The Belles of St Marys

Location: St Marys, GA
Position: N30 43.174 W081 32.845

We just spent two lovely days in the old town of St Marys, Georgia (http://www.stmaryswelcome.com). What a delightful town. The historic waterfront downtown area is quite old. Just across the river is Florida – we’re almost there.

We began collecting “belles” here. Our first was a lady handing out clues for a scavenger hunt - kids were looking for a Yule log worth $100! She had the “most chahmin’” Georgia accent; we could have listened to her all day. We chatted with her for a few minutes – she was very helpful and friendly.

Our next three “belles” had stalls at the local farmers market. There was no grocery store close to downtown so we eagerly reprovisioned from the few stalls. Following more chit-chat, we bought local squash and a pomelo ( a huge citrus fruit, we’ve never tried before ), fresh shrimp, and some local honey.

Some of the townspeople had organized a fun Christmas celebration in the riverside park which was scheduled for our first afternoon and evening. Everything was free: visits with Santa, games with prizes, food and drinks, art projects, a balloon clown, and in the evening a movie. The stage was decorated and we enjoyed local groups, a children’s hand bell choir, and choirs from small children to old folk. It was all organized by volunteers and supported by donations from local people and businesses.

We got to chatting with our fifth belle, a 75 year old lady, Marsha, who sang with the community singers named ‘Cumberland Sound’, a clever name which links the singers with the body of water we had just crossed. We asked her if there were any other Christmas programs in town and she said “Why would you want to go hear anyone else? We’re the best.” So, of course, we stuck around to hear them sing. They were, indeed, very good.

Later in the day as we were walking back to Rachel, a Jaguar pulled up next to us. Marsha jumped out and asked “Do you want a tour of the town?” So in we bundled and she drove and chatted around the whole area, including the nearby nuclear submarine base where she works part-time. She said if we ever stop back by we should bring our drivers licenses and she’ll arrange a tour of a submarine for us!!

After we’d eaten dinner we decided to go for another walk around town to look at the Christmas lights. As we passed the park the locals were taking down the decorations from the afternoon so we stopped and helped. It was the least we could do after enjoying the festivities. We made friends with the Santa and his wife (our sixth belle) named Sydney and Rindy (say that 10 times fast!). We spent a companionable evening in the park chatting together about St. Mary’s (Sydney grew up there), kids (we all have our war stories), and solving the problems of today’s society.

Day two was mainly spent just wandering around, doing laundry and taking it easy. We collected our seventh belle in the Visitors Center (another hour or so chat session) followed by a visit on Rachel from Rindy and Sydney. They brought us a couple of bags of fresh cumquats from their tree ‘out back’. They’d never been on a sailboat before and really seemed to enjoy seeing how we live.

We were very impressed by the strong sense of community at St. Mary’s. As we wandered the park we chatted with kids and their parents – we were met with none of the suspicion of strangers that seems so common these days. Volunteers in town have also organized a “Wounded Warrior’s Day” parade that takes place the day before Veterans Day “because there wasn’t a special day to honor all who have been wounded in defense of our country”. They also started a “Cruisers Thanksgiving” feast, turkey, ham etc provided free, cruisers just bring a side dish to share. It started out with about 10 visitors a few years ago, and has grown to 300 this last Thanksgiving. There are many other examples of how this small community has worked very hard to create and maintain its small town feel, and we are very appreciative of their efforts. It really warmed us and helped bring out more of the Christmas spirit in us both.

Wishing you all a small town Christmas,

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel