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Community News

Potts Camp News
Dale Hollingsworth

Town parade set for December 11

One early morning, a huge, yellow machine drove up to the side of my home and dug a deep hole; the main water line in Potts Camp was broken. (My water was still running.) A week later, the machine was back, filling up the hole. We are thankful for the leaders of our town. God has blessed us!

My son, Jimmy Hollingsworth, called from the south coast. He and his wife, Martha, were visiting their daughter, Sonya and Greg Kidd, at Pass Christian. Jim and Martha were in their huge camper. They had lived at Gulf Port several years after retiring from preaching. A few days before the hurricane hit several years ago, he said someone told him to get out. Two weeks later, their former house blew away. They had moved to Tupelo. We had visited them a week one time at Gulf Port.

Congratulations to the winners of the Potts Camp Beauty Reviews, and especially to Macy Watkins for being crowned most beautiful and most congenial. When Macy was a small girl, she and her sister would come to my home after school with their sitter until their parents got off work. I played with them and fed them good food. They sent me a card painted in lovely colors and called it “Happiness House.”

Ann Boren Armstrong called to express thanks and gratitude for Mark Armstrong and his successful surgery recently. He is recovering amazingly at his home and the family appreciates your prayers. Also, pray for the donor family as it was a perfect match.

Katherine Greer Sundstrom is recovering at her home following recent surgery.

We appreciate the beautiful flags that the mayor and board of aldermen have placed around town in honor of Veterans Day. They are an added attraction to the town.

The town’s second annual Fun Day for Kids was held last Saturday with a large crowd attending. There were many activities for the children, lots of fun and plenty of food. Everyone also enjoyed rides on Little Obie – the safety train, as well as tractor rides provided by Roger Foster. Music was provided by several musicians. See separate article.

There will also be a parade in town on Saturday, Dec. 11, at noon. This is another project by the mayor and board members. They are doing a wonderful job for the town. If anyone is interested in a float, please contact the town hall as soon as possible.

The Potts Camp Family Medical Clinic is now open for business. It is wonderful to see new businesses coming into our town.

If anyone has any old yearbooks from Potts Camp School that they are no longer using, please contact Annie Ruth Stone, as she is heading up a project to get a complete set to be donated to the school’s library.

Friends Verla May Stanton of Hickory Flat and Gussie Davis, also of Hickory Flat, are both in the hospital. Please pray for them.

Thoughts

II Chronicles speaks for itself, “If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and will heal their land.

Times have changed since I was a child, even the Christmas cards have changed. Some people are trying to take God out of everything, even the schools. When I attended school, we sang songs like “God Bless America” and “My Country Tis of Thee.” A local pastor would come to the school once a week to speak and pray for us. Now it’s against the law.

A young boy had studied about Jesus in Sunday School and how He was born on Christmas Day. His mother took him to a busy store with toys and decorations. He looked around and said, “Where is Baby Jesus? I thought it was His birthday.” We pray that no one forgets Jesus and His death on the cross for us.

Happy birthday to my grandson, Clark Grayson Hollingsworth, second son of Danny and Elizabeth Hollingsworth of Morristown, Tenn. He is attending his second year in college in Jefferson City, where Danny is business manager.

God Bless You

It’s a little prayer, “God Bless You.” But it means so much today. It means may angels guard you and His sunshine light your way. God’s love surround you. Please unfold, never to depart. It’s a little pray, “God Bless You,” but it comes right from the heart.

Pray for Henry Tutor, Charles Henderson, Mary Jarrett, Joann Potts, Lena Faye Work, Verla Mae Stanton, Doris Goode, Sank Owen, Betty Rose Jones, Diane Clayton.

Memories

A house bought through Sears & Roebuck still stands in Winborn.

The old landmark in Winborn is still standing!

When Will Allen came to Potts Camp Post Office in 1913 to pick up his order from Sears & Roebuck Co., he had to use his wagon and horses. It was a two-story house, shipped in bundles and had the directions for its assembly. The first man hired to build it looked at the blueprints and walked away.

Memphis Mining Company ordered the house. At that time, iron ore had been discovered in the hills around Winborn, two miles from Potts Camp. After a few years, the mining company moved away, and the two-story house made of redwood and brick with seven rooms and a bath was rented. About 1915, my dad, Benton Potts, a young man, became the depot agent at Winborn, so my parents rented rooms in the new two-story house and my older brother, James Potts, was born there in 1916. I have a picture of James, a cute little boy, and my mother in front of the house and I was in a baby buggy nearby.

About 1920, Dad was hired at the Potts Camp depot so we moved here.

Daddy had grown up in the Potts Camp area and had met my mother in Plantersville, where he held his first job on the railroad, before moving to Winborn.

Sears & Roebuck offered houses in their catalog from years 1908 to 1937. They were priced from $650 to $2,500.

Tony Nichols’ father rented the entire two-story house for his family in 1920 and they lived there until his death. Then Tony and his wife, Eddie, purchased the famous house in 1945. They have one son, James Edward Nichols, who married Jean Simmons. They live in Oxford. Jean was the daughter of my friend, Ethel Simmons.

The old landmark was the first house in that neighborhood to own a bathtub. (The Old Williams Hotel had the first one in Potts Camp.) Because of the power supplied by the mining company’s furnace, the old house was built complete with lights and running water, indoor plumbing and huge steam radiators. Mr. and Mrs. Tony Nichols were wonderful friends to all who knew them. He never met a stranger.

Did you know?
Richard Simmons

Remembering Thanksgiving...

I was working as a clerk and delivery boy for Latham’s Grocery in Bemis, a small town in West Tennessee. It was time for the afternoon run on deliveries and I was particularly interested in what was going to 101 Gregg Street.

You see I was married to the homeowner’s daughter and was invited to Thanksgiving dinner. It would be Wednesday when the delivery was made. In the delivery box would be eggs, fresh coconuts, celery stalks, flour, corn meal, cranberry sauce, pork roast and, of course, the turkey. Mam Maw, as she was called by me, and Momma by her children, had placed her order with Latham’s on Tuesday before Thanksgiving Day. It was Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day and she was up at 4:30 a.m. fixing hot biscuits (prepared the previous evening), eggs and bacon for her and husband.

Mam Maw and Paw Paw worked the same shift at the textile mill. When she got home about 2:30 on Wednesday afternoon there was no messing around. There was work to be done. There was dressing to be made with a little pork roast in the dressing, hmm, hmm, hmm. I would arrive the same day after work to find my wife, Bernice (sister-in-law), and Mam Maw busy in the kitchen. In between the Thanksgiving preparations, they fixed supper for whoever was present.

After supper I got the privilege of cracking the fresh coconut and removing the milk and then the white meat. Grating the fresh coconut was not necessarily fun, but, oh, the reward. I’ve had fresh coconut cake since those days but nothing has ever come close. Sometimes it would take two men to place the cake on the table (exaggeration). The evening would go on and all looked forward to a day off and the traditional Thanksgiving Day ahead.

On Thanksgiving morning Paw Paw would wake me and ask “are you going to sleep all day?” I thought I was ready in a flash but when I got to the kitchen coffee was ready, with biscuits, bacon, eggs and sorghum on the table. We were going rabbit hunting. By the time I had buttered a biscuit, Popeye (one of the children) would arrive and join the breakfast. Paw Paw would usually comment “didn’t think you were coming.” It was 4:45 a.m. by the time we had finished breakfast, and Raymond (son-in-law) would arrive.

Everyone would prepare to load up for the hunt. Getting the beagle hounds out was no problem. I believe they knew what day it was. All the barking and tails wagging so hard they were shaking the dog, I was looking for the neighbors to complain. I had never experienced anything like this. My immediate family did not hunt or fish and all that I know now about either I learned from Paw Paw.

When I missed a rabbit, Paw Paw would just laugh and laugh. It was not one of those put-down laughs, but one that said I have missed too; soon, you will get the hang of it. We would be back home before dinner was ready and clean (ugh) the rabbits, wash up, and share the stories of a great Thanksgiving Day rabbit hunt.

Called to dinner, the feast began. There would be 20 to 30 family members present. Chairs and tables were everywhere. Children were sitting in the floor, people in the bedrooms, and if you were lucky you got a place at the kitchen table. Second choice would be the lounge chair.

Thanksgiving Day at Mam Maw and Paw Paw’s was not only fun; it was a peaceful time, time to enjoy and to reflect on all of God’s great blessings. After dinner there would be naps, a games of Rook, some football and family. I loved them dearly and miss them so very much.

Wishing you and yours a great Thanksgiving celebration.

Email comments to richardps@centurytel.net.

Waterford News
Elmira Curry

Annual banquet set for November 27

All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventy years — or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Recent visitors at Greenfield Church were Rev. Leona Harris from Holly Springs and Mr. and Mrs. Larry Garrett from Nesbit.

We are in sympathy with the families of the two sisters in the late Mary Cradler Gaiter and Helen Cradler W. Miller. Life ended with them just nine days apart.

Mrs. Troy M. Miller of Memphis, Tenn., and Daisy S. Walton were injured in a car accident on Nov. 1. Some recent visitors at her bedside were her sister, Elmira Curry; her niece, Evelyn C. Elliott, from Holly Springs; her daughter, Lynell Miller of Indianolla, Ind.; her nephews, Alvin Curry and Eupharim N. Curry from Atlanta, Ga., Robert C. Curry from Holly Springs. On Saturday, Nov. 13, Theria Walker from Holly Springs, and her daughters, Amie L. Malone, her son, and daughter-in-law from Texas visited Mrs. Troy Miller. She was also visited by her pastor, Rev. Henderson and members from Beulah Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., and others.

Waterford Lodge #450 and Miller’s Court #301 annual banquet will be held at the Waterford Lodge Hall on Nov. 27, at 7 p.m.

Door prizes, good food, and an inspirational speaker are highlights of the evening.

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