Jackie Chappell New is now seventy years old; the other
delightful news flash is that she chose to celebrate this memorable occasion
with friends she has known for years. We spent much of the time
playing “remember when” because it is entertainment that always
includes surprising statements about the past and an amusement that is
never played the same way twice. It is interesting that even though we had the
pictures of various events that we enjoyed as youngsters, our versions of the
happenings were sometimes quite different.
I have written about Cynthia Ladd Taylor in previous columns; I
did not mention that she only lived in Richland for a few short years but we
have never forgotten her. Her family became active members at the First United
Methodist Church; her dad led the singing and her mom played the piano. Her
mother, Ann Osborne Ladd was an only child so her parents visited frequently
driving down from Clendenin, West Virginia. In fact, her Meme and Papa finally
purchased a home across the street from Ms. Mae Lee and spent countless summer
months there in Richland.
Jackie, on the other hand, was the second daughter born to Jack
and Grace Chappell; his family had always resided in the Richland area. Her dad
owned the Plymouth/Desoto dealership, was a gentleman farmer, local politician,
and an entrepreneur who built the Kay Lynn Kourt, the local motel which became a
famous landmark for tourists traveling to Florida for the summer season.
When he built a swimming pool in front of the motel, we were
invited to congregate there where we swam, raced in the water, and sunbathed. It
soon became the place to be in the summer, and of course the boys circled the
area waving and blowing the car-horns. We also frequented the pool owned by the
American Legion and migrated back and forth according to where the crowd had
gathered. Our summer months are legendary and the kind of memory that causes us
to smile.
Jackie has a treasure-trove of albums and scrapbooks; we spent
hours studying the photos and sharing information about our classmates of
yesteryear. Jackie’s mother, Ms. Grace Chappell enjoyed scrapbooking before it
became a popular hobby and we are appreciative that she encouraged Jackie to
keep all the tickets, bulletins and newspaper articles that now authenticate our
childhood to early adulthood.
Jackie and Reid New have been married for fifty three years and
reside in a beautiful home in the suburbs of Macon, Georgia. They have
traveled the world and are both now retired, Reid from the pharmaceutical
industry and Jackie as a registered nurse. They are the ultimate hosts and
treated us ladies and John to delicious food
during our visit.
A weekend was not long enough for us to visit all the aspects of
our years together but we managed to pack so much merriment into those precious
hours that we were exhausted by the time we hugged each other and said our long
goodbye.