Georgia's Hills

“That’s the Nights went out in Georgia, muhhhmm, blahh, hummh, that’s the night that they hung an innocent man”. Mary Beth couldn’t recall all the words to that classic song, so she kept repeating the words she did know, and blahh blahhing though the rest of it. She was trying to determine if she liked Reba McEntire’s version better, or whatever the name of the artist that sang it before, her was it maybe Vicky? She wasn’t sure of any of those answers, and she recalled how she would have solved this dilemma in the past. She would have pulled up her iPhone, or her iPad, or her laptop and looked up the lyrics and artist. But she wasn’t anywhere close to a hotspot and there was no cell service at her cabin. So basically, at this point she just began to make up her own words to the song, as she was humming literally to her own beat of the drum, she kinda figured this is what her grandma was talking about all those years ago. Her Grandma had told her that kids in the city had lost their imagination and that was the saddest effect of urban life that could have possibly happen. So here she was years after that conversation standing on the porch of that same cabin, watching the sun began to sit behind the hills.

She was with her family in the far mountains of Georgia maybe four hours from Atlanta, but it felt like a million miles away, as she looked out into the vast Blue Ridge Mountains and heard nothing but birds, and the wind. There were no power poles, there were no cell towers, and at this point there was no other humans anywhere in sight. She had walked down from the cabin and found a tree that seemed to have formed into a shape of a seat, just perfect for her to crawl into and enjoy the view of the mountains. With some guidance from her uncle and some sense of direction she figured when she looked to her right, she was looking directly at the North Carolina state line. She imaged a few miles through the thick forest was the small town of Murphy, she recalled her grandpa making fun of the state Motto of North Carolina, “from Manteo to Murphy…” and of course she can’t recall the rest of the slogan or the reason for the slogan, but she recalled her Grandpa laughing at it each time they heard it on the truck radio. They always seem to hear it as they were driving to Murphy to go to Walmart and Lowes, that was the closest big town they had to their cabin, so they made a few trips there each time they visited with Grandpa and Grandma. Dang how she missed them both, but she was beginning to understand why they stayed out here in this remote town and remote cabin and never conformed to the world. Was she truly ready to give it all up and literally put roots down in a town disconnected from the world?

Mary Beth’s Mom Ella had grown up just outside of the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, she had grown up going to public school, and having electricity and running water, but her family did live off the land. They grew large gardens that contained basically everything they ate, and filled their freezer full of deer, duck, fish, and an every so often a random bear. Ella was the first of her family to attend college and while she was there acquiring her teaching degree, is where she met her Mary Beth’s Dad, Ben. He was from Atlanta and after a short whirlwind of a romance Ben and Ella married and settled into the Buckhead section in the city, where they raised both Mary Beth and her two sisters. They all went to dance classes, and cheered in high school, and they all seemed to live an upper-middle class American suburban fairytale life via the recordings on the old VHS tapes in the closets. The only difference was Mary Beth never felt connected to that life. Sure, she loved to cheer, and she loved riding the MARTA down to the Atlanta Braves games with all her friends, but she never really felt connected. She felt more like she was just going along with what every else was doing and expected her to do.  It sometimes made her feel like she was living her life in a snow globe where everyone watched her every move and could at any moment pick her life up and shake it and she just had to deal with where the snow drifts landed. She never felt free, unless she was in Grandparent’s cabin in the backwoods of Georgia, that is where her soul came alive.

Sitting in the tree she laid her braided hair back onto the bark and smelled the slight sweetness of a honeysuckle, and it took her back to the first time she every came to the cabin. After Ella had gone away to college her parents, Mary Beth’s Grandparents had decided to move out of their ranch style home in North Carolina and go back to their hometown of Piney Flatts a little spot of nothing on a Georgia map, but a large portion of their hearts. Her Grandparents had been in the cabin about four months the first time Mary Beth and her family made the trip to see them, it was also her tenth birthday, and she was overly excited riding behind her dad in his brand new Jeep Wagoneer. She recalled her dad and her two sisters making fun of the little café that stopped to eat out just outside the Clay County line. She recalls her mom not saying much, as she seemed to be torn between two worlds, just as Mary Beth was torn. She also recalls the feeling of belonging when she entered that café, the small countertop, the checkered board tabletop covers, the smell of cigarettes on the waitress breathes, and the sound of Willie Nelson coming from the small radio behind the cash register. She loved all of it, and she especially loved how she felt like she belonged there with Gwyn the waitress, and Jeb the local who was eating a French Burger at the end of the counter. Jeb talked the whole time to the cook about the bad winter that was being predicted for the mountains this upcoming season. She loved it and for the first time in her ten years she felt free. That was the first time she had ever felt free, but she didn’t know it at that time, and she wasn’t even sure what that feeling was, but she knew she liked it. From that moment on in her life when she felt confined or backed into a corner, she closed her eyes and tried to gain that same feeling, the feeling of freedom.

As they drove along the two-lane road toward Piney Flatt’s she began to see less, and less houses and more open fields and She was listing to her Daddy complain about the muddy road full of potholes all the way from the café to her Grandparents cabin when she began to realize what was missing. There were no power poles after you took that last left-hand turn and started straight up the mountain to her Grandparent cabin.  There was nothing but the one lane road they were driving on, and trees. She rolled down the window, because she just knew if she did, she could smell the trees. She got just a brief sniff of the pine and oak when her dad told her to stop wasting air conditioning and roll the window up. She sits as still as possible waiting patiently for them to crawl up to the top of the hill so she could see the cabin. Finally, she began to see the chimney and behind it was the most beautiful view she had ever seen, miles and miles of nothing but rolling hills and beautiful blue sky.

This birthday was the best one she had ever had and still to the day is the one that makes her smile the most when she recalls birthdays of the past. Her Grandparents had no power or running water in the traditional sense, they had a well that her grandpa had hooked up to the house that created a working faucet, bathtub, and toilet. They had also installed solar panel’s that gave them enough power to run a radio, a stove, and lamps. The cabin had been on the property since the early 1800’s but over the years so much heart and soul and work had been done to the cabin that it now barley resembled the same home on that tenth birthday party. That day her grandma had made her an angel food cake with strawberry jam in the middle, made from strawberries she had grown herself. That night after the party they all sat on the front porch and her Uncle Steve who had always lived on the mountain top close to the cabin, came over and he played his guitar. At that time Mary Beth had never heard any of those songs, since they she has memorized and sang to herself sitting in traffic jams in Memphis trying to pass some time. She recalls with a smile waking up that next morning to the sound of nothing. No cars, no TV, no lawn mowers, just the sound of silence. She loved that peaceful feeling and as the years went by, she continued to long for that peaceful sound of what she thought was nothing. went on and Mary Beth followed the ways of the world, college at Old Mississippi, became a Rebel cheerleader, went on to earn a law degree and marry a doctor and move into a large townhouse in Mephis. She played the part and day after day become more and more lost in the world that she felt was created from her not by her.

Sitting in that tree feeling the warm summer breeze hitting her face she relaxed her shoulders a little more as she began to think about that day, she finally decided to find her freedom, or at least chase that feeling of freedom. She had just gotten home around 8pm, she had been working a good sixty hours per week for weeks on end, and she was feeling the wear and tear on her body. She just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for a whole week, and she wanted a dog. She wanted a dog so bad she had picked out his name and even figured out where his dog bed would be in the house, but Jake said no to a dog. He was right, there were not home enough for a dog, but she argued that was the problem, they should be home more, and be together more, and be in the moment more, but that wasn’t something Jake was interested in. She was thinking of the dog’s name, probably Tucker, because she always loved that name. When she heard her cell phone ringing. It was her mom, she had news about the cabin and the land in the mountains, they were going to place her Grandparents old home place for sale, it was going on the market tomorrow. Her heart stopped and she stopped in her tracks. Without thinking without even realizing she was speaking, Mary Beth said “no mom it’s not on the market, its mine, I am going to buy it”. When she hung up the phone, she knew exactly what was going to happen over the next few hours, days, months, and even though it scared her to the core, it also made her smile. She was about to find her freedom again, and this time she wasn’t going to leave.

As expected, when she told Jake he left that night, after packing his Ralph Lauren suits, into his Shinola bag, and drove away in his Mercedies, none of which were paid for, and none of which he could afford. She walked into her office three days later carrying a Vera Bradley bag which she had purchases at the outlet store, with all the money she made from selling all her Louis Vuitton bags, all her Jimmy Choo shoes, and every piece of furniture in her townhouse. She walked into her manger’s office in the middle of a meeting and gave them her notice that she was no longer their employee, and from this moment forward she was free. Lucky for her Jake had wanted to keep their bank accounts separate, so she could afford all the high-priced items she owned, funny thing is she never wanted them in the first place. also had also lived her life just as her Grandparents had taught her, she saved majority of her income, so when the time came, she could afford the cabin and the land in Piney Flatts without blinking an eye.

She flew to Atlanta and drove up with her parent on the day she got to sign the papers on the purchase. They used a lawyer named Maverick Junior that had a tiny little office in a one room, three chairs, one desk office, with a sign above his head that said, “I’m the boss, only when my wife is asleep”. She found it funny and quicky, and one of the thousand reasons she loved this town. He had an old filing cabinet and a phone that reminded her of a episode from the Golden Girls from 1988. As they finished up the signing, he reminded her kindly that there was no power, phones, or city water on the land, was she sure that was something she could handle. She smiled and told him that was exactly why she was headed up that mountain. He smiled and picked up the old rotary phone and called up his boss, as she exited the door, she heard Junior say to her “baby I’m headed your way”. She smiled again, feeling more and more relaxed than she had felt in years. She started up sidewalk of the tiny little town and bought a few items she felt she would need.

The general store was exactly what it said it was, it generally had everything you needed. Boots, batteries, bacon, seeds, flour, books, pottery, dog food, rat trapes, bullets, you name it, Piney Flatts General Store carried it. Mary Beth entered the door, and the bell rang above her as she entered the smell of tobacco, cedar shaving, and cookies hit her as she walked across the creaking old planks. The owner Mr. Holland came around the side of the building carrying a large bag of chicken food, he smiled and said, “oh Mary Beth, your grandma would be so proud of you”, as he walked behind the counter to get her order. Mary Beth had called earlier in the week from her parents’ home in Alanta to place the order. She had called at least six times before she got someone to answer the phone. Mr. Holland told her that he didn’t really see no need for an answering machine when she was placing the order, and he also had to call her back three times before the order was completed. The connection kept getting disconnected as they were working on the power grid in town so that brought everything to a halt. The power grid was just a locally power generator that was setup by a retired engineer about twenty years ago. Mr. Gee died about eight years ago, but the power grid he created lives on in this sleepy little town, and for that Mary Beth was grateful. She paid for her supplies with cash, as the general store only accepted, credit, as in Mr. Holland wrote down what was owned in a book, and as you paid it back, he kept track in his book, or cash. Since she didn’t want to start out owning anyone she paid for her order in cash.

Mr. Holland’s son Ryan helped her carry all her supplies out to her brand new, well new to her, Ford Truck. She bought it from her grandpa’s old friend Rinn, he was in his own word “too damn old to drive that thing anyways”, It had a few dents and scratches, but she didn’t care, it was a far cry from her BMW she had in Mephis, but she knew the young fella that bought it from her would appreciate it much more than she ever could. She loved the old beat-up Ford, and had already named it Red. As she drove back up to the cabin, she began to think of how her world was going to be living all alone without a true link to the outside world. She had a CB radio left to her by her sweet Uncle Steve. She had broadband internet so she could have cell phone to reach the outside world and be able to watch TV if she so desired. The power she had was from the setup her grandpa had created years ago with solar panels and the rain barrels were already in place to help catch the water to give her plants and chickens. OMG she thought to herself I actually own chickens. She felt as if she was as prepared as she possibly could be mentally, financially, and physically. In her heart and her spirit, she had been ready since she was ten years old and first stepped onto that grassy portion of land on that hilltop. She smiled as she drove up to the cabin and saw her Tucker sitting there in the window seal waiting on her, she had finally found her home, she had finally found her freedom.