Savannah residents remember Sandfly's beloved 'Peanut Man,' Wesley Phillips
When Tonya Hamilton learned of the Jan. 10th death of Wesley Phillips ― known to many as the Sandfly peanut man ― she regretted not visiting her friend more often.
“He was sassy and friendly, and always made me laugh,” she recalled. “I grew to really love (Phillips and his wife, Mary) and I looked forward to (seeing him) because I always knew that I was going to laugh.”
For years, Phillips sold bags of boiled peanuts from the driveway of his Montgomery Crossroad home. (The address is actually Varnedoe Court, but the house faces Montgomery Crossroad.) Not only did he sell peanuts, but Phillips was known to shell out wisdom to his customers, many of whom became friends.
One of those friends was Hamilton, who met Phillips ― not at the peanut stand ― but a few years ago at physical therapy. Halfway through his time at PT, Phillips mentioned to Hamilton that he lived in the big yellow house across from the Walmart Supercenter in Sandfly.
“I said, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re the peanut man!’” she recalled. “He just laughed and looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Of course, I’m the peanut man. How did you know that I’m NOT the peanut man?’”
After Phillips’ alter-ego was revealed, Hamilton would joke with him and ask, ‘Where are my peanuts?’” After he graduated from therapy, Phillips and his wife Mary returned to the hospital and brought bags of peanuts for the staff.
“It was incredibly sweet,” Hamilton recalled.
After he was released from her care, Hamilton occasionally would stop by the Phillips’ house to check on them, but regrets that the times spent with the couple were few and far between.
Shortly after Thanksgiving, Hamilton visited them and was greeted by Phillips’ “big ole smile.
“He said, ‘Hey beautiful, look at that! My girlfriend is here,’ and he was his sassy, charming self,’” Hamilton remembers. “I told myself then that I was going to stop and check on him after my vacation.
“But life gets busy and gets in the way,” she said regretfully.
'When you've got God in you, you share it'
Last weekend Hamilton drove past his house on her way home from Florida and made a mental note to visit the Phillipses the following week. A few days later she heard that Phillips had died.
In a Morning News interview I had with Phillips nearly 15 years ago, he told me he started selling peanuts - not for the money, but to meet and greet people.
"When you've got God in you, you share it," he said.
Phillips began cultivating a positive attitude early on, while growing up in Sandfly. “I’ve been that way all my life,” he told me during that initial interview. “You never lose it if you keep it going. Even though I may be tired or feeling bad, I never show it. I try to keep a smile on my face.”
Although he grew up in Savannah, Phillips moved up north for a few decades. He and Mary returned to Savannah and Sandfly in 1994 and, initially, lived in their family home until the small frame house at Montgomery Crossroad and the Truman Parkway, began showing its age.
"The old house started deteriorating," he told me in 2010. In place of the original homeplace, the Phillipses constructed a lovely, two-story sunny yellow home.
"I built it with my retirement money,” Phillips told me after it was completed. “Our two daughters helped. We want to keep it in the family because this is a family corner."
As soon as the house was finished, members of Phillips’ unofficial fan club began dropping off plants and other housewarming gifts to the man who had been kind to them. The overwhelming thoughtfulness of some, who were strangers, overwhelmed the couple.
In later years, Hamilton was yet another person who was captivated by Phillips’ warm personality.
“I’m forever grateful that I was able to see him after Thanksgiving and put a smile on his face. “He really was one of the best people and had a joy that radiated and was contagious. He was one of my favorites.”
Polly Powers Stramm can be reached at 912-352-8670 or at pollparrot@aol.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah residents remember Sandly's Peanut Man Wesley Phllips
