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... to Albany!! We recently returned to Albany for the January Blackbeard's Gathering and having a few extra minutes, we decided to visit old homes and old places ... sometimes that's a good idea ... sometimes its not!!! Can you go back home? We first dropped by Morningside to visit Helen Long Cordell (who taught me to type!); but soon to be 97, she was out gallivanting around!!! Disappointed ... but delighted! We left there and drove through Tommy's old Albany Herald route, and he told me stories of people who lived "there" along the route. One of those people was the old Albany Cardinals manager and pitcher, Chief Sheldon Bender! Tommy was amazed at how the area had changed, and how pitiful it looked. But I was strangely content to watch him reliving a job that helped so many young boys in Albany, and eventually helped put Tommy through GA Tech. We decided to
drive by and see what the
Arctic Bear corner was up to,
and on the way we passed the old sports field where Tommy played in his youth,
and also my two boys, Jim and Chuck Calhoun while we were living in Albany 1958
- 1970. I was unable to watch most of their games, but my father, Luell
Smith, who had dreamed of having a son (and instead had 3 girls), was at
every game!
Then on to the
Arctic Bear property ... hmmmmm looks
mighty different!
Then we started out across the old bridge, and took the "high road", wondering where the "low road" was. Ironically, we had heard Seaborne Currie's name mentioned on the radio on the way down, and remembered such fun days with his sister, Charlotte ('55), as we passed the Radium area where they lived. Quite frankly, I refused to look at Radium or take pictures ... I doubt if I can ever look again - no matter what wonders they create. Albany did not take the source of Radium (the springs) ... but it took her heart (the Casino and Pavilion). We drove on out by the Radium Country Club and golf course ... ALAS! They had mowed it recently. I remembered many fun "spend the nights" at the Vansant's, and Mary Dale ('56) and I would spend hours by the pool at the club. It was not easy being in a bathing suit next to "Miss Perfect Figure"!!!! We left there to
drive by the first place we lived in
Albany when we moved
there right after Thanksgiving in 1948.
On the way back
to visit our next home, we passed the old grocery store
The
old train terminal
Horne Wilson, Inc. was a branch of an Atlanta company, and sold wholesale heating and plumbing. It had an old pull rope elevator, and we loved to go down to the office and play "office" and ride on the elevator! I remember taking my two younger sisters, Sharon (58) and Tina (61) up to the top floor that first December ('48) and finding three bikes. Two shiny smaller bikes and one re-painted red regular size. I didn't exactly understand why I was chosen to receive the re-painted bike ... but my parents REALLY couldn't believe that I had ruined Santa Claus forever for my sisters. The next year
we moved to
Dolly Madison Apartments
on 3rd Avenue ... kitty-cornered from
Ronnie
Keel ('56) and Buzzy Lamb ('54).
Mother and Daddy
decided to build a new home while we lived there, so we continued our trip down
third and around the infamous LIME SINK!!! Now, I remember when they tried to
fill that thing ...
Just before
the junction of
Third and Dawson Road, we turned right, off Third, to go one block to
Orchard Drive. We moved
into our beautiful new home in 1951 (I think), and those pine trees were no more
than 2 feet high. The pecan trees were already full grown - they were once
part of an orchard! The one I always climbed, to a place where I spent
time reading, was gone. That house was "home" to my family for 39 years.
A builder who came on bad times bought it after Mother died, and Daddy had
suffered a stroke and decided to move to a retirement center in Cordele.
After both the new owners died, a young couple bought it. Sadly, all the
beautiful wild azaleas and roses Daddy planted and attended, plus all the
beautiful shrubs and regular azaleas that Mother planted were neglected and
died.
Hillcrest Grocery
... anyone remember that little store? My
parents were totally too strict with me EXCEPT Daddy taught me to drive when I
was 11, and I'm sure for their convenience, they started asking me to "run over
to Hill Top and pick up a few things" when I was 14!!! That never made
sense to me - they wouldn't let me date until I was 16 ... why would they let me
drive at 14?!!!
On the way back
to Blackbeard's, Tommy pointed out the home where
Nancy Castleberry's ('57)
family lived, and I shot that picture with Nancy's daughter,
Lynn Garrison (82) Johnson
in mind ...
The last stop was
Tommy's home, also on 11th. His family moved into this new home when his
family also moved to Albany in
1948 ...
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