Three generations of Hannahs rarely traveled far from their rural home in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, officially homesteaded with the deed signed by President Buchanan. There were cows to be milked morning and evening – couldn’t get too far away. The fourth generation grew up and scattered from Florida to Washington State and points in between, though one retired to the farmhouse – without the agriculture. The fifth and sixth generations became world citizens, living at times on several continents. After the third generation, none kept cows or farmed the land. Still, in every heart, there has been a love for “The Place” where we returned to be family. It was sold as the fourth generation aged with regret from all. Each descendant wished somebody in the family, but not us, would keep it as a lodestone calling for our return.
Our daughter Anna arranged a nostalgic tour back to The Place over Father’s Day weekend, making arrangements with the Morgans, the current owners, to let us see the place and the house where I was born. Shannon and Jeff were gracious hosts, listening to my account of the history of The Place. It had been more than twenty years since I had seen it. So much had changed.
The old house had lost its original white paint and remained unpainted until a barn painter conned Papaw into adding his house to the red he was using on the barn, a story I told on this blog at https://www.virginiamcgeebutler.com/blog/2021/10/9/the-barn-red-house. Now, the house was a beautiful pristine white.
The high ceilings had been lowered, no doubt to cut on air and heating bills.
Wood walls were covered with sheetrock.
In my earliest memories, the closest the house came to “running water” was Uncle Erskine running down the hill to the spring and back up again with a bucket in each hand. There was an outhouse out back. Now, there is not one, but two, bathrooms in the house.
The two fireplaces with their chimneys are gone.
·The fences around the house and the dairy barn are gone, replaced by horses grazing peacefully in the distance.
A few familiar things remain. A huge oak tree that provided afternoon shade on hot summer days stands guard in front of the house. The windows are the same, though the new owners added decorative shutters. Anna and I told Shannon we were especially glad to see the milk-and-wine lilies lining the south side of the house since we have propagated their offspring as we have moved from place to place. She laughed and confessed. “I didn’t like them when we came. I dug them all up, and back they came. I tried to mow them down, and back they came. You can’t get rid of them. Now, I’ve decided I like them.”
The Morgans have rightfully remodeled the house to fit their needs, but we were pleased in the ways they have honored its heritage. Jeff said when the 911 service began, they called to get an official name for the location in case of emergency. The crooked half mile or so road to The Place had never had a name. He told them to call it “Hannah Drive.”