Meet My Sister, Carol, But I Call her Calo!

My younger sister, Linda Carol Johnson Mullaney!  But I call her Calo!  Carol and I were the only girls.  We have three brothers.  She is and has always been so talented as well as beautiful!  She started working at the Jackson County Hospital before she finished high school.  This sparked her love for the career she chose.  After graduation from Scottsboro High School in 1975, she enrolled  at Drake in Huntsville in the nursing department.  She continued to work while attending Drake. After receiving her nursing degree, she continued working at the Jackson County Hospital in Scottsboro where she worked for many years.  She was a vital part of the IV Therapy Dept. and was extremely good at what she did.  She had a genuine love of all her patients and always showed them the compassion that she would have wanted someone to show her own family.  Her patients were essentially an extension of family and she loved them all!  I personally have had many stays in many hospitals and a caring nurse like Carol was who I hoped entered my room to take care of me.  She has also held several executive positions in assisted living homes, which was another job she loved!  An interesting fact that many people may not know is that she is a terrific writer!  She penned several short stories while attending college at Northeast.  I still have one of the copies!  Her resume is much longer than this post!   We are all so proud of all her accomplishments!  She has two children, Nathan Hollis Smith who lives in Scottsboro with his wife Lindsey and their two children, Druw and Colin,  and Melissa Gillilan who lives in New Market with her husband Jeremy.   Carol now lives in New Market, Alabama with her husband, Thomas Mullaney.  This photo was a Scottsboro High School photo.  I will be adding recent photos soon!   Calo, Love You Big!  :)

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The Old Coke Machine and the Unlit Cigar Scottsboro, AL

This is probably one of a very few photos that was taken on the inside of the old Johnson Plumbing and Electric Co., Scottsboro, Alabama,  that contains a shot of the old Coke machine that was one of the original "fixtures" of the history of the building.  If you take a closer look at the front of the machine you can see where the Coke Company had increased the price from 6¢ to 10¢.  The 6¢ price increase didn't last long because of confusion and expense of the extra 1¢ upgrade from a nickel!  I remember when the Coke representative changed out the coin mechanism when the price went up!  Right beside the machine is the typical “stack” of refills of the old returnable glass bottles.   This photo was taken after the first remodel of the building and the old wooden front was removed.  Originally the old Coke machine sat on the right hand side wall on the front entrance of the building.  The man in the photo, of course, is my Dad.  Again, if you will take a closer look at his left hand you will notice he is holding a cigar.  There is a great story behind the "unlit cigar".  My Dad smoked for years.  One day, as a dare, a friend told him that he needed to stop smoking.  The friend told him that he wouldn't be able to stop.  My Dad, W. H. "Shag" Johnson, Jr., had a lit cigarette in his hands when the "dare" was made.  He looked at his friend, took a last puff and threw the cigarette in the garbage.  That was the last cigarette that he ever smoked!  From that day forward he would light a cigar, put it out, and hold it like he is in the photo.  The only time he actually took a "puff" was to light the cigar.  As soon as it was lit, he put it out.  I guess this was his way of breaking free from cigarettes.  From time to time he would put the unlit cigar in his mouth, but that was usually right before he threw it in the trash.  People who knew him could tell when he was upset or unhappy by the way he would chew on the cigar before throwing it away!  

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Life and Work in Scottsboro, Alabama

My Mother, Joyce Dean Johnson, held many different jobs in her lifetime. She was one of the original phone operators in Scottsboro (before rotary), a bookkeeper, a sales clerk at Elmore's 5 and 10 on the square in Scottsboro, manager and bookkeeper for Johnson Plumbing and Electrical, a sales clerk and part owner of D.J.’s Unclaimed Baggage, and an admission clerk at the Jackson County Hospital. She worked at the hospital for several years and trained many others to work in the admissions department. After several years she was promoted to patient’s accounts representative. I think of all the jobs she held in her lifetime she loved being hired as one of the original female Police officers in Scottsboro. She didn't carry weapons or ride in patrol cars, but she directed traffic at major school intersections during the morning and then again in the afternoons when school was dismissed! She did this as a second job, just because she liked it! She had to be trained, of course, and she later trained others who were hired within the force. The date on the front of her license shown in the photo is an updated one. She was actually hired in August of 1967. There was always a “story” about her day at work! One of my favorites has to be her story of the diesel trucks. She was working the intersection at the main entrance of what was the Scottsboro High School which is now Collins. This would have had to be after 1968 because I was in the 2nd graduating class of the new school in 1969. She was standing in the middle of the highway with no space to “run” and two diesel trucks going in opposite directions came within inches of her in passing. She said she just stood there in the whipping wind and prayed that she wouldn’t get sucked up under one or both of the trucks! She, of course, was shaken, but when she told the story she just shook her head and laughed! We all thought that would end her love of that job, but it didn’t . She stayed and actually trained other women to follow. If anything she was truly a hard-working woman! My Mother was a character for sure! 
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