Positive Focus Sunday - Garden Lecture and Family History

photo courtsey of UT Jackson 

 

Ok...

So last Thursday was our monthly MGGGC (Master Gardener Group of Gaston County) meeting. Our guest speaker was Jason Reeves from Jackson, Tennessee.

Wait! What! Jackson, Tennessee!

That's my home town. 

A little bit of my backstory.

My paternal grandparents lived in Jackson on Lexington Avenue. Their lot is now a park area. I had relatives on both sides of the family in the Jackson area. But I turned 9 just as we moved to Texas (yuck). I am not a fan of Texas. 

I thought for many years I would go back to Jackson and attend Union University, which at that time, was just across the street from my grandparents. That never happened. And as it turned out, even if it could have occurred, both grandparents had passed and the house sold and turned into a parking lot. 

Once my grandmother passed, we did return to Texas on and off to stay in Big Sandy, Tennessee with my maternal grandparents (part of the story there). But when they moved to Texas to live next door to my parents, we never went back.

Fast forward to this past week.

When we got the handout for the presentation and I saw Jackson, Tennessee on the header, I immediately popped up and introduced myself to the speaker, Jason Reeves. As it turns out, he is familiar with a second cousin who happened to operate a family nursery (now closed). A place where I was sure I was going to work, despite only seeing the nursery 3-4 times before we moved to Texas.

I to have to say the Randolph family (my maiden name) were not the closest of families, despite living very close together. 

Anyway...

Accompanying Jason were a couple of family friends who also had lived in the Jackson area. In talking to them, it was like old home week! They knew a lot of the same people my parents had known and were familiar with places I mentioned. Including, they knew of my maternal grandfather, a man I didn't know existed until I was in my early teens!

Now I want to make a road trip to Jackson to go back and see a lot of the 'old' spots. Checking Google maps, even my old house on Meadowbrook Drive has changed drastically. But it would be interesting. 

This just shows you never know what will turn up in the least expected places.