Mexican Food in Potterville Georgia

It’s time you learn a little geography. If you take Highway 128 south out of Reynolds Georgia for a few short miles you will turn right on Tommy Purvis Road. That road will take you right into the heart of Potterville Georgia USA. If you listen you will hear people in the village also talking about Taylor Mill.

Taylor Mill. Potterville. Just for the record they are one in the same.

The village with two names.

And now one Mexican Restaurant. Maybe the best Mexican food you ever put in your mouth.

We ate there tonight. We even got the tee shirt.

Potterville was a mill village that was the result of Bibb Manufacturing Company’s plant that was there for many years. When the mill closed years ago, the village pretty much died with it.

When I was a kid it was a pretty hopping place. The pond at the village was a recreational place for people from all around. There was a beach for sunning and swimming. There was putt-putt golf, snow cones, bingo games and a festival type atmosphere. There was also a boat dock and a lot of water skiing and fishing going on.

The McInvale’s had three stores in Potterville. The names of the stores were not very hard to remember. There was McInvales #1, McInvales #2 and McInvales #3.

Sikes Underwood, who was my wife’s grandfather, also had a store there. That building is now the Mexican Restaurant where we ate tonight.

And my goodness there were some characters that lived there.

I think of people like Steve Peacock. When I played little league baseball he had a man sized fastball. One of my good buddies was hit by that fastball one day and I always backed away from the plate after that when facing him. Years later when we both were adults and he worked for the city of Reynolds I would have the urge to pull over to the side of the road when I saw him driving the city truck down the street. I still backed away when I saw him coming.

There was James Windham. He was the only sixth grade student I ever met who beat up one of our male teachers at recess. He was also the only sixth grade student with a driver’s license. James also liked to chase the girls. He broke up more than a few science classes because he just had a difficult time keeping it in his pants. One of the girls would notice and start screaming and distract the other students from the lesson. James caused me to have a complex for many years.

Brother Stroup preached more than a few funerals for us at Mt. Olive Freewill Baptist Church in Potterville. He liked to be very biblical. He greeted everyone with a holy kiss. I was working a funeral when I was a teenager and I saw the man with the Bible walking up the steps of the church. I thought he wanted to whisper something in my ear so when he got close to my ear and didn't say anything I turned. He kissed me right in the mouth.

Scared the heck out of me. I looked around and saw the crowd that was gathered outside the church staring at me. I’m sure it appeared to that crowd that we really liked each other… a lot.

At least once a year Hallie Mae Gallman cooked a big Chittlin dinner. My dad and older brother would join several others to eat at her house. I went with them one of those times and never did eat the first Chittlin. I couldn’t get past the smell of the Chittlins cooking.

There was also my good friend B.R. Dent. After he retired he worked with me for many years at the funeral home and went on many death calls with me at all hours of the night. You could have heard him cussing in the next county the night we went to put a dead man on our stretcher and the man sat up in the bed. We were in the wrong room.

And I could never forget my classmate Edward Bloodsworth's answer to that great question posed by Mrs. Hollis in the second grade. “Edward, who is the father of our country?”

Edward didn’t bat an eye when he replied. “E.T. Bloodsworth, Sr.”

There were definitely some characters in Potterville. They were and are the salt of the earth.

But Potterville has always been a fried chicken, fried fish, collard greens and corn bread type of place.

But no more.

Santa Cruz Mexican Grill is located there now.

You don't want to miss it.

And don’t forget to buy the tee shirt.

But if James Windham comes in you might want to finish up and get out of there as fast as you can. If not, he may chase you out.