I remember the first time an old home spoke to me. I couldn’t have been more than ten years old and it was a cold spring day in the back of a truck. We were riding down Main Street on the way to Legion Field for softball opening day. As the truck of girls rounded the old corner on Main Street (which looks a lot different now) I spied a big white house with a slate roof up on the hill. I could just tell something about that house was different; something about it made it special. And I wanted to know more. I wanted to go inside, I wanted to poke around, and I wanted to learn all about the history of who built it. That day was the beginning of my love affair with old things and Stonehedge. And thanks to people like Handsel Morgan, Johnnie Bridges, Mama Grace Harris, Alan and Maria Turk, Lawson Yow, Eleanor Brogdon, and others my love for old things and Buford grew stronger and stronger.
I am a ninth-generation Gwinnettian who can trace my family’s roots to the Hog Mountain area before Gwinnett was even a county. I like to joke I’m from a long line of people who just don’t like to move. Other than my four years at UGA (where I met my husband and dragged him back to my hometown before he could change his mind) and a couple in Johns Creek I’ve always been right here. Sixteen years ago we became just the third owners of 185-year-old Brogdon House right smack downtown and started restoring it. We spent months rewiring, replumbing, adding HVAC, ripping up carpet, restoring hardwood floors, removing asbestos, raising ceilings that had been lowered, redoing bathrooms, the list goes on. We were so proud of all our hard work that we had an open house six months later and invited the previous owner, Miss Eleanor Brogdon, to come and see it. Very slowly she walked through each room with not a hint of a smile (if you knew Miss Eleanor I’m sure you can picture her face right now) and finally after about an hour she came up to me and said, ‘Well, I’m not sure if it was the look you were going for but the house looks just like it did in the 1940s’ with a look that said “I think you’re crazy”. I think that might have been the biggest compliment I’ve ever received. She passed away five years later, but she and her family and the house that we share, have changed my life. I’m so blessed to live downtown with my husband, children, parents, and grandmother so close by in a home I love.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about your family.
My husband, Daniel, and I have been together right at twenty years–we met while attending UGA–and have four children ages 14, 11, 8, and almost 6. We also have two large hairy dogs so our live is loud, chaotic, and very messy.
Q: Please tell us about your current, past, or future career. What do you love most about what you do?
The phrase jack of all trades, master of none is pretty much me to a T. My undergrad is in horticulture, my first masters is in Ag Ed, my second masters is in educational leadership, and my third masters is in historic preservation. After teaching for 14 years–mostly as an early intervention reading teacher in Hall County–I’ve been a stay-at-home mom the last six years. We are currently restoring our fourth house–a 200-year old farmhouse on 100 acres in Oglethorpe County that will be a weekend hunting retreat for our family. It has termites, an army of mice, hasn’t been lived in for decades, certainly has no heating or air conditioning, and may collapse if you look at it the wrong way. Basically, it’s perfect.
Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?
It’s hard to choose since we are abundantly blessed with tasty food in Buford! Bare Bones–and soon to be Off the Rails too I bet–and Rico’s are our go-tos.
Q: How long have you lived or worked in our community?
My entire life–I graduated from North Gwinnett as did my parents. We have lived downtown for over 16 years in the first house we restored.
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in our community?
Oh my, what a loaded question! There are so many. Alive I would say Lynn Bowman, Shari Johnson, and Mary Alice Beard. Those that have passed away include my Papa Cleve and Mama Grace Harris, Handsel Morgan, and Eleanor Brogdon.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
My heart shares its home with two places–the coast of Maine and the Cotswolds in England. If I ever win the lottery and I disappear come and find me in one of those places.
Q: What is one of your favorite movies? TV shows?
The Great British Baking Show and Call the Midwife
Q: What advice would you give to people?
Follow your heart and do what makes you happy. We only get one life.
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
I would love to get on the Amtrak in Greenville, South Carolina and take it south to Atlanta so I could see our house out the window as it goes through Buford.
Q: What is your go to band when you can’t decide what to listen to?
Too hard for me to narrow down. Let’s just say a mix of 80s country and 90s hiphop.
Q: What current or former local business makes you the most nostalgic about our community?
Anglin’s Drug Store. I have such vivid memories of going there with my Mamaw, Ruth Brown, to pick up her medicine, looking at the stuffed animals, and getting our picture made in the back. Also, Marchello’s in the old Ingles/Queen of Hearts Shopping Center. If you know, you know.
Puckett’s when it was in the Harrington Tire parking lot, Parker’s Grill, Sports Connection when it was downtown, grocery shopping on Thursdays at Quality Foods with my grandparents, BFUMC’s annual fish fry in the basement with my great-uncle, Leon Kimbro, the library inside the fire station, the Christmas decorations made of shiny tinsel that hung off the light poles on Main Street, TG&Y, Harry Kelly and Linda at the antiques store. Gosh, there are just so many people and places of Buford etched in my mind and heart.
Q: If you could choose anyone that is alive today and not a relative; with whom would you love to have lunch? Why? And where locally would y’all meet for this lunch?
I am a history lover so this is a hard question! This past week I’ve gone down a rabbit hole with a YouTube series I found called Royalty Now that takes paintings of famous people and shows you what they look like now. Just because of that I’ll say Queen Victoria or maybe Alexander Hamilton or maybe Mary, Queen of Scots? This question is too hard, ha!
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about our community?
I love that even though our community has grown so large that I barely recognize it, I still am related to so many people and that my children get to go to school with their cousins.
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?
Hopefully still knee-deep restoring an old building. Give me all the tongue and grove, crooked floors, dust, radiators, resident mice, jacks, and cracking plaster.
Q: (Even for friends or family), what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
I can recite the alphabet backward as quickly as I can forward.
Q: What is the most beautiful place you have ever been?
Maui. It didn’t feel real. It was too beautiful.
Q: Favorite month? favorite holiday? and best single day on the calendar?
Christmas Eve is my favorite day. I like the kids’ excitement, all the family, a big dinner, and midnight mass.
Q: What would you rate a 10 out of 10?
Fishing on a lake in Maine in September. Riding in our boat on Lake Lanier when the lake is empty. Walking down a cobblestone street in Chipping Campden. Eating onion rings at Bare Bones. Watching my kids master something they’ve been working hard at.
Q: Who inspires you to be better?
My children. Each of them inspires me to be better in different ways. Mary Margaret has taught me new things can be scary but they are also good. Moseby has taught me that stubbornness is a good thing. Lawson has taught me it may take a little longer to learn do something than others, but you can. Bonnie has taught me to live life like you’re the boss.
Q: What is one or two of your favorite smells?
Pina colada.
Q: Finally, what 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
Together, safe, warm
