Coming Down From Kendall Mountain

Before I tell of the baby shower we went to today I need to paint a little background: Several years ago at an arts and crafts show in downtown Marietta on the Square was a lady in a booth selling autographs books. She was offering her signed autographed books by her. Anna looked over one book and it looked good so she bought the trilogy, all signed. The books are about a small fictitious community in the north Georgia Mountains. After Anna read them she lent them and she has ordered the set of books for her mother and a friend as gifts. And she wrote the lady saying please let her know if the publishes another book. I noticed her address was in Calhoun, Georgia. The lady sent her a card back, saying a 4th book was just published, so Anna again bought copies and gave them as gifts. The lady’s name is Marian Denman King.

Okay, we got that out of the way. Yesterday we went to Anna’s first cousin’s son and his wife’s baby shower. After we had refreshments the men folk went downstairs to the den to watch ball games.

I guess the men were expected to go and watch sports, There were two TVs, one that had on the Braves vs. Washington game and the other TV was showing the Little League World Series, which had a team from Columbus, Georgia and the other team from Oregon. The Braves were winning when I last noticed, 7 to 1, and the Little League team from Columbus, Georgia, was also winning.

I was sitting beside an old man on the couch. He told me when he was a child his family owned all this land these estates we were in, which included a champion golf course and rolling hills of homes. This is Kennesaw, Georgia. And we talked about downtown Marietta. He told me of an uncle and a grandfather that lived near downtown Marietta that he used to visit. We talked about the various streets in downtown Marietta and how they have changed. He said he hadn’t been downtown Marietta in a long while because he moved to Calhoun, Georgia. Then we talked about Calhoun. I asked him about the big bronze statue of an Indian downtown Calhoun, who was it. He said he never got close enough to read who it was. He also told me in Calhoun he owned a skating rink business and operated it for 30 years. He sold it 7 years ago. Now, every time they goes out to eat or someplace people remember and speak to him but he doesn’t remember them.

From downstairs we could hear the rustling sounds of footsteps and movement. It was time to go back upstairs. It was time to go.

I stood in the foyer and talked to various people standing there. The man who owned the skating rink in Calhoun and his wife left. After they left Anna’s first cousin’s mother was telling me she owned a booth at the Antique Mall in Kennesaw. She said that her sister-in-law that just left brought down a bunch of books she had written that she was going to try to sell in her booth.

Then my first thought: A writer of books in Calhoun? I am a family researcher, and I know most, if not all of my in-laws’ in-laws’ maiden names. I knew the lady I was talking to maiden name was King. It suddenly registered that the Marian Denman King series were written by somebody that lived in Calhoun. I asked her what was the books about and she said “a fictitious place called Kendall Mountain.” BINGO!!!

Anna and her mother sat for about two hours beside an author whose books they really enjoyed and they didn't know it until the lady had been gone about 5 minutes.

It is indeed a small world. For natives around here I think it is less than 6 degrees.