NATCHEZ — After relocating to Natchez from Brookhaven, Amanda and Dayton Dodge have spent the past six years building a life in the city they now call home.

When The Dart landed on Baldwin Lane last week, it found the Dodges and their 3-year-old son, Memphis, preparing for Thanksgiving, Black Friday and cheering on the University of Alabama in Saturday’s Iron Bowl, the annual rivalry college football game between Alabama and Auburn University.

Memphis made helping his mom cook for Thanksgiving dinner his main priority. Amanda, still wearing her scrubs from her job as an X-ray technician at the office of local cardiologist Dr. Vikramaditya Dulam, hoisted Memphis onto the counter. She balanced helping Memphis pour peas into a pot and flipping through a handmade recipe book her mother made.

“Most of these are handwritten recipes,” Amanda said, adding that the recipes spanned three generations.

Amanda and Dayton moved to Natchez about six years ago for Amanda’s job at Dulam’s office. Amanda was hired at the office after graduating from Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Wesson.

She commuted to work from Brookhaven for a few months before deciding to move to Natchez.

A career as an X-ray technician is one Amanda said she chose because she was not sure how she would feel about the patient care aspect of other medical professions.

Now, Amanda said her patients are the best part of her day.

“You get to meet all different kinds of people,” she said.

Dayton works in maintenance and carpentry for the Camelot, Plantation Manor and Bienville apartment complexes. He is also a storm spotter for the National Weather Service.

Dayton and Amanda say Natchez is a good place to raise their son and enjoy their family time, which is mostly spent by a fire pit in the fall.

“We’re kind of homebodies,” Amanda said. “We like to stay home and watch movies and hang out with Memphis. Natchez is pretty much home now

“I really don’t see us moving anywhere else.”