Commentary By Jonathan Street

Special to The North Jefferson News



Editor’s note: We recieved this in an e-mail last week from Dayna Street, whose son, Jonathan Street, graduated from Gardendale High School in 2006. Though the Street family has moved away and Jonathan is at school, he wrote the following commentary recently about his favorite restaurant and a special time in his life.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Where we love is home; Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”

There is a vast amount of truth conveyed through this simple line. Holmes was saying that although we might leave our homes, there are always those certain little things that stay in our hearts at all times and eventually draw us back.

This quote can be applied to many college students that have moved far away from home to attend a university in another city or another state. For each person, however, it might be a completely different thing that makes them miss home.

Of course, everyone misses their family, but it is more than that. There are those places, people, and memories that make different individuals think about home. For instance, in the town where I spent possibly the most influential seven years of my life to date, there is one place that I miss more than any other place back home. That place is a restaurant called Our Place.

Known not only for its good food, but also for its friendly, down-home environment, Our Place is an establishment loved by many members of my hometown. It was opened by a family about 15 years ago, and to this day, it is still filled with some of the original customers.

It is owned by a Greek family that has not changed the menu since the day it was opened. Some of their specialties include bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches, omelets, breakfast plates, hamburgers, Philly cheese steaks (known at Our Place as an Evelyn Special) and their famous French fries.

On any given morning, a table full of senior-aged men can be found sitting at the exact same table drinking coffee, eating breakfast and playing a game to decide who pays for the coffee that morning.

On Friday mornings, Our Place is full of football players and cheerleaders who always come and eat breakfast together during the football season. Also, throughout the week, groups of friends who have known each other since middle school get together and eat breakfast before school, and sometimes, these same groups of friends skip lunch at school and go eat at Our Place.

It is a place where, even when a person has not been back to visit in nearly a year, they are still greeted with friendly, familiar faces and a free meal for “old time’s sake.”

In reality, it is not the food that draws people to Our Place, although the food is excellent. What draws the people to Our Place are the relationships that have been forged over time and times — the good times and the not-so-good times.

Memories of six years’ worth of Friday morning breakfasts with my dad and brother, checking out of school to have lunch with my friends and being in a place where everyone knows your name, frequently calls me back to those days that seem long past.

My family has since moved, and I am seven hours away in college, but in my heart, every Friday morning you will find me at that special place in Gardendale, known as Our Place.