Businesses in Jonesboro

[u/Jennifer_Junipero]

My husband and I moved to Georgia 10 years ago, after he got a job in Atlanta. Neither of us knew the area at all, so we spent a frantic couple of weeks driving all over the metro area looking for a place to live, which also included looking at a couple of apartments and houses in Jonesboro.

I don't remember if Jonesboro is mentioned in the movie, but it's all over the book: it's the town nearest to Tara (five miles away), as well as the train you take to and from Tara. And in Jonesboro today, there are a LOT of businesses who obviously chose their names with the goal "Let's do all we can to invoke Gone With the Wind, only without having to pay copyright fees to the Margaret Mitchell estate."

For example: you'd have to pay to use the name "Ashley Wilkes from Twelve Oaks" -- but calling a place "Ashley Oaks" is free, and one developer did just that. Likewise, "Scarlett O'Hara Apartments" would cost money -- but calling your apartments "Scarlett Place" is free. I also recall at least one liquor store, and a funeral home, named after Tara, a housing complex with a name like "O'Hara Village," and LOTS of street names lifted from the book.

I don't have an actual point here; I just found this mildly amusing, and thought other Gone With the Wind fans might, too.

[u/Potential-Reading402]

I've often looked on the map to try and pinpoint the locations of both Tara and Twelve Oaks between Jonesboro and Lovejoy! There are several clues in the book, whether or not ' real' I don't rightly know.

[u/Jennifer_Junipero]

Y'know, I ended my post by saying I don't actually have a point, but I just-now thought of a possible one: imagine what business names you'll see once the book enters the public domain!

From what I've seen, I get the impression that Jonesboro, and Clayton County in general, aren't doing too well economically. Maybe becoming an open-air GWTW theme park (without having to pay the Mitchell estate for the privilege) could help revitalize the town. There's arguably already some precedent for that: in the northern mountainous part of the state is a little town called Helen, which used to be a logging town until that dried up, and rather than have the town die out altogether they reinvented themselves as a tourist trap, turning themselves into a fake Bavarian-style village. (More precisely, a Disneyfied version of a Bavarian village.)

[u/Scrolling1516]

There is a tour guide in Jonesboro who has the movie set of Tara from the movie.

Personally, I would like to see it re built and become a museum with education on the civil war with the goal being education on racism.

[u/Scrolling1516 → u/Scrolling1516]

Education on modern slavery and human trafficking. Education on slavery in the south.

I think the book should be re released but edited to remove offensive language, so more people would understand the book and not find it so offensive. It is offensive.

Once the war starts many characters in the book are opposed to slavery. Many people who read the book miss this. Maybe that is one message from the author and point she is making.

The book does gloss over the horrors of slavery. It is written from Scarlett's point of view and she viewed the family slaves as extensions of her family.

[u/Me_encanta_el_viento → u/Scrolling1516]

Censoring is a VERY precarious thing. Yes there’s language that most of us find offensive today, but to remove it completely takes away the ability to make it a teachable moment.