Conveniently, it would be about lunchtime when they arrived in Savannah. The River Restaurant on the cobblestoned lower River Road was the choice from the offerings in the tourists' guide book. The decision proved to be a good one, at least as far as the food went. The waitress, on the other hand, had apparently learned her Southern hospitality techniques in the Bronx. But maybe she was new to the job and still struggling. After a little more curio shopping, it was off to the real destination for the day, LaGrange, GA, about fifty miles south of Atlanta.
The drive up I-16 from Savannah to Macon, GA, proved to be peacefully uneventful but getting around Mercer University (another little Baptist college that grew up to be a university, at least in name) to get on SR 74 proved to be a challenge. It was still too early for dinner as they drove through the little towns along the way; actually, it wasn't clear that all of them even had a restaurant where one could buy a meal. After a while Woodbury, GA, because of its location on the route, looked promising for dinner. But someone blinked and Woodbury was gone. Greenville, GA, then, was the next town and, sure enough, there was a restaurant on the square called "The Garden Path." Entering the restaurant they noticed that many of the patrons had finished their meals and were watching a group of people wearing period costumes-maybe 1920's rural America-who were singing gospel songs in a Stamps-Baxter or bluegrass style. Others still seated at tables had guitars under their arms, apparently waiting their turn to perform. Carol and MJ stood at what appeared to be a hostess's stand but, even after several minutes had passed, nobody stepped up to greet them. Two women who were apparently waitresses moved toward them but, looking straight ahead, walked on by and were heard to be confirming to each other that something in the kitchen needed stirring. Another woman turned in their direction and appeared to be about to play the role of hostess, but she, too, walked past them barking orders to a child about getting back to her table. Had they become invisible? No human being had yet acknowledged their presence, much less engaged them in a conversation about sitting down and ordering something to eat. There seemed to be one entrée on the menu, though they never saw an actual printed menu. It was catfish; and since Carol doesn't eat catfish, that could be a problem. So, they declared eating dinner in Greenville a lost cause and left the premises hungry
To this day they speculate about that event. Had they interrupted a private party, such as a church social or a political gathering and the waitresses were embarrassed to tell them? Or had their business day come to an end without having posted a "Closed" sign? Maybe there was something wrong with the way that they were dressed, but they checked each other out and couldn't find anything to justify that explanation. Southern hospitality's image had suffered yet another setback.
Before leaving Greenville, Carol phoned Uncle Howard in LaGrange. The trip to LaGrange was for the purpose of visiting Howard Tolen. His late wife Dorothy was one of Carol's two maternal aunts. Howard and Dorothy had moved to LaGrange over twenty years ago when he was an executive with the Butler Manufacturing Company. Carol explained that they were in Greenville, hoping to find a place for dinner. Howard answered, more prophetically than he could have realized, "You're not likely to find anything to eat in Greenville." Leaving Greenville and its ambiguous memories behind, they then proceeded to a shopping mall on the edge of LaGrange and found a Mexican restaurant, Los Napoles, that was a welcome sight for dinner. Although it is sometimes a bad decision to order Tex-Mex a thousand miles from the border, this meal proved to be the exception.
Carol had printed out one of those MapQuest driving instructions pages from the internet for the exact route to Howard's home. Who could get lost in LaGrange, GA, right? Well it's bigger than you think and there were twelve steps in the driving instructions. So, Carol drove as MJ read the steps. Miraculously, they were in Howard's driveway before 9:00 p.m. (of the same day!) After warm greetings from Howard and carbonated drinks (Mexican food, remember?), Carol hit the sack while MJ and Howard watched the ninth through twelfth innings of the Braves game. (Braves won.)
