Paces Ferry Rd Post Card & Photo

One is an Atlanta postcard. The other ne is a picture I took of a driveway on West Paces Ferry Road in Atlanta about 30 years ago. Similar?

Parts of the Big Picture (Atlanta)

At an establishment in Kennesaw yesterday I sat mesmerized in front of a huge photo Mural of Atlanta, south, looking north. I think I recognized many of the buildings, such as the Federal Annex where I worked and the Richard Russell and Southern Railroad buildings next door.

I whipped out my iphone and snapped a few detailed studies, such as below:

click on each image to enlarge.

Grady Hospital

The block Scrooge McDuck vault looking building  in the foreground used to be the state archives.  I used to research genealogy  there.

On the horizon, right to left: Federal Annex (where I worked), Richard B. Russell Federal Building (where Atlanta Terminal was and where I was mugged once), and Southern Railway Building (where I was also mugged one time)..

Country Bumpkins looking out Window looking at Atlanta Tall Buildings

Peeking through the windows of what used to be Crawford Long Hospital and is now Emory Hospital at the hustle and bustle of Atlanta.

Civic Center above

above middle left, white and red vertical: Imperial Hotel with Dominoes and Dale's  Cellar

Atlanta's Best Kept Secret No Longer a Secret

On WABE public radio the other day when I turned it on  Cascade Falls off Sand Town Road in Atlanta was being discussed.  I only caught some of it.  My ears perked up when I realized they were talking about a little known Civil War site.  It isn't well known because it is not in the history books according to the speaker.  He said it is not in the history books because the winner s get to write the history books.  He was saying at Cascade Falls the Confederates lured a whole company into the Cascade Falls area and it is shaped like a horseshoe.   So, the Rebs got the Yanks in the area which was a trap and decimated them - so said the guy being interviewed, which I  take it he was a historian.  Also mentioned it got its name because there is a waterfall that falls down some rocks, cascade style.  The radio people stopped and asked several people that visited the falls - they said it was the best kept secret.  I suppose  it WAS - not now.   Thanks WABE!  Did you know Atlanta had a waterfall?

Sister Bla Bla at The Georgian Terrace

While going through some photographs I came across the above picture of the Georgian Terrace that I took several years ago.  The Georgian Terrace is in Atlanta across from the Fox Theater on Peachtree Street at the corner of Ponce de Leon Avenue.

When I think of the Georgian Terrace I think of Sister Bla Bla.  I am using "Bla Bla" for her name because I don't remember it.  But I do remember the prefix of Sister.

Sister Bla Bla had a radio show on a local radio Atlanta Radio station in the wee hours on Saturday mornings.  Wee hours is about 2am to 4am.

I worked in Atlanta for the Postal Service at the  Federal Annex on Forsyth Street in the time keeper's office through the night and had the experience of listening to Sister Bla Bla on Saturday Mornings.  The good Reverend Sister had a lot to talk about.   She talked about God and talked about Jesus, on how you should have faith in God and Jesus and you should listen to what the divine duo  are trying to tell you.   Listen to them and you will never go hungry for food or anything else, you will get everything  you want and then some.   You will be wealthy!  All you had to do is listen to the Holy message in the Good Book!

It  was almost the same sermon every Saturday morning.    You had to focus your hearing in to hear exactly how to go about letting God and/or Jesus hand you the wealth you have been promised.

As you know, God works in mysterious ways.  All  you had to do was go down to the Georgian Terrace to a room number on the second or third floor and have an audience with Sister Bla Bla.  Of course, to pay for expenses, room rent, etc, you would be expected to give a donation before you could see the Sister in person. 

When you gave offering and had your audience with Sister Bla Bla she would give you  a valuable piece of information to acquire your deserved fortune.  She would hand you a piece of paper with a certain Bible scripture or  verse for you to look up.  Here - you have to read between the lines to get what is being told to you.  You read that Bible verse you were given, and take the number  in that verse and play it in the local illegal* NUMBERS game, a.k.a THE BUG.  Those are winning numbers!

I criticized the scam from the beginning  but two of my co- Postal Employees went and gave the Sister their hard-earned money and got the Bible information and played it, and of course lost it.  There is one born ever minute.

*that was before the Georgia State Lottery,    the underground organized crime controlled the Numbers racket.

A Day At the Georgia Aquarium , 2008 (recycling my pictures)

CIRCUS Ole'

I know, I know, that is not how you spell it.   It is Circus Olay.

Seriously folks, yesterday we went to see Cirque Du Soleil, the TOTEM presentation at Atlantic Station in Atlanta yesterday.

They put on quiet a show doing various juggling and acrobatic feats to the beat of fast music with a plenty of loud drum music.  While sitting in our seats I overheard two couples that are friends with each other talk about the other Cirque Du Soleils they have been to and the ones they knew about.  They have several in Las Vegas, Disney World, New York City and whatever else they said blended in.

They have many acts that blend from one to the other.  One act I was impressed with was 6 or 8 Asian females on high unicycles doing the darnest things with little metalic bowls.  Each had a stack and with their feet they would lob them to the another female's head, or "ring a head" so to speak.  It amazed me of their precise synchronization and not even looking at each other, now that is teamwork. 

There were no lions, tigers, elephants or any other kinds of animals, as you might expect a circus to have.  It was a series of scenes with a similar them:  Mankind.  First the creation and evolution of life and on to the diversity of it all.  And all of it to a fast musical beat.

Photograpy wasn't allowed.  These pictures I took as we walked outside of the tent.

Background:  14th and 15 Streets Area

Background:  Atantic Station; what used to be Atlantic Steel

Memories of a Time Period in Atlanta 40 Years Ago

Today I thought of when I was a timekeeper for the Postal Service at the Federal Annex in Atlanta. At that time the Federal Annex had several thousand employees that were managed in three shifts, 24x7. I remembered, being a timekeeper, the next two days after a time change you could always count on a lot of people either being one hour late, two hours late, or early – it was dependent on just what they did when setting their clocks, falling back or springing forward, or if they did nothing.

Then I thought of across the Spring Street of the Federal Annex, The Atlanta Train Terminal (above picture).

While I worked at the Federal Annex that beautiful landmark (the train terminal) was bulldozed away. After it was deleted from the face of the earth for years it was a big vacant lot. Weeds and bushes grew high. It was on the edge of the Atlanta viaducts which would in a few years become Underground Atlanta.

But before it became Underground Atlanta the big vacant lot became a hangout for postal employees on their breaks, lunch and regular breaks. There sometimes in the middle of the night a supervisor named George, from Rome, and I would go out to the vacant lot and smoke and watch the socializing and loud music playing, it was always party time, around the clock.

About a 100 feet away under the viaducts the homeless hung out. I parked my car there until I a man who just escaped from prison pulled a knife on me, took my money, then got me in a bear-hug and sung religious songs to me. After he let me go, I knew Jesus Loved Me, Yes He Did, Because the Man With a Knife Told Me So.

Yessirree! Memories!

The Use-To-Be IBM Tower in Atlanta

this post card used to be the IBM Tower in Atlanta. I wonder what it will used-to-be next?

Lively Oakland Cemetery, October 2, 2011

Sunday was the 32nd Annual Oakland Cemetery Day and was just a fine day to get out in the nice weather and appreciate all the history it has to offer.


Atlanta was first named Terminus because of the railroad crossings. Next it was named Marthasville after Martha Lumpkin, daughter of Governor Wilson Lumpkin, who is buried here.



Another Oakland resident is Franklin Garrett, the official historian of Atlanta. Strangely, he wasn’t born in Atlanta but in Milwaukee, moving here with his family when he was young where he took an academic interest in its history. Once I called the Atlanta History Center to ask about a CSA troop movement I was researching and was connected to Mr. Garrett. I knew his name and was somewhat surprised I got hooked to such a well known historian. I asked him my question, and he said just a moment. I heard him put down the phone, a door squeaked open and noises on a staircase. In minutes he came back and told me what I needed to know. Then I asked him another question and he said just a moment and again I heard the doors squeak and the clomping of someone climbing the stairs. In minutes he came back slightly out of breath with the answer. I asked him another question and he said, still breathing heavily, “Are you going to have any more questions after this?”




The following momuments and people are what make Oakland Oakland.











We happened to walk by this “in memory marker” just when a docent was telling the group its history. Mr. and Mrs. Neal had seven children. Initially from Atlanta, they moved away but several of their children died. Shortly after their return to Atlanta, their last daughter died. Mrs. Neal went into a deep depression and died a year later. Her husband had this statue erected in their memory.



The next few pictures are Confederate Soldiers’ area.







Below is the Varsity food vendor truck offering food at the event. We were ready for a lunch, so I went to scout out what was available. As I was walking I was reading the menu and suddenly I took a step in mid–air, then hitting the ground with a hard impact. I did not see the brick rain gully next to the cemetery street. My knee and leg were skinned to a bloody mess and it hurt! Our choice was Varsity dogs to eat, using Coke to clean the blood off. A lady came over to offer polysporin. It’s amazing the kindness of strangers in times of need. When we finished eating we hobbled down the street to the EMT truck who saw our situation and were preparing to come to our aid.

I noticed through the day the leg did not bother me so much when I was walking and getting circulation, but when I stopped and then moved after being immobile for a while, it hurt like hell! Now, over 24 hours later, it is still painful when I bend the leg or put all my weight on it. I think it is getting some better and maybe I’ll live.



This is not a real statue. Watch him long enough and he will move to another classic pose. See the video.



There were musician groups here and there around the cemetery playing music to suit the mood of the dead or to put some life in such a deadly place. The musicians really made the atmosphere very enjoyable.






I don’t think climbing all over the memorial for the Unknown Confederate Dead, as this guy is doing, is the most respectable act, but he did it anyway.





A lot of people wore costumes dressed from various periods, i.e., Civil War days and Victorian, turn of the Century and even a touch of Halloween. When I got this group to smile for my video, they all had vampire fangs, which I guess fits in the cemetery theme. Vampires seem to be everywhere lately. What a deal!



There was an exhibit of classic cars, which seem to appear at most every event or fair like atmosphere. Here they seem to have a “Driving Miss Daisy” touch to the season.







Oakland, rest in peace until next year.