We took another road trip from the Firefly, pretty bed and breakfast near Madison GA One day, we went to Eatonton. As it turns out, a lot of us are conflicted right now. This place is interesting because it has in it all of the elements that are making everyone crazy. We don’t really do crazy. But, the day we went to Eatonton was ironic.
Why are we telling you this? Well, it’s because there are a lot of day trips near Madison, and we do enjoy putting our guests onto some interesting experiences. We’re practically experts on travel in the southeast US. If you are a visitor from Europe and California, it’s fun to know that there are still places like this. We are experts in the field of Back Roads Travel and this is an example.
Background
We take road trips all the time from the Firefly, pretty bed and breakfast near Madison GA. This is because we are explorers ourselves, and want to put our guests onto a good day trip if we can. This is part of what we call “backroad travel“, and this is a prime example.
Directions
From the end of the driveway take a left. When you get to the busy street in the middle of town, take a right. That’s US-441.
In about 20 minutes, you will be faced with a choice. We will talk more about this later.
The Peches Stand
On the way, there is a very famous fruit stand, whose main product is Peches. These are similar to Peaches, however they taste a lot better for some reason.
The Peches stand is featured in the internet meme “Each State Perfectly Portrayed by One photograph. We do hate to give click bait the link, but in this case it can’t be helped.
The Peches Stand is mainly notable because, as in the above photo, it is usually closed.
This day it was open. We met the Peches guy, who says he has been at that location for 41 years, and we actually did buy some Peches which were worth the wait.
They also sell some peanuts, tomatoes, and relish. The peaches were bought ultimately because it didn’t seem right to buy tomatoes from the Peches stand.
We also got a glimpse of the majestic Peches Navy. Long may she sail.
So I guess this is conflict number one. Should we be condescending, embarrassed, or impressed that this guy managed to attract attention to his place by having spelling issues? This is, of course, assuming that he knows he misspelled it, which he has surely been told by now. On the other hand, maybe he does not know.
The Frierfly Experiment will see if this can help our B and B business.
The Bypass
We haven’t talked about this much, but most of the little towns around here have a “bypass”. Madison also has one. The idea is to make the logging trucks go around the quaint downtown, rather than noisily going right through the middle.
Here is the Google Street View of the one around Eatonton.
The question of whether to take the bypass, or alternatively go through town, is the second time we could have been Conflicted in Eatonton. In our case, it is corporate policy to go through town, if at all possible. This is because we were up for sightseeing, this was an easy decision.
The Briar Patch Park
As it turns out, there is a lovely park on the edge of town, called the Briar Patch. For those of you from Europe or California, here is the wikipedia definition of this, which was made famous by the Uncle Remus books.
Being conflicted in Eatonton did not extend to this place. It was a lovely park, a bit wild, and pleasant. There was twig sculpture, chain saw art, and beautiful wild flowers.
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Certified Monarch Way Station
Come to find out, this is a “thing”. There is such a program as a Certified Monarch Way Station for those who care to pay $16 and self-audit to meet certain requirements.
https://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/certify.html
If one of the requirements is to have a lot of flowers, the Firefly is a candidate. If one of the requirements is not to have a lot of chickens, we may need to pass. Therefore this is Conflicted in Eatonton #3. What’s this worth to somebody?
There was also a beehive, at this little park, which was painted beautifully. We wanted one of these too.
Joel Chandler Harris and Uncle Remus
Okay, here is the story of this fellow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Chandler_Harris
The red haired bastard child of an Irish Immigrant spent his early childhood in this area. This was this boyhood home, which is parked behind a very impressive mansion that was owned by one of the town bigshots.
He was born in 1848 and so was a bit to young to be shot at when Sherman came through in 1865. The well connected owner of the mansion, Dr. Reid, saw to it that Joel was well educated at a couple of the local schools. After learning the newspaper business at the Turnwood Plantation, west of town, he was eventually hired by Henry Grady of the Atlanta Constitution.
During this period he became very famous for publishing the “Uncle Remus” stories. This was a collection of animal fables, told using “black person” dialect, based on the local traditional stories.
The whole town of Eatonton has little monuments and reminders of these stories, including some chain saw art in the town square.
Ironically this stuff is being guarded by the local Confederate, who is facing east. We have talked about confederates before. Most of the little towns around us have one or more. These people get extra credit for having the clock on the courthouse still work.
We talked a little about this in a previous blog. (Link)
Conflicted in Eatonton #4
The critics at the time, and now, have a lot of questions about this. Is it not true that Harris did not really make up the content? Does it bother anybody that he never wrote anything of great literary value other than this? On the other hand, is it not a bit of a talent to collect the stories, and write in dialect?
Nowadays this might have been called “cultural appropriation” .
The reader of this blog may make up his or her mind.
Conflicted in Eatonton #5, which may be resolved soon enough, is the question of how much longer the Confederate will be allowed to guard the town square. The office of the local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans may also be endangered. It was pretty peaceful the day we were there.
The Uncle Remus Museum
Ah, this place is at the edge of downtown, and is a collection of former slave shacks that were assembled from the local area.
This was a very pleasant park, that had a collection of old farm and blacksmith implements. The place was guarded by some chain saw art, and did not seem particularly judgmental about slave life. Should it have been? Conflicted in Eatonton #7 is that the politically correct people may have an opinion on how to place these buildings in “context.” The locals are choosing to let it be at the moment. We are adhering to the Prime Directive because as explorers, that is what we do.
Lunch Stop: The Frisk Pub
The Definitive Work on Grits was done awhile back:
We presume that the place is being run ironically by a former cop.
Lunch was conflicted in Eatonton because if someone orders cheese grits, should that someone also get the side order of grits? Also, if the bar has “today’s special” of something, is there a reasonable expectation that they have the ingredients to make that “something?”
This was a pleasant spot, friendly crowd, and they have live music outdoors on the weekends sometimes. Here is their link:
The Trip Back
We took some time to explore the back roads. There is legend of an ancient civilization that was in this area. They built pyramids, and had bizarre customs, however they disappeared mysteriously. We will have to conduct an archaeological mission later, to try to unearth the remains of this ancient culture. That will have to wait for another day. (Link)
Conflicted in Eatonton: What to Make of all of this?
So we are in a town whose main claim to fame touches on all of the sensitive spots in today’s culture. This is because It has artifacts and symbols of a bygone era, but not really all that bygone. Like we said above, it was peaceful that day.
Conflict #9 might be the fact that this is also the home of Alice Walker, who is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of “The Color Purple”, however on the other hand there are no chainsaw characters on the lawn to represent that famous story, which was made into an academy award winning movie. Make what you will of this, as well. We can’t pretend to understand all of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Walker
Be there in the square, because it is there. Don’t forget the prime directive.
Oh and of course, order some Nice Coffee
