Sweet Home, Alabama! What could be more fun on a warm day than sampling great brewed-in-Alabama beers, while you support a good cause at the same time? If your answer to that question is “absolutely nothing,” then you will surely want tickets to the annual Beer Tasting presented by Children’s Services, Inc. (CSI) on Saturday. The private party will be held at Mellow Mushroom in Oxford from 3-5 p.m., and you must purchase your $30 ticket in advance to be admitted. All proceeds will benefit the Parris Home for Children. Guests at the Beer Tasting must be 21 or older. Of course, that’s not a problem for most of us!

As usual with CSI, the board of directors has a fun and festive event planned. Chairwoman Mandi King has promised that each board member will be wearing a colorful Hawaiian lei, complete with bright flashing lights, so you will have no trouble picking them out of the crowd. Be on the lookout for all of them, especially Karen and Kara Silvers, Scott Skinner, Jill Pike, Randall Moore, Margot Finch and Justin Lord.

Out on the patio of the Mellow Mushroom, the band No Penalty will again have the crowd rockin’ to a great mix of old and new music. Who knew that these quiet and mild-mannered young men from Honda Manufacturing — Andre LaDeau, Eddie Daurelle, Yasushi Miki, Scott Hamilton and Eihiko Satosummer, all colleagues of board members Ted Heathcock and John Fuller — had these lively personalities hidden Monday through Friday? If you are not on the patio of the Mellow Mushroom Saturday, you may very well be penalized for having missed one of the best times around.

Terry “Big Terry” Phillis and the staff of the Mellow Mushroom will be serving a wide variety of their mouth-watering gourmet pizzas and other specialties. If the crowd is as large as the last CSI Beer Tasting, board members Brigitte Miller, Pam Fite and Cheryl Potts will need to once again set down their beer glasses to help serve the food. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Featured beers for the pizza party will be donated by Bama Budweiser, Anheuser Busch, Supreme Beverage, Pinnacle Imports and Birmingham Beverage, with the spotlight on locally-brewed selections from Back Forty Brewery (Gadsden), Straight to Ale Brewery (Huntsville) and Good People Brewery (Birmingham). Beers will range from “regular” to high velocity, so this is an excellent opportunity to sample something to enjoy in your Sweet Home, Alabama.

Tickets for the beer tasting and pizza party are $30 and must be purchased in advance from any CSI board member — including yours truly — or from the Mellow Mushroom. For additional information, please call Mandi King at 256-235-2553. Seating is limited, so call now.

To share your news with Small Talk, contact Annette Maddox at starsmalltalk@yahoo.com.

Save the Date

Get fired up for football season at Spirit on Mountain Street, at 6 p.m. Sept. 6 at Jacksonville State University’s Gamecock Field. For a mere $10, sample some of the area’s best food from 35 restaurants and vendors, along with family activities and a cake auction. Then, at 8 p.m., enjoy an all-schools pep rally, with Jacksonville, Pleasant Valley, Jacksonville Christian Academy and JSU all represented on the field. All proceeds benefit Jacksonville Christian Outreach Center.