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Photo ID: My Dad visited Atlanta 68 Years ago

When we announced our move to the Atlanta area for work in 2016, my dad said "Oh, I've been there once, when I was a little kid, I think I had cousins there." 

Fast forward four years and my parent's downsizing means all the family albums have come to me. 

In going through photos from his childhood, we found these gems:

My grandmother Miriam with her niece & my dad

Check out the Chuck Taylors. These pictures are from 1953 at the top of Stone Mountain. I can totally see them walking up the side of the smooth rock, one mile trail, in chucks which have zero traction, with the kids leading the way. The mountain is 825 feet above the ground and 1686 above sea level. The one time I went up to the top (in the Skyride bc my parents cannot hike anymore) it was cold and foggy, with no visibility. On a clear day you can see something like 60 miles. The natural areas of the park around the rock are beautiful. The "entertainment park" is meh and the relief is an abomination that should be removed. This is located in the ancestral home of Creek and Cherokee people.

My dad, Aunt J, and 2 of her kids

I checked the Atlanta City Directory for the 1950s and found my great Uncle & Aunt living in an area  called Sandy Springs, and my uncle is listed as working for Crucible Steel. I used Google street view to grab a snip of the house as it looks today. The navigation from their house to the mountain is about 45 minutes avoiding today's highways. 

On the back of my grandmother's photo she wrote the Pause That Refreshes - which is an old Coca Cola (HQ in ATL) slogan. I miss her and her sense of humor so much!

I don't know what was the reason for the visit, or how they got there from Massachusetts. I know my Gram had much love for her brothers, especially D. He was 18 years older than her. They wrote letters and made long phone calls until he got sick. She would get Christmas cards from his kids with pictures of their kids and she'd keep them up on the fridge all year long. I met him and his wife one time in the 90s, and I've never met these cousins or their kids, and we all live within a couple hours of each other now. So if you're out there, message me. 

Colorized version of the same photo as above using MyHeritage.

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