World War Two Draftees Left From Folkston Bus Depot, Dozens At a Time.

Photo shows combination Gulf Station and Greyhound bus station in Folkston
where locals left for wartime service.

Woodrow Pickren's Folkston Greyhound bus depot was usually a pretty quiet place. Except for about twice a month during the years of World War Two, 1942 through 1945. Then it was the scene of heart-breaking farewells as wives and mothers sent their sons and husbands off to fight in that war, often dozens at a time.

Draftees that had begun their paperwork right across the street in Dick Stroup's Sinclair Service Station were now leaving home. Some never to return. Dick Stroup, who owned the Sinclair station, was clerk of the Charlton County Draft Board during the war years.

Many of those leaving from Pickren's bus station had never even ridden a bus before; some had never been outside the states of Georgia and Florida. Usually the draftees had not reached their 19^th birthday, and most were unmarried; at least during the early years of that war.

Pickren's combination bus station-Gulf station, for years had been on the leading edge of new merchandising techniques.  The owner, Woodrow Pickren, always was looking forward. He opened Folkston's first Firestone Store in the station, selling

Arvin radios, automobile heaters, electric toasters, and dozens of other items of merchandise not to be found elsewhere in town. During the years of the Great Depression, Pickren put free comic books on his gas pumps for the young of the community. A 50-gallon drum filled with re-claimed motor oil sat nearby. It sold for 15 cents a quart and was pumped out of the barrel with a hand pump by the customers into a half-gallon pitcher-container with a flexible spout.

When the young draftees got their orders from the draft board to report, usually to Fort McPherson in Atlanta, a date for their appearance at the bus station was enclosed. A volunteer draft board worker was there too; orders in hand to make sure all got aboard the Atlanta-bound bus. Parents and girlfriends embraced the soon-to-be soldiers and sailors as the big Greyhound bus arrived at the front of Pickren's Gulf Station. One of the draftees, usually an older man, was named to oversee the draftee's enroute to Fort McPherson. Reports coming back often told of boisterous behavior once the bus had pulled out of Folkston. The soon-to-be soldiers and sailors were on their own, many for the first time. Most had never shaved.

Pickren's bus station was a centerpiece of activity in the town. Pickren had a busy automobile repair shop in addition to the bus station and Firestone store, and next door was the town's most popular restaurant, the Blue Willow, and in later years, the Whip-O-Will. A familiar site was the owner, Woodrow Pickren and his best friend, Hercules Superintendent Charlie Quick, swapping jokes near the Gulf gas pumps. The laughter of both could be heard a block away.

Pickren's father, Tom Pickren, had once run a grocery store on the site before the automobile service station was built. For years Tom Pickren had the only long-distance telephone line in Folkston. Other merchants would go to Tom Pickren's store to make their long distance calls. Woodrow Pickren and his brother, Verne J. Pickren, at one time jointly operated the service station. Later Woodrow Pickren became the sole owner of the business, although the real estate was still owned by Verne J. Pickren.

At the end of World War Two, Woodrow Pickren built a new bus station-restaurant at the corner of Kingsland Drive, just across from the Folkston High School building. Today the building is occupied as Cumberland Gas Company. But, the new bus station never held the nostalgia ingrained in the old building. The dark depression years saw Pickren's Gulf Station as a ray of sunshine, where the troubles of the day could be briefly forgotten. Woodrow Pickren was a confirmed optimist; every cloud was to have dozens of rainbows, in his view. That optimism rubbed off on those who happened by and listened a few minutes to Woodrow Pickren talk. He just made everyone feel better.

Just after World War Two ended, Woodrow Pickren thought Folkston should have a championship caliber independent basketball team. He set about to organize one. He made trips to Jacksonville to hire top-notch former college players for his Folkston team. Johnny Geilan, who coached Jacksonville Junior College basketball, and a former star with St. Johns University, was brought on board. Ray Greife, another top not former college star; in Jacksonville coaching another high school team, was hired to join Geilen. A half-dozen locals, including a Baptist preacher, Robert T. Jones, made up Pickren's team. It was almost unbeatable, even if it did cost Pickren hundreds of dollars for their game pay.

Such a man was Woodrow Pickren, a man inflicted with Polio when in his youth, who could only see the brighter side of every issue. He refused to let his crippling disease keep him from engaging in every worthwhile cause to come his way. It seems fitting that the bus station from which scores left for battle in World War Two was operated by Woodrow Pickren. He even made leaving home more bearable, as he usually was at his bus station when the draftee's bus loaded for Atlanta, joking and telling the scared youths that they didn't have a thing to worry about. Most believed him.