You Won't Believe It but It's So (review)

J U L Y 2 0 0 7 229 the narrative occurs. The Chattahoochee River meets the Flint River at the Florida border, where their confluence forms the Apalachicola River. However, the Apalachicoli Indians lived on the lower Chattahoochee, while it is unclear—and not discussed—who lived in the territory of the Apalachicola river valley, which extends over one hundred miles to the Gulf of Mexico. Especially valuable is the discussion of various native groups’ activities after the destruction of the Spanish missions by the British and their Native American allies in 1704. The intrigues and shifting alliances over two centuries culminated in the emergence of the Upper and Lower Creeks and Seminoles of the late 1700s, mentioned briefly in the conclusion . The two maps included in the book are too small to include the multitude of places and names discussed in the text, and seldom are different groups or settlements tied to a specific known location, although this is a fault of archaeology, not of the historian. Like his Spanish correspondents , the author refers to individuals by different names, titles, and parts of compound names, further complicating the analysis. There are several instances where sentences or even whole paragraphs are repeated with only two pages in between. Copyeditors should have caught these problems. For those familiar with the time periods and peoples of this region, however, the narratives are rich in detail and drama. Actions of international rivalries among the European powers strongly influenced historic native groups, who deftly balanced the interests of Spain, England, and France, while they themselves exchanged pelts and slaves for highly desired European goods. The British and their Native American allies had more of these goods, including firearms, than the Spanish, who, for the most part, neglected those regions beyond the wealthy mission settlement at Apalachee. NANCY MARIE WHITE University of South Florida You Won’t Believe It but It’s So. By Fuller Kimbrell. Tuscaloosa: Fuller Kimbrell, 2006. iii, 502 pp. $25.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling. ISBN 0-9711636-5-6. Available from the author, 1615 St. Andrews Drive, Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Fuller Kimbrell was a successful businessman. As an Alabama state senator, he represented Fayette, Lamar, and Walker counties. Along T H E A L A B A M A R E V I E W 230 with George Wallace and Charles Pinkston he was one of James E. “Big Jim” Folsom’s regional gubernatorial campaign managers in 1954 and Folsom’s finance director in part of his second term. He was a member of the Democratic Party’s Executive Committee for a record setting thirty-five years and an advisor to George Wallace in his first term as governor. This book is his autobiography. In many ways it is a more personal account than his earlier book, From the Farm House to the State House (Tuscaloosa, 2001). Kimbrell was well positioned to view some of the most important events and colorful personalities in recent Alabama political history. But what makes this book especially valuable is not so much the particular occurrences and people it covers as it is the nearly nine decades that it spans. It documents how daily life and politics changed through that period. Kimbrell was born in 1909 to Reverend William Asbury Kimbrell and Patience Evergreen Kemp Kimbrell. His widowed father brought eight children into the marriage with Fuller’s mother, and she gave birth to six children of her own. Fuller grew up in a log house without electricity or running water. His accounts of day-to-day life in his youth are vivid and specific. It is notable that he describes both his mother’s and his father’s work. For example, they made soap by mixing fireplace ashes with rain water, lye, and grease from meat skins. This combination was boiled in a large pot until a solid cake-like substance remained. The product of this effort was an effective cleaning agent, but one that irritated the skin, especially when it was used for washing clothes. He writes, “the day the nickel bar of Octagon laundry soap came into existence was a day remembered by all...