By Tom Kohler
July 20, 2025 – I call myself a born and stayed Savannahian. I have lived here for 71 of my 73 years. These days I generally get invited to talk about how things ‘usta’ be. Now, I’m going to admit that ‘usta’ is a made-up word. With that said, it’s a great Savannah word. For example, “the Krispy Kreme donut shop usta be on Skidaway, just down from where Larry’s Restaurant usta be.” Like I said, usta is a great Savannah word.
Eric has invited me to share some images and memories from my roaming around town all these years. Let’s start here.
In 1971, Billy Strong and I usta live in a historic 2-story home at 440 Habersham St. It’s been all gussied up since then (In April, a petition for a backyard “plunge pool” was approved). We lived on the bottom floor, and our landlord lived on the second floor. The first floor was a living room, a dining room, both of which were our bedrooms, a small bathroom and the kitchen. Our landlord lived upstairs where the bedrooms were. He had a makeshift kitchen and small bathroom. We paid $100 in rent, so split two ways that was $50 a month… or was the whole rent $50 a month and we each paid $25? Either way, you get the idea… and there usta be a lot of cheap places like that back in that day.
Billy published Savannah’s only underground newspaper, Albions Voice, and was very political. The paper reported on the war in Vietnam, racism, women’s and gay liberation, environmental issues and counter-culture topics and events. Initially Albion’s Voice was sponsored by the Armstrong State College Literary Club, but soon after publication the college’s administration froze the club’s finances and disavowed any connection between the school and the publication. The paper moved downtown to a basement at the corner of Gaston and Whitaker. Bomb threats by the Ku Klux Klan forced the staff to cover the windows with chicken wire. Billy and his buddy Jimmy Maddox spent a week in Athens, Ga. to “let things cool down”. Things usta be different then.
Related – 44th Reunion Of “Albion’s Voice” – The Savannah Tribune>
It wasn’t uncommon for people traveling through Savannah to see Billy’s painted up VW van in front of the house and just knock on the door to ask to crash for the night. Some of them knew him from his days working for Atlanta’s underground paper The Great Speckled Bird.
The Great Speckled Bird (newspaper) – Wikipedia
Guys who were selling Albions Voice or The Bird on street corners would be arrested by the Savannah Police Department. Attorney Aaron Buchsbaum usta come get them out of jail for free. Buchsbaum was another born and stayed Savannahian. Having grown up here in the 1930’s he’d seen poverty and racism that he simply could not tolerate. During his 50 year law career he bailed a teenaged Edna Jackson out of jail after a ‘wade in’ to desegregate Tybee. In 2012 Jackson became the first African American woman Mayor of Savannah. Do yourself a favor and read about attorney and civic activist Aaron Buchsbaum.
Our landlord was bed-bound, and had a man who would take care of him during the day. At night we would hear the knock, knock, knock of his cane on his floor, our ceiling, and know to go upstairs and get $1.50 to go over to Gannam’s Liquor Store on the corner of Gaston and Habersham and buy him a 1/2 pint of Old Forester. We got a dime tip upon delivery. Occasionally we would hear a ’thud’ coming from upstairs later in the evening. Billy finally figured out it was the bottle hitting the floor after our landlord self-medicated himself to sleep for the evening.
Well, that’s how it usta be at 440 Habersham Street in 1971 or so. And here’s the #1 song on the Billboard charts in July of 1971.
About the author
Tom Kohler has lived in Savannah for 71 of his 73 years. He attended our local public schools, Armstrong and the University of Georgia. He was educated at Jim Collins Bar. The founder and longtime coordinator of Chatham Savannah Citizen Advocacy has been involved in creating a variety of civic organizations thru the years including the Jim Collins Bar Alumni Association, Savannah Rocks!, and Emergent Savannah.
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Twatwas & bakden also complimentary to usta. Neat to see Billy Strong “young” as I’ve only had pleasure of knowing him older. Quite the van bakden. Good these usta be writings coming online for the present times seem to be erasing whole chapters of Savannah with the towns new lustre. Let’s do the time warp again!
Hah. Nice contributions. Yeah, I’m looking forward to more columns from Tom.