My Ocean Springs: 2007 in Pictures

Travel guides encourage day trips to Ocean Springs for several reasons, one of which is its two, quiet, undeveloped beaches, and East Beach is easily the quieter of the two. East Beach Drive meanders along the beach, offering little parking, which makes it a wonderful place for residents to ride bikes, or friends, Peggy Butera and Joey Rice to walk their dogs. Residents of East Beach were devastated when Katrina’s surge destroyed their beautiful homes in spite of how far they sat away from the beach, but as reflects the attitude along the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast, the residents are coming back.

Freedom Field, on the corner of Porter and General Pershing, was originally the home of the Ocean Springs Greyhound football team. The field was constructed in 1949, and the Greyhounds won their first game there by the score of 27-13. Coach Clay Boyd wanted to name the field after W.H. Calhoun, but Mr. Calhoun declined, choosing the name Freedom Field instead. The football team played there until 1964; ironically, they won their last game at Freedom Field by the same score as their first game fifteen years prior, 27-13. Since 1964, Ocean Springs has preserved the field as a beautiful green space in the heart of town. Various teams and youth organizations utilize the field, including Trent Bryant and Youth For Christ, who spent Tuesday evenings in the summer of 2007 playing Ultimate Frisbee.

Quake’s Frozen Custard, in its colorful building on Highway 90, introduced custard as an alternative to ice cream to Ocean Springs a few years ago, and residents have been stopping by ever since. Kara Wescovich serves up custard cones to happy customers on behalf of the Miller family, who recently became the owners. The new owners transformed Quake’s into a “Christian” place, which is evidenced by the music that plays over the speakers, and they added beignets, the tasty French pastry so popular in New Orleans, to the already popular menu.

Leonard Vergunst, race director for the Gulf Coast Running Club, gives instructions to the hundreds of participants prior to the 27th Annual Wesson Memorial Run held on Independence Day in 2007. Many of the participants dressed in red, white, and blue, sending a patriotic stream of colors along the scenic two-mile course from the YMCA through Shearwater Drive and along East Beach. Afterwards, kids age twelve and under enjoyed a quarter-mile fun run.

Ocean Springs hosted the world horseshoe pitching championships back in 1991, witnessing the legendary Walter Ray Williams in action. Since that time, horseshoe pitching in Mississippi has fell on hard times, without a single organized club in the state. The reversal of that trend began in July, 2007, when the horseshoe pits on Halstead Road hosted a nationally sanctioned event, bringing in eight world class pitchers from four states. Ron Kindrick, from Eclectic, Alabama, Regional Director for the Alabama Horseshoe Pitchers Association, sets his sights on another ringer.