Page 151 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2024

Margaret McMullan’s home on Scenic Drive in Pass Christian.
Tell us about your history with the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Pass Christian. “I grew up in Newton, Mississippi and I would
come here on family fishing trips and vacations with my parents and grandparents. My Dad loved driving up and down Scenic Drive. He did a lot of wishful thinking about owning
a home here and in 1990 he purchased this house. My husband Pat and I bought the house from them 25 years later.
“But I really got to know the area through literature. From the words of Kate Chopin in The Awakening and Walker Percy in The Movie Goer, and of course Faulkner, I fell in love
with the coast. Faulkner spent an evening in
this house after which he wrote a letter to his parents describing the home to them. Midway through dinner he left the dinner table to smoke his pipe on the front porch. Many years later, my father received a letter from a dinner guest who was there that evening describing a rude gentleman named Faulkner! I still have the letter.
What do you love about your home?
“My husband Pat’s favorite spot is the front porch. He comes out here every morning with the paper and a cup of coffee. Sometimes it is dark and sometimes the sun is up. He waves
to all the walkers and watches the world go by. He has a favorite tree in the front yard. It is the biggest and one of the oldest on the property. We eat out there, we have cocktails out there,
it is just a fun place for us. We love having kids run up and down the porch.
“I love my office in the back. Right outside is my favorite tree. Its arms spreading out across the back yard have sustained me through a
lot, including COVID. My office is a unique place that probably has too many books. When my dad bought the house, it needed a lot of work. During the renovations, there were extra doors and windows and they all got put out here in my office! My other favorite spot is the kitchen. It has a fireplace and a large monk’s table where people sit and talk while we cook dinner.”
It sounds like a scene right out of a Southern novel.
“Yes, it was!”
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living | www.smliving.net
October 2024 | 151
Favorite tree.
Front porch on the Gulf.