ABOUT A YEAR AGO, I won an award named for F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose The Great Gatsby remains one of America's most enduring novels. It was presented in an outdoor ceremony at The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.
"You can even spend the night in the house," said Daron Harris, who phoned from the historic home to tell me the good news.
What person who even pretends to call himself a writer would balk at an invitation like that, to lay his head under the roof where both F. Scott and Zelda wrote, where they clinked glasses and talked of zeppelins, ocean liners, and Paris cafes? I remember thinking at the time, "What could possibly go wrong?" But Harris, whose job is to spread the word about this landmark, warned that its past was not all Champagne and roses.
F. Scott and Zelda had lived, at times, a volatile existence, and it was believed that an uneasy spirit resided within those walls.
This story is from the October 2022 edition of Southern Living.
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This story is from the October 2022 edition of Southern Living.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Forging a Legacy - A Fredericksburg, Texas, couple is creating a new class of heirloom cast-iron cookware
When Jay Mallinckrodt pitched the idea of crafting cast-iron cookware to his wife and business partner, Heather, in 2020, she was hesitant. I immediately said no, she recalls with a laugh. But I finally agreed as long as we made something that we would actually want to use ourselves. Like many others during the initial throes of the pandemic, their multigenerational family operation, Heartland Enterprises (which specializes in machining parts for jet engines and gas and oil equipment), was seeing a lull. “No one was flying; no one was drilling, says Jay. So we had time to try something different.
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Twenty-four years ago, Monika Maeckle bought a small property on the Llano River in Central Texas as an escape from fast-paced San Antonio. A journalist and marketing professional by trade, she didn't at first realize the value of the location on which she and her husband would later build their ranch. She also had no idea how this decision would eventually transform her life.One October evening a few years later, a friend invited Maeckle to their nearby house, which sat on a watershed with several large cypresses. All these butterflies dropped from the sky and started to gravitate toward the trees, she recalls. Stronger people who could swing a big 12-foot-long pole began trying to capture them, and we waited. By the end of the evening, we'd tagged a couple hundred butterflies, and I left there enchanted.
Oktober Feast!
While I respect your right to serve spooky food in October, you won't find any gory grub at my house this month. Instead, I'm hosting a gathering that's inspired by biergartens across the pond. The focus of the menu is a fondue made with Gruyère cheese and crisp Riesling-like beer-cheese dip but more elevated. It's served with a smorgasbord of dippers such as smoked sausage, grapes, apples, and a few amped-up store-bought snacks, like Mustard-Glazed Pretzel Bites and Smoked Paprika Potato Chips. (Just one taste, and you'll want to add this spice to every bag you open.) Pour yourself a Cider Shandy, and get ready for a good time. Prost, y'all!
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