Georgia Magazine - May 2017 - 32

When Saturday nights were really live
BY FRANK NESMITH

ome of my favorite memories are of growing up on a
small farm in Evans County
during the 1940s and '50s. It
was a simpler time, before
technological advances brought
forth so much complexity.
I especially remember our
shopping trips to our little town
of Claxton. As modern vehicle
travel became available, farm
families in the Southern states
began a tradition of shopping
on Saturday afternoons. Merchants in small Southern towns Frank NeSmith, shown today at top and at right when he was
responded by extending their a fifth-grader in 1952-53, grew up on a farm in Evans County
retail hours.
and looked forward to weekly trips to Claxton. Above, he and his mother (on bumper), Mazell, and
It was during the heyday of sisters, Linda (left) and Carolyn, pose for a photo in the mid-1950s. In the foreground is G.I., a dog left
small farms and sharecropping, at the family's farm by World War II-era soldiers who had been practicing with aerial radar and spotand towns would bustle with lights during extended training maneuvers in the area. Many had dogs that they left at nearby farms
activity until the stores closed when they shipped overseas. G.I. "was very dear to us over his long life," NeSmith says.
late that night. Many townspeople also turned out and took part in streets or in the stores. I remember ping and visiting ended, we would
the weekly festivities. Hank Williams having to walk out onto the edge of a always stop by the county freezer
Sr., a popular country music singer street at times to get around the visit- locker to pick up our meat supply for
the next week. Conversations continback then, even sang about "going to ing groups blocking the sidewalk.
During the summertime, those of ued even there. Our farm life would
town on Saturday!"
On Saturdays we would do farm us who were of school age had the not have been quite the same without
work and chores until noon. Then, additional advantage of visiting with those necessary and enjoyable trips
after a bath and dinner, we would our more-distant schoolmates. It kept to town at the end of each week.
But during the latter part of the
cram into our Jeep and head for Clax- us in touch until school resumed.
After all of the downtown shop- century the breezes of change graduton. Daddy would let my sisters and
ally took away those memorable
me out at Mr. Tos' movie theater for
Saturday afternoons. It was a pleasurwestern movies and color cartoons.
able era that I believe could never
The added enjoyment of air condihappen again in today's technological
tioning in the darkened theater proworld.
vided a comfort that we only dreamed
The last survivor of the old genabout at other times.
eration of the farming community of
Afterward, we would stop by Mr.
my youth passed away recently. EvWombles' bakery for his delicious,
eryone says those people are now in
double-dip, ice-cream cones that cost
a better place. Among other things, I
only a nickel. Then we would usually
believe that means they are once
find Mama and Daddy on a sidewalk
again enjoying those old-timey Saturvisiting with friends and neighbors.
day evenings in town.
Since few rural homes had A young Frank NeSmith (farthest back) and
Frank NeSmith, a Reidsville resiphones back then, most of the local five of his classmates gather in front of an
dent and member of Canoochee Elecnews and happenings were passed old church in Darien in the spring of 1956.
tric Membership Corp., has written a
along during those visits. People During the summer, a highlight of the Saturwould stop and talk with one another day trips to Claxton was the chance to catch column for The Claxton Enterprise
newspaper for 15 years.
wherever they might meet-on the up with classmates who lived far away.
32

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - May 2017