Illustration by Colleen O’Hara
One of many first issues I keep in mind about my hometown of Folkston was desirous to get out. Everybody did. It was a small South Georgia city, distant and poor. However as badly as I wished to flee as a child, I’ve fond recollections of the place that preserve me linked to these roots to today.
My mother and pop grew up there, and he joined the army as his manner out. After being stationed in Germany, he moved the household again to work for the postal service. I used to be 5 – 6. Like our neighbors, we didn’t have a lot, however we didn’t need for a lot, both. We lived on one of many heaps owned by my grandma, Miss Cootsy. She’d absorb wanderers and provides them a small place to remain. She allow them to work in her backyard or sort things. She had a retailer that bought bread, chips, and penny cookies out of a jar on the counter. The store additionally had a pinball machine and a Pac-Man recreation. I keep in mind cookouts on the aspect of the street, crab boils or oysters roasting on a chunk of sheet steel atop a barrel hearth, barbecue pits smoking. After I return, I hit Jalen’s Bar-B-Q & Grille to recapture that have.
Folkston is often known as the “Gateway to the Okefenokee Swamp,” a refuge for wildlife and a spot for mountain climbing, tenting, fishing, and kayaking. I used to play within the park, and now I’m on the advisory committee for our bid to make the swamp a UNESCO World Heritage Web site. I attempt to give again in different methods, working with individuals to make Folkston a spot the place individuals wish to keep, to return again and go to. I look to Miss Cootsy, an entrepreneur who used what little she had for the nice of the neighborhood, for inspiration.
Champ Bailey is a Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer who additionally based Bailey Firms & Investments and the Champ Bailey Household Basis.
This text seems within the Winter 2025 problem of Southbound.
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