Brunswick, Georgia - Summers In The South.

Downtown Brunswick, GA - I believe this is at Gloucester and Newcastle Streets.

Although I was born, raised, and spent the majority of my youth in West Virginia, I also grew up visiting my dad's family in the South too.  Dad, as did my late grandfather, a couple of aunts and uncles, and some cousins, lived in the small southern Georgia coastal city of Brunswick.  Visiting there as a kid was often a mixed experience, but overall it was a good place to get away for a change of scene.  To this day, I still remember it - the smell of the pulp mills out on US 17, the moss-draped trees, and the taste of those famous battered fries from Twin Oaks Barbecue.  And, I wanted to share a little about that here since some of my cousins have asked about some recollections of my memories with Dad.

I never really figured out how a lot of our family ended up in Brunswick, as my dad's family were originally from Butler and Crenshaw Counties in Alabama.  However, sometime in the late 1940's, Grandad and Granny ended up first in Jacksonville, FL (where my dad was born), and after their separation Grandad somehow ended up in Brunswick while Granny settled in Jacksonville.   And, Dad practically grew up in Georgia, as Grandad raised him more or less.

For a short time after Dad was discharged from his tenure in the Army, he and Mom were still married and we lived there for a fairly short time between 1972-1974.   If I recall correctly, Mom and Dad actually lived in a mobile home then somewhere off of US 17, a little north of town.  I was very young then, so my memory is somewhat fuzzy, but one thing I do remember is that Mom and Dad both worked during the day and I was enrolled in a local preschool in town called Mother Goose Nursery School, which years ago used to be on Norwich Street just across from where Greer Elementary is now.   The school of course closed down many years ago, but surprisingly the building was still standing last I checked into it. 

The original location of Mother Goose Nursery School, on Norwich Street, Brunswick, GA.

Unfortunately, in 1974 Mom and Dad divorced (it was a pretty nasty situation that I won't divulge here out of respect for both my parents) and Mom and I moved to Baltimore where she took care of one of my aunts that had MS then.  So, it was about 5 years or so when I visited Brunswick again, and things were a little different this time. 

In 1977, Dad had married his third wife, a fairly young Southern belle named Deborah Traylor, and a couple of years later my Grandad Thrower was terminally ill with cancer and wanted to see me before he passed on.  So, the arrangements were made, and in December of 1979 Dad and Deborah came up to Martinsburg, WV, where my mother and I were staying with my grandfather Dave, and I went back to Georgia with them.  What was supposed to be a couple of weeks ended up being seven months, as right after Christmas I got a call from Mom saying that it would be best for me to stay there a while because my step-grandmother Goldie also had terminal cancer and wouldn't last the year.  I was not happy about it, but was determined to make the best of it, which I did.  It was a rough go for me personally though, as I had to adjust to a lot of things I had not experienced before, including my overly-compensating new stepmother forcing me to eat stuff I found disgusting (potato salad, etc), and I was also under a strict regimen at school.  In some ways I hated it, but in others many good things came from it.  For one thing, I more or less gained some new grandparents, as Deborah's parents treated me like their own grandchild, and I thought they were the best.  Also, it was good to get to spend some time with Grandad Thrower and my cousins too - Grandad would not live another year, as he passed on in 1980, but at least I got to spend some time with him.  My only regret was that I didn't get to see more of him when he was alive. 

This is my stepmother Deborah, me at age 9, and Dad visiting Deborah's folks at their home.

Also, although Dad and Deborah's marriage ended in 1985, I still remained close to her and her family for many years, as they were good people, and Deborah still treated me like a son.  When I last saw Deborah in 2000, she was in declining health and was unfortunately a shadow of herself as I remembered her, and unfortunately she passed away in 2006.  At the time she lived with Grandmother Traylor, her mother, in Dahlonega, GA (this was where the Traylor family originally came from).  Deborah was young, somewhat inexperienced at the time, but I do have many fond memories of her - her bread pudding, for instance, was to die for!  Also, she wanted to make me into a little Southern gentleman, so she encouraged me to read Georgia history, as well as taking ballroom dancing and golf in school.   She was truly a second mother to me, and I do miss her. 

Speaking of school, when Mom and Dad agreed it would be best for me to finish the year out down by him, I was enrolled in Burroughs Mollett Elementary School, located a few blocks over from the house on Lee Street.   The teacher I had in my third-grade year there was a sweet and very longsuffering Black lady named Mrs. Moran, and at the time she was also expecting a baby and had to take maternity leave before the end of the school year, at which time a strict elderly teacher took her place.   School was actually fun then, and I made two friends right off.  One was a boy named Sim Taylor, who lived over on the next block from us on Union Street.  Sim and I had very similar backgrounds, and for some reason we hit it off and were best friends for the whole time I was there.   The other good friend I had was a girl who was big for her age named Caprice Watkins, and she used to spot me chocolate milk tickets all the time at lunch.  Dad and Deborah encouraged me to have good friends, and once I finished the chores and homework I was assigned, they would let me chat on the phone with them, or in the case of Sim, I could either go to his house or he could come over to ours.   I don't have the foggiest idea what happened to either of them, although Dad said he runs into Sim on occasion and he seems to be doing OK for himself.   Good friends certainly made things easier in what was a pretty crazy time in my young life then.

Dad and Deborah's old place at 2008 Ellis Street in Brunswick.  The place is abandoned now, as Dad sold it many years ago, but except for being painted blue and the lack of upkeep, it still looks pretty much the same.  Such a shame too, as it was a nice house!

Burroughs Molette Elementary School on Lee Street in Brunswick, where I completed my 3rd grade school year.

One other thing Deborah made sure of as well was that we attended church on Sundays, as she was brought up being a fairly devout Baptist.   The Traylors attended Beverly Shores Baptist Church over on Benedict Road, a small highway that ran east-west between US 17 and Altama Avenue, the latter being the shopping strip.  It was the first Southern Baptist church I had ever went to, and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised!  You see, I was brought up by Mom and my other West Virginia relatives in a rather strict, conservative Holiness/Pentecostal tradition, and there were times seriously when going to church with Mom's folks would scare the hell out of me!  Although Beverly Shores was a fairly staunch, conservative congregation, the hellfire and strictness I was used to was not found there, and with Deborah's encouragement, I got involved in the Royal Ambassadors (a boys group that is roughly the Baptist equivalent of the Boy Scouts) and it was fun to have things to do in a Christian atmosphere with other kids my age.   It was a stroke of divine providence, I believe, that when I was born again seven years later, it was also in a Southern Baptist church with much the same spirit.   Of course, faith and church were ingrained in my being from an early age, and later in life I learned to appreciate the hellfire-and-brimstone religion of my past better, but I just had to be ready to accept it.  As far as I am aware, Beverly Shores is still an active congregation today, although they maintain a low profile on the internet.

Beverly Shores Baptist Church, Brunswick, GA

Of course, there were times when Dad didn't have the ambition to take me to my RA meetings at Beverly Shores, so I would attend the boys' group at the Nazarene Church where my buddy Sim and his family went to church over on Union Street.  That was pretty decent too, and the Nazarene version of the RA's was called the Caravans (the Assemblies of God also has a similar thing called the Royal Rangers, but I didn't hear about them as a kid).  Youth groups like that then were different than a lot of the entertainment-oriented junk you see in churches today - we had godly Christian adults and ministers that led those meetings, and you learned something even while you had fun.  That is not to say we didn't have fun in both the Caravans and Royal Ambassadors - we had movie nights too, as well as pizza outings, and that was actually neat.  However, you still were aware that these were church activities, and you behaved yourself accordingly. 

At the time, Deborah worked for the Fuller O'Brien Paint Company, which had a big facility over on US 17, and her dad drove a truck for them around the region.  During April of 1979, we got spring break from school and Grandad Traylor let me go on the big rig with him down to Naples, FL for a week.  That was one of the most fun experiences I have ever had, and that trip took me all the way through the state.  That was also my first actual trip to Tampa and St. Petersburg too, and I remember going over the Sunshine Skyway for the first time.  Now, many years later, Tampa is not one of my favorite places after living there for 13 years, and back then I would not have imagined I would live there one day.  Nonetheless, that big rig tour of Florida was an exciting thing for me then. 

Dad at the time had his own custodial business, where he cleaned a lot of shops and offices.  Often, when he picked me up from school, I got to go on the job with him, and that proved interesting.  One of the places he worked was the Skateland 17 rollerskating rink out on US 17, and I remember two interesting things about that. First, free sodas - got a lot of soda from the tap!  Also, while Dad did the floors in the skating rink, he told me I could occupy myself by looking for spare change, and I made out quite well sometimes.  I of course never actually skated - still can't, nor do I aspire to that either! - but it was still a pleasant memory. 

The old Skateland 17 rink off US 17, one of Dad's busiest clients back in the day.

Another thing I got to look forward to was Saturday night TV.  My weeknight bedtime was normally at 9 PM, but on Fridays and Saturdays I could stay up late.  Saturday was when two of my favorite shows then - "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" - were on, at 9 and 10 at night respectively.   Another show though Dad and I watched together was Franc White's "Southern Sportsman," which in my own West Virginia pronunciation I called the "South - eren Sportsman."   As of this week, unfortunately, Mr. White passed away, but I still fondly remember watching the show.  Being our family were avid fishermen anyway - Dad and I fished a lot that year, and thanks to him I really learned how to fish and develop the passion for it - it was the perfect show.   I was not allowed, much to my consternation, to collect critters like Mom let me do at home, but Dad and Deborah did allow me to keep a small fiddler crab I caught in a marsh over on St. Simons Island, and I called her Penny.  I had her up until almost when I left to come home that year, but unfortunately she died on me.  

Franc White, host of "The Southern Sportsman" that Dad and I watched on Saturdays together when I was a kid.

A lot of good restaurants that year too, and many of them still exist in Brunswick today.  One is Grandy's, a homestyle buffet restaurant that had been in Brunswick for years.  The other memorable one was Twin Oaks, over on Norwich Street, which was a landmark and Brunswick's most famous barbecue joint.   Twin Oaks was noted particularly for its battered French fries, although they also had some pretty decent fried chicken.  And, in Dad's business travels, he also gave custodial service to one of the local radio stations out on Jesup Highway where at the time my cousin Darlynne's beau, a nice fellow named Richard, worked.  Somehow, on one occasion Dad arranged with Richard to get me on the radio, and there was a contest going on to promote a new softdrink that had come out we all know now as MelloYellow.  I don't remember what I did, but somehow I won a whole case of the stuff!  I also was encouraged by dad to have a bank account, and he opened one for me at First Federal Bank in town, as they had a kids' banking thing then called the Kitty Klub that I got myself enrolled in (that account is long gone of course, but I still have my old Kitty Klub bank book!).  Overall, as I have said, those were some fun times.

Grandy's Buffet in Brunswick

Twin Oaks Barbecue, on Norwich Street in Brunswick.

I could not forget to mention one of the best Christmas gifts I have ever gotten as well.  In honor of my arrival that year, Deborah had worked on a very nice train set for me, and it was indeed something!  I only wish I could have brought it back with me that year, as it was the best thing - it had a little town built around it, and Deborah really outdid herself with it.  Dad, later in a financial bind after the marriage breakup, sold it.  Unfortunate, but at least I still have a good photo of it to remember it by:

My stay with Dad that year ended in June, and Mom and Grandad came down to pick me up and bring me back.  It had both its ups and downs, but overall that year it was a great experience with a lot I will always fondly remember.  I would not get back to Brunswick again for another 9 years, when I went for a couple of weeks in 1988 during my summer break, and then it was even a more memorable experience, but that is all for another chapter.  Although the overpowering and slightly pungent smell of pulpwood cooking could be a pain living there then, the smell of a pulp factory now evokes some pleasant memories too.   If you ever get the opportunity, please visit Brunswick and the outlying islands - called the Golden Isles, they consist of St. Simons, Sea Island, and Jekyll Island, and they are quaint to visit.   The charm of the South also permeates the area, as many store clerks and waitresses greet you with a friendly "Hey y'all!" that is endearing.   Any rate, this is a small slice of my childhood memories, although much more could be said, and hope you enjoyed reading them as I enjoyed remembering some of this stuff.