Papaw February 13, 2025

The Old Man was recently reading through some old family documents that are  preserved in plastic binders. They are truly a treasure. One item he discovered was an item pulled from the bulletin of the Forest Avenue Methodist Church. The item was a tribute to his maternal Grandfather, Thomas Jessie Robinson. 

Thomas Jessie Robinson, who was called “Papaw” by his dozen or so Grandchildren, was probably the wisest and kindest person The Old Man has encountered in his long life. Papaw began his adult life as a teacher and Lay preacher in Choctaw County, which is a heavily wooded area in the Southwest Corner of the state. 

As his family grew, (they had seven children, and more than a dozen grandchildren), Papaw decided to take a more stable job as a railway mail clerk. He moved his family about 100 miles north to Montgomery. The growing family had several homes in Montgomery, but ultimately settled in a stately white house on Park Place, only a block east of Oak Park. 

Papaw’s life in Montgomery was busy. He rode the train to Waycross, Georgia and back twice a week. He was a Lay Minister and Sunday School teacher at Forest Avenue Methodist Church.  

His grandchildren would always remember the house on Park Place fondly. It was a big white frame house with three or four bedrooms to accommodate the growing family. There were always delicious smells from Mamaw’s kitchen, and frequent trips to Oak Park, which at that time boasted a wonderful zoo, complete with monkeys, tigers, and bears. 

The Old Man loved that house, and he remembers it also as the place where his life-long love of books and reading began. Papaw taught all of his grandchildren to read in the summer before they began elementary school. He had compiled a phonics-based primer as his text. He supplemented the primer with selected passages from the works of Mark Twain and Joel Chandler Harris.  Each of his grandchildren began the first grade with the confidence that comes from being able to read. Most also had a life-long love of reading.