Note: This photograph was made in 2008. By 2011, the store had been razed, as it was in very bad condition.
Bernice Thrower Jones reminisces: You have taken me back to my childhood growing up 2 miles outside of Rebecca. I still remember the ride with a bail of cotton on the wagon pulled by the tractor to Rebecca after picking cotton all week. We were treated to a five cent cup of ice cream with the wooden spoon. There were 12 of us kids and that’s all my father could afford. At that time in my life I had no idea we were poor dirt farmers because everybody else lived the same as we did. We were not allowed in the stores* but we enjoyed the ride to town. *-This is due to the Jim Crow laws of the era.
When I look back, those were really hard times picking cotton in over 100 degree temperatures. Back then it wasn’t a big deal. But now when I go home in that hot weather I feel like I am going to pass out. I moved to Miami, FL in 1967 and I still miss the country living. We just purchased a home in Fitzgerald to retire back home.
Bill Adams wrote: Your pictures are poignant reminders of past times! As a boy I spent summers in Rebecca and Sycamore from the late Thirties through the middle Forties. My uncle in Rebecca had a Sawmill and Cotton Gin, and lived just down from the stores you picture. My Dad(one of twelve children) was from Sycamore so I had a number of relatives to visit there. I remember stocking shelves in my Cousin’s store and hauling cotton from their Cotton Gin to the warehouse with a brace of mules. Pleasant memories!
My family was from Rebecca. In fact my Grandfather, John C. Butler was murdered there on Dec 4, 1940 out by the Double Creek Bridge. He was a sharecropper on the Guy Maddox place. He had been at the pool hall that night and got into an argument. The man who was a sharecropper as well followed him and killed him
If you know of this event or my grandfather, please contact me.
The store, as it is in this picture doesn’t exist anymore. All that is left standing is the outer walls. As a matter of fact, I don’t think there’s a proper door on the building either.
You have taken me back to my childhood growing up 2 miles outside of Rebecca. I still remember the ride with a bail of cotton on the wagon pulled by the tractor to Rebecca after picking cotton all week. We were treated to a five cent cup of ice cream with the wooden spoon. There were 12 of us kids and that’s all my father could afford. At that time in my life I had no idea we were poor dirt farmers because everybody else lived the same as we did. We were not allowed in the stores but we enjoyed the ride to town.
When I look back, those were really hard times picking cotton in over 100 degree temperatures. Back then it wasn’t a big deal. But now when I go home in that hot weather I feel like I am going to pass out.
I moved to Miami, FL in 1967 and I still miss the country living. We just purchased a home in Fitzgerald to retire back home.
Thank you so very much for reserving our history. I didn’t see a picture of the cotton gin, I guess they tore it down. The cotton gin was the heart of Rebecca when I was a child. Once again Thank you so very much for what you have done.
Thanks for sharing your memories Bill! As I tell others who occasionally comment, this is what I really hope for with this site…I’ve always loved it out around Rebecca, and it still seems like a hundred years ago when I’m in that area. If you don’t mind me asking, what was the name of the sawmill/cotton gin? My curiosity is always getting the better of me. There are still a few of those old stores standing there across from the railroad tracks, in a state of disrepair of course. It’s really such a neat place, and again, thanks for sharing your memories with me. Those were definitely different times. If you wish, you may email me at wbrianbrown@gmail.com, and we can have a dialogue if you prefer; I can send you some other pictures of Rebecca and environs as well.
Your pictures are poignant reminders of past times! As a boy I spent summers in Rebecca and Sycamore from the late Thirties through the middle Forties. My uncle in Rebecca had a Sawmill and Cotton Gin, and lived just down from the stores you picture. My Dad(one of twelve children) was from Sycamore so I had a number of relatives to visit there. I remember stocking shelves in my Cousin’s store and hauling cotton from their Cotton Gin to the warehouse with a brace of mules. Pleasant memories!