As a boy in the late 1960s, photographer and Better South President Andy Brack visited this building a few times a year because his father, Elliott Brack, published “The Montgomery Monitor” every week.
“I’d go with Dad as he made his weekly rounds to get the news to fill up this small paper,” Brack remembers. “There was a nice older lady who worked there every day who would watch me for awhile. On a lot of visits, I’d go across the street and get a haircut that would have passed any military inspection.
“It was fun riding to and from Mount Vernon and seeing all of the different scenes between there and our home in Jesup, some 75 miles to the south. More than anything, those trips outside of Jesup contributed to a lifelong love of open, rural landscapes, like those found throughout the Southern Crescent, and the love of just traveling to see different things.”
These days, Montgomery County and the area around Mount Vernon seem strapped, but interestingly, the population is about 50 percent bigger than it was in the late 1960s when Brack visited. In 2012, the estimated population was just under 9,000 — some 3,000 more people than in the 1970 Census. More.
Some 21.6 percent of people in the county live at or below the federal poverty level.
Photo by Andy Brack, May 2013. All rights reserved.