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More People Are Coming Home To Trilby Every Year

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By GEOFF FOX

gfox@tampatrib.com

Published: March 21, 2009

TRILBY - The year: 1975.

The assignment: pen a bicentennial-themed essay on your community.

Not surprisingly, Scott Black, then a sixth-grader at Moore-Mickens Middle School in Dade City, won the countywide contest with his composition on rural Trilby, his beloved hometown.

Now the mayor of nearby Dade City, Black has perpetuated his penchant for unearthing artifacts, information and pictures depicting the rural area in northeast Pasco County.

Today, he and more than 100 others are expected to celebrate the fourth-annual Trilby Homecoming in Charlotte Tomkow Whittington's sprawling front yard in the Hunter Hill community west of Trilby, off County Road 575 at 36315 Tomkow Lane.

Last year, about 130 people attended the event, held in the shade of a massive camphor tree. The crowd gets bigger every year.

"We always make contact with new people," Black said. "As I do my research I try to locate people who have moved away. As a railroad community, Trilby was very transient, but I've been doing a lot of genealogy on these old families."

He said most of the families who attend the annual homecoming - conducted like a large family reunion, with covered dishes and desserts, and lots of room for children to run - are from around the area.

"But this year, there's one family coming from south Georgia and another family indicated they would be coming from Alabama," Black said.

The event is expected to begin around 10 a.m. Lunch typically is served around noon. People often stay well into the afternoon.
Whittington said visitors at today's event can expect "the best cooking you'll ever run into."

"I just love to have company," she said. "I do it several times a year for different things. I've lived on this hill for 61 years. Every year I have a Christmas party for people I've sold land to, and that's a big thing. Plus, I have cousin reunions and family reunions, Super Bowl parties. I'm party central.

"We already have everything set up. People can bring folding chairs, but I have seven big picnic tables already out. We'll have a blessing around noon, and we'll start eating, and visit all afternoon."

For Black, whose interest in Trilby history isn't likely to wane, the annual homecoming marks one of the best days of the year. He said that coordinating the event "just seemed like a neat idea."

"My father was born there in the railroad section foreman's house across the road from the railroad depot," he said. "My grandfather was the Atlantic Coastline section foreman.

"You hear of other communities having reunions. I just thought it would be fun to get us all back together and reminisce about when Trilby used to be a big place."

JOIN IN THE FESTIVITIES

For information about the fourth annual Trilby Homecoming, call Scott Black at (352) 523-5772.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613.

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