We took the scenic route home today - through Vanleer

 

Coming home from Nashville today, we decided to take the scenic route and go through my Grandmother, Celia Blackwell Thorne McGill's hometown of Vanleer Tennessee

 

I told Dwayne about riding the Greyhound bus, local bus, of course, up to see Mawmaw during the summer.  We would go swimming in Yellow Creek, in fact I caught my first fish with Uncle Hunter at Yellow Creek.

 

You can't go from Dickson to Vanleer without driving through Pond....that is P - O - N - D!!!  She was so funny.

This is the little convenience store, as I remember, where we could go buy a cold drink.

This was the Vanleer Bank.  The old Hardware store that use to be to the left down in the parking lot has been torn down.

This was a little mechanic shop

This is a little church that sat next door to her house.  The doors to the church were never locked.  I would always go down and play the piano.  I loved the sound.

 

I thought this might have been the old post office, but we saw another building that looked more like I remember the post office looking, it was on the other side of the convenience store (antique store).  I did not get a picture of it.

This little house is built on the lot where mawmaw's house use to sit, right next to the little church.

Sadly, this is the corner lot where her house use to sit.  It was in bad repair when she lived there, so I was not surprised, but it still made me sad.  She loved living in Vanleer.

Today made me think so much of these ladies.  From left to right is my Grandmother (Daddy's momma) Celia Blackwell Thorne McGill, Her Aunt Mariah (she lived to be over 100), and then Mawmaw's sister in law, Gladys Blackwell (Hunter Blackwell was her husband) - man could she cook!!!.

 

Mawmaw was like a lot of ladies, she did not want to be alone.  She loved to talk, boy did she love to talk (in fact the summer Olympics start this week and I cannot think about the Olympics without thinking about her, she LOVED the little gymnast, Mary Lou RETINA - not Mary Lou Retton - ha!!!), but most of all she loved her family.