POEM BY MARY JO TRENKLER

Farmland filled with peanuts and cotton
Machines harvesting on time
IT's so great to visit Chumuckla
When the crops are in their prime!

To walk through the old cemetery
Seeing familiar names there
Wishing I could talk to so many
Hearing stories they might share

Inside Elizabeth Chapel's walls
I still hear that organ play
Sweet Aunt Mary in her stocking feet
Played hymns while I sat and prayed.

So many memories of Chumuckla
Fill my heart and fill my mind
Made yesterday and all other days
I can feel them intertwine.

I never lived in this special place
How strange it might seem to you
That I write of my private feelings
From a distant point of view.

The commissary's big candy case
The noise of that cotton gin
Catching a catfish at Aunt Clara's
I can still see her sweet grin.

Growing up there must have been special
But, I still feel lucky too
I'm part of the Chumuckla ''family"
Forever saying Thank You!

Mary Jo Kimbrough Trenkler
Granddaughter of Joseph W. Jernigan and Lovick H. Kimbrough
Daughter of Josephine Jernigan Kimbrough and Fred Kimbrough
More of Mary Jo's Poems at Chumuckla.com

MAGNETIC ROOTS .. December 13, 2003
Joyce Joiner Schultz Comes Home
Dear Chumuckla.com,

Hey It's me in Chumuckla Fla. We got here Monday before Thanksgiving Day. We tried to put our 5th wheel at my sisters place in Chumuckla, but couldn't quite get it down there. So guess where my niece suggested we park it at? At the OPRY. So looks like we will be planted there until spring unless the snow gets here. We are planning on heading back towards Idaho in the spring .
Just thought I would say hello. We traveled to Alaska for the summer months, then back home for a  month and headed for Fla. way. We spent from May until First week in September in Alaska. My husband has decided he likes retirement and traveling to visit all our relatives. He said we want have to eat beans and road-kill all the time.
Boy! Things sure look different. As we drove from Brewton Ala through Jay , and on to Chumuckla, I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought I was in a foreign country. Didn't recognize anything or anyone. Just can't believe this part of my life has changed over the years so much. I left here in 1965 and only came home for short visits and never had time to really look around the area. Buildings everywhere you turn. I would have never dreamed in my life time they would have built houses in some of these areas. Imagine Chumuckla having an opera  house, having fire trucks near-by with fire hydrants in all the areas, even down at my sisters house. Having a senior center and to me the  biggest surprise was the school. Not a high school any more. Just can't believe you can't drive in the area of Mineral Springs and to all the river roads we use to be able to take. I heard that some hunting clubs have the land for hunting. Go figure.
Changes, changes I guess are good but sure can confuse an old country girl that thought she knew every place in her home town to show her husband. Then when I heard that they had a thing here called a RED-NECK PARADE (see pictures) .I thought now ,where did my Chumuckla go. So on Saturday morning myself and husband went to check out the REDNECK THING. Rain was coming down so didn't stay long. Tomorrow on Sunday I want to go see the parade if rain don't stop it. Sounds like a good thing.
Goes to show, you leave home and come back and you think, now where have all the years and all the older people I use to know gone . My husband and I were talking ...he looks at me and said, "You are the older people now".
I was down at my sis's house (Frances Castleberry's house) , I took my husband over to see Skeeter. He is one the people I used to know. He took us through his little museum. He has gotten quite a few antiques there. It was very interesting. Of course the whole idea of going over to see him was to see if he would let me pick up some pecans, of course he said "ok". He even helped us pick them up. He caught us up on some happenings in the area. Told us about the supper club over at the opry. Supper club ... Wow! We haven't had time to go visit or eat at the opry yet.
We have been driving around the area of they places I used to go and where we lived. Of course some buildings have fallen down and some ... torn down. What a different place. I feel like a fish out of water here in a community I used to live in.
Well Vic, I guess I have talked your ear off , but I just couldn't get over all the changes.
                                                                                               
By Joyce Joiner Schultz
(See some of Joyce's writings about Chumuckla on this page (click here).
This and other email will also be found in the Chumuckla BLOG!

Mary Beth and Anna Roberts (Wanda Campbell Roberts ('74)) now at college at Asbury in Wilmington KY wrote of their recent assist with the governor campaign. They met President GW Bush while helping as volunteers with a campaign dinner. You should see the pictures! They had photos made behind the President's podium before the Secret Service took away the 'Great Seal'. And they got a picture of themselves with GW.

Welcome to the CHUMUCKLA NOW Blogg. Information, Emails of interest and news will pass this way. Often material that adds to the material on the main chumuckla.com pages will be included here. Several volunteer administrators will be able to include updates to the blogg. If you would like to be a volunteer blogg poster for the community, let me know! vic@chumuckla.com.

Helen Mason Sanders 1935 - 2003

Helen M. Sanders   Boiling Springs, SC - Helen Annette Mason Sanders, 68, of 163 Oak Grove Farm Road, died Tuesday, May 6, 2003, at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center. A native of Enterprise, AL, she was the daughter of the late James William Henry and Cherrow Lee Mitchell Mason. She was a retired bookkeeper, and was a member of Morningside Baptist Church where she was a member and past officer of the Ruth Sunday School Class, the WMU, and former Sunday School teacher. She was a graduate of Chumuckla High School of Chumuckla, FL, and attended Cecils Business College and Spartanburg Technical College.  Survivors include her husband, Bob Sanders of the home; a son, Randy Allan Sanders of Cliffside, NC; a daughter, Rhonda Sanders Turner of Spartanburg; two sisters, Billie Sue Mason Lockett of Salem, AL, and Patsy Lee Mason of Chumuckla, FL; and two granddaughters, Miranda Elizabeth Sanders of Cliffside, NC, and Olivia Kaitlin Cobb of Spartanburg.  Visitation will be 1-2:45 p.m. Saturday, May 10, 2003, in the Church Social Hall of Morningside Baptist Church. Funeral services will follow at 3:00 p.m. at Morningside Baptist Church conducted by the Rev. Dr. Kirk H. Neely, the Rev. Wayne Hyatt, the Rev. Robert C. Morgan, and the Rev. Ernie Cole. Burial will be in Greenlawn Memorial Gardens.  In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Morningside Baptist Church Building Fund, 897 South Pine Street, Spartanburg, SC 29302.  The family is at the home.  Please visit and participate in the American Memorial at www.floydmortuary.com  Floyds North Church Street Chapel