She never has enough time to see old friends and neighbors when she comes home, so Freddene King had an idea: Why not a Fort Hill reunion, kind of like a block party, of everyone who grew up in her old neighborhood on the north edge of Vicksburg?

The major obstacle was that King now lives in Detroit, so she enlisted the help of friends who still live here, and the reunion will become a reality Saturday, with a get-together at Vicksburg’s Riverfront Park starting around noon.

If you go

Reservations for the Fort Hill Reunion can be made by calling: Willie Mae Johnson, 601-638-5440; Ruby Thomas, 601-852-2430; or Catherine Brown, 601-636-1786. Cost is $20 for adults, $10 for ages 6-18 and free for children 5 and younger and includes food and entertainment.

What are the plans?

“We’re just going to have a good time,” Willie Mae Johnson, one of several local people helping with the event, said. “We’re going to eat, and meet people we haven’t seen in 20 or 30 years — and some of them live here, but I hardly ever see them.”

About 80 people have said they will attend, and a lot more are expected. Some are coming from Texas and Michigan. Food is being prepared by Vicksburg residents, and entertainment is also planned.

Though the focus is the Fort Hill community, the borders have been expanded a bit to include folks on both sides of Glass Bayou along Cherry and nearby streets, such as Hugo, Fisher, Fayette, Mundy, Anse, Adams, Locust, Mill, Price, Commerce, Farmer, Jefferson and Portland.

Mrs. Johnson grew up on Fort Hill, a member of the Canda family. Her grandparents moved there from Egremont in the Delta. She went to McIntyre School, then to Temple, later taking nurses training at Kuhn. In 1976, she moved to Oak Street where she and her husband reared a family of three children.

Fort Hill, however, “was my life. We had a community — stores, churches, the school — and ever so often everybody would get together and visit.”

She has some vivid memories of life on Fort Hill and of the people who called it home. There was Mr. Archie, who was black, and Mr. Cunningham, who was white. They lived on shanty boats on the canal, next to each other, and fished for a living.

Another memorable character was Mose Nailor, the strongest man she ever saw. He kept everyone’s yard cut, enjoyed a little corn liquor, and “could hold up a car while the tire was being changed.”

She remembers Mrs. Mary Ann Hill for several reasons: “She was stern and didn’t work, and she was the first person up there to have a TV, and we children would all go to her house. If we didn’t do right, nine times out of 10 she would whip us, then tell our mamas so we got another one at home.”

When she was in the first grade, Mrs. Johnson got a whipping at school when the principal’s daughter ripped a pocket off a dress her godmother made, “and we tumbled in that dirt out there, yes indeed.” She got a whipping, was sent home, but was marched right back to school by her grandmother.

Fresh vegetables were available on a regular basis for the folks on Fort Hill when Mr. Arthur Lawson brought his wagon laden with produce from out on Highway 27, and blocks of ice were still delivered when Mrs. Johnson was a child.

There were several stores in the community. Abner Hearn’s store later became Wilber’s Grocery, and Mrs. Jackson had a store and ice cream shop on Locust Street. Mrs. Johnson also remembers Campbell Fletcher’s store on Cherry Street at Glass Bayou. The kids would slip away from school and go to the store, and Campbell would waive the price if a child had no money.

There were several Baptist churches on Fort Hill, and Bethel A.M.E. was organized there and later moved to Monroe Street. The community had a credit union and a clinic, a dry cleaners and cafe, a flower shop, a school and a funeral home. Joe Williams began the Rocket Cab Co. on Fort Hill.

Among the residents of Fort Hill were Garfield Wright, David Thomas, the dean of the county schools, Coach Albert Watts, Mr. and Mrs. Euphytee Williams, Dr. Owens, Dr. Dillard, Lewis Spencer of the Red Tops and longtime YMCA employee Willie Chong.

There was a home demonstration office in the community and an assistant county agent, and Mrs. Johnson said all the young men were taught plumbing and carpentry and other useful skills by Richard Lawson.

There weren’t any playgrounds, Mrs. Johnson said, “but we made the best of what we had, and we had a lot of fun.” They often picked up pieces of shells and shrapnel along the bluffs, and the older children told the little ones that, after a rain, blood from the dead soldiers would run out of the hillside.

There was really nothing to be afraid of, she said, and as teenagers she and her friends walked all the way through the National Military Park every week.

“We used to sleep on the porch in the summer,” she said, “and we were perfectly safe. You can’t do that any more.”

Much of the hill where Mrs. Johnson grew up is gone now and much of it, including streets, having caved. Switzer’s subdivision, just north of Glass Bayou on the left, still clings to the hills along winding Hugo Street. Much of Fort Hill, like the lives lived there, is just a memory.

Each person has his own recollections, and they’ll be sharing them and swapping stories at the first Fort Hill reunion.