It’s hard for some of us to imagine a St. Simons Island where the only “restaurant” was the counter at the drugstore and there was ferris wheel in the Village, but that’s what it was like growing up in the 1940s and 50s here. Billie Huggins remembers those days well…and fondly. “It was a simple time. When the “big thing” was going to a movie at the Casino on the weekend. You could go anywhere and do most anything and nobody worried about anything happening to you…but you’d better not be late coming home or you could be grounded!”
St Simons Village with Ferris Wheel 1950
Billie was born at Fort Pierce and her father was in the first group of men that came over with the Coast Guard. Their house on East Beach was built in the late 40s and her father died only 6 months later. In 1949, Billie’s mother, Theresa Berrie McWilliams, decided to take the civil service exam to be the Rural Mail Carrier on the island. Despite the fact the men said a woman could not be a mail carrier, Billie shares proudly that her mother scored the second highest on the Civil Service Exam, got the job and became well known on SSI as the “mail lady.” At that time, Billie recalls, “there were two other ladies in the Post Office: Mary Gould Everett, Post Mistress and Frances Postell Burns. All three ladies had a very long history here.”
Billie Huggins High School Graduation
A graduate of Glynn Academy, Billie moved away in the 60s but returned frequently to see her mother and then came back permanently in 2005.
“Gosh, how time flies! All the activity took place at the Village,” Billie says. She sets the scene by describing the businesses that made up the Village back in the late 40s. “I remember in 1948, Mallery Street consisted of my grandfather's business, Berries Batteries and Pep Co. Gas, along with St. Simons Drug, owned by Bill and Ruth Backus, Community Supermarket, owned by Al and Jewel Brown (whose daughter Jean was my good friend), O'Quinn's, and later, Altman's Dress Shop. At the other end, was Rexall Drug, owned by Susan Hartman’s parents, Catherine and Carlisle Ward, Palmer's 5 and 10 Store, owned by Gene Palmer, and of course JC Strother Hardware. Roberta’s was also there, and at one time Sadye’s, as well as Taylor’s Camera Shop, and Greer’s Beauty Salon. Men didn’t dare go in there for haircuts!” Billie had a job at Altman’s to earn money for clothes for college, as she said most high school girls got jobs in the Village shops during the summer to earn money while the boys lifeguarded.
As for entertainment, Billie says, “Of course the two big attractions were the Casino, which had the movie theater, and then the “New Casino” which had a soda fountain, dance floor, bowling alley, skating rink and huge swimming pool. That’s where all the young people would meet and hang out. We loved going to the matinees at the Casino on Saturdays; however, Mrs. McKendrie would really keep us in line if we were caught talking during the movie!”
Billie says the Village was always a happening place and in the summer there were snow cones, cotton candy and hotdogs for sale too. “The big thing was to meet at one of the drug stores for a hamburger and coke for 25 cents, then we would all head over to the Casino or the grounds and take in the sights!” A highlight for Billie was when, before becoming the island mail carrier, her mother worked as the first assistant manager at the “New Casino.” She says, “I thought that was the most wonderful job ever because I could go on the ferris wheel and all the amusement rides and use the swimming pool free!”
Because in the mid-50s none of the kids really had cars to drive, except for occasionally being able to borrow their parents’ cars, the island seemed a much bigger place. Billie says, “I remember my parents building our house in 1948 and we had been renting near the Village. When moving day came, I cried because I was afraid no one would ever come to see me living so far away on East Beach!” It wasn’t a terrible inconvenience though, Billie remembers, “On Saturdays, I had no way to get to the Village but walk, so I would time it so that when I started walking either Mrs. Backus or Mrs. Ward would be going back to their stores and would stop and give me a ride.”
Billie did have a friend who had moved to the island from Chicago, “a Yankee with a ‘48 Chrysler Convertible,” and she would occasionally come pick Billie up. Billie recalls, “Whenever that happened, my mother just knew we would be in a wreck! What’s funny is that this same friend later drove my mother and me to the hospital in Miami when her first grandchild was born because my husband was on a flight!”
Billie remembers the drive-in theatre and the Wayside Grill, and she smiles as she recounts hearing “Rock Around the Clock” and that new rock-and-roll sound for the first time at The Ritz. “Wow!” She and her friends spied on the stars of View from Pompey's Head while they dined at The King and Prince Hotel during their stay here while filming.
Billie Huggins today
While Billie moved away in the 60s, residing in places like South Florida and Park City Utah, she says there’s nothing like our island. “I’ve lived in some wonderful places, but I always came back, as have so many other people from the island then. Even though Thomas Wolfe said ‘You can’t go home,’ returning to St. Simons Island after growing up here and then living other places, felt like home to me.”
