Revisiting My Roots Part 1

For a long time, I have thought about taking a couple of days to drive to East Texas to revisit the places my family used to go to. We spent every Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter at my Grandma Love's house. It was a wonderful place for all of the cousins to roam free on the tar roads between the tall swaying pine trees. We had so many adventures there when I was growing up. Grandma Love was a wonderful lady. She was kind and a bit sassy. She loved growing things and canning things from her garden. She made the best biscuits and gravy I have ever tasted. My parents, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, and cousins used to squeeze around the table to eat or play card games for hours. Her house was always filled with laughter and love. It has been almost thirty years since she died. I wanted to spend a weekend going back to Pine Mills to see if I could find her old property.  Daphne said she would come with me, so of course, that turned a simple drive into an adventure.

First stop was at the new Bucees in Hillsboro. We found Thelma and Louise shirts in the store and knew we had to buy them.

Let the shenanigans begin!

I found an Airbnb tiny house to rent in Mineola, TX. On the way we stopped at Graham's Market in Edgewood and bought some fresh fruit. 

The peaches had amazing flavor.

We could not check into our Airbnb until 4 pm so we wandered around Mineola for a while. Mineola was the "big town" near Grandma Love's house. Pine Mills was too small to have a post office so they had to use the one in Mineola. We stopped in at Ye olde Curiosity Shoppe in downtown Mineola. It was a little shop with vintage items, old toys/games, magic items, spell books, old records, vintage handbags, and lots of odd and unique things.

The Airbnb was called the Sassy Sasquatch. It was really cute. It had a bedroom and a fold out couch in the living room area.

It was very comfortable and had all the amenities we needed. 

While looking through the rules binder, we noticed a note that invites guests to free range time at a nearby gun range. Daphne and I knew we were going to have to wear our Thelma & Louise shirts and go shooting. Since it was too late in the day to shoot, we decided to drive around and see if we could find my Grandma's house. My dad's memory is failing, my mom only knew the way by landmarks, I never drove their on my own, my aunt was unsure of the county road number. The best directions we had were "somewhere between Mineola and Hawkins off highway 14 or 49 with the church marking where the road that goes to the road to Grandma's house ends. Daphne was a trooper. While driving around, we passed the church my grandparent's went to. I remember sitting in those small wooden pews when we would visit. Our family would take up an entire pew.

There is a cemetery next to and across from the church. The church used to hide Easter eggs for us to hunt in the cemetery. Daphne and I walked around for quite awhile looking at the grave markers. The oldest one we saw was from 1879.

After leaving Mt. Pisgah church, we decided to stop somewhere for dinner. We ate brisket tacos at Red Rooster Icehouse in Hawkins. I messaged my mom to see if she could think of any more details that could help us find Grandma's house, like the name or type of church at the end of the road. She wrote back, "I think it was a holy roller church, maybe Pentecostal." So, of course, I asked our waitress if she knew of any holy roller Pentecostal churches on 14 or 49. She laughed and told us where to find the Pentecostal churches near there. While driving, I called my sister. She generally does not have a great memory but has an excellent sense of direction. Within 10 minutes, she sent me the latitude and longitude coordinates. Yay, we were able to use that to find the property. The church my mom was talking about was no longer a church and had been converted into a private residence.

I had so many memories hit me while we were driving down the once familiar country roads near my Grandmother's property. It was so pretty. We used to spend HOURS wandering these county roads on our own as kids.

We finally made it to Grandma's road. 

We drove past the house and up the hill to the Ship's property. Mr. Ship used to be a very grumpy man and I warned Daphne that we should not go on his property. The road dead ends there so we had to use his driveway to turn around. Then we drove by Grandma's house slowly so I could take pictures out the passenger window. 

As we drove off, I was kind of sad. I really wanted to see it again and get better pictures. Daphne talked me into going back and knocking on the door. Daphne walked up the porch step to ring the door bell. It was the same doorbell that was installed when the house was built in 1960. I had never known that doorbell to work, besides, no one ever opened that door. We always used the door by the carport. 

The new owners used the carport door too. Judith, who has lived there for 23 years, was very welcoming and chatted with us for almost an hour and a half. She let me wander around and take pictures of the property. She even sprayed us with mosquito spray so we could keep talking without getting bit to death by mosquitos. 

Judith said she liked the look of the old pump house, so she has left it as is. The spot where Grandpa's workshop/barn used to be is now where a house has been built for her son. There is a boat/lawnmower shed where the cornfield used to be.

Judith's husband asked me about these cinder blocks. They have left them alone because they thought maybe it was a pet cemetery. It was actually the trash pit. Grandma Love did not have city trash service, so they would burn their trash in this pit (it used to be dug down into the ground). The cinderblocks were much higher back then to block the wind when burning trash.

This all used to be different types of gardens. Grandma grew corn, melons, strawberries, beans, potatoes, okra, different types of squash, peas, and many other things. She had fig and pear trees. She canned EVERYTHING. Their little outdoor storage closet was always fulled of canned food. 

It was weird to see all of that manicured grass. Judith said she never had a green thumb and does not grow anything. 

The old magnolia tree is huge. After Grandma passed, the house was sold to a young couple. Judith told us the couple was unable to pay the mortgage and the bank foreclosed on the property. The bank sold it to a guy who buys lots of titles. Judith said the property sat for about 4 years, the owner never visited or checked on it. When she saw it, it was overgrown and the house was in need of some repair after being abandoned for those years. The magnolia tree is what convinced Judith that she needed to own this property. She said she feels like God led her to it. She and her family have been very happy here. In addition to Grandma's 5 acres, they also bought the 13 acre property next to it so no one could build anything too close to them.

We loved the circular drive. It was great fun to ride our bikes round and round for races. Lots of Easter eggs were hidden amongst the flower beds that used to cover the area within the circular drive. 

I was surprised to see that the old lamp post is still there. 

While talking to Judith, I told her how when we came to visit at Thanksgiving, we used to rake all the leaves and pine needles for Grandma. We would use wheelbarrows to throw them into the ditch by the road and then burn them. I noticed that the ditch was not as deep as I remembered and asked Judith about it. She said they enlarged the culvert pipes and did not need to dig out the ditch as often. It had never occurred to me that the ditch needed to be maintained.

Judith invited me inside to see to get out of the heat. We talked about how the house looked back then and how it has changed. The kitchen pretty much looks the same except for paint on the wooden cabinets and new counter tops. 

What Judith is now using as the dining room, used to be the main living area. Grandma had the big round table pushed off to one side next to her china cabinet. Then there were two couches and the tv in the room. We used to have to put our hand out the far window to grab a pole that grandpa had placed the antenna on. You turned the pipe to change the direction of the antenna so you could pick up Longview and Tyler television stations. We watched a lot of Lawerence Welk in that room.

This used to be the front parlor. Judith uses it as their living room. We were not allowed to sit in the front parlor, it had the fancy couches and special objects in it. We did throw all of our sleeping bags on the floor at bedtime so all the cousins would have a place to sleep.

I am so glad I was able to visit, to be welcomed by Judith, and get to see the property and house. It was really neat. I miss those old country roads and the joys of a childhood wandering around with cousins and getting our feet covered in red dirt.