Shelling peas with teary eyes

Published 12:50 pm Wednesday, July 30, 2025

By Donna Traywick

Mt. Olivet News

I have the most wonderful neighbors. Last week Dwayne and Jamie Ales from the Terza community got out in this July heat and picked pink-eyed purple hull peas. Shortly after I got a call from Dwayne and some peas.

The gift of peas was somewhat bittersweet. Last year, about this time, Lonnie Ales (Dwayne and Jamie’s dad) made the same call. That visit from Lonnie and Dwayne brought back many good memories about Black Jack and school. The next morning while driving to regular morning exercise someone came off the interstate the wrong way and killed him. I shelled my peas and cried.

This year, I shelled my peas and thought of the wonderful memories I will always have.

Lonnie went to Black Jack school as did my husband, George. He was a very good baseball player. After the school was consolidated into Batesville, Black Jack still had a community baseball team.

Every Sunday, as if they were going to a big league game, the community came out to watch the Black Jack baseball team.

Last Sunday’s 199th homecoming at Black Jack brought new faces and old memories. My column about the church was copied in the church bulletin this week and I hope it was educational for the new ones and good memories for the rest of us.

Jean Smith played the piano and I played the organ. I am proud my daughter LaDonna is back home and back at Black Jack church. We have three generations of elders from the Traywick family there – me, George Thomas, and LaDonna.

The Black Jack cookbook, made when she was a teenager, reads like a novel. So many of the dear ones have gone on. There are mouth-watering recipes at the church now just as there was then.

At the homecoming this year, there was not one small place to squeeze another dish of food.

Everyone still has time to get to the last night of revival. Rev. Jerry Long from Batesville Presbyterian is the guest minister. It starts at 7 p.m. tonight with an ice cream social to follow. Rev. Craig Warren is the current pastor.

Here is an interesting fact about the church cemetery. There are 20 Confederate soldiers buried there and names are listed in the history of the church and the Panola County history book at the library.

Another interesting fact – during their missions to the Indians, Black Jack church knew the great Chief Ishtohoto-hotopha.

That is where the local name Hotopha (or Hotophia) comes from. It is the creek that runs behind Mt. Olivet Church on Hwy. 315. It is a strong creek that runs into the Tallahatchie River and then into the Mississippi River.

Ponder this: If anyone would not work, neither should they eat. (II Thessalonians)

Reach Donna at donnatraywickmusic@gmail.com