August of 2018, my wife and I stayed in Columbia, TN. for several days and took in all the historic sites around that city, Springhill, Thompson's Station, and Franklin. One day, we found Forrest's boyhood home site outside of Chapel Hill. For those of you who know the area, there is a marker off the road and a large iron gate to get inside the property. The gate happened to be open that date, so I drove (to my wife's objections) right in and after a short distance, came upon the site. There was a gentleman working in the yard and I drove up and contacted him. Turned out he was Mr. Gene Andrews, the caretaker of the property and a prominent member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. You never know how someone will react upon driving up on them and I kind of expected to be told to leave. I introduced myself and my wife to Mr. Andrews and asked, with a sheepish grin, what would it take to get inside that house. Mr. Andrews smiled and asked if I had $10.00. I told him that I did and he said to drive on up to the front of the house and he would be there shortly. We could not have asked for a nicer and more cordial host than Mr. Andrews. He stopped his work and gave us the rock star tour of the complete inside of the house and the out buildings. I bought a few items for sale in the small gift shop and made a donation to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It was my birthday that date and my wife told Mr. Andrews that I could not have received a better present. I seconded that statement to him. I have been a Forrest fan for years and I think that I have read every book written about him except for maybe one or two. For those of you who know Mr. Andrews, this is not new information. He is a class act and I will always cherish the visit.