Patsy and the Confused Intruder

I posted the above picture in the "You are from Marietta if..." section of Facebook. A high school friend that was a couple years ahead of me in school commented by asking was the Teem Clinic in the background.

I looked at the picture again and determined that the Teem Clinic was not shown. In the picture Cherokee Street, south bound*, is in the background, but it is only the west side of the street. The Teem Clinic was across the street.

The Teem Clinic is now a bank.

It brought back another memory. In high school days either the Teem Clinic or the house next door was once temporarily occupied by a family I know who has a daughter named Patsy.

One time Patsy called me and sounded frighten and said something about an intruder was there, standing in the foyer. I hopped in my father's 53 Chevvy and rushed there to fight off the intruder.

I rushed in the house and Patsy was sorrowfully talking to a little elderly feeble lady. The lady was talking in a mixed-up-mind way. She was confused. By what she said she used to be a maid there and in her mind she still was.

Patsy and I politely listened to her as she talked gibberish and the family that lived there at one time. We told her she was a maid there many years ago, and the people she was a maid for has moved on.

Somehow we convinced her that her services were no longer needed and she wandered off talking to herself.

I feel bad about that. We got rid of her and that was all that mattered. If we were not irresponsible teenagers at the time, we would have got help for her.


*I'm not sure "south bound" is right either, because Cherokee Street is a one way street going north - you can not drive south on it, so how could you be southbound?