I FOUND IT.......AGIAN

I need to share a secret with you. I am a cartography junkie. There I admitted it. I revel in pleasure when it comes to history or maps and could sit for hours on end. I ran across a copy of the 1914 Soil Survey of DeKalb County Georgia today and studied it for a good while. After looking at it all; the landmarks and streets that came to mind and all the memories that they held. I suddenly realized what I was looking at was not just a map, I was looking at my family’s life.


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Like many families we all came from somewhere and for ours, or for at least 4 or 5 generations, this was home. I doubt very seriously that many of them left this section of the map in their entire life. Scottdale, Georgia was a Mill Town or Mill Village as we called it. Everyone living in or around the mill made their living either working in, around or in support of the Mill. It had its own store, barber, post office, doctors and anything else that was needed. It remained that way for about 65-70 years. Part of our family was still there until the mid 90’s. Retired, but still there.

My immediate family left the village but we did not move off the map until the mid 70’s.Myself being around 9 and my brother being around 15 years old at the time. So what you are looking at is about 1/4th of my life. And what a different world it was. Everyone and I mean everyone knew everybody else. This was a good and bad thing especially when you’re a kid.

That translates to: You were pretty safe no matter where you went and the world mostly revolved around a single baseball field, hundreds of holes, ditches, culverts and anything else you could climb on or in. The down side was if you did get into trouble; which if you are true kid was at least once a day; you could count on more than one spanking. Usually by whoever caught you and then again when you got home. That is if some grown up who hadn’t taken out his or her frustration didn’t see you coming and decide to vent. Hey, you were a kid after all, you had to have done something wrong today right?

Truly though it was a special place and for those of us over 40 a better place because you had and knew what a community was. I am truly lucky because today we live in a more upscale neighborhood; about an hour south; with all the amenities but where we live it is a community once more. Neighbors actually do things with each other. Our kids’ play all the time and travel from house to house and as usual, get in trouble sometimes. Everyone watches out for everyone else, it’s just like the extended family.

Since being married we have moved a couple of times and had some great neighbors but nothing on the scale which we now have. We found a community once more. I think I’ll stay. But it was sure nice to have a look back.