As much as I hate to admit this, Atlanta has always been a part of my life and always will be. It all started with my Dad. Because he worked for the railroad, we got free tickets on the Nancy Hanks train that went from Savannah to Atlanta and back again in a day. It had a bubble car where you could sit and there was this glass bubble and I’d sit in these tall seats and you could look all the way around from a speeding train. Pretty cool stuff for a twelve year old!
He was always bringing David and me to Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to watch the Braves play. He would always take us to this little store before taking us to the game to buy a loaf of bread, bologna and a small jar of mayonnaise so that we could eat during the game. That is because once we ate like 20 hotdogs that must have cost a buck a piece at the time. Dad wasn’t going to do that again. Those were good trips but I don’t eat bologna anymore.
Baptist Corporate Headquarters was here for a long time and I was forever being summoned here because I was in trouble for either not following rules or for making up new ones. These were terrific times as the trips were paid for by Baptist Corporate Headquarters and after being yelled at, prayed over and written up, I’d head over to the Braves game and order a hotdog.
At Union Mission it seems I spent as much time in Atlanta as I did Savannah. All of those elected people from across the state (not Biblically elected but the paid off kind) collect here and there are all of those state agencies. So for 23 years I was here all of the time lobbying…er, I mean, educating the elected so that they wouldn’t screw the poor so much. (I must confess that I probably failed the most at this aspect of my Union Mission career because the elected…well, they already know everything).
Over those 23 year though, I seem to have collected a lot of friends who live here that refuse to leave for whatever reason and I love them all dearly. When I’m here I call them and we meet for coffee, lunch, drinks or dinner; sometimes for pool games, Braves games, or because Hooters is having a special on wings. When you love good friends you have a tendency to tolerate where they live.
I’ve won several awards that were presented to me in Atlanta so that counts for something. The first were back in the early 1990s in some high office tower and I remember my Mom and my sister Angi attended. When my name was called, Angi screamed and yelled and 200 elected people, government employees and pissed off losers turned to look at her. She put her hand over her mouth and looked at me on the stage and winked. Good times!
For years I’ve attended Lobby-fest, er…I mean the Chamber of Commerce’s Savannah Day in Atlanta seafood and liquor party. Oh the stories! My favorite is when Johnny O came and stood in the receiving line as one of the elected (he was not) greeting the thousand people who showed up as though he was. While the rest of the elected had cocktail sauce smeared on their lips, bourbon spilled on their shirts, or their arms around a lobbyist, Johnny O maintained his position to the end. The man is committed. Or should be!
I thought that when I left Union Mission that I wouldn’t be back here except for SEC Championship Games WHEN the Beloved Dawgs of Georgia return later this year. But now I’ll be back for the second time in a week when I return on Thursday.
I’ve said forever that you cannot accomplish anything in Georgia without spending time in Atlanta and now admit again that it remains true. I will keep coming back. They got everything here.
Except the beach!
