Wedding on Wheels

Bud Bohannon and Lawrence Browning (late 1930s)

I’m in TICH’s computer lab, connected to the internet with my laptop, getting lots of work done, emailing supporters of TICH about various matters. It’s rare to get on the internet at school because they only dial in for an hour in the morning and afternoon. But today, for some reason, we remain connected throughout the morning. So once I’ve finished “work,” I cruise over to my uncle’s web site, to see what’s new. His name is Richard Bohannon, brother to my mother, and he tracks the Bohannon family history. Clicking on the genealogy page, I find a little treasure at the bottom. Richard has posted a transcript of a taped conversation me, my mother and my grandmother had in 1991. I had given the transcript to family members as a Christmas present that year.

During the conversation, Grandma talked about growing up in South Georgia. Her father was a farmer and her mother was a school teacher. She told us:

"Papa went to town maybe twice a year and bought flour, sugar, tea, salt. Stuff like that. The rest of the stuff we already had. Anything else we'd need, we'd borrow it from a neighbor."

"We always had plenty to eat. Back then you thought the place was big, just one mule to the plow. Get out there, make a garden and you thought you were doing something big and it wasn't a big square, as from here to the highway out there. Whatever we made, we sold, like tobacco. It was hard times. But we had Papa making money off of cutting timber and then sawing lumber and selling it. Other people didn't have that, they just had what little bit they made out of cotton, tobacco and stuff they growed. And people who belonged to the Church of God, which you've heard called Holiness Church; they didn't work in tobacco so they didn't have nothing. Just cotton, stuff like that."

"What gators there was, Papa and them would catch 'em while they were working in the woods. You'd cut the tail off up to the body, put it in a wash pot and cook it. All them men that was working together, would bring them a pot or something, or Mama'd get 'em up something, and fill it full of gator and they'd carry it home with them and eat it. Prettiest pink meat. Threw the rest of the gator away. Back then you wouldn't save the hide like you would now. Some of 'em 'bout six feet long. Big thangs."

Grandma even told us about how she and my grandfather, Bud, were married. It seems my great-Grandmother, Tressie Hyacinth, was a bit strict with grandma, so they decided to marry without telling anyone. On Friday, December 22, 1938, while her parents were at a Christmas play at Crossroads Church, Grandma got in a car with Bud and his sister Evelyn (nicknamed Ed) and her husband Lawrence (the photo above is Bud and Lawrence in a local Hazelhurst "bar.") With Aunt Ed and Lawrence in the front seat, they drove over to Mr. Walter F. Hinson's home, at the corner of Church Street and Cromartie in Hazelhurst, Georiga, and stopped in the road at his front door. As Ordinary of Jeff Davis County, Mr. Hinson stood in the open door of the back seat and married Bud and Janet.

"He was very nice," says Grandma. "Just like we were getting married in his home. But I think they had company and that's why he came out to the car and married us. It was quick and we were just as married as anybody else."

Grandma told us so much about rural life, like washing clothes and children in washtubs and eating sugar made from homegrown sugar cane. To read the full interview, visit Richard’s site at www.richardbohannon.com and navigate to the geneaology page. Richard also paints, so check out his artwork. Since I’m mentioning websites, I must include a blog written by my cousin, Rick Bohannon, and a few of his friends, called www.aFewVoices.blogspot.com. It’s a site dedicated to discussing current ethical and ecological issues from a Christian perspective. Rick is young and brilliant (like his sister, Sonua) and working on his Ph.D. in theology and ecology. He’s also green, as are his thoughtful friends and co-writers (and he’s listed this blog as a “Friendly Blog” on his site! Thanks, Rick! I Love you and miss you!).