BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
Summer is here
Take a dip in the Homochitto IT’S NOTHING FANCY, IT’S WHAT WE DO: Tiny Bales makes a ton of jelly
JULY/AUGUST 2018 $4.99
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ARTS MAKING A MINISTRY Jewelry, pottery allow pastor’s wife to spread the Gospel
TRAVEL 10
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‘IT’S NOTHING FANCY.’ Tiny Bales makes a ton of jelly
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KRANER LANE COLONIAL GOES FRENCH COUNTRY
FANTASTIC FANTASIES
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THE HOMOCHITTO LIFE 36 Families ride and relax on the banks
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HISTORY SEARCHING FOR ROOTS Brookhaven resident finds connection to Mayflower
A DAY IN ‘THE CITY BEAUTIFUL’ Laurel offers Ole Brook’s charm and then some
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PHOTO ESSAY WELLNESS
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SOCIAL SCENES
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BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
Summer is here
Take a dip in the Homochitto IT’S NOTHING FAN CY, IT’S WHAT WE DO : Tiny Bales makes a ton of jelly JULY/AUGUST 2018
$4.99
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The Homochitto River is a great place to cool off.
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arts JULY/AUGUST 18
Making a ministry T
Story & photos by Brett Campbell
erri Warnock says owning the right tools is key to success. For this pastor’s wife, that means wire cutters, pliers and a Bible. “You’ve got to have the right tools,” she said. “For anything. For painting, for jewelry making. You’ve got to have the right tools.” Warnock is the creative backbone of Terri Warnock Pottery and Jewelry Design. She’s also the hands and feet, as she takes her creations to select boutiques in Mississippi and Tennessee to display. Her unique, handmade pieces go quickly. She considers her work a ministry. “I get to talk to a lot of people, and hopefully share the good news of Jesus with them and give them an encouraging word,” she said. “That’s my main focus. Making the jewelry is secondary really. It’s just an avenue to share Christ’s hope for the world.” Warnock is married to Pastor Greg Warnock, who has been at First Baptist Brookhaven for 21 years. The two are Georgia natives who also lived in Brandon and Corinth before making their home in Brookhaven. They have two grown sons who both live in Tennessee — Jay, and Scott and his wife Natalie. Warnock’s pieces are sold exclusively at Engravables in Lincoln County, but her work is featured at other boutiques throughout the state — Hattiesburg, Laurel, Booneville, Southhaven, Waynesboro, Philadelphia, Pearl and Pontotoc, and a few places in Tennessee. “She’s a joy to work with,” said Engravables owner Connie Hooper. The pottery came first, eight years ago, then the jewelry was added as her popularity with Lincoln Countians continued to grow. Hooper thought it was friends from First Baptist making the purchases at first, but she’s since realized that Warnock’s creative eye attracts buyers from all over Southwest Mississippi. “We have a lot of people who don’t even know her who buy her jewelry and her pottery because they like it,” she said. Engravables store associates regularly wear Warnock’s pieces while working and it’s not unusual for a customer to spot a necklace or bracelet and inquire about its availability.
Jewelry, pottery allow pastor’s wife to spread the Gospel
Terri Warnock puts colors and textures together to create original designs.
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If it’s already sold, they’ll request a similar item to be made. “She has a big following,” Hooper said. “We have a lot of repeat customers.” Warnock studied ceramics in the early ‘80s before she got married. A church in Savannah, Georgia, offered classes and she enjoyed nurturing her creative side. “I painted all the traditional ceramic stuff, Christmas trees and magnolias and all that kind of stuff,” she said. After she married and they moved to a church in Corinth, she learned to handpaint her own designs. By the time they moved to Brookhaven in 1997, Warnock had developed her own style in both jewelry and the pottery. She sold her pieces at Brookwood Gifts first, then when it closed, she sold at Sisters By Design. When they also closed she made her move to Engravables. Her jewelry fills a floorto-ceiling lighted display — picture an open phone booth with shelves. More shelves line the wall and they’re filled with pieces of Warnock’s pottery. She makes decorative bowls and platters in various sizes, spoon rests, scripture signs and decorative pieces like a replica of the Brookhaven sign at Cherokee Street and Whitworth Avenue. Her design is recognizable because of her use of frit, or broken glass, to add color to the pieces. Her multicolor 12 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
pottery is the most popular but she also creates pieces in cream and turquoise. The pieces are conversation starters. “It’s mostly decorative because of the glass,” she said. She has two kilns at home for her pottery. Home is also where she makes her jewelry. She hums along to praise music and gets lost in the creative process — slipping pendants on chains and crimping wire around Swarovski crystals. Warnock also likes to use Amazonite, African turquoise and traditional turquoise. She expertly pairs leather with crystal and gold for unique designs. She makes jewelry that she likes to wear. “I’m hoping people like what I like,” she said. Putting things together is a gift and Warnock excels at it. She regular visits her suppliers’ web sites and browses their inventory. “They keep getting new things in so I can look on their web pages, and I’ll think, ‘That will look good together,’” she said. When she’s actually making the piece, she may not like the look after all. “Sometimes I’ll put it together and I won’t like it so I’ll take it apart,” she said. Warnock’s jewelry sells for $16 to $55. Her pottery is $19 to $67. |||||
Terri Warnock sells her jewelry and pottery at Engravables.
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history JULY/AUGUST 18
SEARCHING FOR ROOTS
Brookhaven resident finds connection to Mayflower
S
tephen Hopkins stood on the ship’s deck as the vessel rocked in the ocean waters. It was late 1620, and the large group had been traversing the sea in close quarters for more than two months, on a westward heading, hoping to reach the Colony of Virginia before already harsh conditions aboard the Mayflower worsened. Hopkins had been to the New World previously, as a minister’s clerk with the Virginia Company. He’d survived a shipwreck at Bermuda and years of difficult living at Jamestown — including being arrested for treason against the governor with a sentence of death, and then a last-minute pardon. He’d gone home to take care of his children after learning of his wife’s death, and there in London married for the second time.
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Story & photos by Brett Campbell
Opposite page: Kim and Cathy Bridge discuss connections to the families who were on the Mayflower. Above: William Brewster was one of Bridge’s ancestors.
In spite of previous hardships, when he heard of a new voyage to America, he decided to take his family with him and join the Pilgrims’ journey to northern Virginia to establish a new colony. He didn’t know that before the colonists’ first winter was over in the New World half of them would succumb to illness and other dangers. He did not know he’d be immortalized as one of the men to sign The Mayflower Compact. He also did not know that nearly 400 years later his descendants would be searching for proof of their relation to him and inclusion in such memberships as the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. But that’s just what Cathy Bridge has been doing. A published author and genealogist, Bridge was working on a family project when she began to notice interesting connections that led her to wonder if her husband was descended from any of the Mayflower passengers. So began another quest. Now, a couple of years later, Bridge has almost completed the application process for husband Kim to be officially recognized as a descendant of Mayflower passengers and as a member of the GSMD. She’s made the necessary connections, gathered the required materials and is awaiting final approval from the group’s state historian.
Gaining acceptance to the GSMD is no simple task. Although 10 million Americans — and 25 million more worldwide — can claim ancestry on the famous ship, the organization currently boasts only 30,000 members. Some who have applied have not been able to meet requirements. Most descendants simply have not gone through the process. The Mayflower carried 102 passengers to America — some were Puritans, searching for religious freedom; some were servants; some were looking to make their fortune or find a better life. All have become known as Pilgrims. Two passengers died in transit. Another 50 died in the harsh winter conditions of the new land in a very short time. “The rest survived, thrived, flourished and multiplied,” says Bridge. “Each of Kim’s ancestors had 10 to 12 children.” If the math worked out evenly, that’s 700,000 descendants per surviving Pilgrim across the globe. That’s a lot of possible connections — a lot of possible resources. Bridge has mined a variety of resources in her quest. On the Internet, she’s accessed such sites as Ancestry.com, The Internet Archive, Find A Grave, vital records departments of various states, historical society websites and other published genealogies.
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She’s scoured records at the Lincoln County Historical and Genealogical Society — of which she serves as president — and the Lincoln County Public Library. “Probably the best book resource I’ve found is this one,” says Bridge, pointing to a copy of Leon Clark Hills’ “History and Genealogy of the Mayflower Planters and First Comers to Ye Olde Colonie,” originally published in 1936 in two volumes. Research has uncovered that Kim Bridge’s 11th greatgrandfather John Tilley was on the Mayflower. So was his ninth great-grandfather Stephen Hopkins of Jamestown and Bermuda fame. Then there was his ninth great-grandfather William Brewster, his 11th great-grandmother Joan Hurst, 10th great-grandfather John Howland and eighth greatgrandmother Constance Hopkins. The Bridges have submitted to the GSMD a stack of evidence for the connections. Primary evidence accepted includes such items as vital records of birth, marriage and death; church records; marriage bonds and licenses; military records; deeds; and federal census records after 1880. Secondary evidence includes such items as family genealogies; newspaper obituaries; newspaper marriage accounts; photographs of gravestone inscriptions; and federal Census records prior to 1880. Secondary evidence is considered after all primary submissions. Circumstantial evidence — “that which does not state a family relationship per se, but leaves it to be inferred, or pieced together with other bits of evidence” — will be considered, but only after primary and secondary. The journey from the 21st Century to the Pilgrims has been long and involved, and isn’t over yet. Once this application is officially accepted, Bridge will submit another, then another and yet another. She wants to have official acknowledgment of her husband’s ties to each of his Mayflower ancestors. Why put all this work into a project that not everyone appreciates? “First, to give my husband some sense of his roots,” Bridge said. “Not originally from anywhere,” Kim Bridge was a selfdescribed military brat whose father left when he was only 3 years old. Since then he’s seen the man only once — for a total of about an hour — and they haven’t been a part of each other’s lives. Another reason for the project is to give their children a legacy. They’re proud of their sons Nick and Tyler, and want to pass on the knowledge of a connection to this country’s earliest days. “I think it’s important to leave a legacy for our children, our grandchildren,” she said, “and if it’s a positive one, that’s better.” “Finally, there are scholarships if you’re accepted by the society,” Bridge said. The grandchildrens’ education has to be considered, after all. She also just loves the research process. “This is a passion for me,” she said. “I love doing this. I love it.” Her husband has supported her and has gotten excited himself about the connections found along the way. A recognized “Santa Claus” in the area, it doesn’t take much for him to consider dressing up and portraying a Pilgrim, either. “Just find me a hat,” he said. ||||| 16 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
William Brewster (above) is Kim Bridge’s ninth great-grandfather and was a passenger on the Mayflower.
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BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 17
travel JULY/AUGUST 18
Story & photos by Adam Northam
A day in ‘The city beautiful’ E
very now and then, my wife takes me out in public. She uses a few phrases to describe my behavior, out there where folks can see. One is, “you just won’t do.” Another is, “you are so dumb.” Occasionally, I get a “put that down,” or she turns on her heel, eyebrows way up high, and says, “That’s it — I’m leaving.” My wife is not wrong. Not all the time. I’m pretty sure I caused her to burn through all those phrases and a few more, a little less Christian, when we took a Friday road trip late in June to visit the high-brow retailers in historic downtown Laurel, Mississippi’s latest darling city (apparently, it’s on TV a lot). We trod the red-brick streets and patronized the places where the “shop local” message has gone national,
LAUREL OFFERS OLE BROOK’S CHARM AND THEN SOME
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where heavy wooden doors stand propped open in welcome and tiled mosaics pass underfoot, where newly-remodeled shops that smell like flowers and money do all-day business inside the same old storefronts built, 100 years ago, by the lumber barons. The class is high, and so are the prices. I, of course, fit into downtown Laurel like a flip-flop at a debutante ball, but all the folks who pronounce the “hay” in Brookhaven would appreciate what America’s “Home Town” has to offer. I will try to explain it below, in terms both women and rednecks can understand. We started at Southern Antiques on Central Avenue. I like to go junkin’ in antique stores — nothing pleases me more than old cast iron eaten thin by a generation of flame, or a faded, yellowed book where someone has written “Ed, hope you enjoy this,” in lazy cursive in the inside cover. With the best antiques, what you’re really buying are the ghosts.
I didn’t find much of that in Southern Antiques — I’ve never seen so much new merchandise at a store with “antiques” in the name — but I did find hand-made quality like nowhere else. One room contained beautiful colormatched stoneware dinner sets, in shades of steel and blood and hunter, as good as anything with a French name. Another featured a distressed farmhouse table that spoke to me in ancient tongues, telling stories of cornbread and whiskey. My wife, raised on a dairy farm, got excited when she found a bull statuette and said, “hello, Mr. bull.” But Mr. Bull was $70. She put Mr. Bull back, carefully. I encouraged her to buy a hand-hewn wooden tray for our kitchen table, but instead she grabbed a $25 candle called “camellia and lotus.” It smells wonderful, but I’m not sure what lotus really smells like, since it grows in India. We hit Adam Trest Home next, the storefront where Laurel artist and decorator Adam Trest sells his art. You can buy coffee mugs and T-shirts imprinted with his precisely-drawn maps of Laurel, which remind me of the professional landscape architecture drawings I used to see when I worked at an engineering firm. Intricate stuffed owls hang from the ceiling — my wife, an armchair ornithologist, calls them “hooters” — while handbags and throw pillows bear images of redbirds, bicycles and hand-written words to God. They all cost way, way too much, and I was pushing my wife to leave the store when she showed me a simple print called “Seasons,” an 8x10 painting of four rows of the same four trees, colored by the changing weather. I’m too much of a Philistine to explain this properly, but I connected with Trest’s style because it makes me feel vulnerable. His use of simplicity and soft color and exaggerated shapes appears cartoonish at first, but a longer look at his old-timey subjects betrays meaning, and what I feel is an understanding of mortality, as his red biplanes and blue mermaids and purple wild horses — all things from longago — are drawn in motion, as if to say they once were and then never were again. “Seasons” was $34. When my wife gets it framed, I’m going to hang it in our bedroom, and think about it until I die. We next visited Guild and Gentry, where they sell candles for men. Yes, there were soapstones to keep whiskey cold without watering it down.
Yes, there were leather-handled butane lighters. Yes, there were neckties and flasks and cigar cutters with wooden grips in this store designed for men. But candles — candles made for men, and I don’t mean camellia and lotus. These bad boys had manly names, like “sawmill, pine and cedar,” which smelled almost as good as Rex Lumber on a cold morning in Brookhaven, when the wind blows in from the north.
Opposite page: Southern Antiques is typical of most downtown Laurel stores with its double wooden doors and restored tile entrance, old-timey comforts still in use. Above: “Seasons,” by Adam Trest, a celebrated Laurel artist.
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“Rails, wind and wilderness” smelled like the deep woods after a cool rain, and “guild, leather and tobacco” smelled like a rich man’s library. “The gentry, lather and brush” just smelled like Old Spice, and one of the other scents smelled like the inside of a Bass Pro Shop. I declined the candles, because I still wasn’t sure it was manly enough. At my wife’s insistence, I ended up with a $20 bottle of fancy body wash. I tried to tell her I had just bought a bottle of Dial for three bucks at the dollar store, but she wouldn’t listen. Of course we also went to the famous Laurel Mercantile, where TV stars Ben and Erin Napier from the HGTV show “Home Town” offer all things local, though the store is way more gift shop than home supply. This, Laurel’s store of stores, is definitely where you spend money just to say you’ve been there — I don’t know how else to explain an $85 butcher block or a $50 hammer, pretty or not. The old axes in glass display cases forged in local fires long ago are cool, but I don’t know if they’re $100 cool. 20 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
There was no sign of the city’s famous couple — back in the antiques store, I heard a young lady in tiny shorts say the Napiers were out filming right now, and they never film in the same location twice. But my wife and I did get to meet Marilyn Maddox, “Aunt Mae” on the show, and she filled us in on the local history, speaking at length about the unrivaled beauty of the homes on Fifth Avenue, the city’s founding families of Gardiner and Green and Rogers, the famous Gardiner Park and its old school building, and somebody a long time ago who went to Julliard, thanks to the rich folks. I thought the history lesson made us special until I heard Aunt Mae begin the whole tale over again, word for word, to a pair of ladies from Wesson who wandered up beside us at the T-shirt wall. By this time my feet were tired and the bags from the other shops were digging into my fingers and my wife was taking forever to choose a T-shirt and I was hungry and I might have said something ugly. Not too ugly. We’re still married.
Opposite page: Hand-made, matching dinner sets are sold in Southern Antiques. Most of the Laurel’s downtown businesses offer locally-made goods. Above: Historic downtown Laurel begins here, where Hwy. 84 curves around to the northeast of Kampers Alley and Central Avenue.
We were going to eat at The Pearl Diner, a downtown favorite, but since it was 147 degrees outside I didn’t think fried chicken and gravy would sit too well. We went for a light lunch at Lee’s Coffee and Tea, and it sure was light. For $26, Carrie and I had one complete sandwich between us and two servings of bread pudding. Maybe it’s swanky to eat that light. Maybe I don’t understand. Maybe I’m a fatty. We ended our visit to downtown Laurel with a trip to The Knight Butcher, a fresh meat store where the ghost of Jones County rebel Newt Knight cuts up beef. I made that up. I don’t know what happens in there — the deal was I would start the truck and get the air-conditioner cooled off while my wife grabbed a bag of meat for the grill and some smoked bones for the dog. I haven’t cooked it yet, but Greta loved her bone.
Looking back, Laurel and Brookhaven share a lot of qualities. Both have charm and class, and both are still steered, to a degree, by the century-old wishes of the dead gentry who reached into their wallets, time and time again, to make things in their own image. Both have a rich downtown and merchants willing to pour in the sweat and cash to make them attractive. But “The City Beautiful” has some pulling power the Home Seekers Paradise can’t match without a national TV show and 6,000 more citizens. They are the champions of small-town tourism right now, and they know it, too. “Oh my gosh, we love Betty’s ... in Brookhaven,” one of the ladies at Southern Antiques told me on Facebook. “Downtown Brookhaven is adorable. Wish it were closer to Laurel!” ||||| BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 21
food JULY/AUGUST 18
‘IT’S NOTHING FANCY. IT’S WHAT WE DO’ Tiny Bales makes a ton of jelly
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W
Story & photos by Donna Campbell
hen it’s jelly-making time, Kevin Bales fires up the ATV and heads down the hill to the rose bushes. Cookie, a beagle feist mix, hops in the seat beside him for the ride. Bales plucks the tender petals from the bushes and places them gently into a plastic ice cream tub. While most men who have been married for 38 years give their women roses, Bales’ wife would rather have the petals. This trip earns him a big smile from Tiny, his beloved, who fills a glass measuring cup to the top. Four cups. That will make a few jars of red rose petal jelly. But first she has to wash them several times over. “Sometimes it may take four or five washings to get them clean,” she said. Glenda “Tiny” Bales starting making jellies, preserves and pickles in her kitchen soon after the Loyd Star teen married her handsome older Bogue Chitto beau nearly four decades ago. She’s been making them to sell for about three years. She sells to friends and family through word of mouth and is a regular on the farmers market tour — Brookhaven, Sontag, Tylertown and Liberty. Her husband had been a boilermaker until a series of serious illnesses sidelined him. He’s had a stroke, a heart attack and kidney failure. Tiny has learned to hook him up for his dialysis treatments that they do at home and she cans when she can. She’s the cafeteria manager at Bogue Chitto Attendance Center, but doesn’t get paid during the summer months when there is no one to feed but her and her husband. “We were trying to find something that would supplement my income during the summer because we live from paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “He said, ‘You know what? I’d like to try to make some jellies for the farmers market.’” They grow most of what they can to avoid the cost of buying inventory to make the jellies, preserves and salsas. Kevin wanted them to try to make the red rose and honeysuckle jelly so they searched on the internet until Tiny found some recipes she liked. She’s considering trying her hand at wisteria jelly. She’s heard of kudzu jelly but isn’t planning to make any — unless someone talks her into it. She tries to be accommodating when it comes to her customers, even when they make an odd recipe request. That’s how she discovered that she did not like pink eye purple hull pea jelly. “I had a lady come to me saying that that’s what she wanted,” she said. “I tried to do what they asked me.” Tiny shelled and jelled. Then she tasted it. “It didn’t take but a minute for me to throw that stuff out and she’ll have to buy that from somebody else because it was horrible,” she said. “I wouldn’t eat it so I can’t sell it to my customers because I wouldn’t eat it.”
Tiny Bales uses rose petals plucked from the bushes in her yard to make jelly.
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Tiny didn’t always know how to make jelly. She gives credit to her dear motherin-law, the late Katherine Bales. She taught her to cook when she got married and how to can a bit later. “His mother is the one that did this,” she said. “She always told me, she said, ‘You better get in this kitchen and learn how to do this because I’m not always going to be here.’” Now she’s a pro. She pulls out her copy of the “Ball Book of Canning” — her canning Bible — when she has questions and also consults with a single-subject spiral notebook filled with notes and reminders she’s jotted down through the years. She’s followed the recipes so many times she doesn’t even look anymore. Take her mayhaw jelly, for example. She pulls out a gallon bag of plump, solid berries from her freezer. If she were making mayhaw jelly today, she’d boil these down and strain them for the juice. “Four cups of juice, six and a half to seven cups of sugar will make about seven half pints,” she said. “So when I tell you it’s sweet, baby, it’s sweet.” She can get four “makings” — or batches — from a gallon bag of mayhaws. That’s about 28 half-pint jars. When she cans, she makes a day of it.
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Making jelly heats up a Southern kitchen mighty quickly. “When I cut this stove on, I’m not going to cut it on to make one batch of jelly,” she said. “I’m going to make one batch, then I’m going to make that batch and clean my mess up from that batch and then I’m going to do another batch.” She pulls the jars out of the hot water bath and sits them on the counter to cool. She’ll write the contents in black marker on the top, then add a label when the jar is cool and dry. Each jar is identified with its ingredients and tells that it’s made by Tiny’s Homemade Canned Goods. Tiny keeps a sample jar from each batch so her customers can taste what they’re buying. “Whenever I go to market I want to have my samples because I want you to know what you’re getting before you buy. I don’t want to have a dissatisfied customer because they’re not going to come back,” she said. Some of her more curious customers like to try jellies they may not have heard of before, like that made from the goumi berry. She picked the fruit from a friend’s garden in Liberty. The jelly is slightly sweet, and tart like a green apple. She also makes fig preserves, plum jelly
and pickles. She unscrews the lid on a cold jar of bread and butter pickles. “We go by my husband’s mother’s recipe,” she said. “A lot of people don’t make them like this.” The recipe for those is a family secret to be passed through the generations. The sweet pickle recipe is up for grabs anytime. “It’s just the one on the back of the lime bag,” she said. “That is the original three-day pickles,” her husband added. When it comes to her products, Tiny has a tough quality control department — herself. If it’s not right, she won’t sell it. “You have to please your customers because they are your business,” she said. Tiny enjoys her time in the kitchen, stirring and straining. “It’s my time,” she said. “I talk to myself. As long as I don’t answer, I’m OK.” She loves visiting the various farmers markets with her husband and meeting new customers. “It’s nothing fancy. It’s what we do. We love it,” she said. “If you want to get rich quick, this ain’t the thing. It’s not the thing to go into.” |||||
Bank of Brookhaven and Toyota of Brookhaven present
2018 LINCOLN COUNT Y WILDLIFE & OUTDOOR EXPO 1096 Belt Line Drive NE Brookhaven, MS • 601-823-9064
Friday, August 24 - 5:00pm to 9:00pm Saturday, August 25 - 9:00am to 7:00pm
Find us online
www.dailyleader.com
Admission Fees: Adults (13 & up) $6.00 Children (7-12) $5.00 (6 & Under) Free Second Annual Lincoln County Wildlife Expo and QDMA Fundraiser Banquet Thursday Night, Aug. 23, 2018 Located at the Brookhaven Building Starting at 6 PM Sponsor Packages and amentities available. For info contact Bruce Gray: 601-754-5592 (Promo Code: Expo)
FANTASTIC EVENTS TO LOOK FORWARD TO THIS YEAR!
• Pig Catching • Jump Zone for Kids • Animal Viewing Area • Museum of Natural Science • Baby Alligators • The Snake Man Terry Vandeventer • Face Painting • Hand Grabbing Tanks • Aim Program Bow Shoot • Open Bow Shoot under Stall Barn • Lots of great booths and food • Professional Lumber Jack Shows • CAMPERS, FIRE PITS, BOATS AND MUCH MUCH MORE
Bring the Entire Family as there is something for everyone!
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home JULY/AUGUST 18
26 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
Kraner Lane colonial goes French country T
onya Rushing doesn’t look the part of a typical do-it-yourselfer. Her hair hangs smooth across her shoulders, and she carries a calendar to keep her schedule of responsibilities – nurse practitioner school, work, driving her children to dance and music activities. But don’t let the pink manicure fool you. This is a woman who can lay brick with the best of them. “I grew up as an only child,” the Morton native explains. “I had to be a beauty pageant person for my mom, and I had to hunt and plant with my dad. I loved watching him build things, and he could fix anything. He didn’t hire anybody. He did it himself, and I learned to as well.”
Those skills, combined with her mother’s floral knowledge, gave Tonya an edge in the decorating world. Others noticed, and for a period she worked full-time as both a decorator and a registered nurse. Her biggest job was renovating a three-story home for client Joyce Caracci, owner of Sta-Home Health and Hospice in Jackson. These days she prefers to decorate her own space, one she shares with her husband, Alan, and their two children. When Alan’s work required a move to Brookhaven four years ago, they found a 1970 two-story on Zillow that fit the bill: hardwood floors with renovation potential. “I love French Acadian like you see in New Orleans, all the architecture and design details,” Tonya says. “I knew I could make that work here.” As proof, she points to a nearby doorway. Instead of basic framing, it’s finished with a finial scored at Old House Depot, an architectural salvage warehouse she visits regularly. Guided by her good instincts, Tonya has steadily transformed the stately residence from outdated
and dark to stylish and light. The family has replumbed, landscaped, installed new windows, and replaced fixtures and lighting. Neighbors couldn’t help but notice the major changes taking place as the home’s exterior went from green to antique white. “It was like a parade with everyone stopping by,” Tonya recalls. “We could have hired a painter, but I’m too picky. Nobody could do it to my liking.” That’s why Tonya found herself googling “tub removal” when an upstairs antique had to go. “They don’t make that size anymore, so when we put in a soaker tub, we had to take out walls,” she explains. “When I renovate, I take it down to the studs.” The Rushings’ son Ryan, 16, was by her side throughout the project. He was there recently as well, installing a new front door and laying 200-year-old heart pine on the family room floors. “I often call Ryan my Chip, Junior,” she laughs. “If I have a design vision, he can create it.”
PROJECT BY PROJECT, A HANDY MOM LENDS THE TRANSFORMING TOUCH TO HER HOME
Story & photo by Kim Henderson
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 27
One of the pair’s biggest projects involved the dining room fireplace. Originally, it was covered in granite and had no hearth. Now it sports a brick façade, a mantle made by Ryan, and corbels purchased during a visit to New Orleans. Ryleigh, 11, prefers to be part of the finishing touches crew. Her favorite find is a vintage sewing drawer featured front and center on the dining room table. She filled the piece with Mason jars and flowers, then placed the arrangement in the middle of a wooden dough bowl. And it’s that type of combination – rustic, shiny, alive and green – that reverberates throughout the Rushing household. Walking through now-completed rooms, Tonya acknowledges the work has been hard, but worth it. She’s also making plans for future projects: “When I put my designer brain together with the artistic ones of my family, I think to myself, ‘We can do this.’” And they probably can. |||||
Page 26: Tonya Rushing with her children Ryleigh and Ryan. Page 26: Finial accents lend French flair to this doorway, framed in 200-year-old heart pine. Above: Tonya doesn’t like furniture arrangements to be completely square. Angling beds and chairs diagonally makes a space look larger and increases functionality, she says. “I’m not really into symmetry. I like for things to be uneven.” At top: This fun sitting area is where Ryleigh and Ryan, a student at the Mississippi School of the Arts, like to hang out. The fur beanbags are from Pottery Barn, and the accent pieces reflect a family love for turquoise and blue.
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THE BEST IN LOCAL NEWS, SPORTS AND OPINION IS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. IN PRINT & ONLINE. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 29
shop JULY/AUGUST 18
Fantastic fantasies Mini Melissa Glitter Unicorn Shoes Beyond The Rainbow
Super Soft Plush Unicorn by Baby Ganz. Fashion Jewelry by Margaret $15
Scag Unicorn Riding Float Beyond The Rainbow Sequin Unicorn Pillow by iscream
30 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
shop JULY/AUGUST 18
Fantastic fantasies
Unicorn Onesie with Tutu Expectations $32.99
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BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 31
photo essay JULY/AUGUST18
‘GREASE’ BY EMILY PHILLIPS
32 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
The BLTeens’ production of “Grease” was a culmination of four intense weeks of drama camp. Twenty-four students, who are in seventh- through 12th-grades, learned all parts of production — casting, choreography, lighting, sound, hair and makeup, set design, directing and acting. Guest artist Randy Redd, a Brookhaven native, worked with them in the week prior to the first show.
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 33
34 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
“Grease: School Version” was directed by Paden Phillips with assistance from Jesse Freeman, LeAnna Maddox and Emily Phillips. Caleb Brown served as technical director. The cast included Turner Owens (Danny), Bailey Pounds (Sandy), Cadence Laird (Rizzo), Gracie Gray (Frenchy), Carley Craig (Marty), Lucy Donegan (Jan), Connor Cagle (Kenickie), Josh Brown (Doody), Jonah Clark (Roger), Tyler Shann (Sonny), McLain Boyd (Eugene), Jerome Walton (Teen Angel), Chase Gaddy (Vince Fontaine), Caden Grafton (Johnny Casino), Rivers Gray (Patty), Lucy Allen (Cha-Cha), Stevie Nevels (Miss Lynch), Braxton King (Burger Palace Man), Bryce LeBlanc (Rydell student), Olivia Baker (cheerleader), Lizzie Donegan (cheerleader), Kat Hemphill (Rydell student) and Jacy Jordan (Rydell student).
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 35
features JULY/AUGUST18
THE HOMOCHITTO LIFE FAMILIES RIDE AND RELAX ON THE BANKS AT CAMP RIDGE POINT Logan Trauth, a 14-year-old from West Lincoln, drops off the rope swing into a deep pool on the Homochitto River at Camp Ridge Point.
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Story & photos by Adam Northam
Clay Smallwood, 55, is one of Camp Ridge Point’s longest-serving members and an original “Homochitto River Rat.”
J
ust down south of the highway, hardly a half-mile below Eddiceton, the Homochitto River widens out. The old hardwoods and mimosas growing along its crumbling banks back away, and the riverbed grows long and flat as 500 feet of fine, alabaster sand fills the backside of every curve in the lazy river’s path. The water itself is slight here, a shallow main channel that flows slow and cool, clear as salvation, cutting through the sandbars in thin furrows that shift, grow and die back down as the seasons change. McComb’s John Broom was a teenager when he started visiting the site in the late 1990s to ride dirt bikes across the quarter-mile dunes. When Camp Ridge Point opened in 2000, he bought a membership. On July 7, he was married there in the shadow of the old Burris Road Bridge. “Why spend all that time hunting up a church when you can get married in the place you love?” said Broom, 39, a maintenance worker at Honeywell Specialty Materials outside Gonzalez, Louisiana. “We just love it here. It’s a home away from home.” It’s where he met his fiance, McComb’s Lacie Lott, 36, a former medical assistant. They were friends of friends who came to the river to relax and fell in love instead.
“It’s beautiful here, and this place is special to us,” she said. People have always been drawn to the river, to this place of calm beneath the sun. Homochitto, in Choctaw, means “big red,” or possibly “big shelter,” after a council house or other native community that stood, long ago, somewhere on its banks. Settlers followed the Indians into the surrounding woods, later declared a national forest, building roads and steel truss bridges, and the Civilian Conservation Corps reforested the area in the 1930s. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building flood-control projects downstream in the 1940s and 50s, misguided adventures that ultimately increased scour and washed away bridges during times of flood. In the late 1960s, wild young men ran up and down the dunes on new three-wheelers, and young women rode the river on horseback. In the 70s, day campers paid $5 per head to relax at the water’s edge from sunup to sundown, and a boys’ and girls’ summer camp operated through the 80s. In the 90s, people who knew the land’s owners — the Herring family — began receiving permission to cut out spots for campers and shacks and put up permanent camp spots. The number of pay-as-you-go campers increased until 2000, when Howard Herring consolidated his roughly 2,000 acres into Camp Ridge Point and began selling memberships. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 37
The Endriss family from Louisiana and the Jacksons from Natchez hang out in a swimming hole. Relaxing in the cool water are (from left) Cam Jackson, 7; Elena Endriss, 16; Phoebe Endriss, 13; Amy Endriss; Rich Endriss; Clark Jackson; and Cat Jackson, 7. The puppy is Lucy Lu.
Today, the camp has more than 2,000 members who stay in campers and all manner of camp houses and shacks in its 525 lots, connected with water, power and sewer, and spread out in four campgrounds among the forest and creeks. At Camp Ridge Point, the woods echo with the sound of small engines. “The biggest component to why this works is the invention of the side-by-side,” said camp manager Brett Herring. “Mom and Dad can hop in with two kids, load up their ice chests or whatever they have and ease on down to the river. It makes things really simple.” Camp Ridge Point is surrounded by miles of built gravel roads between camp sites, wilderness ATV trails that reach into the wild heart of the natural forest, dug-out mud trails where adventurous drivers test their skill in slop deep enough to swallow the $30,000 machines they hurl into its sucking reach. And of course the river itself is miles and miles of wide-open sand, where drivers can go as long, as far and across water as deep as they dare. The Herrings enforce tight family-friendliness rules at Camp Ridge Point, and safety is a priority. Speed limits are enforced on the trails and even in the river, and any rider under age 21 must wear a helmet. Riding shuts down at midnight. Every ATV must bear a color-coded flag — red is for members, blue is for guests — with letters and numbers showing the owner’s camp and specific site. A paid security guard patrols the camp from noon to after midnight on Saturdays in an ATV with police lights, and anyone
38 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
violating the rules or putting others at risk is dealt with swiftly. Riding is a big part of Camp Ridge Point, but not the only part. Front porches jut out in welcome from hundreds of campsites and the smell of cooking meat drifts on the breeze across the four lots. Ice chests rattle and beer cans pop as groups of sunburned friends and family gather in the shade of their camps, in a circle of ATVs in the middle of a sandbar or in the river itself, where moms and dads drop folding chairs in knee-deep water and sit, half-submerged, under straw hats while the children swim into the deeper holes and fly off rope swings. “The typical stuff you’d see on a beach at the Gulf of Mexico is what takes place here,” Herring said. “It’s a relaxing place. It gives people a chance to just get away, like going to the beach does for some people, or going to the golf course does for others. It’s a great place to decompress.” The campground and sandbars are open and accessible yearround, but all the riding trails close from November to February or March. The river remains harmless unless floods come down in its upper drainage basin, in Copiah and Lincoln counties, and then the Homochitto does what all rivers do. “It can get bank to bank during a flood,” Herring said. “It’s wild to see it churning 300 yards across with whole trees floating by, but for most the of the year it’s never more than 60 or 70 feet wide and about 2.5 feet deep. And that’s an asset — the depth isn’t scary for small children and you don’t have to worry about them. If it were a deeper river, I think we’d have a lot tougher time running this place.”
The man who has seen the place run more than any other is 55-year-old Clay Smallwood, a production supervisor on an oil rig off the coast of Africa whose campsite is right against the bridge in Lot 1, overlooking the river in one of the most prime sites in the entire camp. He’s been a regular at Camp Ridge Point since he was a teenager, since before it was Camp Ridge Point, and today he’s the camp’s longest-active member. “We just called it a ‘campout’ back then,” said Smallwood. “I’ve been coming to this camp since I was 18 or 20 years old, and I’m here as much as I can be. My house don’t ever get dirty.” Smallwood is one of the original “Homochitto River Rats,” an early riding club. He stole the name from a Franklin County flag football team that played in the 1970s and still flies the flag at his camp. Amanda Floyd has been coming to Camp Ridge Point for nearly a dozen years. She was introduced to the river by her late husband, Sam Floyd, who learned about the camp while serving with some members in Iraq. “I told him, ‘I’ll try it out,’” said Floyd, a 42-year-old payroll clerk from Natchez. “I didn’t know what to think, but when I got here I liked it, so I called the office and bought a spot.” Floyd said Camp Ridge Point is a great place for her to get away and be surrounded by friends — her group has 12 camps close together. “I have a ‘river family,’” she said. Clark Jackson, 52, is an offshore worker from Natchez who works a schedule of two weeks on, two weeks off. He said he’s probably at Camp Ridge Point 10 of his 14 off days. “I sold 75 acres to be able to come out here, and I’d do it again tomorrow if I had 75 more,” Jackson said as his 7- and 4-year-old swam around him. “I love the relaxation here, and I appreciate the family atmosphere.” Camp Ridge Point is normally maxed out on memberships, but sites open up from time to time. Anyone interested in living the Homochitto life may contact the camp office at 601-532-7159 or email campridgepoint@yahoo.com. |||||
Top left: Elena Endriss, 16, tries to sweet-talk a dog into the river while other swimmers enjoy the sun. Middle left: Brookhaven’s Lyndsey Ezell rides the dunes with 10-year-old Hayden Ezell. Bottom left: Loyd Star’s Abigail Brown (left), 15, hitches a ride on the four-wheeler with 12-year-old Marley Norton.
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 39
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wellness JULY/AUGUST18
Tucker Hoeniges has turned mountain biking into a college scholarship at Belmont Abbey College.
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‘THE MAIN THING IS TRAINING
SMART’ Local biker turns passion for cycling into scholarship Story by Collin Brister
T
ucker Hoeniges remembers his 14th birthday and every detail that accompanies it vividly. He remembers being at the beach with this parents and not knowing what gift he wanted. He eventually came to the conclusion he wanted a mountain bike. He had gone with his dad before to ride mountain bike trails and enjoyed it. He wanted to give the sport a try and see where it went from there. “They bought me a mountain bike. It was 32 pounds, and it was aluminum,” Hoeniges said. “It was the coolest thing in the world.” He competed in his first race a few months after that birthday. He finished next to last. “One kid broke his bike, so I finished next to last. That’s when I started to take it more seriously,” Hoeniges said. “I knew that if I wanted to be good at this I had to put more effort in and take it more seriously. The more seriously I took it, the more I wanted to grow.” So he did. He started training on an everyday basis. He started with a nutrition plan to help him succeed at the sport. He started riding regularly at the Mt. Zion Bike Trails to increase speed and endurance. “There’s actually a lot of people that do this, and everyone that is racing you wants to beat you,” Hoeniges said. “The main thing is training smart. If you go out and ride hard every day, you’re going to plateau. It’s really about training smart.” The hobby turned into a passion for Hoeniges, and he’s planning on making the passion his driving force when he graduates from Loyd Star next year. “I really started to know that it was more than just a hobby when I found out that this was something I could do in college,” Hoeniges said. “You can get scholarships for racing bikes, but you have to be really good. When I found out that this could help pay for college, I knew I really wanted to get into it a lot, and I’ve been really dedicated to it for the past few years. I’ve really loved being able to do this.”
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 43
Hoeniges begins his training at 4 a.m. every day.
He got better, and he started to see results. The results got better and better as well, and Hoeniges has turned the sport he picked up only three years ago into a near-commitment to Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina on a cycling scholarship. “I’ve been talking to them for a while,” Hoeniges said. “I really like it up there a lot, and I really like the coach. This one is the one that works for me, and I can drive there for a day.” The choice to go to Belmont Abbey College was one he said he made because of a friend who had attended and gotten better at the sport. “I realized that kids locally were doing this,” Hoeniges said. “I realized all the kids in Colorado and California weren’t taking all the scholarships. The coach really knows how to work with athletes and make them fast. They have a lot of track biking national championships. That program is putting out national champions, and that was big to me. You don’t wake up and like biking and win a national championship. There’s not much luck at this level, you have to train harder than everyone.” Hoeniges can be seen training locally on roads throughout Lincoln County and at the bike trails at Mt. Zion. “I’ve been riding that trail every week for a long time, and I am so thankful for it,” Hoeniges said. “I couldn’t ever get tired of it. I love being able to go out there and that really helps you when you want to get out and train.” With mountain biking, unlike football, baseball, basketball and other sports, it’s something you can continue to do well into your adult life in a competitive environment, and that’s something that Hoeniges said drove him to the sport and something that he 44 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
looks forward to well into his life after high school and college. “That’s definitely something I look forward to,” he said. “Some of my closer friends in the sport are in their 30s and they race more than I do. When I get finished with college, I’d really like to race at the pro level for a little while. Ideally, I’d like to do it for a little while and then just do it out of enjoyment. I can see myself being in my 60s and 70s and still enjoying it. I know people in their 80s that still ride seriously, not just pedaling around.” He’s committed to training six days every week to make sure he’s in top shape. “I ride in the morning always,” Hoeniges said. “It’s hard every day. But I love it. I cook a lot of healthy food.” Looking back at the sport he’s turned into a passion, he’s somewhat amazed at how far he’s taken it. “It takes a lot of time and you have to be dedicated to it,” Hoeniges said. “For example, some days I wake up at 4 a.m. and eat a small breakfast and then do a 50-mile gravel ride. You have to love it. I wouldn’t wake up at 4 a.m. for anything else. By the time I’m done, most of my friends are just waking up so I can do whatever. ” The dedication it takes to be a competitive mountain biker requires full-time attention. So much so that Hoeniges said he had to leave the sports of tennis and soccer behind and fully commit to cycling. “I loved soccer and tennis,” Hoeniges said. “I just had to be able to train for cycling, and I wanted to commit to it full-time.” “In a non-weird way, this really does take over your life. But I love it. That’s why I do it.” ||||
Hoeniges plans to attend college on scholarship in cycling and continue the sport throughout his lifetime.
Renee Berry
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Recycling in Brookhaven is successful and ongoing! 35 Gallon Recycling Containers still available at city barn upon request
Plastic bottles and jugs (1&2), steel and aluminum cans, paper, newspaper and cardboard (flatten cardboard boxes if they do not fit in your container) For the continued success of our recycling program, we remind citizens the following CANNOT be recycled: Glass, plastic bags, Styrofoam™, auto fluid or pesticide containers or any type of trash or garbage.
For more information: www.brookhavenms.com This ad is sponsored by the MS Department of Environmental Quality. BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
45
social scenes JULY/AUGUST 18
FOURTH OF JULY BLOCK PARTY
Top left: Back row, Eric Moyer, Jim Moyer and Bobby Covington; front row, Jessie Lofton and Kelly Covington Top right: Carrie Sones, Kristie Simmons and Christen Layton Above left: Charmesha Wilson, Demesha Wilson and Makiya Wilson Above right: Shannon and Robyn Aker and Shirley and Bruce Chamberlain At left: Sherrie and Rob Welch and Sarah and Nick Bridge with Charlie and Emma
46 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
Top left: Matt and Lorelei Walker and Brandon “Dean” Nations Top right: Melinda Said, Deana Pendley, Kellye Sicks and J.T. Pendley Above: Levi Patton, Lana Patton, whitney Watts, Anna-Michael Smith with Levee and Macey Lea At right: Back row, Sarah Elizabeth Balkcom, Katherine Balkcom, Andrea Balkcom and Sarah Sunday Holmes; front row, Isaac Balkcom, Owen Balkcom and Hannah Elaine Balkcom
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 47
GIRLS NIGHT OUT
Elizabeth Jackson and Natasha Dear
Kensy Hoff and Anna Grace Covington
Chasity “Belle” Bourn and Chasity Huchison
Beverly Simmons, Katie Legg, Matt Hall and Erin King
Lu-Ann Magee, Carol Salers and Vicki Spring
Marla Smith and Sally Hedgepeth
48 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
Melinda Said and Johanna Blaire
Sally Hedgepeth, Irene Smith and Marla Smith
Nancy Smith, Brandy Smith, Hannah McKee and Mandy Allred
Trey Maddox and Michaela Marler
Anita Cliburn and Melnee Berry
Whitney Warren, Tiffany Woolley and Allison Livingston
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 49
CATS MEOW RUMMAGE SALE
Rusty Adcock, Karen Rogers, Dean Lail, Deana Pendley and Sharon Allen
Jennifer Norman, Leah Norman and Ann Russell
Debbie Yarbrough and Becky Nasif
Suzanne Bonin, Callie Fauver and Hope Bonin
Tina Ballard, Tommie Lambert and Sydney Ballard
Jessa and Amy Kimble
50 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
FARMERS MARKET
Emily Douglas, Laura douglas and Bentley Mathis
Kessia Brown, Danni Brown, Faye Smith and Bonnie Ard
Lisa Scarborough, Lisa Williams and Emily McKinley
Mary Mulligan and Pam and John Whitaker
Melissa Rushing, Anna Grace Rushing and Ashley Rushing
Patti Alderman and Rebecca Bates
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 51
‘GREASE’ AT BLT
Abby, Elllie and Tim Slay
Hanna, Joshua, Haley and Chris Hux
Hannah Kirtfield and Austin Murphy
Palmer, Jane, Jack and Michael Hutson
Rhonda Farris, Tara Farris and Janet Carlock
Sharon Hughes and Glenda Gemelli
52 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
Top: Sharon Langley and Sonya Cowen Middle: Whitney and Collin Holmes Bottom: Shirley Nations and Mary Smith
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 53
FIRST RESPONDERS LUNCH AT RIVERWOOD
Emily and Paula Gennaro
Eric Smith, Grant Britt and Nic Gamble
Hollie, Jerry and Oliver Fry
Jimmy Martin, Kelly Porter, Steve Rushing and Lonnie Ferrell
Laurie Sullivan, Carlee Gilbert and Heather Taggart
Reggie Smith and Joe Honea
54 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
serving LINCOLN/COPIAH/FRANKLIN/LAWRENCE COUNTIES
JAN./FEB. 2018
BROOKHAVEN
MAGAZINE
A WINTER WONDERLAND FOOD
HISTORY
‘MY DEAREST JENNY’
Nurse is a ‘souper’ cook
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 1
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garden JULY/AUGUST 18
Butterfly-attracting plants that everyone can grow By Gary. R. Bachman
L
ike most gardeners, I love watching the various butterflies that visit my garden. One I really like is the giant swallowtail, with its black body and vivid, yellow stripes. This creature loves my citrus, where she lays her eggs. The developing caterpillars have a unique defense mechanism; they look like bird poop on the citrus leaves. Now, I know that not everyone grows citrus trees, so here are some of my favorite butterfly-attracting plants that everyone can grow. Besides providing great color for us to enjoy, pentas are garden magnets for butterflies and hummingbirds because they are rich sources of nectar. These plants are great at tolerating the heat and humidity of our Mississippi summers. Penta gets its name from the Latin word for “five,” since each small flower has five petals. In fact, the star-like reference is fitting as one common name for pentas is Egyptian Star Cluster. The blooms are produced in clusters of these five-petal flowers from spring until frost in the fall. It’s common for each penta plant to have up to 20 clusters of flowers at any given time, and the butterflies certainly enjoy the feast. A native plant you should consider for your landscape is butterfly weed, known scientifically as Asclepias tuberosa. It was chosen as Mississippi Medallion winners in 2012. Butterfly weed, also commonly called milkweed, is low maintenance, attracts a lot of butterflies and is deer resistant. In middle to late summer, butterfly weed lives up to its name as a butterfly magnet. It is the primary food source for Monarch caterpillars. If you want a butterfly weed that blooms all summer long, then consider the tropical milkweed, Asclepias
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Pentas are beautiful flowers that bloom from spring to frost and attract butterflies, such as this swallowtail. (Photo by MSU Extension/Gary Bachman)
currassavica. Many garden centers carry this plant. I like it because it provides abundant forage for the caterpillars before the native milkweed kicks in. Butterfly bush, or Buddleia, has flowers composed of sweetly fragrant panicles of tiny blooms in various shades of white, blue, purple, pink, red and even yellow. The flowers are displayed on arching graceful stems. Butterflies, bees and hummingbirds love these flowers. Plant butterfly bush in full sun for best flowering, as shade reduces flowering and the plant becomes thin and leggy. Butterfly bush tolerates just about any soil type as long as it’s well drained. Treat butterfly bush like a flowering perennial. When new shoots start to
appear in the spring, prune last year’s growth back to about 6 inches from the ground. This trim encourages new growth, and the flowers are produced on new wood. Deadhead to help side shoots develop larger flower heads. These plants I’ve discussed are currently performing great in my garden. There are lots of flowering plants that will attract butterflies and other pollinators to your garden, so get out to your favorite garden center and bring home a selection that will attract butterflies to your home garden. Bachman is an Extension/Research Professor with Mississippi State University.
voices JULY/AUGUST 18
B
Why I love Brookhaven
rookhaven was an opportunity for me. I worked as a training team member for Woodforest National Bank in North Carolina and had a training assignment that was supposed to last for eight weeks in Mississippi, but I took advantage of an opportunity to stay here in Brookhaven and made the most of it in 2009. Working at Woodforest National Bank here in Brookhaven has given me several opportunities to give back to the community by participating in community events such as the Ole Brook Festival, Habitat for Humanity events, as well as volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club. Brookhaven is truly the Home Seekers Paradise and I enjoy the small town feeling after living in such a large city for so many years. There are very unique people here in Brookhaven who have really given Woodforest National Bank a chance which is one of the reasons why I am still here in Brookhaven. In my spare time, I enjoy retail therapy in the small boutiques around Brookhaven, taking road trips to the beach, as well as spending time with my husband and daughter. Brookahven has really grown in the last eight years from when I first moved here, which allows for me and my family to stay local so that we can shop, dine and live here. I am looking forward to the continued growth in the area so that I can have more reasons to love Brookhaven. Porchea Brown is assistant vice president – retail at Woodforest National Bank.
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 57
voices JULY/AUGUSTE 18
Spittin’ in the wind
I
was not angry. I was not surprised, either. Hell, I was impressed. Back when I was a teenager trying out tobacco for the first time, all I could stand were the prepackaged dips in the little teabags, the ones that kept the grinds from getting all in your mouth. “Bandits,” as they’re called, are not manly. I did not let the real country boys in Alabama see me spurtin’ with a Bandit in my jaw. I dipped alone. But when I flipped up my 15-yearold son Timothy’s mattress a few weeks back, lined up there on the box springs, in the worst hiding spot in the history of adolescence, were five cans of Copenhagen Straight Long Cut. The red label, a man’s tobacco. That’s my boy, y’all. I know, I should not be proud. I should lecture him about the dangers of tobacco (I did) and the betrayal of the trust and privacy I allow him (I did), and I should confiscate the cans (I did) and throw them away (I did. Well, technically, they’re still on the backseat of my truck, if anyone wants them. Two are unopened). But I don’t see this as a throw-outthe-boy-and-start-over situation, for a few reasons. One, I got plenty more boys, and I don’t want another one. Two, I expected a little spurtin’ out of Timothy, and had pretty much busted him before. Earlier this year, I was hauling a load on my 16-foot trailer and let Timothy and a friend of his ride on the back for the short drive. I glanced in the sideview mirror and saw the friend lean over the trailer rail and turn loose a two-foot spurt of dip spit, like he was dangling a brown snake from his teeth. “I think they’re dippin’ back there,” I said to Granny, who was riding shotgun. “I’ve been wonderin’ about that,” Granny said, not surprised. She’s raised a dipper in her day, too. I didn’t catch them red-handed,
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because Timothy’s younger cousin, who was riding in the backseat, sent the older boys a text message to warn them. His name is Blaine, and one day I’m gonna get his butt, too. Just a few weeks ago, I walked out to my truck in the morning and noticed what was obviously spit stains streaking down the driver’s side doors, like someone had crashed through a pyramid of Aunt Jemima bottles. Timothy drives my truck to Granny’s and back nearly every day, so it wasn’t too hard to figure out where those wandering lines of spurt came from. “Timothy, you been dippin’?” I confronted him. “No,” he said. Of course not. “Then who’s been spittin’ dip out the window of my truck?” I asked. “Wasn’t me,” he said. Of course not. “I happen to know what it looks like when you spurt out the window into a 50 mile-per-hour wind,” I told him. “You ain’t as slick as you think you are.” I’ve been parenting for nearly 10 years, and I still can’t figure out why teenagers think they can get away with things, with anything. Was I that careless in my day? Parenting, so far, has been one long sting operation. I should put in a resume with the sheriff’s office. Three, I couldn’t really be jacked-up mad at the dip discovery because, in a way, it’s my fault. As stepdad, I’ve got a hero factor (he would never admit it) that lets me be cool in ways biological dads just can’t be. And I played too loosely with it by smoking cigarettes all those years. I started smoking, coincidentally, when I was 15. It was the hardest teenage year — you’re old enough to be cool, just not old enough to get where cool is. For me, it was
the summer of boredom, and I coped by taking up Marlboros, and didn’t put them down until I was 28 years old. I smoked all around Timothy, all over him, when he was young. It is one of my great failures. I haven’t had a smoke in seven years now, and I still want one so bad that if I had a pack of cigarettes today, I’d pour them in a bowl with some milk and eat them. Four, and this reason is important, is because Timothy’s dipping is part of the territory. He has been raised a country boy. He’s spent most of the summer helping a friend’s grandparents put up a USDA fence. He bought a $200 pair of cowboy boots with his own cash. He swims in mud holes. He spends more time with a rifle in his hands than a TV remote. His mother, farm-raised, delights in these qualities. But — and I tried to tell her this — you can’t go down this path of bloody knuckles and fishhooks without a can of dip showing up somewhere. Charlie Daniels’ long-haired country boy was stoned in the morning and drunk in the afternoon. My long-haired country boy sneaks in a spurt every now and then. I reckon I’ll take that. Anyway, we had “the talk.” He apologized for making his mother cry and acknowledged the dangers of tobacco use (sort of). Then, since everything was out in the open, he laid out an economic argument, citing the costs of dip, and asked if we’d give him back his Copenhagen. That’s my boy, y’all.
Adam Northam is managing editor of The Daily Leader and Brookhaven Magazine.
BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE 59
Life Is Hectic
Banking Shouldn’t Be! While the weather may be heating up, you can stay cool knowing that your financial life is in experienced, professional hands.
BANK BROOKHAVEN It’s All About YOU! OF
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60 BROOKHAVEN MAGAZINE
EQUAL HOUSING
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Proverbs 4:11