“The water is about two or three feet deep now,” Lake said as he sloshed through his living room. “The backyard is even worse.” - Anderson Lake, Selma resident

A few local children in Selma share a moment of terror mixed with joy while traveling down a neighborhood slip 'n' slide. 

“I was driving over the bridge and saw her holding on to the side and then looked back and saw she wasn’t there, so I figured she jumped,” he said. - Doug Bacon, rescuer

“There’s kind of a romance to it all,” he said. “I enjoy cattle and just being out with the cows. Being an animal breeder is exciting to me.” - Jimmy Holliman, owner of Circle H Cattle Farm in Marion Junction, Alabama

Beef production in Alabama ranks No. 2, just behind chickens. Male cattle (bulls) average about $5,000 each. 

“We try to do everything as organically as possible,” Laura said. “The more I learn about what goes in our food and the pollution that’s getting into the environment, the more I think it’s important.”

“To me, the best thing about living in the Black Belt is we’re out in an unpopulated area that’s still relatively pristine and I would like to do my part to keep it that way,” Chip said. “We’re very blessed.”

“It takes a lot of things going right to have a good crop,” he said. “I feel like God is looking out for me during years like this. Seeing a good rain in the middle of summer and seeing a beautiful crop come in — it makes it all worth it.”
–Jay Minter, a Dallas County cotton farmer

"We hope to expand it next year — there's even talk of having a watermelon seed spittin' compeition." -Valley Grande Mayor Wayne Labbe on the city's annual Fourth of July celebration 

“I can have a vision come to life, and little by little I can see it unfold, and when I’m done, I have something I can say I’m proud of,” Byland said while sitting in his studio surrounded by scraps of bison leather that have been shipped to his Hoover home from ranches hundreds of miles away. “It’s sort of become the thing I enjoy doing most.” 

“Twelve years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and so art was an important part of my journey there,” she said. “I did some drawings, paintings — just kind of part of the process.” 

-Sherri Van Pelt, Alabama artist

“There was one year when the mayor at the time rode along the highway and saw that there were bulbs that were out, so we had to go back out and fix them. It was cold outside that night with rain, and we were out there having to change bulbs.” 

— Mike Swann, Vestavia Hills City Employee

“It’s a bunch of older punk rockers serving Japanese food. That’s basically it.” — Adeeba Khan, co-owner of Shu Shop, an informal Japanese gastropub located in Birmingham's theater district 

“I stayed here on and off for a couple of months, and then stayed in another motel for a while,” he said. “I just wasn’t ready to give up the drinking.” — Doug Matmey, resident of Birmingham's Firehouse Shelter

"Even after the cotton has been picked and ginned and it’s been spun, woven and it’s even been finished — those flecks still remains in the fabric until you bleach it." — Anna Yeager Brakerfield, co-owner of Redland Cotton in Moulton, Alabama