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!