Truck Stop Family = Chism

I was born into a truck stop family in Shannon, Mississippi. My mom and dad, Dot and Brit Chism ran truck stops on Highway 78 in Tupelo, Highway 45 in Shannon, and the last one was in Picayune, on Interstate 59. Does anyone remember these places, or have old photos? Uncles on the Chism side of the family owned truck stops in Olive Branch, MS. and another near Ozark, Alabama. Any old photos would be appreciated. bstrchiz@gmail.com

Thanks! and "...ya'll come back!"

 

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

 

"...a wealthy soul." I don't have any pictures anymore either, except in my head. I thought it might be enlightening to look at it again through the eyes of age, perhaps not. An instructor I once had in a creative writing class told us how to create characters: for a woman dump out her purse, describe the items you find there; for a man, open his wallet and go through it, or what is in his suitcase as he travels? Mine would have been a sea bag because I worked awhile in the Merchant Marines out in the Gulf.

Back in the truck stop years I once got my butt blistered by my mom for doing just that. I was six years old and she had come, after working the night shift, to get the rugrats for school. I decided to dump her purse on the floorboard cos I was a curious child. There was a revolver, a .22 I think, a bottle of gin, a tiny little green bottle of Tips Breath Freshener, a compact with a mirror and face powder, a tube of lip stick, and a little pack of Kleenex which truck stop ladies used to blot their lips after they put on makeup and rouged their cheeks. I still have a hypnotic dream of a white kleenex with the outline of lips, floating on a breeze! I think Patsy Cline, or Loretta Lynn would have been on the am radio... or maybe it was a juke box.

See...? That instructor's exercise in creative writing worked. Don't get me started on hardworking hands and manicures with red nail polish; that leads to counting things, like change from cigarette machines, pinball, side work ... etc.

"Cloquet hated reality but she realized it was the only place to get a good steak." So was the truck stop at two a.m. with fries and coffee.

"Ya'll come back now."

 

jbatmick, do you remember Cooter and Dickie...? They worked with Doyle and Norma at the truck stop in Centerville? The place isn't there anymore. I found it on a gov't "toxic brownfield site" because of some corroded underground tanks which were leaking petroleum...