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