It’s hard to stop digging in nostalgic cobwebs

    

In the 1950s, Jesup was home of three state football championships.  The Jesup High Yellow Jackets, coached by John Donaldson, won the crowns in 1954 and 1959.  The Wayne County Training School Tigers also were champs in 1959.  According to the WCTS yearbook, The Jesupsonian, and The Jesup Sentinel, members of that title-winning Tigers team were, front row, from left, Walter Myles, Don Jackson, Charles Hines, Willie Holmes, Otis Sapp, Willie Earl Johnson, Ulysess Moses and B. Stephens; back row, from left, Leavon Collins, Edward Lee Brown, Simon Holmes, F. Moses, Nathaniel Greene, R. Bryant, Willie Lovett, Allen Scott, Paul Trammel and Tommie Reddish.  Not pictured were Herman Latson, Earl Carter, Alfred Kincy, John L. Flowers, Charles Walker, Pete Adams, Dave Walker, Johnnie Carter, Tommie Gaines, Leon Carter, Felton Dickens, Jerry Jones and Joseph Wilcox.  The coaches were Arthur Williams, T.J. Toney and Curtis Moreland.

     Nostalgia is for some—like me—akin to eating hot, boiled peanuts.  Once you start digging into the damp paper sack or into cobwebs of your mind, it’s hard to know when to stop.  Last week, I had to push back from my computer, after making a list of about 75 flashbacks.  

     And when the paper hit the streets, the e-mails started popping.  Carol Reddish Keith was the first to respond.  Classmate of 1966 Larry Brannen was second.  LB agrees with me.  He misses the fiddling neon porker on the sign of The Pig.  But most of all, we miss the world’s best barbecue, inside Sine and Vada Aspinwall’s restaurant.

     Carole dialed up memories of her grandmother living in the old Walnut Street jail and cooking for the inmates.  It was a two-cell brick lockup, with Mrs. Sidney Reddish serving some of the best eats in Jesup. Those e-mails and others spurred more digging in my cobwebs.  Here’s what I found:

• The Yellow Jacket, teenage hangout

• Ingleside Hotel

• Wayne State Bank

• State football championship in 1954 and 1959

• Trains to Thomasville and Cairo football      games

• Freight depot burning

• T-Square Johnson

• Leonard “Wide-track” Madray

• Squawk-box Hubbard

• Tyson Motor Company

• Olin Harper slow-riding through town

• Freddie Hires’ shoe store

• Odom’s Barber Shop

• Odom and Odom Department Store

• Strickland Feed Store

• Dekle’s Drug Store

• P.R. Witcher, Otasco

• Kinky Fender, IGA

• Skeet Daniel, Firestone

• The Chuck Wagon

• The Legion Hut

• Jerry Keith, Setzer’s

• Georgia Whaley dying

• Winton Dobbs crooning on his front porch

• Jimps Hodges’ hardware store

• King David and the Slaves

• Mrs. W.Y. Smith singing in her wheelchair

• Artesian well on Brunswick Highway

• Jones Kitchen on Plum Street

• Dr. Dan Glover

• Redland airport

• Billy Poppell’s Bike Shop

• Tinker Gordon fixing our phones

• Little Red Barn

• Millard Lamb’s pies

• Foy Lewis’ sausage

• Pope’s Texaco

• NeSmith Funeral Home

• Colvin Oil

• Salter-Carswell 

• Pete’s Fruit Stand

• Norris Cabinet Shop

• Roy Lee Arbuckle

• Roscoe Emory Dean Jr. defeating Sen. Bill              Zorn

• Sister Gladys Roberson on the radio

• Glenn Thomas Jr., WBGR deejay 

• Dr. Lawrence Bennett Sr.

• Construction of Dr. Alvin Leaphart Bridge

• Harrison Funeral Home

• WIFO’s first airing

• Martha Puckett reading Br’er Rabbit stories

• Ward Riggins Sr., Riggins Oil

• Southern Bell telephone operators on Cherry      Street

• Smith’s Tourist Home

• Dent’s Buick

• Jack Tillman’s Texaco

• Harry Tyre’s “Red Argentina Bats”

• Willie Dunlap, the Dunlap Center

• A.B. and Myrtle Morgan’s DQ

• E.T. Youngblood, Alfred Dorman Company

• Bus station where SunTrust is now

• First Baptist Church on Macon Street

• Snooky Littlefield

• Leroy Strickland’s ice house

• Shhhh…slot machines

• Principal Bill Fordham

• Jesup High burning

• Concrete wall around old football field

• Hwy. 169 county prison farm

• Dr. Harvey J. Kornegay

• Dr. Tres McLaughlin

• U.S. Rep. Iris Blitch

• Bill Rhoden, The Jesup Sentinel

• Elliott Brack, Wayne County Press

• Building Jaycee Stadium

• New DOT district office 

• Don Juan Motel

• Don Juan Beach

• Dr. John Wolfe, new veterinarian 

• Service Gas Company

• The Rev. Floyd Jenkins

• Professor Frank Robinson

• Skating rink, across from high school, blowing    away

• English teacher Margaret Slover

• School superintendent Aubrey Hires

• School superintendent Herschel Collins

• Fred Wedincamp’s service station

• Cockfield’s Studio

• Bill Holt, Western Auto

• Norris Strickland renovating Macon Street

• Modern Cleaners

• Vann’s Laundry

• Mercury Cleaners

• Woodcock’s Grocery

• Ware’s Auto

• WCTS Marching Tigers

• Dave’s First Street Grocery

• Jimmy Jones, bread man

• Before Sunset Blvd.

• Before Bill Morris Park

• Dr. Charles (Jack) Patton, new dentist

• Wayne Odum’s Station

• Dr. Lamar Minchew

• Jim Replogle’s backyard sailboat

• Shot Westberry

• Climbing fire tower

• Mr. Brian’s Pants Shack

• The Tuten Block

• Jack (Peanut) Smith’s Service Station

• Rochelle Davis’ Service Station

• Dr. Etta Joel

• Watson-Yeargan

• Team bus driver Tom Howard

• Learning to swim in Dr. Larry and Jann      Bennett’s pool

• St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Cherry Street

• Dr. Bob Miller riding bike to work

• Mayor Mary Hitt’s run for lieutenant governor

• Friday shuffle-board matches between      Kiwanians

• Police Chief E.C. Williams

• Orange-roofed Horne’s on U.S. 301 South

• Collier Brothers’ Fertilizer

• Gordon Ergong, Landmark Motel/Restaurant

• Hoke’s Truck Stop

• Friday’s Truck Stop

     I remember playing golf at Sand Greens with my buddy Pete Hires, and climbing the fence to eat hamburger steaks at Friday’s.  Maybe it’s time for me to stop my nostalgic truck, and give you a turn—again.

Returning from World War II, James Harper, his brother Olin and cousin Ernest founded Service Gas on Southwest Broad Street in 1946.  In time, the enterprise would expand across South Georgia to include 32 outlets.  In 1964, they sold their business to Allied Chemical.  James stayed on a few years as president of the new company, Southern Propane.  In 1973, James launched Harper Gas, a propane retailer, which was sold to Brantley Gas a few years ago.  James operated Harper Industries, Inc., a propane wholesaler, until his death last year.  Today, Harper Industries is run by his granddaughter, Jodi Riggins Ammons.  In this Service Gas photo, probably taken in the 1950s, are, from left, Vance Laws, James Harper, Sue Sosebee, Olin Harper, Ernest Harper, Myrtis Clary and Louise Smith.