my friends at home,” he said with that infectious grin.
One Monday morning on his way back to Atlanta, Jack
stopped at a little restaurant in Wrightsville called Sam’s Café.
“I had just left the best table in Emanuel County. My aunt had
a maid that was a fabulous cook. For some reason, I turned
around and went back to this little café I had never stopped at
before. When I walked through the door, this fellow I casually
knew invited me to sit at his table. When I started to leave, he
pointed across the room and said, ‘There’s a young lady over
there you need to meet.’”
Jack, a self-proclaimed bachelor, had no intentions
In 1981, Jack opened Vidalia's first fine dining restaurant, The
Seawinder. Soon after, he built The Treehouse (ABOVE ) in the
woods nearby using treated lumber that had practically been given
to him. Today, The Treehouse is operated by Jack's son Michael.
of settling down. Even so, he walked over and introduced
himself to the young woman named Martha Blizzard. Eight
months later, Jack and Martha were married. In 1960, the
same year he married Martha, the cosmetic business dried
up, and Jack went to work for Carlos at CG Mixon Auction
Company making $1.25 an hour. “I was probably the youngest
‘pinhooker’ in the United States at that time.” Pinhooking in
the auction world, also called “alley trading,” is a deal made
before a vehicle goes to the trading floor. Jack left CG Mixon
Auction Company and took a position in the accounting office
at Emanuel Motors. After a year in the accounting office, he
moved to selling and buying cars.
In 1966, Jack and Carlos opened a Ford tractor dealership
in Vidalia. By 1968, they closed the business in Swainsboro
and turned all their attention to their dealership in Vidalia.
As work took them throughout the Southeast, Jack said,
“We noticed these Western Sizzlin steak houses popping up
everywhere. That’s where the idea to open our own steakhouse
came from.
“Carlos owned a piece of property on the corner from
Calvin Vaughn’s State Farm Insurance agency. It took a year to
get the building finished, but I helped drive in every nail,” said
Jack. “When it came time to put in the insulation, we couldn’t
find anyone who would do it. So, I put my boys Frankie and
Michael up in that big attic, and they insulated the whole
thing.”
In March 1973, Jack and Carlos opened Captain’s Corner,
50 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE