Former GHS Rocket, Jordan Howard has the Mineral Springs Grenadiers headed in the right direction

The Bomb Squad blasts the Bullets at Mineral

MINERAL SPRINGS - The young Iron Hand was once zoned to attend Mineral Springs School in the fall of 1968, but opted to sneak into the new "round school" at Gardendale Elementary to further his grammer school education. Moving to the bus stop up one road east of Hand Lane to Mr. Spruill's pick-up at Phillips Drive next to Doc's store proved to be the school zone's dividing line. Located between Fieldstown and Brookside in Watson, Alabama, the historic Mineral Springs School burned down in 1972, but the fire could never destroy the stories from my Dad's childhood that he passed down to us. I imagine there was a natural spring in the area at one time, but that was immaterial. He always refers to the the place as "Mineral" like everybody already knows about it. As youngins, we heard a Mineral story every time we drove past the place and we drove by it a lot. Mineral never had a gymnasium, so they played their basketball games outside on the "blacktop". Mineral never lost to Brookside, in anything. The school's playground out back doubled as the local baseball field, but it didn't have a fence in the outfield, so if you hit it over the outfielders heads, or between them, you could run all day. The Legends of Mineral included my Uncle Tom Hand, David Cornelius and Donald Graves, who never met a shot he didn't like, nor one he couldn't make. Most of the stories of Mineral are now faint and have faded away over the years and I could use a DK refresher class, but I'll never forget Mineral's famous cheer he taught us all so well. Strawberry shortcake, huckleberry pie...V-I-C-T-O-R-Y. Are we in it? Well I guess. Mineral, Mineral...Yes! Yes! Yes! I used to think the cheer was silly and meaningless, but I have grown to discover its true meaning. Victr'y is oh so sweet, just like strawberry shortcake and huckleberry pie.