Island Gold - Jingle Davis
Jingle Davis in conversation with Cathy Coleman
on the deck of her St. Simons Island home.
We’ve all felt it: the rush of seeing the causeway, realizing we’re mere minutes from
reconnecting with the coast. Whether it’s been a week or a decade, we know the reunion will
be as sweet as the Georgia shrimp we crave. Are there those among us who can best express
that powerful draw? Is there something in the water (or the dirt) that we taste forever? Seeking
stories from those folks led us here. Jingle Davis offers the first golden nuggets in her words.
A native of St. Simons Island, Jingle Davis has been a writer much of her life, retiring from
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, often covering South Georgia. Again a full-time resident,
Jingle is the poster child for people who can’t stay away from the coast. Her monumental
histories, Island Time and Island Passages, both with stunning photography by Benjamin
Galland, trace the compelling stories of St. Simons and Jekyll Islands from prehistoric
settlements to modern days. Find both books at G.F. Ford Bookshop, the Shops at Sea Island,
Frederica Road and the Sea Island Causeway.
CC: Can you describe how you feel today
when you cross the causeway? What
memories come to mind in those first
moments of re-entry?
Jingle: The first causeway to St. Simons, built
in 1924, had five wonderful wooden bridges
that rumbled when people drove across them.
66 | @hightidestsimons
When I was a little girl returning
from out-of-town trips with my family, that
sound promised me that we were almost
home. The concrete bridges of today’s
causeway have lost their voice, but the smell
of the salt marsh still signals home to me and
reassures me that many of the most beloved
features of the island endure.