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Barefoot In The Sand: Remembering the Waning Days of the Hopewell Community (1998) Bruce C. Gragg 40/123

of the streamlined designs of the 1980’s and 90's or some of the
vintage classics designed by engineers earlier. During his again
single years he had a Packard Convertible (c. 39 or 40) . It was a
sharp looking car. He was always a very meticulous dresser. Once when
he first began dating Callie Belle Rhoden he changed trousers about
four times, none looked just right. (The dresser mirror he was
looking in had a big crack right through the horizontal middle, that
made his pants appear not to fit 'just right.' Once he and Aunt Nita
were home the same weekend and they were taking pictures in and
around his convertible. While getting out from the back seat the door
was accidentally closed on my hand and fingers, for this I cried for
a while. In the later forties he was home while Uncle Curtis was and
he was changing or rotating the tires on his car and the jack gave
way and the car fell on his arm and hand. We all thought at first he
had been very seriously hurt. A trip to the Dr. proved he had only
very badly bruised it, with no long lasting results. Edwin and Callie
Belle were married and had two daughters Donna and Vickie. He died
after heart surgery in 1976.

Before Aunt Juanita left her job in Moultrie, she visited once and
set us up to shrimp salad. I can still see them peeling a big pan of
boiled shrimp for the salad. The excitement of eating something
different and somewhat exotic, soon turned critical. Everyone but
Burnette and I got very sick, after eating it. Until he died Papa
would not touch a shrimp, really the smell of it would make him get a
sick feeling.

Our main seafood was Mullet, fresh, smoked or salt. I never liked the
salt mullet much, regardless how much it was soaked in water, it
still was too salty for me. The smoked mullet really wasn't too bad,
it did give a variation to the usual taste. We liked to get the fresh
ones, especially when it was about spawning time, when we would get a
bonus, fish row. One of the sickest times of my life was after eating
a big supper mostly of fried roe. We had so much Mullet I had
developed a great dislike for it for many years. We always cleaned
our fish, never letting the fish market do it, especially during the
spawning season. Mama or Burnette would check to make sure the fish
had "yellow roe". If the market dressed them they kept the roe, and
sold it to someone else. When fried it is a very rich food. Now with
all the new rules and regulations it is almost impossible to get
mullet anymore. All the net fishing in the bays is now prohibited,
and mullet being primarily a bay bottom fish their catch has been
almost totally stopped. About one or two times when in season we
would have fresh Oyster stew. With few Oysters, mostly milk and
seasoning, it was good, but later I learned there were other ways to
serve them. For many years I thought that was the only way

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