In Memory

Happy Memorial Day everyone! This weekend marks the unofficial start to summer and The Wickles Family would like to wish your family one great beginning to an action packed summer time! The modern Memorial Day celebration, like so many other things, had its genesis within the few years after The American Civil War. This federal holiday originally was named "Decoration Day" in which people, organizations and veterans of that bloody carnage visited military cemeteries nationwide and pinned ribbons on the tombstones of their fallen brethren. The holiday grew in popularity throughout the years but did not become completely part of the American Spirit until after World War II. Not long after that war, organizations like The VFW, American Legion and The Elks Club helped popularize Memorial Day by connecting the holiday with our very own Stars and Stripes commonly referred to as "Old Glory." She really is a glorious old flag!

Several sporting events coincide with Memorial Day. Two of the more popular include auto races known as The Indianapolis 500 and The Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, NC where thousands of good ole boys will watch 43 good ole boys turn left for 600 miles at neck breaking speed. The PGA of America host a tournament every year on this weekend appropriately named, The Memorial, and last but not least the boys of summer are starting their season grind with countless Major League Baseball Games over the weekend. One of The Wickles Family favorites, The Atlanta Braves, hosted The San Diego Padres today in an extra inning Memorial Day thriller! Is there anything more enjoyable while watching sports like competitive baseball than an ice cold brewskie and a stadium dog covered with Wickles Relish?

If you have decided to take your Memorial Day in stride at the lake or beach, do not forget about Wickles Okra while you mix your spirits for that late evening boat ride or romantic stroll to watch the waves crash! We promise your Bloody Mary will never taste better until you include this southern tradition with a Wickles twist! C'est bon! One other way to enjoy Memorial Day is on a float poolside with the ones you love soaking up the sun's rays and catching the faint smell of smoked ribs cooking ever so slowly on your local grill! Friends and family, wherever you are, grab some Wickles products and just celebrate this Memorial Day!

It would be inappropriate at best not to say a big thank you to all the men and women currently serving in the military! It seems that the sacrifices being made by those special people today and in yesteryear make  Memorial Day celebrations possible at all. A special thank you goes to those American souls who have given the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Upon reflection, The Wickles Family sends a special prayer to those heroes and their families on a day where we really do have our memories. A toast also goes out to the loved ones, not just military, who have passed to the other side and cannot share boat rides, cold ones and our love in this world anymore. We miss you so and from The Wickles Family, "Wish you were here!" God Bless America and you as well on this joyous, yet genuinely reflective plus unique American tradition known as Memorial Day!

School's Out For Summer

Alright! Alright! Another wickedly long school year is quickly coming to an end while schools all around this great country will begin the annual rite of passage known as summer break! In 1972 famous rocker Alice Cooper released his summer break anthem "School's Out" after someone asked him, "What is the greatest three minutes of your life?" Cooper cleverly remembered his childhood days, the feeling of excitement just before the final school year bell rang, and wanted to capture that feeling in a song! Later, a Wickles Family favorite and 1993 cult classic movie, Dazed and Confused, immortalized the song forever as one of the top rebel ditties of the 1970's!

Major respect goes out from The Wickles Family to not only all of the students hopefully graduating to their next step in life, but to all the awesome teachers out there who helped make that happen for their pupils! If you think that your job is hard, try going almost everyday of the year, in the public eye, with both administrators and parents watching your performance like a hawk, and also making it happen for 20-30 anxious third graders for the next 25 years. Better yet, how about motivating a sprinkling of those students who might have special needs? Good luck with that! A round of applause goes to all the educators out there doing a job that I never could! Have a wonderful summer; you deserve a break!

So, what to do during that very earned break? Enjoy some fantastic Wickles Pickles of course! Whether you are "partying at the moon tower" with Wooderson and Randy "Pink" Floyd or relaxing in the summer sun at your favorite beach strip, we at Wickles hope that everyone will take the time to savor all of our tasty products. In honor of all your summer travels, The Wickles Family announces its first ever "Where's Wickles?" program. Please email us at wtpickleman@gmail.com with a quick blurb about where you have enjoyed Wickles products and provide a picture for your chance at a monthly prize! For the month of June, one of our coveted 64 ounce of delicious Wickles Pickles is up for grabs! Also, this summer please stay tuned to this blog for all of your Wickles Family announcements including some very soon to be big news involving The Wickles Family and a possible sponsorship which may include one the most famous people in the country outlaw industry! Not to mention, a shot at joining The Wickles Hall of Fame with your best recipe published on this blog this summer. School's out for summer, but The Wickles Family is All In!

Happy Mother's Day

The Wickles Family would like to take time today and wish everyone, especially the moms out there, a very Happy Mother's Day! According to Wikipedia, the genesis of what is currently considered Mother's Day originated from a written work by Julia Ward Howe titled "Mother's Day Proclamation". You can read about that history here, http://womenshistory.about.com/od/howejwriting/a/mothers_day.htm. This proclamation is a heavy piece in response and protest to the carnage of The American Civil War and The Franco-Prussian Wars of the 1800's. Leave it to a Mom to lead the pacifist charge and try and make the peace!

While some of us are lucky enough to still have our mothers alive, many people unfortunately have lost loved ones and a special prayer goes out to those people today. Before my father passed away, he told me the hardest thing you will ever have to do is go to the funeral of your own mother. I still today can see the tears in his eyes at the ending of my grandmother's burial in 1988. Also, this last week many mothers perished in the horrible tornadoes that left a wake of destruction thru the South from Arkansas to Virginia. A special prayer goes out to all of those victims as well.

Do not forget about Mother Earth today as well. In honor of this beautiful world, grab your reusable grocery bag before you head to the store, pick up a piece of trash and put it in the proper place or start that recycling program at work or home, one that you may have been procrastinating about. One thing that moms know very well, it really is the little things that count the most. You can make a difference, every bit of effort will count, and like your mom, this is the only Earth we have so let's try and remember to take care of her also!

And last but not least, how about a quick shout out to the All-Time Mom, The Blessed Virgin Mary! If it has been awhile, what a nice way to honor your mother by going to church and telling the man upstairs, his son, his son's mother and all of heaven how much you have to be thankful for! The Wickles Family has a lot to be thankful for this Mother's Day. We are alive, we survived recent catastrophe, we are together working again, and we sent our first shipment from a temporary warehouse all the way to Arizona within a week of our old headquarters being demolished by an F4 tornado. Thanks to all the guardian angels who have passed before us for watching over us during these trying times!

Just in case you have somehow forgotten about Mom today, do not panic! First, get on the phone and call your Mom and tell her you love her! Second, go to this link on our website, http://www.simsfoods.com/products/wickles-gift-box.html and order your Mother a Wickles Gift Box! We can write a personalized note for your Mom, ship this gift anywhere and your Mom can be experiencing the true pleasure of tasty Wickles products within days of your order! It's the least that you can do and let The Wickles Family be part of your family on this beautiful May the 8th and Mother's Day! From our family to yours, Happy Mother's Day!

Thoughts, Prayers And Condolences

For a few weeks now, we at Wickles Pickles have tossed around the idea of a live community based blog about our awesome products, social events of all types that we enjoy, our fabulous customers and as many positive things about life that can be squeezed into a written blog spot. Our first inclination was to announce our blog with open invitations to all customers and their comments about all of the tasty Wickles products that so many love. No doubt that kind of interaction in the future will be be a major part of this undertaking, but unfortunately on the eve of our very own blog launch, a life changing event occurred within our family. Last Wednesday, April 27, 2011, multiple tornadoes ripped through The Great State of Alabama and decimated massive amounts of land, killing hundreds of people and forever scarring all of us who managed to live despite the efforts of some of the most dangerous storms anyone has ever survived. From Tuscaloosa to Dadeville and from The Shoals to the beautiful mountain valleys of NE Alabama, homes, lives and property were permanently changed last Wednesday forever. We at Wickles Pickles are also digging out from beneath the rubble, and would like to take the time now to offer our thoughts, prayers and condolences to all of the victims of these epic storms. You will not be forgotten.

The easy part about all of this is going back to work. In Dadeville, AL, where The Wickles Family headquarters is located, our main office, warehouse and shipping distribution center was completely mangled. Day to day business operations have temporarily stopped but we will be shipping product from a substitute location in Opelika, AL by the end of the first week of May. If you are expecting a shipment and have any questions about it's delivery, PLEASE do not hesitate to call us beginning Monday, May 2nd for any inquiry. We promise, our goal is to be operational ASAP so all of us can get back to some sort of normalcy while enjoying those tasty Wickles products. Also, you can check out our website 24 hours a day here: http://www.simsfoods.com/.

The hard part of all of this will be understanding why this happened. Our business will be rebuilt stronger and better than ever. That warehouse expansion question we have all been discussing behind the scenes has obviously been answered. That is a silver lining I suppose, but if you are somewhere around the world reading this and have not seen the wreckage caused by this storms, I implore you to take a few moments online to research just what exactly happened. You will be shocked. Witnessing first hand what one of these tornadoes can do to a two hundred year old oak tree, a house, a farm, etc. has eternally altered all of us within The Wickles Family. If you can also, take the time to give blood now, donate essentials to The Red Cross like money, clothing, toilet paper, blankets, toothpaste, razors, etc. Thousands here have lost everything and everything right now is in short supply.

What is not in short supply is the great spirit of the south shining brighter than ever during the aftermath of these killer storms. White, Red, Yellow or Black, Auburn or Alabama, whatever all of our differences, it is obvious that people in Alabama care more about each other right now than I can ever remember. The Wickles Family is very proud to be part of that kindred spirit and hope that this blog will be another reminder to all who enjoy our products that no matter the circumstances, we will all rise above this pain and destruction together. The line of the day from one of The Wickles storm victims last Thursday overheard during a meeting was "I may have lost my shoes, but I have not lost my mind!" Right on and God Bless to everyone from The Wickles Family.