Laughter, shared experiences, and moments of reflection filled Allen’s Market Jan. 20 as more than 50 community members gathered for Milledgeville’s latest Evenings With History with speaker Rick Millians. These events, hosted by the Milledgeville Heritage Center, occur every third Tuesday of the month, with different speakers and topics every time.
Millians took the audience back to the 1960s, a decade with defining moments in history, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, “American Invasion” by the Beatles, and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Despite all this turbulence happening across the U.S., it seemed Milledgeville was living in fantasy land with an almost Leave it to Beaver mentality.
Millians, who grew up in Milledgeville and graduated from Baldwin High School in 1970, spoke not only as a historian but as someone who lived alongside his audience through the stories he shared.
“I grew up here in the ’60s and have so many fond memories,” Millians said. “I remember a lot of things, and I’ve done a lot of research on it.”
His presentation blended personal anecdotes, nostalgic props, historical facts, and audience participation, creating an interactive experience for everyone in the room.
As a former sports editor for various newspapers in Macon, Cincinnati, Columbia, and South Carolina, Millians explained returning to Milledgeville allows him to stay connected to the community that shaped who he is today.
“After retirement, this sort of kept my hand in journalism,” he said, “I’ve spoken to different groups for other programs and retirement groups, and it’s great to jog their memories.”
Throughout the evening, Millians pointed out many people in the audience, includig his wife, former teachers, and classmates. Much of the audience knew each other growing up and were able to chime in and add details to put the pieces of the puzzle together when Millians shared stories.
“It was a lot of fun talking about their experiences and how they have impacted me. I quoted several of them,” he said.
“In the ’60s, Milledgeville’s population was about 11,000 people, with Jan. 20, during 6,000 of them employed at Central State Hospital, the largest mental asylum in the world at the time. The city was more diverse than many other Southern towns because of this; however, Milledgeville remained segregated. We still had a lot of work to do.”
The presentation mainly focused on community members’ daily lives and the smaller moments. Millians spoke of walking downtown to Rose’s, stopping by the candy counter, attending family reunions and weddings, and watching local games with others in the community. He shared stories of neighbors like Ralph and Mary Harrington, whose four children walked to school, piling into Ralph’s truck as they got older, and of Elaine King, who lived on one side of them and taught at Baldwin Highschool alongside the Harringtons.
Millians also spoke about his own childhood after moving to Milledgeville in 1962 when he was 10 years old. His mother was a third-grade teacher, and one of his favorite memories was being able to walk across the street to use Georgia College’s swimming pool.
“You couldn’t beat that in third grade,” he joked.
He described Milledgeville as middle class, and how the whole town was excited when the first two-story house was built.
“We thought it was a mansion,” he said.
Millians shared his stories about singing in the First Baptist Church choir.
“They put me in the back row and told me not to really sing,” he said.
The room filled with laughter. Millians recounted every detail about his first date with his wife, Wanda.
“We went to Macon, saw a really scary movie that Wanda liked. It was so scary I asked to leave early, and we played putt putt after and ate at Shoney’s,” he said.
She sat in the audience with a blushed smile and he credited her with typing his stories while he wrote them by hand.
Some audience members came to reminisce, while others came to learn about the history. Attendee Jasmine Smith, who is researching Milledgeville’s economic history for the Rural Studies Institute, said she found the event inspiring.
“We learned about Central State Hospital, downtown businesses and how much was happening economically at the time,” she said. “Milledgeville has such a deep history. I definitely plan to come back to more of these.”
Organizer Lolly Brooks said they host Evenings With History as a part of their mission which is to share the cultural significance and history of Milledgeville.
“We’ve been doing this for over two decades, and we aim to keep Milledgeville’s history alive,” she said.
As the night came to an end, audience members stayed behind to speak to one another and continued to share their stories. It felt almost like a big family reunion.
“It’s a great place to grow up,” Millians said, “and a great place to come back to every time.”