I’m continuing from Sunday’s post about my writing journey to Hollyhill. To get there I had to mine my memories of and experiences in my hometown and my little country church. This is a picture of that church and the congregations in 1962. That was before I attended there, but a lot of these people were still there when I became a member. I based a lot about David and his calling to preach on the preachers I grew to know in that little church. Several of the preachers called by our church were bi-vocational. They followed their calling to preach, but they also held down jobs during the week since our church couldn’t financially support a fulltime preacher. A pastor who was at our church for many years had once been a fulltime pastor but after his wife divorced him, no church would call him for a fulltime position. At that time in the Sixties and before, most churches were unwilling to hire a divorced preacher. I gave David that difficulty and a job as a newspaper editor. That opened up many possibilities for David and my stories.
Hometown News
I grew up reading our little hometown newspaper. It came out once a week and had all the community news of who visited who. If you tripped over your roller skates and ended up with a broken leg, you’d make the paper. On the inside pages, you could find every elementary school’s 4-H Club Meeting minutes and see photos of hometown girls and boys on the honor roll at college. A fender bender on Main Street was major news. And when you read a wedding or baby announcement, you knew the whole family back to both sets of grandparents. You were glad the headline story was that Dairy Princess because that meant nothing bad had happened in your town that week. That’s the kind of paper the Hollyhill Banner is except a few storms come along to push the Dairy Princess off the front page in my Hollyhill stories. There’s a feature in our local paper called “The Way We Were.” That’s how I tried to make Hollyhill–the way it might have been in the Sixties.
My Small Town Now
Things have changed in my little town. When Walmart opened out on the bypass, downtown started dying. The mom and pop stores couldn’t compete. None of the businesses are still open from when I was a kid. We still have one of the two banks although it has had a name change and new ownership. There’s still a barbershop, but even the poolrooms are gone. For a while Main had empty storefronts, but now the street has had a rebirth. Not with stores like of old. There’s no place to sell your eggs or fill your prescriptions on Main. You have to go out to the bypass for those drugstores. Even the hometown newspaper moved its offices out to the bypass. Somehow that seemed especially wrong. The churches are still there on each end of town. The library built a new modern building, but they stayed on Main down the street from where the old post office building that was part of the WPA projects in the Depression. That building has city offices in it now, and right, the post office built a big new building out close to the bypass. Two higher scale restaurants opened up where the grills used to be. Nice places to eat, but no soda fountains. Other stores have opened up with unique items not found at the big box stores. They try to appeal to visitors who like exploring a little town. The courthouse is still there, but now the front door is locked. You have to go in the back way and let the officers stationed there check your bags before you go inside. You have to wonder how things got so different that you can’t walk into your courthouse free and easy. But that’s a post for a different day.
Nobody has to come up with a nickel to park downtown anymore. The parking meters are long gone. Saturday afternoons see empty streets now instead of neighbors talking to neighbors. The eccentric characters have passed into legend. The only times the streets are crowded these days is during the annual Burgoo Festival or when they have special events. They even close off Main to let the high school have their prom in the street. The kids love that.
But while things do change, the little hometown I remember from the Sixties lives on in my Heart of Hollyhill books.
My first Hollyhill book, Scent of Lilacs, gets the story going in the humid summer of 1964, as Jocie digs into her family’s past and stirs up a whirlwind of discoveries. Orchard of Hope ushers in a whole new story as the town suffers through a drought and wakes up to the need for Civil Rights when a new family moves to Holly County and challenges the status quo. Finally, Summer of Joy has the past coming to call with two people making their way to Hollyhill to change everything. From a river baptism to a wedding delayed by a man intent on making trouble, things are anything but uneventful in my little Hollyhill.
It’s sometimes hard to keep writing new books about the same characters, but I got to know my Hollyhill people so well that I was able to keep going with their stories. And of course, I knew where they lived and worshiped. In Summer of Joy I wanted to wrap up some loose ends from the previous stories. While I was planning the story, I kept imagining people showing up unexpectedly to knock on Jocie’s door, bringing the past with them.
Each of the books can be read as stand-alone stories, but the story is much richer if the reader visits Hollyhill all three times to get to know Jocie and her family along with those small town characters.
Everything Changes
There’s a saying that everything changes. That’s certainly true about my hometown and about our little country church. We’ve remodeled the church and built a beautiful fellowship hall beside it. The pews are padded, the floors carpeted, and we’ve encouraged the mice to find a new place to live. But the church still has that family feel where everybody knows everybody.
Home to Hollyhill
That’s the kind of feeling I tried to create in my Heart of Hollyhill books for readers who come visit my Small Town, America. I like to think about them walking down my Main Street and seeing Jocie taking pictures. Maybe they’ll smile at Wes speeding by on his motorcycle or try to get Zella to share the latest Hollyhill gossip. I want them to feel like they’ve gone to church with neighbors who aren’t perfect but are doing the best they can. I hope my Hollyhill stories will make them smile and maybe wipe away a tear now and again. And when they read the last page, I want them to be happy they came “home” to Hollyhill.
Thanks for letting me visit and tell you about my hometown. And thanks for sharing about the kind of towns you grew up in. Some of you were small town girls. Some others country girls like me. A couple of you were military kids who moved around to all sorts of towns. One wondered about having the kind of roots some of us small town people know, but the other embraced all the moving and being in new places. I think I might have had a hard time doing that. Some of you are Kentucky girls like me.
But one thing we all share is how we like stories. I hope if you haven’t visited Hollyhill, that you will decide to check out those stories about Jocie and family and friends. They are available online and even in audio with me narrating the last two.
The Giveaway
You have one more chance to get an entry or another entry in my book giveaway. Winner will get his or her choice of River to Redemption or one of the Hollyhill books. Deadline to enter is midnight EST, February 15, 2025. You must be 18 or older to enter. I’ll contact the winner (chosen by random) by email and announce the winner (first name and last initial) on my post on Sunday night.
You told me where you grew up or if you didn’t yet, you can now and add something you remember about that growing up place that still makes you smile.
But any comment, even just a hello, will get you an entry.
Comments 27
Ann, you could have easily been talking about my hometown of Somerset, Kentucky. You mentioned so many similarities. Nearly everything died downtown when Hwy 27 became the hot spot for businesses; however, over the past few years, Somerset downtown has been revitalized, but it’s not like it used to be.
I think this is why the Holly Hill books are my favorite.
I would love to know what Jocie is doing now. Hint. Hint. Hint.
Your town sounds really lovely. I always wondered what it would’ve been like growing up in a town where you knew everyone and it really felt like a neighborhood.
The home town I live near now after I got married and moved here many years ago, has gone through a lot of changes since then. The two old fashioned hard ware stores that had everything is gone, the two great all around eating places are gone, clothing stores, some moving to the by-pass, some are out of business. The down town bank moved almost out of town, and the two shoe stores are gone. Most of the stores down town now are empty. Some have some craft type business in them and some have turned into small churches. The library moved to a new building, but close by the other one. A new courthouse was built and located across the street from the old one. The post office remains down town and in the same location, but I wish it had moved somewhere that had more parking spaces. Your post just got me to thinking about all the changes that had occurred.
I grew up in a small town in TN and fondly remember going to 3 different dime stores down town. Now there are mostly offices and small stores and a few restaurants downtown. I think Kroger was even there in the 1950’s.
Now we have Walmart, 2 clothing stores and 1 shoe store in locations out from town as well as Kroger and 2 other grocery stores. There are some dollar stores, smaller stores and a few second hand stores. No wonder people shop online now.
Author
We had an A&P at the end of Main when I was a newly married. That was the biggest grocery and then there were some small ones on streets around town along with a couple in the middle of town, Brenda. We had two ten cent stores. They were the best. One of them had candy in bins that you bought by weight. I didn’t often get to buy the candy but I thought about wanting to a lot. When my oldest son was little he loved going in the ten cent store where he could get a little plastic horse and cowboy. I see parents and grandparents with kids at the Dollar Tree store now letting them get a toy. Makes me remember those early days with my son at the ten cent store.
I grew up in a small town in PA. We lived in a row house, 6 connected houses. My grandmother and neighbors would sit on the front porch and visit across the porch railings on a nice day when taking a break from chores.
Author
I guess those row houses were sort of like condominiums or fourplexes might be today, Mary. I liked the image of your grandmother and neighbors sitting on the porches and catching up on each other’s news.
I was born in a house that was formerly my grandfather’s grist mill and store at a crossroads with our church on one corner, a country store on another, the grammar school across from our house on another corner. My family moved a lot but not ever outside the county where five generations of us lived. I live in a busier city now but still inside the same county. The first Ann H. Gabhart I read was Scent of Lilacs because I liked the cover. I’ve bought and own all of them since.
Author
I’m so glad the lilacs on that first cover pulled you into my story, Fran, and that you have gone along with me on many other story trails since then.
Your little growing up village sounds like the kind of place that could be a setting for some of my stories. Neat too that you were born in a house that had so much family history. Sounds as if your roots go as deep as mine.
I grew up in the same hometown as you. I remember how we looked forward to the newspaper each week . It is so sad it has changed so much, it gives very little information on the daily lives of our citizens.
Author
Newspapers have taken a dive, Brenda. People get their news on the internet these days, but I miss seeing more local news too. Whether you agreed with everthning the paper’s editors wrote or not, it was neat having somebody out digging up local stories.
And yes, we are definitely hometown buddies.
We lived in the country, on a farm that belonged to my grandpa (mom’s dad); he did the farming. Dad worked with his dad as a painter/wallpaperer. Then they opened a paint store, took in furniture to repair and refinish, then added handmade crafts. Sold the store years ago, but dad, at 90, still does a little woodworking.
Author
Always great to hear from a country girl, Kathy. Since that’s what I am, I’m a little prejudice and think it’s the best way to grow up ever. I’m guessing it was neat getting to sell the handmade crafts and meeting those who made them. Your dad sounds like an example of a good way to keep living.
Hi Ann
I’m one of those girls who grew up on a farm. We had a “church” but in reality it’s a cult. I wonder how my life would be different if I had grown up with a church that was spiritual instead of with spiritual abuse. Organized religion is a trigger to me
Author
I’m so sorry you had such a bad experience with your “church,” Marianne. I love being part of our country church family, and could wish that for every person although there were disagreements between people in the church at times. Most of the time those were worked out.
Good to know a fellow farm girl.
In Lexingron they used to have Parkette Drive-In. I always loved the food and hearing my Mom tell stories such as it was wherd she and Dad had their first date.
They recently demolished it which caused a few tears as I remembered fun times there. Often we would buy our food tgen go to Family Drive In for movies which was just down the road. This was all apart of my youth as well as my children when we visited Lexington when they wete small.
Thanks for allowing me to take you down memory lane for a short visit!
Author
I don’t think I ever went to the Parkette Drive-In, Pamela, but I knew about it. It was sad for a lot of people when it was torn down because so many memories happened there. My husband and I didn’t go to Lexington that much but went to Frankfort to the drive-in movie. Those were fun times sitting in the car watching the movies on the big concrete screen. How things change but the memories are good.
I grew up in FL and still live on the Space Coast. My hometown has grown a lot over the years!
Author
The space coast. I’ve never heard that before, Trudy, but it’s a very neat way to think about that part of Florida.
Oh, yes! It’s Brevard County, where Cocoa Beach is located, also Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Patrick Space Force Base. Our area code is also 321 since it’s part of the countdown for the rockets! We fought hard for that area code, too!! Patrick used to be known as Patrick Air Force Base.
Author
Love that about your area code, Trudy. I’ll be dropping that bit of trivia on everybody in the next few weeks. 🙂 I surmised that you were on the Space Coast because of the Space Center. What a great place to live. Thanks for sharing more about your place.
Upstate New York. Grew up in the country. Remember the summers gardening and canning our produce.
Author
I’ve spent a lot of time in the summer gardening and canning too, Sharon. There is something fulfilling about seeing shelves full of the produce you’ve grown yourself and preserved for the winter. I spent a lot of hours as a kid helping my mother pick beans, snap green beans, hull lima beans, peel tomatoes, pick berries, shuck corn and more. All that was work, but good times too as we talked while we worked.
Years ago having a yearly pass to Sea World (San Diego, CA) when the prices were much cheaper. My mom would drop my brother and me off there sometimes and we would call on a pay phone when we were ready to be picked up (long before cell phones). Same thing when we went to the movies. We would also call on a pay phone when we were ready to go home.
Author
Those sound like great memories, Diana. I can just imagine how much fun you must have had at Sea World. And before cell phones turned the world upside down, there were pay phones everywhere. There was even a country music song about a giving someone a quarter to call somebody who cared. Of course, I remember when you just needed a dime.
Cruising around our small town on the weekends.
Author
Cruising was really big for young people in our town when my kids were in school, Dana. And maybe when I was a kid too. I just never had a car to cruise around in and was stuck out on the farm. 🙂