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ORAL HISTORY
Ellen Caston Brewer, Michael Brewer, George Barber & David Barber
Fresh Air Bar-B-Que
Dr. Joel Watkins, a veterinarian, opened Fresh Air Bar-B-Que in 1929 to serve the rabbits and goats he raised and barbecued on the weekends. Dr. Watkins never cooked pork. George “Toots” Caston, a fifth-generation native of Jackson, introduced pork when he bought the place in 1952. He could fit nineteen whole hogs on the original pit and made Brunswick stew in twenty-five-gallon cast iron pits. After more than forty years in the barbecue business, George passed away in 1996 at the age of eighty-nine.
Today, the third generation of the Caston family is at the helm, and they are proud of what their grandfather created. As George Barber, one of Toot’s grandsons puts it, “It’s something he instilled in us as children growing up, to have pride in what you did and to do the best job you could do at anything, no matter what it was.”
In 1989, the family opened a second location in Macon, Georgia, but loyal customers and barbecue lovers still make the pilgrimage to the original Fresh Air Bar-B-Q in Jackson.
