Somewhere in Valley, Alabama

 This must be an old church house.  Not really sure because there are no markings or signs other than "Historical Society" beside the door on the right.  It's certainly an interesting building, old and weathered as it is. 

The graveyard in the back was equally enthralling as the newest grave I saw was marked 1932 as the date of death.  Doesn't mean there aren't any newer graves only means I didn't see them.
There were so many baby graves, some without any markings at all other than a cover stone, no names or dates.

 We found the Shank family.  They had three baby boys.  None lived longer than a year.  That must have been a hard life.  Interesting thing about these graves is that they all had new markers, but these boys had been dead since the 1870s.  Wonder who put up the new markers?

Little George and Charlie, the third babe was born and died the same day and wasn't named.

Some of the graves were in pretty bad shape like this one on the left.  There was a hole at the foot of this grave.  When I was a little girl I remember being told a story about a grave that was sinking in like this.  I think the story may have been meant to frighten me because the child who was playing in the cemetery was swallowed up in that hole!  I always avoided the broken graves.

I feel a wandering coming on!

I spent a few afternoons here when I was growing up. 
It's a very peaceful place full of precious memories.

 

Wandering down old and forgotten roads one day, we ran across this one lane bridge.  I didn't even know we still had bridges this narrow.  Of course, we were in the middle of nowhere.  Very few people live down these roads.

 

Don't think we even met one car that day.  I stopped and backed up to take this picture.  I remember once I passed my turn on an old, lonely road so I simply stopped, backed up and proceeded to turn.  Steve had been reading the Bible.  His head jerked up and he said, "What are you doing?  You can't just back up in the middle of a road!"  I just laughed.  "Shh! Don't tell anybody."

 

We found this outhouse at a church while wondering.  It came as a great surprise to me.  I have never seen an outhouse anywhere other than at a Primitive Baptist Church.

 

This is a very interesting picture of a door in the side of a building.  Originally the point from which we took the picture was part of this same building.  This is located next to "Johnny's New York Style Pizza" in West Point, Georgia.  (Okay so we cross the Georgia line sometimes.  Hey, it happens!)

 The Doll House grave in Lanett, Alabama

This place has always intrigued me.  The grave itself is the bed with all the dolls on it.  I didn't realize this while we were taking pictures of the little house yesterday.  I looked through the window, but somehow it escaped me that the bed was the actual grave.  I was told that this little girl had asked for a dollhouse for Christmas, but she died before Christmas 1933.  Her daddy built this one for her over her grave.  From the plot itself, it seems that little Nadine was an only child.  My guess is that cousins who never even knew her continue to take care of her grave. 

Haunted Spring Villa!

Haunted Spring Villa!

Spring Villa from the apparitions point of view!  Love this shot from the woods.  It is haunting and so very appropriate considering the stories of Spring Villa.

Penn Yonge was the only private owner of Spring Villa.  As this is such a prime piece of property, it seems strange to me that the Yonge family were the only private owners.  I can imagine (and imagine is what I do best) that this piece of property is haunted by the past.  It is important here to note the date of Mr. William Penn Yonge's death as 1878.  Kind of makes it an impossible story that he was killed by an angry slave as the War between the States had been over for 13 years.  Articles in the Columbus (Georgia) News Paper report that he passed away after an extended illness due to natural causes.  Takes away all the fun of the Legend though.

However, it is easy to believe that the Curse of Spring Villa was probably placed by Creek Indians who ceded the land in 1832 before heading out on the Trail of Tears.  Surrounding lands at Spring Villa were a burial ground and the natural spring was considered a place of health and healing.  I can just imagine the hurt and anger the Indians felt about their forced relocation.  I bet there were more than a few curses left for future inhabitants.

Ah, the fabled staircase.  This is where the story gets interesting.  When I was a kid my mother told me about the Legend of Spring Villa and this is how it goes:  Right here on this staircase Mr. Yonge was attacked in the dark and his head was chopped off by an angry slave.  It is said that if you step on the thirteenth step you will get violently ill and possibly faint.

In July 1990 my family held a reunion here and some of us spent the night.  We had fun haunting the house ourselves and running up and down this staircase.  We dared each other to step on the famous thirteenth step.  I don't remember if anyone of us actually stepped there or if we just skipped it every time.  I'm pretty sure I skipped it!

There is an alcove right past the bend in the staircase pictured here.  It is large enough for a man to stand in. I've stood there and I had plenty of room.  This is where the disgruntled slave was said to hide.  Mr. Yonge came in after dark and no one was home.  For some reason, probably because he was said to be like Ebenezer Scrooge stingy, he didn't even waste a candle to light his way up to his bedchamber and therefore it was easier for the slave to jump out and make quick work of chopping off his head with an ax.

As I stated above, Mr. Yonge died of natural causes after an extended illness.  The Yonge's had three sons. One died in infancy and another died one year after the death of his father.  Mary Godwin Yonge and their one remaining son left Opelika shortly thereafter.

From my research, Mr. Yonge was a fortunate man who although he was a 49er and went to California in search of gold, did not return with a fortune but instead an education about minerals.  He established the Chewacla Mining Company and built Spring Villa.  He chose this location for it's abundant natural spring.  It is beautiful to this day even though it has been marred by, believe it or not, mining which devastated the land to the point that there is a sign posted at the beginning of the road to Spring Villa which reads:  WARNING! Unpredictable catastrophic sink holes.  Tourists are routed around this sign and come in from behind Spring Villa.  There is no longer a natural spring and the pool is hauntingly empty as well!

This place sparks my imagination so and every spark hides a mystery that I want solve!

Mount Cheaha

Bald Rock at Mount Cheaha, Alabama.

May 22, 2014

Beautiful day with my children.  We read that "Cheaha" was a Creek Indian word for "high place".  It is the highest point in the State of Alabama.

"Sweet home Alabama where skies are so blue"

Steve brought me to Mount Cheaha in June 1990.  It was really the only "true" date we had.  He didn't have any money because he had been paid with a check and didn't get to the bank before it closed, but being the man that he was he didn't tell me.  I didn't understand why we didn't stop somewhere and eat.  He bought me a bag of chips and a drink at the country store at the entrance to the park.  We rode past the lake and there were people in peddle boats and I said I sure did like riding them.  He said, "I hate them" very seriously so I said, "Okay, I don't want to ride them anyway."  Untrue, I did want to ride them, but if he didn't I wasn't going to push.  It was after we were married that he told me he didn't have any cash that day and was afraid he wouldn't make it home with the little bit of gas he had in his car.  We laughed about it then and every other trip to Cheaha we ever took!

Callaway Gardens 2014

Callaway Gardens near the chapel late April 2014.

Such a quiet and lovely place.  The children and I sat here for a long time.  James playing on the rocks, jumping from one to the other.  Hannah taking pictures.  Me just thinking and enjoying the moment.  This moment is all we have.  How very clear that is to me now and yet I still waste moments.