BEMISTON — Bobbye Baker Trammell was born and raised in Bemiston, educated at R.L. Young Elementary School (which then served the families of mill workers exclusively) and, although she no longer lives there today, continues to be a tireless advocate for preserving and restoring the community that is now part of the city of Talladega. She has now written and published, through Arcadia Publishing, a pictoral history the community.

Paperback copies are $21.99 each, and will be available at various locations starting Monday.

A book signing will be held at the John L. Moore Recreation Center Oct. 16 starting at 6 p.m.

“I guess I started writing the book about 18 months ago,” Trammell explained. “It was always in the back of my mind, but I guess I just hadn’t had the time. But I thought it was important, especially because the library didn’t have anything on Bemiston. I thought we needed a history, so we can leave behind a legacy.”

It’s like,” she continued, “when you’re little and you’re hearing the old people just talk and talk, and you wish they’d just shut up. You don’t realize what you’re missing out on.”

She began the project by asking for vintage photographs from the community. “I got lots of pictures, that was a big help. My brother, J.W. Baker, has a lot of pictures, too, but I wasn’t able to use those right now, just because of circumstances. But he helped me a lot, too, and my son Gary helped with the computer. And I went back and got a lot of the Parkway News and Bemis-Stories, back to day one. I also got a lot from the school, including a description of the mill as a stage and the houseS all around it like an audience, and when you look at it from an airplane, that really is what it looks like.”

The book contains “nothing on the plant itself, I’ve even been in there, even though I guess my daddy worked there every day of his working life. But when the (family of the original owners) come to visit Oct. 16, I will take the tour with them. It will be new to me, too.”

One of the most exciting photographic finds is the portrait of M.L. Pafford that appears on page 17. Pafford was a roaming photographer of the village, and thus rarely appeared in photos himself. Pafford’s picture faces a page featuring photos of her grandmother, the first woman to work in the Bemis Mill.

She also found a photo of resident George Shaw, who in spite of being blind could call the name of any person in the community he met. Unfortunately, Trammell said, she had no such luck finding a single picture of Claire Sawyer, who edited the weekly publication Parkway News.

The book touches on virtually every aspect of life at the mill, from the time it opened in 1928 to when it shut down in 1979, and also covers subsequent reuinions.

“The school was probably the most important thing for us,” she said. “Without it, none of us would be here, and we always had such good teachers. And the recreation center was also responsible for a lot of our upbringing. The Moore’s taught us values that our folks might not have had time for, and it made for valuable citizens. And they also stressed church, giving land to any church that wanted to come in and matching their building fund. And of course the swimming hole was another favorite spot.”

Although the book is more than 100 pages long, there are still things Trammell said she just didn’t have room for, including an original poem answering a much older composition by Grace Jemison.

“Most books like this cover 200 years or more,” she said. “I’m only dealing with 50.”

Still there are plenty of fascinating tidbits to be found.

“For instance, we had our own dairy, that was very important, everybody got milk delivered to them every day. And something a lot of people didn’t realize is that the boys and the girls rode different busses to school. The morning bus for the girls ran later, so they could help clean up the house, and the afternoon bus took them home sooner so they could help cook supper,” she explained. “And there were no lunchrooms at the school, they brought the food into the classroom. During the war, the school actually collected enough scrap metal and newspaper that we could buy a jeep,” she said. “They would let the school kids go work in the mill from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. during the war to keep production up.”

The book also pays tribute to the local boys, including another of Trammell’s brothers and several close neighbors, who paid the ultimate price in Europe and the Pacific.

According to Trammell, there was also a village witch who could summon (and then remove) warts, as well as heal burns and small cuts to the mouth.

Although not generally well known and not part of the mill village, Bemiston may be able to claim the oldest home in Talladega, she added. The Andrew White House was built in 1832 and was the only structure on the property when Bemis acquired it. It is still standing, still occupied and has been extensively renovated by its last two owner.

Dances at the recreation center were also a common diversion, including square dances called by Moore and the annual “Cotton Ball.”

“The boys didn’t put on tuxedos, because they didn’t know what those were,” she said. “But they did put on ties, and that was nice.”