The trip log on my odometer registered 855.7 miles when I returned home Sunday evening. It was a long drive, but I loved every minute of it. I returned to my roots this past weekend and going home is always a journey I look forward to.

Someone once wrote, “You can’t go home again”. There is some truth to that. If you are expecting things to be the same as you left them, you’ll be disappointed. Things change. It’s inevitable.

The funeral home my buddy and I were locked into one night while sitting up with the dead is now a daycare center. Imagine that. The pharmacy on the corner no longer has a comic book rack by the front door. How sad. The trees that once shaded Main are gone. And the couple I claimed as the parents of Main Street, Pruitt and Jean Calvert, have passed away. There is a hole in my heart because I can no longer visit with them when I go home.

But one thing remains the same. The heartbeat of my hometown. It’s alive and well. Children I grew up with are now the senior citizens. They are leaders in the community, pastors, attorneys, CEOs, musicians, farmers and storekeepers. Their children are coming of age and taking up the torches of their parents to keep the heart of the town beating still. Everywhere I went I could feel the same feelings I felt as a child. Proof that love never dies.

My journey home was multifaceted this trip. It was the weekend of The Red Hills Arts Festival and a 50th reunion of the children of the 60s that were a part of First Methodist Church’s youth group and choir. It was hosted by Charley and Beth McCool. The day was, also, a birthday celebration for our youth/choir director, Russel Ray.

God, providence, fate, and luck brought that twenty-two-year-old young man to our town in 1963, and our lives were forever changed. Those were days that can never be replicated. He was the Johnny Appleseed who planted in our lives seeds of faith, hope and love. I cannot imagine how my life would have turned out had he not seen that advertisement for a choir director on a bulletin board at the University of Southern Mississippi. I hate to think what our lives would have been like had he walked by and not seen it.

It was a great day renewing old friendships, reminiscing about past choir tours, and catching up with how our lives have evolved over the last fifty years.

Somehow, Louisville always manages to surprise me and share with me another one of her deep, deep secrets of days gone by. This trip was no exception. While walking on Main Street I ventured into the old Masonic Temple on the corner of Main and Columbus. I had heard Jeremy and Heather Cummins were in the process of restoring the historic building and giving it a new life as The Mason Boutique Hotel. I had put it on my list of things to see while in town.

Unfortunately, the restoration wasn’t completed in time for the festival, but I was given a special behind the scenes tour. Louisville should be excited for what is about to happen. I know I was. It is going to be a world class venue.

As I climbed the stairs to the second floor, I knew I was about to walk on floors few people in town had ever seen. There is a well of secrets between those hallowed walls. I could just imagine the private conversations those walls had heard in years past. Not being a Mason, I have always guessed at what took place on that upper floor. Good deeds were planned and carried out unknowingly to the public eye. To be a Mason… I could only imagine.

Town founders and fathers had walked the same floors I tread on that day. For a history buff it was a thrill I cannot describe in words.

Rooms will be named after past grand masters. The Bennett Suite, The Livingston Room, The Cummins Suite, The Grover Room, The Fair Suite, The Wesson Room. And my favorite – the Louis Winston Suite. My grandfather and I were named after him.

The doors and glass doorknobs are all original to the building. Each room has a headboard made from repurposed material. Each unique and beautifully created. The bathrooms are like none I have ever been in on my journey through the forty-nine states I have visited. Old metal crown moldings and woodwork have been thoughtfully encompassed into the restoration.

The ceilings are original unfinished wood from the day the building was erected. And the thing that impressed me the most was The Grand Ballroom that can be used for receptions, reunions and corporate meetings. You can dine where the Masons once dined and held their meetings. Every room has a unique view of the town. I can only imagine watching Christmas parades from the north rooms, sunrises from the east rooms and sunsets from the west rooms.

One of my favorite views is from the room on the northeast corner. From there I looked out over Main Street and Columbus. Across the way is the post office and the old soldier’s monument. You can almost reach out and touch it. It has been rumored that Pink Cagle, a master mason, was the model for the soldier that stands atop the monument.

When I wrote one of my books, I told about a hidden tunnel that transversed the streets between the post office and the Masonic Temple through the old city well that had been capped off beneath the monument. Though my storyline was fiction, I thought about that as I was looking down from that room. I must try to book that room for next year’s festival.

Perhaps the spirit of Pink Cagle still walks those hallowed halls and he will pay me a visit. Who knows if he will show up and share another secret or two about Louisville in the middle of the night?

All-in-all this was an exciting trip back to my roots. One I will cherish for a long time.

Dorothy was right. There’s no place like home.

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Rick Algood
May 27, 2019