Friday, April 22, 2022

Ed $ Dick Sullivan, Larry Bell Park & Sweet Water Creek

The late brothers Ed and Dick Sullivans at Bell Reunions. I think these 2 pictures were taken at 2 separate unions.. Ed is in the brownish-black shirt and Dick is in the UGA shirt.. The annual Bell Reunion was held for people thar enjoyed Larry Bell Park, mostly in their formative years and Ed and Dick sure did. They were part of it daily. The Sullivan family ran the concessions for Larry Bell Park. Int he Clay Homes they lived three doors away. Ed’s birthday was mid July and so is mine. So his family and our family went on a picnic in mid-July for a duel birthday celebration, two or three times. The Sullivan’s owned a wooden opened trailer that was work related but it also came in handy with our picnics to haul picnic stuff in. I only remember one time. We went to Sweet Water Creek between Austell and Douglasville. There was a place by a bridge going over the huge creek and on the side of the bridge was a flat road-wide grassless clearing going down into the creek and coming out on the other side. Apparently, the bridge took its place. The -road was ideal for a private beach. I think it was my 5th birthday party. I got into the water while walking down the road. I was the first one in. I waded deeper in and suddenly, GLOPE! I stepped off an under water cliff into water over my head. An underwater current grabbed me and away we went. Dick Sullivan, who was probably almost a teenager jumped in and save me, with Daddy not far behind. Dick Sullivan saved my life. Years later the Sullivans were on my Atlanta Journal paper route. They lived on Chester Street, which would probably over look Roswell Street and the Coca Cola plant, and the National Cemetery if it wasn’t for the trees. After Dick retired he went to work, part time for Marietta Hardware, which was just one block away from his parents home. When the Clay Homes was bulldozed he on his lunchbreak visit the site often and watch it, painfully, I would think.

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