Fort Payne, Alabama, the “Sock Capital Of The World,” is also the home of the country music group Alabama. Randy Owen, Jeff Cook and Ted Gentry, the band’s founders, all grew up in and around this little mountain town in northeastern Alabama, in the years following World War II.
After many a wild sock-hop, Randy and the boys enjoyed nights of ecstasy with their lovers while parked in cars, down in the holler under the glow of the mountain moonlight.
Indeed, these were days of plenty in Fort Payne, and the boys had a little jingle in their pocket. The Buster Brown Mill No. 2 was running strong and the town was reaping the benefits of having invented the Argyle Sock – a weave that legions of Southern grandmothers still give as gifts every Yuletide season.
Not content to spend their days working forty-hour weeks in the sock mills, Randy and the boys started a country band, notching their first hit in 1980 with “My Home’s In Alabama.” The rest is history, as they say. The boys went on to become one of the most successful recording groups of all time, selling more than 75 million records.
I first met Randy in the spring of 1993. It was during my school’s 8th Grade Alabama History Trip. When the bus pulled off the interstate in Fort Payne, the teachers gave the students the option of eating at McDonald’s, Hardees, or Quincy’s, the former home of the “big, fat yeast roll.” I chose Quincy’s, along with a few other eccentrics. We met Randy in the buffet line. He graciously signed our napkins and posed for a picture, which ended up in the school yearbook.
Five years and a galaxy of pimples later, I found myself standing in that very same parking lot. I was working as a camp counselor on Lookout Mountain and had been granted leave that evening, so I drove into nearby Fort Payne for a quick bite. After finishing my meal, I went outside and started walking toward the Dairy Queen when I noticed a large flyer that had been stapled haphazardly to a telephone pole. The flyer featured the picture of Alabama you see above. Below it was written: FOR SALE! SHIRT WORN BY RANDY OWEN ON BACK OF FEELS SO RIGHT ALBUM COVER. SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY!
I never made that call, friends, and I’ve regretted it to this very day. Live and learn.
Caine O'Rear 