My Little Town...

I was very honored when Christine Foster, Editor of Patch, asked me to participate in the "Local Voices" platform launching [this] week. As an almost 62 year old mother and grandmother who has been married for nearly 36 years (yep, to the same guy!), I felt kinda cool that someone would want to hear anything I have to say. So, in pondering this new endeavor, I decided that I might just have some interesting and hopefully entertaining ideas to share.

My life revolves around family and community.  I married into Roswell back in 1975 and immediately fell in love with this little (well, it used to be little) town and its folks. I say "folks" because the family and friends I encountered weren't just "people". There was something so special about their sense of family and community that I had never seen growing up in south Atlanta that I was enthralled. Everybody knew everybody, and if they saw a stranger, they found out who they were and where they were going before they even got there. For a while, I was known as “Ben’s wife”; but after folks got to know me, they finally began to call me by my own name, which is “Linda” (or more often than not, “Linder”).

We lived on Long Circle, one street over from my hubby’s grandparents, Paralee and Jewel Stephens. They grew up in Roswell and still tilled the soil, grew their own vegetables and kept chickens (for food, not pets). Ben and I both worked for the [Roswell] Recreation Department and life was good. We were blessed with a wonderful daughter, “Missy” Southard, who was and is the light of our lives. We have a four year old granddaughter and a two year old grandson.

I told you that little story (which is actually only the beginning of a long personal history) so I could tell you this story: Roswell has technically grown so much larger over the 36 years I have lived here, but I still pretty much have that same feeling of community. Every Saturday I go to Kroger and see someone I know: we stand in the aisles and talk and talk until my lovely young hubby threatens to leave me (again). I still drive in the Roswell Youth Day Parade and wave to the many smiling faces I know. I work at city hall and always see someone in the rotunda I remember from a while back or hear a familiar voice when I answer  the phone at the recreation department (yep, I’m still there).

There is a unique magic to this city that comes from history, family, the recreation department, the vision of many volunteers and politicians who tirelessly worked to shape this community. There is no place I would rather live. I am always so happy to share my feelings on my town and will talk to anyone anywhere about it.  Call me at city hall or see me at Kroger every Saturday and we’ll talk (I’ll just have to scoot when my lovely young hubby threatens to leave me again).

To be continued…