Skirting Nashville, we found ourselves cruising south on Old Hillsboro Road, aka, Highway 46. While wife, Cindy, was attempting to navigate to Patina Meadows Farm, owned by her friends, California-to-Tennessee transplants Steve and Brooke Giannetti, I was merely taking the scenic route, not realizing I was driving toward the farm and Brooke’s store, Patina Home & Garden, in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee.
I hit the brakes when I saw Deputy Barney Fife’s patrol car from The Andy Griffith Show fame parked off the right side of the road, triggering my first impression of the village. Cindy insisted on a photo with the relic. But I was more interested in the nearby historic market. Leiper’s Fork is located along the Natchez Trace, once an important travel route for Native Americans and early American pioneers. Its settlement by Revolutionary War veterans from North Carolina and Virginia dates to the late 1700s.
Farther along, cars lined both sides of the main thoroughfare, testifying to Leiper’s Fork popularity as a weekend destination spot. Young and old Sunday shoppers strolled about, visiting shops and lining up at restaurants. We managed to find a vacant parking space adjacent to Patina Home & Garden just as the Giannetti’s were arriving to open their door for business.
After a short serendipity visit with the Giannetti’s, Cindy and I turned our attention to exploration. This quaint village appears to have become a gold mine of sorts for native residents and newcomers alike. One local merchant, native to Leiper’s Fork, expressed aversion for travel writers, claiming newcomers were changing the culture in her beloved community. “We don’t need any more publicity,” she said. She liked things the way they used to be. Leiper’s Fork was once a quiet and serene country home for a few close-knit families. Not anymore. I was amazed at the number of visitors from far reaches of the country—especially New Yorkers. Perhaps they’re surveying greener pastures away from Sharia law and unfettered communist rule in the Big Apple.
Speaking of green pastures, behind a high-end art studio, I snapped an amazing photo of a pasture juxtaposed against the smallest late-fall-blooming flowers I’ve ever seen. I wedged my phone down in the grass right in the midst of them, resulting in clever trick photography, making the little pink beauties appear much larger than they were. Those whose senses are awake will note that Leiper’s Fork is much the same—a small marvel with idyllic surroundings shouting its glory. Who can’t be attracted? But you didn’t hear it from me.
Leiper’s Fork is advertised online as: “… a small village packed with world-class talent, food, laid-back charm, art, adventure trails, a place to tour a local distillery or kick back at a world-famous open mic night, all before returning to your cozy and eclectic home-away-from-home. We guarantee you’ll fall in love with Leiper’s Fork!” They might add: “… and, sometimes, with large, somewhat indecorous, guys parading through town on roaring motorcycles.” They like the shopping here too.
Of one shop named David Arms, Cindy says, “It’s like stepping into an English hunt scene—antlers, leather, wool tartan-plaids, whiskey and pipes, all rolled into one. The kind of place where all the gentlemen of Downton Abbey would hang out. In other words, fabulous.”
Cindy says the entire village can be summed up in one word. Patina. “It’s a place where miles and miles of black four-board fences surround horse pastures, a place of beautiful homes, friendly people, and delightful restaurants offering alfresco dining.”
For me, the charm of Leiper’s Fork resonated in the quiet, shady places like the old house whose porch I borrowed for a spell where, nearby, musicians were practicing their art before taking the stage at an adjacent eatery; and like in the dramatic, landscaped backyard of certain shops where nature had carved from the escarpment a cool retreat-like refuge alongside a babbling brook. I wanted to climb down there and sit forever, however I think it was a sanctuary reserved for locals, not an escape for writers. But who knows? Maybe they’ll let me return someday when inspiration strikes to pen a novel about discovering love in Leiper’s Fork, or some such nonsense. Sometimes, discovering new settings does this to writers. The discovery compels them to spin a yarn of a hundred thousand words that’ll reside in a book upon a shelf, unread, until its pages become like ashes, rendering vain the fire that produced them.
You see? That’s the effect Leiper’s Fork can have on an unsuspecting writer. But first, to unclutter the wordsmith’s creative mind, he/she would have to do something to discourage all those pesky tourists, for it’s not those who pass through and keep passing through that make a story. It’s those who stay and endure and plant zinnias and, of course, believe in the harvest.
Wish you all a very merry Christmas and a boundless story of faith and courage for the New Year.
For more information, see:
https://visitfranklin.com/communities/leipers-fork
www.patinahomeandgarden.com/patina-meadow
Jeff Barganier is a novelist, travel writer and speaker. He travels far and wide upon the slightest excuse for something interesting to write about. His novels include Lawson’s Bluff (2021); The Slash Brokers (1998). He also manages Cindy Barganier Interiors LLC (www.cindybarganier.com) at The Waters in Pike Road, Alabama. Contact Jeff at Jeffbarganier@knology.net. You may print out his features at www.jeffbarganier.com and take them with you when you travel!