This ‘N That

For those of you who missed the catfish dinner at the Hillsboro Community Center this past Saturday, well, you missed a delicious meal. According to locals, it is an annual fund raising event, so don’t miss it in the future.

Hillsboro Community Center is the former Ben Hill School built in 1915. While chowing down on that delicious catfish, cole slaw, creamy grits, hush puppies and peach cobbler, I met a graduate from the Ben Hill school. She had attended there until the eighth grade and then “had to transfer to the big city school, Monticello High School. I was scared to death.”

In 1864, Hillsborough, as it was spelled back then, unfortunately, was in direct path of the Right Wing of General Sherman’s Army on its way to Monticello after crossing the Ocmulgee River at Seven Islands, a shallow area of the river. Sherman using the 1860 United States census and knowing that middle Georgia held the greatest wealth and bountiful plantations used this knowledge to keep his troops and animals fed and to also destroy the heart of the Confederacy. As we followed the railroad track North to Monticello, we were probably driving along the route that the Union Army used.

Back in Monticello, the Square was full of teenage girls in frilly frocks and handsome guys smiling for the cameras as friends and family immortalized them in Jasper County High School pre-prom pictures. Music coming from the cars parked around the Square added to the festivities. Although in years to come memories may fade, but those pictures will be around forever and someday their children will see them and ask, “What were you wearing, Mama?”

Remember to get out your good luck charms, because tomorrow is our first of two Friday the 13th in 2018. On the other hand, we luckily have one extra day to get those income taxes finished and mailed by midnight on the 17th. Good Luck!