August 8th Bay Saint Louis, MS to Brewton, AL

August 8th Brewton, AL

SEEING THE RELATIVES

We woke up from the rest stop welcome center and finally got hold of the RV people. After all that they just told us to ride down the road to the nearest gas station and put air in the tire so that's what we did and it worked! It's been holding air ever since.

We drove a couple hours to Brewton, Alabama. Brewton is where Phil's dad grew up and many of his relatives still live. Phil called his Uncle Jack and after we took showers in the Walmart parking lot(well in the RV not actually out in the parking lot!) We headed on over to see Uncle Jack and his wife Kathleen. We first stopped by his dad'sold high school. It's not actually the same building as when he attended but the memories were there!

We spent about an hour in their living room catching up. Phil's dad Luther was one of 11 boys! 4 died early in their first days but there was 7 who survived, fought in the war, married, had kids-all that good stuff. Kathleen suggested that they take us for a tour and it was just awesome. We got in their car and set off. Jack was just thrilled that we were there and was so happy to share all the stories and history with us. We saw the church where Phil's grandparents attended as well as the property and house his dad and the brothers grew up in. Jack and Kathleen also took us to the cemetary where many generations of Peevy's are buried. Phil's great grandfather was a confederate soldier!

An interesting fact to learn was that even though they were all from the same family, part of the family spelled their name differently -Peavy. I had thought it was too much of a coincidence that there were 2 different spellings Peevy and Peavy in the same small cemetary. I'm not sure how it happened but Phil's grandfather and some of the siblings spelled it one way and some of the other siblings spelled it a different way. Now how does that happen? Also,the great grandfather the confederate soldier had his named spelled completely different from that-Pavey, but Uncle Jack said the army had just gotten it wrong.

Uncle Jack did a great job of pointing at the headstones and telling us who was who. I took lots of pictures and asked him if I could send them to him so he could identify again who was who and what relationship they were. He was so happy about that idea. Alan, Paul, Sherri and Kathy-we will share all the pictures with you when we get home.

An interesting sidenote is that he thinks that Phil is probably related to Jake Peavy-the MLB pitcher who is from Mobile, AL. We may have a sports star in the family. That is of course aside of all the Peevy sports stars we currently know about among Scott, Colin, Kayla, Michael, Courtney, Meg, Nick and Michelle!

Uncle Jack and Kathleen drove us all over town and showed us everything. We stopped by Uncle Lyman's house but they weren't home. We then went by Uncle Leonard's house. When Phil's Aunt Lucille opened the door she looked at him and said-"Well hello Philip". She hadan't seen him in a number of years so that was so funny!

We visited with Leonard and Lucille. She called her daughter Debra (Phil's cousin) and she came over with her 17 year old daughter Mallory to see us. She then got Phil's cousin Carl Ray on the phone and Phil was able to talk to him.

Uncle Jack reminded me a little of my own dad-just the way he dressed and the easy way he talked but no mistaking-The Peevy genes run deep. You can spot them all from a mile away. They all look alike!

Uncle Jack and Kathleen drove us back to their house. We left Lucille's with a bag of fresh from the garden vegetables. We were able to show them the inside of the RV and then around 6:30 we headed out. It was a wonderful day and it was so nice of them to spend their whole day showing us around and visiting with us at such short notice. Uncle Jack said their anniversary was Sunday and his birthday was Monday and that our visit was the best birthday present he could ever have. It was very special. We'd like to bring our own kids back here sometime so they can see their family history. Just such nice nice people.

We were next heading for Pensacola Beach,FL. When we got there it was so crowded that we could find nowhere to stay so we went down the road a little further and found a good ole Walmart. Just what we needed-a free safe place to sleep for the night- because we were exhausted! Tomorrow I want to see the Gulf of Mexico!

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