This is a place to share the history of one of Atlanta's most fascinating and beautiful neighborhood I’ve lived in Druid Hills for more than 25 years. It’s home.
Sometimes it takes being away to realize just how special a place is. Life’s
circumstances have kept me away from my beloved Druid Hills neighborhood for
four years – but I’m back now, and I know that I’ve come home. As a young couple from NYC we
found our first home on Princeton Way. I have to admit that I was a bit taken aback
by Southern niceties. The older women on the street (many of them wer
e the original
home owners) invited me into their homes and to join their garden club, teaching
me the secrets of gardening in red clay. My two
children were born here. We families on our
street organized picnics in the park, Fourth of
July parades and potluck dinners. I learned what
“community” means on Princeton Way. When we outgrew our first home we moved a mile
down N. Decatur Road, into the heart of Druid
Hills, to Oxford Road. My children attended
Fernbank Elementary and Druid Hills High School, making lifelong friends. There
was baseball at Medlock Park, Friday night skating at Glenn Memorial, float-building,
and dinners at Everybody’s Pizza, swim meets at Druid Hills Club, and learning to
drive on the narrow, winding lanes of Ponce de Leon Avenue. And, for those of you
who remember “Little Kroger” in Emory Village, running in to grab last-minute
necessities. Sadly my divorce meant that I had to pack up our beautiful home and move away. I
rented a small house in Medlock, and then (gasp!) moved outside the perimeter. But
I’ve come home – back to my family and friends, my Decatur-DeKalb YMCA, Emory
Village, the Olmsted linear parks, the restaurants and surrounding neighborhoods. As I walk with my dog Benson on these great sidewalks with the massive trees roots
breaking through, and listen to the mocking birds mimic the whirr of the Emory
electric buses, I am filled with joy. There is an energy here. It’s in the history of Druid Hills. It’s in the community, in the
people who live here, and the families who have grown up here. In coming home, it is
all the more vivid. Look around. It’s amazing.
