By Emily Williams
Throughout their 63 years of marriage, Jack and Connie Howard have always liked a view.
Jack proposed to Connie in 1965 atop Red Mountain beneath the Vulcan statue. After their marriage at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church on May 4, 1956, the couple lived in a downtown Birmingham apartment before moving to their first family home atop Shades Mountain in Bluff Park.
Today, when the couple sits on the balcony of their Soho Square apartment in Homewood, they have a view of their family business, 18th Street Orientals.
When asked by their oldest son, Kent, whether they would rather see Vulcan or see the shop, the couple immediately responded, in unison, “The shop.”
When reflecting on the past 63 years, Jack and Connie focus on the subject that sets the foundation for their time together: family.
Jack and Connie recently celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary in Soho Square, on the patio of Soho Social just steps from their condo and the store, with their three children, Kent, Jim and Paige Drummond; and four grandchildren, Jordan, Elizabeth, Patricia and Alex.
According to Jim, there has been a Howard conducting business in Homewood since 1968.
It began with a manufacturing representative office on Loveless Street, that Jack set up with his sales partners.
It continues today with the 18th Street Orientals the couple and their son Jim opened in 1986, learning the business through experience while juggling other career paths.
With help from Paige and her husband, Sam Drummond, who eventually took the reins and continue work alongside Jim, the shop weathered the 1987 stock market crash, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 recession.
The store is a byproduct of the Howards’ main goal as a couple: focusing on family. That involved time spent together, learning from each other while making memories together.
As a result, Jack said he can see that, not only his children, but his grandchildren have an affinity to put forth their best effort.
“All four of them understand the value of hard work,” Jack said.
Hard work was simply a way of life of the Howards, not only on the job, but in relationships with friends and family.
The Howards built a community of lifelong friends after they moved from their first apartment to their first home atop Shades Mountain.
“We have a group of us who have been getting together for coffee for many years at Green Valley Drugs.” Connie said. They still have a group of four people, who were meeting regularly to catch up and share stories until COVID 19 restrictions were put in place.
Reflecting on their experiences and enjoying the memories is one of the Howards’ favorite pastimes.
Kent noted that all families have their share of stories, and the Howards are no different.
“We’ve got generations of stories,” he said. “We’ve got enough to write a book … these great stories that will sustain us.”
Vacationing en Masse
With their children and grandchildren, the Howards have created volumes of shared experiences, whether that be attending the annual Veterans Day parade in downtown Birmingham or traveling to Europe to visit Jack’s father’s hometown in Kent County, England. The couple also has made a pilgrimage to the street where Connie’s father grew up in Scotland.
With their children, the Howards have made countless trips across the United States, down to Mexico up to the Canadian border and beyond.
“We would set sail for weeks at a time,” Paige said, adding that the kids were initially unwilling at times to spend that much time packed into the family Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser.
There was always a theme to the trips. One year they would trek up to Niagara Falls, and a year or two later they might follow the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail, a trip Jack said was organized in honor of Kent, who “used to wear a coonskin cap all the time.”
The family recalls listening to the 1969 moon launch on the radio while at a campsite.
Trip traditions would begin at the departure, with neighbors gathering to see the family off and then waiting around for a few minutes for them to return because Jack forgot something.
“Another tradition was if we were on vacation and it was Sunday, we were at church,” Kent said. “It didn’t matter where we were, we never missed church on Sundays. We found Our Lady of the Lake, Our Lady of the Hills, Our Lady Next to the Expressway, Our Lady of the Parking Lot.”
One of the most memorable trips, Jack and Connie agreed, came one Labor Day weekend. The family went to church on Sunday and arrived home to pack up for another vacation, complete with a ham.
“We loaded up and drove down to the Holiday Inn on Highway 31 in Hoover,” Connie laughed.
It was a lean year for the family, and Jack recalls the quizzical look on each of his kids’ faces when he told them, “This is it. This is where we’re going!”
The hotel property included a small lake where Kent and Jimmy were able to fish with bread, which they recall being highly successful bait. For dinner that night, the family went to Joe’s Ranch House – one of the only restaurants in the area where you could get a cocktail on Sunday. It also served the best steak and onion rings in town, according to Paige.
Then there was the time the family ran out of gas and Jack hitched a ride with a truck driver to the nearest service station.
“I remember standing on the side of the road thinking, what if that truck driver is a crook? What if he doesn’t come back? Here I am with three children, stranded,” Connie laughed. “Vacations were sometimes difficult.”
The entire extended family has memories of attending the annual productions that were put on by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
“I remember when my daddy would take us downtown and we would watch them unload the animals and walk them down to the big top,” Connie said.
Jack added that the big top was always stationed at the Birmingham Fair Grounds, until a historic fire broke out at a Ringling Bros. big top in Hartford, Connecticut in 1944. The fire took the lives of 167 people and injured more than 700, and big tops were a thing of the past.
“I was the circus guy,” Jack said. “I would take the children and then the grandchildren to the circus every year, whether they wanted to go or not.”
The family made sure to attend the Ringling Bros. final Birmingham production in 2017.
Though the annual trek to the circus is a thing of the past, the couple continues to carry on a slumber party with the grandkids – held each Dec. 23 – and the family’s legendary Easter Egg Hunt that has since been adopted by the grandkids.
“Well, there was an incentive,” Jack said. The key: make sure there is money to be won.
It brought out the spirit of friendly competition, Paige and Kent said, and sometimes the occasional pout or tears. Kent also added that he recalls some definite cheating going on, which Paige added was usually concocted by the adults.
“I’m 62 now and we’ve had one every year,” he said. This year was the first that the kids can recall there being no hunt, due to the pandemic.
Most recently, the family spent Mother’s Day at Paige’s house, and one of the main activities was sharing memories.
“We went around to all of the mothers and children and asked everyone to share something memorable of their mother,” Jack said.
Memories are something that the family has in high supply.
“We have a lot of them,” Connie said. “That keeps us going.”
