The Last Barn Standing - maybe

This barn is the only barn still standing within the Marietta City Limits as far as I know.

There was a time barns in Marietta were more plentiful… and out in the Cobb County countryside, wells, barns were as common as barbwire fences.

This barn is near where Alexander Circle runs into Manget Street and one block away from Grogan Street. When I was growing up the people that owned the barn and the house were black, as their neighbors were. I think they were related but I am not sure.

The elderly man of the house had a wagon and a mule. You would see him in Marietta often with his mule and wagon tending business. He has came to us at least once and plowed up the yard in the spring to plant a garden. Through the years I have seen him plowing yards all over Marietta.

He had a son or a grandson nicknamed “Tarzan”.

In front of their house on Grogan Street was a wooded area which wasn’t wooded at all – it was just bordered by trees so it is hard to see in. It was a nice little serene area with Manget Creek flowing through it, before it crossed Clay Street and then into Larry Bell Park.

One day the little park like wooded hide-a-way wasn’t serene. Tarzan and I had a fight. Tarzan and I were not even ten years old yet. Some white boys aigged us into a fight. I don’t think it was even a racial thing. I don’t know even remember how it developed from pushing each other to slugging at each other. They were just bored teenagers wanting to see a little excitement. We slugged at each other, and moved all over the land. Neither one of us won… we both just gave out of breath – we took a pause to catch our breath and just never got back fighting…. Why should we? The older boys walked away bored. Ho-Hum, they an”t going to do anything – chickens!

On the good side, after that day Tarzan and I waved at each other and smiled whenever we saw each other in our segregated society.

Years later, I worked with Tarzan’s aunt at the Postal Service. She used to live in that house with her parents and grandparents.

Then, when we worked together she lived with her husband off Sandy Plains Road. Her husband was a carrier who was also a part time preacher who conducted religious services for prison inmates on Sundays. One time I went over to their house and hooked up their cable, TV, and VCR.

– I never did tell her my bout with her father or her uncle or whoever I had the fight with– I might have messed up our cordial relationship….. yep, the teenagers were right, chicken!