Karen Duren and H. Todd Duren

[00:03] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: My name is Karen Duren Karen Nunley Duren and I am 50 years old, and today is November 18, 2023. We're in Mobile, Alabama. I'm here with my husband, Todd. And do you want to introduce yourself, Todd?

[00:23] H. TODD DUREN: Sure. Yes. I'm h. Todd Duren I'm 59, and we are in mobile, Alabama. And this is my spouse, Karen.

[00:38] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: So what did you want to talk about today?

[00:42] H. TODD DUREN: I wanted to ask you what it was like for you when we first moved to mobile. That was in 2010, wasn't it?

[00:48] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Mm hmm. Well, I mean, there were good parts and bad parts, but when we first moved, it was pretty miserable because I love east Tennessee, and I like being near our parents. And so moving away from family was pretty sucky. And it was really, really hard on Chloe, our oldest daughter.

[01:15] H. TODD DUREN: Our oldest daughter, right.

[01:16] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah. Who was eight at the time. And I didn't realize how hard on her it was until really recent years when she's talked about, you know, looking at the lives of the people that she left behind and wanting that life and not the one that she ended up with. So, you know, Stella was fine.

[01:40] H. TODD DUREN: That's our youngest daughter.

[01:41] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah, our four year. Yeah, our four year old. But. And it's been good for her in a lot of ways, but. But Chloe felt displaced from the beginning. But, yeah, it was hard because having the kids young and being stuck at home and not having my own career and being in a new place. But there were good things, too, and funny things. I want to give you a turn.

[02:13] H. TODD DUREN: Do you remember how we looked for a house? I remember that we had. I think we looked at eight houses.

[02:21] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Maybe in one day.

[02:23] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah, in one day. And we had to make a decision in just a few days.

[02:27] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah, I think we made a decision that day, and I didn't think that.

[02:33] H. TODD DUREN: You would be able to do that.

[02:34] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Well, the house we live in, that we chose, remember, we had seen it at an open house when you came to interview, you know, a month or so before, and we made fun of it at the time, because when we walked in, it was apparent that you could drop a marble at the front door and it would roll, you know, through several rooms and into the back door. And we felt that it was really bizarre that none of the. That the house wasn't level and that, you know, it was kind of a roller coaster ride in our house, which is 101 years old now, which I've done the research on since then. And little did we know that was par for the course in midtown historic mobile, Alabama, that all the houses are kind of wavy gravy.

[03:29] H. TODD DUREN: Mm hmm.

[03:29] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[03:30] H. TODD DUREN: Well, I feel like we really hit the jackpot when we chose that house, and it wasn't probably my first choice. It's a little small, like most historic houses, but I do remember loving the front porch, and I remember sitting on the front porch and looking at the live oak tree in our front yard when we were talking about the house. You remember that?

[03:53] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, yeah, yeah. And our, you know, for all of the. All of the heartache of living in a wooden house in the wettest city in the world at sea level and just sitting on the front porch with a nice drink in your hand in January and watching the house rot. It's been a great house and a great neighborhood, and that's really been what has been so awesome, which is actually what was the first pleasant, uncomfortable surprise Washington. How social. You know, the whole city is, really.

[04:32] H. TODD DUREN: But why do you say uncomfortable?

[04:35] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Because there's zero privacy, which is fine. You know, we've always chosen to live in neighborhoods where you could talk to your neighbors on their porch while you're on their porch on your porch, like, from house to house. But I remember, I mean, I was a grown woman with two children, and I had not been hungover the way that I was hungover, just on a regular, random day. Like, I hadn't had that since college. And then we moved into this neighborhood, and the next thing you know, neighbors are saying, hey, I made a picture of green tea martinis. Oh, would you like a glass of wine? And everyone's walking up and down the yards in their front yards with a beverage in hand.

[05:22] H. TODD DUREN: Right.

[05:23] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Seemed like a good idea at the time, so.

[05:26] H. TODD DUREN: And I remember us. I mean, we have people at all different stages of life, but the younger people on our street were still childless, and so it wasn't a big deal for them to be day drinking.

[05:40] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right. Yeah. And our children were the block children. You know, they could be found, you know, in anyone's tree or in anyone's porch. And now there are, like, 25 block children, and ours are often doing their own thing.

[05:56] H. TODD DUREN: And we live on Macy place near Dauphin street. And since we moved there in 2010, I've really realized what a special block we live on. We've seen people move in. We've seen people move out of. We've seen people born. We've had neighbors who've passed away, and it's still really a thriving block. And. Yeah. What are some of the things that you like about living on that block?

[06:35] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Well, it is. It's become a family when we left ours in Tennessee. So. Yeah, I mean, family with people whose views you don't necessarily share and, you know, family that you get into little tiffs about where the cat poops in the yard.

[06:55] H. TODD DUREN: Right.

[06:56] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: You know, and. But nonetheless, at the end of the day, it feels like family. You know, family who show up in droves for a front yard graduation party in 2020 when. When our older daughter graduated from high school and anti graduated since nothing was happening.

[07:15] H. TODD DUREN: Yes. That was the Covid-19.

[07:19] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[07:21] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah. And we've had block parties. It's been a few years since we've had those, but I didn't even really know I'd heard of block parties, but I'd never experienced one until we came to mobile.

[07:32] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[07:33] H. TODD DUREN: And they're a thing in midtown.

[07:34] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah. Everybody has that.

[07:35] H. TODD DUREN: Everybody pitches in. They bring folding tables out to the lawn. They decorate up, they bring in a band, they block off traffic. It's a whole big thing. And then I remember, because we had small children wanting to be able to take them out for a proper trick or treat like I had when I was a kid in Nashville, you know, where you just walk until you're exhausted and you come home with a bag full of candy.

[08:00] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[08:03] H. TODD DUREN: We couldn't really have that experience as well. In Knoxville, where we moved from, we had next door neighbors that were anti Halloween.

[08:11] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right.

[08:11] H. TODD DUREN: Remember that?

[08:12] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[08:12] H. TODD DUREN: And then we got here, and it was like being in a movie.

[08:17] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right.

[08:18] H. TODD DUREN: I remember our first Halloween, and we weren't prepared.

[08:21] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right. Oh, no.

[08:22] H. TODD DUREN: Didn't we run out of candy?

[08:24] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, for certain, yeah. Cause we, you know, get, what, like four or 500 trick or treaters on a weeknight and a weekend is.

[08:31] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah.

[08:32] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Who can count? And. Yeah, I remember that first Halloween. I mean, the weather was beautiful, and I think it might have been a weekend. It's hard to know. I don't really have to look back and see. But you took the girls around trick.

[08:48] H. TODD DUREN: Or treating to visit the neighbors.

[08:50] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right. And I sat out on the front porch with the candy, and there were full grown men dressed as gladiators made out of record albums, gladiator costumes made out of record albums. And, I mean, just, you name it. I mean, it was like, you know, I felt like these costumes came out of the movies or.

[09:14] H. TODD DUREN: Oh, yeah. And it's socially acceptable here to scare the crap out of other children. I remember James, we had a neighbor who used to rig up this scare machine, which was basically an electric weed eater inside a trash can, and he would tuck it into the shadows and the bushes and sit on the porch and laugh and plug it in. When people were walking by, they would just make this racket like a wild cat in the trash can.

[09:39] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Remember that woman? Dropped her baby and ran. She, like, I don't know. She didn't hurt the baby, but just, like, you know, done stroll her down. I'm running.

[09:49] H. TODD DUREN: There's a guy around the corner who lays in a coffin every Halloween in his front yard, and you have to walk past him to get candy. He traumatizes everybody's children, and they keep coming back. It's amazing.

[10:01] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Or Kent.

[10:02] H. TODD DUREN: Oh, yeah. Our neighbor, who is the human statue sitting in the chair. He wears a costume and then wears.

[10:08] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: A morph suit, all dressed in black.

[10:09] H. TODD DUREN: Right.

[10:10] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Just sits there silently until people walk by and then grabs at them and they lose their minds.

[10:17] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we moved here at the end of summer, wasn't it?

[10:21] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: We moved here. Our house closed on May 18.

[10:24] H. TODD DUREN: Oh, so I'm way off. So it was spring. So it was after Mardi Gras.

[10:29] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, yes, it was after Mardi Gras.

[10:31] H. TODD DUREN: But I was very excited about moving to where they have Mardi Gras. Gulf coast.

[10:36] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, yeah. That was the big motivator, wasn't it?

[10:39] H. TODD DUREN: Oh, yeah. The first year, I remember taking our oldest daughter Chloe to the parade. And you stayed home with Stella, I think.

[10:47] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yes.

[10:48] H. TODD DUREN: And we didn't know about the parade route or where was a good place to stand, and we did okay. But I found out later that we were in one of the sketchier places to stand, where the fights break out and things like that.

[11:03] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: That's rare, though, at mobile Mardi Gras.

[11:06] H. TODD DUREN: And then I think it was the next year that I got to join a Mardi Gras organization.

[11:11] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, you were in Mardi Gras? I swear you were in it the first year. Oh, you did the Joe Kane procession the first year. I think maybe.

[11:21] H. TODD DUREN: I think that was when I was in the bike club, mobile bike.

[11:25] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Somehow you ended up in it. But, yeah, you got into Mardi Gras fairly early, somewhat naively.

[11:34] H. TODD DUREN: Oh, I thought it was awesome.

[11:35] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[11:36] H. TODD DUREN: With 80,000 people screaming for moon pies and beads and I got to ride on a float, but I had no idea what I was doing. Like, there's a tradition behind that that you learn from childhood, and I just jumped into it with both feet. So the first year I got on the float, and one of the cardinal rules is you have to wear a mask. Well, they had told me where to get my costume, and I had the costume, which was a big tunic, kind of thing all sparkly and yellow, green and gold. And then I had a hat, and that was it. And there was a guy who's every float has a captain. And my float captain said, yes, but where's your mask? And nobody had an extra mask. And I remember thinking he was going to throw me off the float, but he didn't. He let me stay on the float and pull my hat down really low, he said, so that nobody would see. And then I threw candy and frisbees and moon pies to huge crowds. It was a. Was a Saturday night downtown. The weather was good, I think, and it was nuts. It was crazy. I remember it being so loud, you couldn't hear each other talk. And also because I was new in town, I never knew where we were on the route. It was dark. And I kind of knew a little bit about downtown by then, but I had no idea. And I think the whole process takes more than 2 hours. And I'd had a little bit to.

[13:09] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Drink by the end, by the beginning. And I stayed home with the girls. And you rode your bike down, like, we took the load in in the morning, and that was the day that. No, that wasn't that year. But you did the load in in the morning, and then you rode your bike down in the afternoon. Cause you thought it would be easier to get home. And you weren't gonna go to the ball. We weren't doing the ball because the girls were young and I stayed home with them. And so you should have been throwing off the float at like, 09:00 and I thought I'd see you, you know, 1010 30. And then I. Midnight rolled around and 01:00 a.m. rolled.

[13:49] H. TODD DUREN: Around and I had my cell phone, but I don't think you ever called me, did you?

[13:54] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: I'm not sure, but I think you called me at like, 02:00 a.m. and I said, where are you? Do you need me to come get you?

[14:01] H. TODD DUREN: Well, let me back up and explain what happened. So I've learned since then that, I mean, drinking is definitely part of Mardi Gras, but you have to pace yourself, especially on your parade day, because typically you're not eating or resting well. And I had the biggest, strongest alcoholic punch that I could put inside a sippy cup, like a sippy bottle kind of thing. And I drank that through the whole parade, and I just fell asleep. I just passed out in the corner of the float, like, 80,000 screaming people. And I'm asleep in the corner. And there's a rule because we rent our floats that you have to get everything off of the float by the end. That means that all of the throws that you bring, everything that you bring to throw to people has to get thrown. Well, I fell asleep before the end, and so the people on the float with me, who are all focused on the crowd, you know, their stuff and getting it thrown out to the crowd, they didn't notice me until the very end. They turned and looked, and we were in the home stretch, the last few. The last couple of blocks, probably, of the route, and they saw me passed out in the corner, and they saw a box and probably bags full of stuff that I still had not thrown.

[15:17] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: But you didn't have that much stuff that first year. Cause we had mustered it together at the last minute.

[15:23] H. TODD DUREN: But I do remember them telling me that they had to throw on my stuff.

[15:25] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah, they threw your stuff for you.

[15:27] H. TODD DUREN: And then they couldn't wake me up.

[15:29] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: They dragged you off the float?

[15:30] H. TODD DUREN: They carried me off the float, propped me on a park downtown in the dark, and then they all went to.

[15:38] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: The ball, as they should.

[15:40] H. TODD DUREN: So I woke up at 02:00 a.m. yeah, I had to walk home.

[15:44] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Because you couldn't remember where your bike was?

[15:45] H. TODD DUREN: I couldn't find my bike, but luckily.

[15:48] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: There was a Krispy Kreme en route.

[15:51] H. TODD DUREN: That's right. So I had donuts on the way home and coffee, and I was reasonably sober by the time I got there.

[15:57] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah, I'm fine. I've had some donuts and coffee, hung out with the folks at the Krispy Kremever. I'm on my way home. Do you need me to come get you? Well, I'm two blocks from the house, so we are good.

[16:10] H. TODD DUREN: But I had so much fun writing with that organization.

[16:13] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: And was that the Conde explorer?

[16:17] H. TODD DUREN: The Conde explorers, right. So it's part of the tradition of Mardi Gras that you're not supposed to publicize the name, but the newer organizations don't pay as much attention to that. So I'm just gonna go ahead and go on record. It was the Conde explorers, and I did that for, I don't know, maybe eight years.

[16:33] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Well, why did you consent to ride with the Conde Explorers? What was special about them?

[16:40] H. TODD DUREN: Well, first and foremost, I could get in. A lot of the oldest organizations are super expensive, and there's a wait list, and you have to know people or even be related to people. But the other thing that was really important to me was I found out that it was an integrated Mardi Gras group, right. So that meant there were people of different races and genders and sexual orientations all in the same group. And that wasn't true for any other group that I knew about. And that was great. But on the practical level, it was a group that I could get into. They would let me in. So. So that's why I joined in. I really still like to go see the Conde Explorers parade. It is the first weekend of the Mardi Gras parade season, and it typically is the biggest crowd because it's the first Saturday night. There's another parade on Friday, but Saturday's a huge crowd.

[17:37] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Sure. Because people can plan their day and get into town.

[17:40] H. TODD DUREN: And our group is known for throwing groceries. That's what we call lots and lots of edible throws. So ramen and rice, peanuts, ramen, old Valentine's candy, and, of course, moon pies. And, of course, moon pies. Lots and lots of moon pies.

[17:56] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Frozen corn dogs.

[17:58] H. TODD DUREN: No, we don't throw frozen corn dogs.

[18:00] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: There are groups that do. But, yeah, I like the ramen and the rice dinner. Man, I can just use those saffron rice dinners. Throw you some beans in there.

[18:11] H. TODD DUREN: You're good to go. And because our parade season is so long, even though I ride in a parade, I still can go and watch parades with the girls. And when they were younger, that's what we would do on parade nights. We'd come home, you would make some gumbo or something quick, and then we'd jump in the car and we would carry our bags to carry all of our stuff that we would catch back home with us. And then I kind of figured out the best routes to get downtown, even when it was super crowded and where we could park. And we got good at Mardi Gras.

[18:43] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[18:44] H. TODD DUREN: Over the years, what was the. What was the craziest thing that you've ever seen? That was a throw that somebody caught at Mardi Gras.

[18:52] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: I was thinking the same thing. Well, Kevin, our neighbor, caught a sleeping bag, if you'll recall. And he also. They also caught. I mean, the fairchilds caught a sleeping bag, and they also were the recipients of at least one frozen corn dog. And I think there have been others. What else have we gotten?

[19:15] H. TODD DUREN: Well, all sorts of crazy stuffed animals. A lot of kind of random things like that. Beads. Tons and tons of beads. And if you haven't ever been to a Mardi Gras parade, you have no idea what we're talking about.

[19:27] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: But look down.

[19:30] H. TODD DUREN: Right. That's really good advice. I remember my mother came to her first Mardi Gras and she was so absorbed with her granddaughters that she wasn't looking up when the float went by. And she got hit in the face with a box of moon pies and got kind of some bruises from that.

[19:45] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right. And I think the kids have sported, you know, bead marks more than once on their faces or on their foreheads, where they got smacked with those really big beads, you know?

[19:58] H. TODD DUREN: Yep. But they learned to develop their snatch hand, this one.

[20:01] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Snatch hand.

[20:02] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah. Where you reach out and grab it.

[20:04] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yep.

[20:04] H. TODD DUREN: They got really good at that. And so we would have. Our attic would be full of all the stuff we would bring home from parades. And then what did we do with it? We'd throw it the next year, throw it to somebody else, rethrow it.

[20:18] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: I mean, you know, take the moon pies to work, because who wants to eat those and eat the rice dinners and the ramens? And I'm a fan of the oatmeal cream pies, though.

[20:32] H. TODD DUREN: Yes, I like that. And then my favorite of the moon pies, they don't make anymore, and that is the peanut butter crunch.

[20:39] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Well, I like the mint chocolate crunches, too. But the crunches, if you don't catch them on the one first, you know, if they hit the ground, then they are sawdust. And if anyone, they get stepped on dead. Yeah, they get stepped on undead. So that's probably why they stopped being purchased.

[20:56] H. TODD DUREN: And speaking of food, what's your favorite Mardi gras related food?

[21:02] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Well, I mean, you'd have to say gumbo.

[21:05] H. TODD DUREN: Mm hmm.

[21:05] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[21:06] H. TODD DUREN: It's not technically a Mardi Gras food, but it's definitely a gulf coast thing.

[21:10] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[21:10] H. TODD DUREN: And when we first moved here, you weren't so good at making gumbo, and now you make the best gumbo.

[21:16] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: I brought my recipe with me, but, yeah, I just have better ingredients now because we've got conecuh sausage and fresh. Gulp. Shrimp.

[21:25] H. TODD DUREN: Right, right. And our house is, of course, it's still the same house, but it's kind of interesting when you live in a historic house that has all that memory attached to it. Somebody else's memory. And now we have all of our memories attached to it, too. We just recently had sort of a minor disaster in our house, where we had to redo our entire kitchen because of a leak. And instead of modernizing it, we made it more old, didn't we?

[22:02] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah, a little bit.

[22:04] H. TODD DUREN: So we put in checkerboard tile in the floor, and you put in Formica countertops with the old fashioned metal edging. And so I love that. House. Yeah, I love that house. Could you guys describe some of your.

[22:21] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Favorite memories in that house?

[22:26] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah, that's a great question. What are some of our favorite memories in that house? Hanging out with our neighbors on the front porch.

[22:39] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: I was gonna say hurricane parties.

[22:42] H. TODD DUREN: Mm hmm. You know, so a hurricane party, I didn't even know what that was when we moved here. But when there's hurricanes, if you don't live on the Gulf coast, it feels like it must be a blind panic, but it's not. It's a long period of sometimes high winds and typically lots and lots of rain. And so there are plenty of hurricanes where you don't need to evacuate. You don't even necessarily need to board up your house. Although the first couple of years, I went overboard with that. And so what you do is you just hang out with your neighbors and have a few beers and maybe make some gumbo. Sometimes you might grill all the meat that's in your freezer if the power goes out.

[23:23] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah. Pull the grill under the portico, sharing. And so that you can stay out of the rain, which is inevitably happening, and start grilling stuff, especially if you lose power.

[23:35] H. TODD DUREN: So let's see. What are some of the storms that you remember?

[23:39] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Well, a few years ago, I guess it was the fall of 2020. Remember, we had two or three hurricanes where our neighbors, sadly, they were without power for weeks. Remember that?

[23:54] H. TODD DUREN: Was that Hurricane Sally?

[23:55] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Maybe Sally was there. And was it Zeta? Zeta was one also, but they came, like, every few weeks. And our side of the street, for some reason, maintains power, even though we have a generator now. And the other side of the street was the one that lost it, so we ran extension cords. Remember that? Like, from everyone's houses that had power, like, over the street, through the trees, and, like, from door to door, sideways, like, to run people's refrigerators.

[24:25] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah, yeah. Well, I remember since we had power, I went ahead and lent my generator to a neighbor across the street, and they had to run extension cords back and forth on their side of the street.

[24:34] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: That's right. Yeah, yeah. They had a newborn and.

[24:37] H. TODD DUREN: Right, yeah. And they're. And typically, it happens in the hot weather.

[24:41] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Sure, sure.

[24:41] H. TODD DUREN: And you lose your air conditioning when the power goes out, and it's miserable.

[24:45] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right. So there was a lot of hanging out on porches for that few weeks because no one had power inside the house.

[24:54] H. TODD DUREN: Right. And the first few hurricanes we rode out, I remember being worried about catastrophe.

[25:01] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[25:02] H. TODD DUREN: Because you hear about. And watch hurricane news on television, and you think devastation.

[25:09] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: But that's like, I mean, we're coastal, but we're not that coastal.

[25:14] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah. And I do remember worrying about a big pine tree in our backyard going out and looking at it, and it was there. Sustained winds that are usually in one direction, and it was bent way over towards the back of the lot, but it sprang back later, and the tree's still there, and. But there was a tornado. Remember this first year?

[25:40] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: That was exciting. Yeah. That was not the first year.

[25:43] H. TODD DUREN: Was that Christmas 2012? I want to say it was the tornado that hit midtown. Right. Anybody can kind of look up because it damaged Murphy high school. It destroyed houses.

[25:54] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah. Your parents were having Christmas with us.

[25:57] H. TODD DUREN: And we heard it was Christmas day. That's right.

[25:59] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Y'all were on the front porch while I was cooking, and I. Everyone came in quickly, and we all sat in the hallway where we sit when there's.

[26:05] H. TODD DUREN: That was quite a memory.

[26:07] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yep. And your mom said, they say it sounds like a train, and indeed it does.

[26:12] H. TODD DUREN: And you don't typically have tornadoes on the coast.

[26:15] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: That was the first one that. I mean, well, we hadn't lived here long, but apparently that was the one that woke everybody up. And since then, we've had quite a few tornado threats. Thank you. Global warming.

[26:29] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah, that one was. That one was the worst, though, because it did so much damage. And then our daughter ended up going to that same high school where the roof was taken off the theater and there was so much damage. But by the time she was ready to go to high school, they had repaired.

[26:43] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah. She was probably in, like, 7th grade, I think.

[26:47] H. TODD DUREN: She was in middle school, I think.

[26:48] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: When that tornado hit. So 6th or 7th grade.

[26:53] H. TODD DUREN: Mm hmm.

[26:53] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: So, yeah, something like that. So that was probably 2014. I'm guessing 2013 or 2014.

[27:01] H. TODD DUREN: I'd have to google it. I'm not sure.

[27:03] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah. Yeah.

[27:07] H. TODD DUREN: Do you remember any of our neighbors on the street that have passed away?

[27:11] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Well, yeah, Miss Holly.

[27:13] H. TODD DUREN: Miss Holly.

[27:13] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[27:14] H. TODD DUREN: Miss Holly was the queen bee of the block.

[27:17] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yep.

[27:18] H. TODD DUREN: She was this sweet and stern old lady who knew everything that had ever happened there. She remembered every family in every house in the order that they'd lived there. She remembered that neighborhood before it got to be nice again, when it was all run down and she still lived there. She remembered when the attorney's office was built at the end of the street, and when I expressed some concern about having torn down a house to put up an office building, she said, no, it was a terrible house. It was in bad condition, so. Yeah. And now miss Holly's house is. Isn't that where father wall lives? I think.

[28:08] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: No, no. There's a woman, a nurse who lives there.

[28:12] H. TODD DUREN: Oh, yeah.

[28:13] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Next door to father wall. But my favorite older neighbor that we've lost was Robin Hood.

[28:20] H. TODD DUREN: Oh, yeah. He was great. Now he's not on our block. He's not?

[28:23] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: No, he's on the next block down.

[28:24] H. TODD DUREN: But he was still on Macy Place.

[28:26] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah. And he was just the sweetest old guy.

[28:30] H. TODD DUREN: He was such a character. We would walk by and he would have some humorous, funny comment that he would share.

[28:36] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, yeah. And want you to come up on the porch and sit with him for a minute. His name was literally Robin Hood, which you couldn't miss. Yep.

[28:45] H. TODD DUREN: And I walk by his house now when I'm walking the dog, and the house has changed, but I still remember him sitting on the front porch.

[28:51] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[28:53] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah. And we've had lots of, well, several newer families that have moved in, too. Tommy and his wife across the street. And now they've had two children.

[29:09] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right, right. I.

[29:10] H. TODD DUREN: People have watched our children grow up, and the oldest one is now moved out and gone. Lots of changes. So do you think we'll stay in that house?

[29:22] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Well, I figure that we'll stay there as long as we're in mobile, but I don't know how many. How long? I mean, I don't know how long we'll stay in mobile. Like, I don't think we'll stay here indefinitely.

[29:33] H. TODD DUREN: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

[29:34] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: You know, I mean, with our ties being in Tennessee and, you know, both of our sets of parents aging as we near retirement.

[29:46] H. TODD DUREN: Right, right.

[29:47] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah, yeah. I don't have any desire to invest in another house, you know, start over in that process, you know, in mobile.

[30:03] H. TODD DUREN: So what else do you remember about moving to mobile that was important to you?

[30:11] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Well, you can't really. I mean, in general, I love the weather. I like, you know, I like the fact that it's temperate all year. I mean, it's temperate all winter long. I'm not a huge fan of winter, so it's nice to be able to sit on the porch in December and January and.

[30:31] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah, I tell people that it's a three season climate. We don't really have a winter. Yeah, there's, it's rare to see snow in mobile.

[30:40] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right. There's.

[30:43] H. TODD DUREN: It just gets kind of chilly and dank.

[30:45] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Chilly and Dank is one season. Lovely and temperate is half the year. Chili and dank is short term. And then hotter than the hinges on Hell's door is the other. The other season.

[31:01] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah. I mean, the heat is one thing, but I think it's really the humidity that both of them.

[31:06] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Which is exactly what makes it cold and dank, too.

[31:10] H. TODD DUREN: Right. Because I grew up in Nashville, and we would have days that were over 100 degrees and sometimes several days in a row, and we don't really get that here in mobile this summer, it.

[31:20] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Was over 100 for, like, eight weeks.

[31:23] H. TODD DUREN: Well, okay, so I stand corrected. But there are lots of years where we don't get that.

[31:28] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Sure. Yeah. This was freakish. And, of course.

[31:31] H. TODD DUREN: But you just step outside and you break a sweat in, like, five minutes.

[31:35] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, yeah. Not even five minutes. And the humidity is the same thing. That makes the cold more unbearable, too. So when it's, like, you know, 45 degrees and humid here, you're dying to.

[31:47] H. TODD DUREN: Mm hmm. Yeah. It's this cold weather that's clammy at the same time.

[31:51] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: It's weird. So. But, um. But I do like the weather, and. And, uh. And I like the people for the most part. I mean, this is very much. I wish my vocabulary fails me, but it's. It's a. It's a town of. Of insiders, of locals, and people are super friendly. I mean, it's. It's. You're not. You're always gonna be, you know, from somewhere else if you are from somewhere else. Right. But.

[32:21] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah, but I haven't really felt like an outsider here. I've kind of felt like I've been adopted by my friends, neighbors here, you know, or accepted.

[32:30] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah.

[32:30] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah, for sure. It's a very festive place.

[32:33] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, so festive.

[32:34] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah. Everything is a party. And you're just waiting for the next holiday.

[32:39] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[32:43] H. TODD DUREN: And if we move back to Tennessee, we won't have that.

[32:46] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: No, that would be the downside.

[32:48] H. TODD DUREN: Although they're always waiting for the next UT football game. That's their holiday. Well, I'm so glad that I've been able to share mobile with you and with the girls.

[33:03] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yeah. I mean, Stella's had a lot of good opportunities. I've had good opportunities career wise.

[33:13] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah. Our daughter. Our youngest daughter, Stella, has even painted and built Mardi Gras floats.

[33:19] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yes, she has. Which is pretty cool on your resume. Yeah.

[33:26] H. TODD DUREN: And we're in another Mardi Gras organization now that we can participate in together. Because you never liked crowds, and you weren't into the whole idea of riding on a float.

[33:36] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right.

[33:36] H. TODD DUREN: But you like this one because it's a little smaller. It's like a walking procession called the Nevergreens. And that's on Joe Cain Day. Right. And Joe Cain Day is like, a whole other local tradition that people outside mobile have never heard of.

[33:50] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Right.

[33:51] H. TODD DUREN: But it's the Sunday before fat Tuesday. Yeah. So I wonder what this year's Mardi Gras is going to be like.

[34:01] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Probably same as it ever was.

[34:04] H. TODD DUREN: I think the date is the day before Valentine's Day.

[34:08] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Oh, that may be, yeah.

[34:10] H. TODD DUREN: Yeah. So Tuesday is that Tuesday is going to be February 13, and the next day is Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday. Right. Right. That's a strange juxtaposition, right. Yeah. You have to go and think about all of your repent, of your sins at the same time that you're buying roses and candy for your loved ones, I guess.

[34:31] KAREN NUNLEY DUREN: Yes.

[34:35] H. TODD DUREN: Well, thanks for spending time talking to me about all these things. It's been great.