Large lives, small town

As I write this Georgia Public Broadcasting blog, it’s a rainy Thursday afternoon in West Georgia. 

About 2 1/2 hours from Midtown Atlanta, I’m enjoying a black coffee ☕️ in Buena Vista, Ga., a long way from the interstate, population 1,585.



We are here doing a GPB video story on the 7-acre compound of mythical Pasaquan, a creation of the otherworldly artist Eddie Owens Martin (1908-1986), also known as “St EOM (OOh-m).



“This place has served as a point of interest for so many Southern artists, musicians and leaders,” said Columbus State Art Professor Michael McFalls, “The Allman Brothers, R.E.M., President and Mrs. Carter have all spent time here looking around.”

More on Eddie Owens Martin in the weeks ahead.



Buena Vista is also the home of the immortal Negro Leagues catcher, slugger Josh Gibson.

Gibson was born here to a sharecropper in 1911. His father struggled to make a living and in 1921, the Gibson family moved to Pittsburgh for a job in the steel mills.

Caption

Luther H. Story

The Gibson footprint is difficult to find; a century has passed since he lived in Buena Vista. The town water tower is emblazoned with “Home of Josh Gibson.”

The Gibson legend has always been a big part of 20th century baseball lore.

“The Black Babe Ruth”



In June, the Cooperstown announcement, all Negro League records will be included as part of Major League Baseball’s official statistics. 

Gibson played for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, he is now MLB’s all-time leader in batting average, slugging percentage, OPS and holds the all-time single-season records in each of those categories.

Buena Vista Mayor Kevin Brown told Columbus television station WBRL, “We have named the Josh Gibson Youth and Family Resource Center here. We’re working on the Josh Gibson park. We’re trying to get a statue on the square, because I want those kids to know that someone like Josh Gibson came from this very small and rural community,”

Buena Vista is the home of Medal of Honor recipient Luther H. Story, killed in the Korean War. 

Like Josh Gibson, the son of a sharecropper, the Story family eventually settled on the property of James Earl Carter Sr., father of Jimmy Carter, in Plains.

It’s astonishing to travel the state and see giant, impactful lives coming from rural tiny towns and hamlets. 

Now back to the mind-numbing interstate and the drive home to Atlanta. 

The back roads of Georgia without chain restaurants, filled with extraordinary lives lived. 

“Yes, I would like the No. 3 meal, Sweet tea, and the chicken wrap, to go please.”