BUSY CORNER &045;&045; Irene Freeman was a young girl when the Amite County community of Busy Corner got its namesake in the 1920s.

Now 91, Freeman recalled the story Thursday from her front porch &045;&045; just a quarter-mile from where a cotton gin once operated at the intersection of two dirt roads.

&uot;On Saturdays, the men would gather at the cotton gin and talk. One day, a man named Reynolds rode up on a horse and said ‘Man, this is a busy corner.’ And that’s where it got its name,&uot; Freeman said.

Freeman’s grandfather, Dow Wilkinson, operated one of two grocery stores at the crossroads. And her husband, Otto Freeman, farmed cotton and worked at the gin during the 1930s.

&uot;I remember in 1936 they were paying him 10 cents a bale to gin cotton,&uot; she said.

The cotton gin is gone now, and only one of the two original store buildings remain.

A metal sign atop the vacant storefront proclaims the result of a census effort from years ago: &uot;Town of Busy Corner, Pop. 26.&uot;

Freeman joked there used to be four banks in Busy Corner.

&uot;The road grader took three of them,&uot; she said, referring to the dirt banks that once stood at each corner of the crossroads.

Zelma Hollingsworth, another longtime resident of Busy Corner, said her husband, Delos Hollingsworth, built a new store near the crossroads in 1964.

&uot;At first, he stayed open 12 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week. Later on, it got to be too much for him, and he started closing on Sundays. He ran it until 1974,&uot; Hollingsworth said.

Both Freeman and Hollingsworth value the country life they enjoy in Busy Corner.

&uot;This is my old stomping ground. I call it the garden spot capital of the world. And all the neighbors out here are really good to me,&uot; Freeman said.