The Story

How the name was born

The Heron Bay Hoodlums started the way the best things on the coast start — young. Forty-something years ago in Heron Bay, Alabama, a pack of cousins were always underfoot, always into something, and their mamas kept shooing them out of the house:

"Y'all get out of here, y'all hooligans!"

So they took it and made it their own. The hooligans of Heron Bay became the Heron Bay Hoodlums — and the name has held for over forty years.

Among those cousins was Carl Peters Jr — "Jr," "June Bug" to the family — James Bosarge's homeboy and brother since they were teenagers. Jr carried the name from those days to this one, and no telling of this story is complete without him in it. That's not decoration — that's just the truth of where HBH comes from.

And among the younger cousins was Bull Johnson. The same Heron Bay mamas and aunts who helped raise them all told him the very same words — get out of the house and into the yard, you hooligan. He was one of them from the start, and his name belongs in this story right beside theirs.

And there was Dougie Scroggin — Jr's cousin, and like an elder and a big brother to him. Dougie and James Bosarge go back as far back as it goes: the two of them grew up together from the time they were in diapers, in shrimp boots and oyster boots, holding on to the wheel of the boat. Same age, same water, same raising. He was one of the founders from the start, and his spot in this story stands right here with the rest of them.

What HBH was always about

HBH was never about trouble. It is about a place — Heron Bay, at the mouth of Fowl River on Portersville Bay — the docks, the boats that go out before the sun, the best fishermen on the coast, and folks who never forgot where they came from. People down in Heron Bay are proud to be from Heron Bay. This name carries that pride.

The line, and the day it was dreamed up

And there was Dewayne Wilkerson — Jr's first cousin, Maw's grandson like the rest of them, James Bosarge's own age. He was one of the founders from those same Heron Bay days — same grandmother, same mamas, same yard full of hooligans. His name stands here with the founders, where it belongs.

And Jana Zirlott — Heron Bay born and raised, her family too. She is cut from the same cloth as every one of them: same streets, same water, a survivor like the rest of us. She went away and came home to a world that had changed, and she is still standing. Her spot is right here with the family.

And the family is wider than the ones who were in the yard. Cassie Peters, Jr's sister, and her man Adam Guillot — Adam taken in as family by the cousins, the same way James Bosarge was taken in. They were not in the room the day the nautical line was drawn up, but they are family all the same, and their names belong in this story.

And Tamara — Bull Johnson's wife, and the oldest daughter of Genesis Eve Hancock. She and Bull have little ones of their own now, and the family they are raising has turned out grand. James Bosarge claims her as his own daughter in his heart, and means always to stand in her life as a good man and a steady one.

Over Tamara and her little sister Heather Marie stands their mother, Genesis Eve Hancock — James's soulmate. Before she passed, Genesis saw in a vision the work James was going to be doing for God and the people — the very work rising here. She went home while James was in prison, and it was one of the worst days of his life. Heather Marie calls James Dad, and he claims her as his own too. Their mother would be proud of both her girls.

The circle reaches further still. Cory Johnson is a brother of the heart — one of the ones James keeps close as all of this is being built, sending him the songs and the work as it rises and asking his thinking on it. His place is here with the family.

Over them all stands Maw — grandmother to Jr, Dewayne, and Dougie — the backbone of this family, who held everybody together. Behind every good man is a great woman. Thank you, Maw.

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The nautical line and the HBH branding you see on this site were built in our own time. James Bosarge came up with the idea — take HBH to nautical and coastal gear, and carry it to everybody back home — and Jr Peters sat right there with him when he came up with it: the line, the look, the branding. Dougie Scroggin was right there that day tooBull Johnson was on the phone in that conversation, talking it through with them. Their acknowledgment and their input belong in this story, because HBH wouldn't be complete without them.

Jr — your seat at this table is yours. Your memories belong on the Story Wall too, whenever you're ready to tell them.

And what grows from this line is meant to be shared — the benefits and the blessings of it are for everybody back home, not one man: the hooligan brothers and sisters of Heron Bay, Grand Bay, Bayou La Batre, Mobile, and Dauphin Island, and cousins and hooligans all across America and across the planet. You are in this too, and you are still standing.

Let us pray.