The Gentle Place...with a side of Hannah Montana

Kinsey and I ran an out of town errand today which took me about half an hour away from the last place my maternal grandparents lived together...The Gentle Place. I cannot remember how many acres it was, but I remember thinking it was enormous when I was a kid! I don't remember much about them clearing it and building the house, except that my grandmother got poison ivy during a potty break before the house was built...ouch! I remember driving the riding lawnmower with a little trailer attached all around when I was about 10, brother in tow. That was probably my favorite thing about that place! That and the little gold hatchback I got to drive on occassion.


The house was not visible from the road, so I didn't really think I would be able to find it, but figured that since it was only 30 minutes out of my way, I might as well give it a shot. I was driving up and down the highway talking to my mom, describing houses in hopes of identifying Aunt Atrelle's house which stood next door. I decided to go back to the tiny town's post office hoping there would be someone old enough to remember my grandparents or great, great aunt and could describe Atrelle's house now. That's when I saw it! There was the pond near the road.

The gate was open so I drove down the dirt driveway, hearing my mother and husband in the back of my mind telling me I should not be out in the middle of the woods driving down a dirt driveway alone. At the end of the drive, I found an older man and two women eating lunch from an ice chest on the tailgate of a truck. Turns out he was the person who bought the property from my grandmother after my grandfather passed away in the mid 1980's. The man greeted me and I tried to explain that I thought my grandparents had built this house more than 25 years ago. As soon as I started talking, tears streamed from beneath my sunglasses. I was shocked and embarrassed. He was very sweet and I almost laughed through my tears when he, very politely, said, "Honey, I can't understand you." I was trying to explain my reason for intruding on his picnic lunch but couldn't, for my blubbering. While I was trying to very quickly compose myself he noticed Kinsey in the backseat, glued to The Hannah Montana Movie. He chatted with her for a moment so that I could catch my breath and speak English again. I'm sure he knows more about Hannah Montana than he ever thought he would!

He stood, leaning in the passenger window of my car, eating a purple onion and told me about Aunt Atrelle coming to visit him and tearing up her car after she backed into a tree once and almost doing it a second time. He also told me about some other relatives coming to pick something to eat like broccoli but he couldn't remember the name. Got me... All I know is I smelled that purple onion all the way back home...an hour and 15 minutes back home.

He was very sweet and invited me back anytime. As we were leaving, his wife yelled from her seat on the tailgate, "Y'all want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?" I am sure he was willing her to hush so that blubbering lady and her kid would just go on! It was a surprisingly emotional visit for me.

My daughter asked my why I was crying and I honestly did not know. I have a few memories of being at The Gentle Place, but it was not a place I visited too often...it was about 8 hours from home and they didn't live there too long. I could understand the tears had it been my childhood home 25 years after the fact. I talked with my mom about it tonight and she knew. It was the realization of the passing of time and how life is changing and will continue to change for me as an adult. Hit the nail on the head.

So now the memory I will associate with the smell of an onion will be crying in a stranger's driveway while my daughter taught him all about Hannah Montana......and The Gentle Place.

Aunt Atrelle's house