Conecuh County (pronounced Cah-NECK-ah) is a county located in the south-central portion of the state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was only 11,597. The name “Conecuh” is believed to be derived from a Creek Indian term meaning “land of cane”, but since 1947 when the Conecuh sausage plant was established, this county has become known as the “land of sausage” as everyone around associates the name Conecuh with sausage.
On this particular Spring Friday in South Alabama, we were expecting family and a good friend for the weekend. The sky was clear and blue with no clouds to be seen. It seemed to be the perfect day to include our weekend visitors in our Sampling the South tour.
Cavin’s mother and brother were coming from Tennessee and our son John Robert and a good friend were coming from Georgia. We made a strategic plan to meet at The Conecuh Sausage Gift Shop just off of I-65 in Conecuh County, Alabama. As planned, 5 Cawthons and 1 Ham converged on Conecuh County, Alabama at the Conecuh Sausage Gift Shop at 12 noon.
As we turned into the parking lot, it was apparent that we were being joined for our strategic lunch by people from all over. It seems that the county of Conecuh has become known to people near and far. I have heard of people driving up to 6 hours just to purchase Conecuh sausage. And come to think of it, our Tennessee guests had driven about that distance themselves.
The second we walked in the front door, we were greeted with “Hey, y’all!” and I knew that we had come to the right place. We bypassed the gifts and grocery items for now and went straight to the hot dog/sausage dog bar. There are more hot dog and sausage choices than you can shake with a stick. A few of these are Cajun, hickory, original, and hot and spicy, along with the fixings including chili, coleslaw, cheese, pickle relish, hot sauce, and of course ketchup and mustard.
We got in line with the rest of the crowd and started concocting our hot dog creations. They all looked a little different based on everyone’s taste buds. We met up on the front porch to devour our hot dog and sausage dog concoctions. There’s just something about a front porch in the springtime that makes me love the South!
And there’s just something about Cawthons being together that brings out the laughter. I could already tell as we sat on the front porch enjoying our dogs that this was going to be a fun weekend with a lot of laughter. I was hoping the Ham in the bunch was up to a weekend with the Cawthon family.
I noticed on Facebook that there is a Conecuh Sausage Fan Club. There may be only 11,597 residents in this county, but The Conecuh Sausage Fan Club has 26.9 thousand fans and that number is increasing daily. We have to agree with the fans…. “ain’t no dog like a Conecuh Dog.”
I found some interesting facts about dogs this weekend. I learned that dogs can indeed eat hot dogs and can even eat ham…. But on this particular day at the Conecuh Sausage store, I saw an interesting sight…. I saw a Ham eat a dog… Joel Ham… that is… eating a hot dog! And even though he is from Macon, Georgia, he is the newest member of the Conecuh Sausage Fan Club.
Sampling the South at the Conecuh Sausage gift store was a great start to the weekend. Conecuh is a great place to plan a strategic lunch meeting, shop for gifts, or just enjoy a relaxing day on their front porch.
I can’t wait to share with you what we did the next day as we took our Sampling the South tour on the road to Coffee County, Alabama!