Foreword by Bill Easterling

I was 9 years old on a morning that sparkled when I first saw Madison County from the top of Brindlee Mountain, and I knew I had found my home. There were five of us jammed into a 1946 Chevrolet with suitcases, pots, pans -- just the essentials to begin a new life until our furniture arrived from Texas. My father, a government employee, had transferred to Redstone Arsenal, and I remember how uneasy we all felt when he gave us the news that we were going to some place called Alabama.

Now on this beautiful day, after a long night's drive, he pointed his bony finger over the steering wheel and said to my mother, my two brothers and me: "There it is!" That was in 1949, and I've been in Huntsville ever since, except for a few months some years ago when I became temporarily insane and worked for a newspaper in another town. There aren't many what you'd call "original" Huntsvillians to be found, but I like to believe I qualify. For there was no "Rocket City USA" then. All that came later. In 1949, it was mostly cotton fields, pastures, Redstone Arsenal and a quiet little city about to explode at the seams. When it did explode, the noise deafened, and it is still being heard.

Push forward, then, to the present. In the three-plus decades since I rode over Brindlee Mountain as a scared little boy, many people uprooted and replanted here and now call Huntsville home. This city has a wide assortment of peoples and cultures, customs and religions, and all have blended well to make it a unique place to live. Huntsville has it all: Modern airport, splendid civic center, gallery of night spots, restaurants to satisfy any taste, active artistic community, superb museums, ample recreation, superb business community.

Now the hub of North Alabama has been properly documented by another of its transplated "natives." In Where to Find The Best of Huntsville, author Mike Kaylor has not only captured the flavor of my favorite city, but has also published a guide that leads the reader right to the doorstep of whatever he or she seeks. This isn't just a "where-to" book. It transcends the ordinary and takes us into cobweb-covered nooks and crannies where the heart and soul and history of this town lie hidden.

Like many thousands of us, Mr. Kaylor has come to love this place nestled in the shelter of the mountains. He has explored Huntsville as few before him have. The result is a piece of work that all of Huntsville can be proud of, and I am delighted to have been asked to be a small part of it.

NOTE: Bill Easterling died of cancer in December of 2000.