Plantation Visit

                Yesterday marked the beginning of exploring the sights of northern Georgia.  My new home area is filled with significant history from the early days of our country through the Civil War (aka The War of Northern Aggression) to Martin Luther King to Jimmy Carter to Newt Gingrich. 

                To digress a bit, those of you who live back in Minnesota may smile, but I witnessed some of the strong feelings about the Civil War first hand when a man giving a devotional  remembrance for the Fourth of July.  He was reading a list of quotes from presidents and famous people in American history related to our country giving God His due and honoring God as a nation.  All were thought provoking and affirmed a strong sense of leaders who recognized that their success would come from a blessing of God on their efforts.  After a number of quotes, the gentleman pulled off his glasses and spoke of finding it difficult for a Confederate like him to read the next quote.  Replacing the glasses and taking a deep breath, he quoted Abraham Lincoln.

              I learned a little more of that when we were searching for a short day trip since Beth didn’t have her little summer “day care” charge for a couple of days.  I thought a plantation visit would be fun, and with the typical arrogance of one who does not know, assumed there would be something quite close by.  That notion was quickly dispelled when one of the search results talked about all the lack of plantation houses and other artifacts of pre-Civil War Atlanta.  Though Georgia was one of the 13 original colonies, Atlanta was not founded until 1836 and not incorporated as a city until 1847. Though no major rivers or waterways that typically mark great cities are present in the area, Atlanta grew to become a major city because it served as the central hub for four southern railroads.  And for this reason, Sherman marched to Atlanta, the commercial and transportation center of the south, to burn and destroy it and thus disable the Confederacy.  Though hospitals and churches were spared, the rest of the city was burned to the ground. 

                The closest plantation house was in Jonesboro, southeast of Atlanta, so we headed to Stately Oaks, one of three plantation style houses which served as inspiration for Tara of Gone with the Wind fame.  The home was actually dismantled from its original location and moved to an area that is being developed as a museum by Clayton County.  The site currently houses an old store from the late 1800s, a fireplace from Margaret Mitchell’s home, a small Cree Indian village, and the Greek Revival house with several accompanying outbuildings, like the kitchen, laundry, and outhouses.

                The young gentleman who was out tour guide shared many interesting facts about the home and its owners, the movie, and the culture of the times through which the house stood.  As we went through the rooms, and he described how that room and its contents were used, he connected many of their cultural actions to quotes we throw around like “marking time” or “it’s snowing down south.”  I’ll have to go back with pencil and pad to get them all, though a few might have been stretched a little.  While the site was about what you’d expect from a little county museum depending primarily of donations for their work, it was a nice introduction to the area and awakening of the desire to learn more about this beautiful place I am coming to call home.

                When we finished the tour at 2:30, our stomachs were in revolt, so we hastened to a little store front cafe called Gina’s Bistro.  The extensive menu of sandwiches, soups, salads, and meals  was printed on several blackboards above the ordering counter.   The myriad of choices available in the little bistro boggled the mind, but hunger called for quick decisions.   Beth and Katie chose sandwiches, which were full of good fresh ingredients.  They obviously didn’t carefully pull apart exactly three pieces of ham to make Katie’s sandwich.  I chose a soup and sandwich combination with homemade vegetable beef soup that was among the best I’ve ever had, perhaps at the top. Oh, it was good, even on a warm Georgia day.