non-disclosure agreement.
As we were wrapping up our phone conversation, that I gleefully answered while I was in Walmart, I told Jerry I had to come to see him because I needed a haircut. In the true, quick wit of a master barber he said, “Which one?”
What’chu talkin’ bout Willis?
