By Sherry Bath,  Freelancer.

Those pulling off I-16, Exit 143 Northbound know how frustrating the traffic backup is now with all the new construction around the Hyundai Plant. Eugene “Gene” Bath remembers a time far removed, when he grew up in Blitchton.

Blitchton is an unincorporated community located in North Bryan County. Prior to the Hyundai Plant announcement in 2022, it was a very quiet area at the intersection of Highways 280 and 80 with a grocery store, gas station, one restaurant and a couple of other small businesses.

Gene grew up with 12 siblings and two cousins. He describes the sleeping arrangements by quoting the lines“ with a big foot sitting in your face or a cold toenail just scratching your back and the footboard scrubbing your head” from a Little Jimmy Dickens’ 1949 song “A-Sleeping at the Foot of the Bed.”

Bath eventually helped raise a family and retired after 42 years at Union Camp (now International Paper), 11 of those years as a supervisor.

Gene, who never graduated from high school, also maintained a small farm to help provide for his family and at one time owned 50 acres of land in Blitchton.

Gene was married to the love of his life, his childhood sweetheart, the girl next door, Norma Lou Nubern for 67 years. She died earlier this year, two days before Gene’s 89th birthday.

Together they raised four children. Gene also has five grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

A slender man with weathered skin from his years spent working outside, Gene has gentle blue eyes and white hair parted on the left side.

Gene was born in 1934, in Bulloch County, in the middle of the Great Depression. His parents were sharecroppers who moved frequently wherever their work took them, including to various farms in Candler, Bulloch and Bryan counties.

When the children were old enough, they worked in the fields too, with crops like peanuts, peanut hay, cotton, and tobacco.

“All the kids missed the first six weeks of school every year because that was one of the key harvest times for the crops. I remember crying when the school bus would go by, because I would rather be in school than in the fields,” Gene said.

Often when crops came in, the money that the family earned would be used to pay off their debts accrued for groceries or clothing.

“Mr. H. M. Gardner (a local farmer, dairy and grocery store owner) was good to our family. Many times, when Mama would go into his store to buy groceries, he would throw in an extra item or two for free,” said Gene.

Gene reminisced about walking down Olive Branch Road, when it was still dirt. He and his family lived in one of the homes there, owned by the Gardners. “Us kids would walk to church and sometimes a car might stop and pick up the girls. They wouldn’t have room for all of us,” said Gene.

Gene also remembers working at the Gardner dairy farm, where the Parkers in Blitchton is now. When he was 15, he milked cows there every morning before going to school.

“Mr. H. M. helped get me out of being drafted. He talked to ‘somebody’ because Mama needed help with getting the crops out of the fields,” Gene remembered.

“Life was hard. Our mama sacrificed so much for us kids always,” said Gene.

In 1940, Gene’s dad quickly offered two of his cousins a home after their mother was murdered. “Daddy looked at them as two more workers in the field. Those boys didn’t know what they were coming into,” Gene said, shaking his head.

“Daddy told us they were now our brothers and don’t ever tell anybody anything else because we were family.”

When asked how the children felt about adding two more to their already large family, Gene emphatically stated: “We were as brothers, better than anyone. Nobody, and I mean Nobody, ever jumped on a Bath at school. No one!”

Gene has suffered so much in his almost 90 years, from poverty, life-threatening injuries, and considerable family loss. Some people would be bitter.

But Gene continues to keep a positive outlook, clings to his faith, and remains active. He is constantly doing good for others whether cutting grass for neighbors or anonymously donating money.

Gene is generous, dynamic and active. That, by virtue of his mother, Maggie, is in his “genes.”