Sometimes you wind up where you started
Sometimes you wind up where you started because that’s the place you’re supposed to be. Rome is where I was born but for years I lived in Roswell. Daddy grew up in Rome and multiple generations of his family were born and raised in Rome so I’ve always been drawn to Rome.
In late 2011, the insurance defense firm in Marietta, where I was the paralegal for several years, closed. So in 2012, I bought Mama’s house and moved back to Rome. I always knew I’d move back to Rome sooner or later.
Not long after I moved in Mama’s house, I did a modest renovation. To expand the kitchen den and living room, and make it more functional, I cut a door in the wall that divided the den and kitchen from the living room, relocated some kitchen cabinets, and installed granite countertops. When the renovation was complete, I enjoyed the house even more.
I mention Mama’s house because that is the house where I grew up. I spent most of my life there. But there are places around Rome where much of my childhood was staged. The home of my piano teacher, the late Helen Dean Rhodes ... Barron Stadium, where I marched halftime shows with the band at football games every year ... fireworks every summer over by the levee ... First United Methodist Church ... swimming at Celanese swimming pool ... the old Carnegie Library ... and Broad Street, in downtown Rome, where we went every Saturday, and where we went to parades. I will give special attention to some of these locales.
Piano lessons
Piano lessons were at Miss Rhodes’ house every week. Those lessons began when I was in the third grade and continued until the end of my senior year in high school. In the Spring, right before I graduated from high school, I worked at Six Flags Over Georgia every weekend and then full time for the summer. The day of the annual piano recital I had to work and so I couldn’t participate in the recital. Miss Helen was so disappointed, although I certainly never meant to disappoint her. When I remember Miss Helen, I think about how she so enjoyed teaching music.
The old Carnegie Library
I spent many happy hours at the library checking out books. When I was in the second grade, I checked out a stack of books but I didn’t like one of the books. Mama said, “You checked it out. You read it.”
My primary memory of that wonderful old library was the portrait of Ellen Louise Axson Wilson. She was the wife of President Woodrow Wilson and that portrait now hangs in the Sara Hightower Regional Library, here in Rome.
First United Methodist
Church
Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, youth group, Confirmation. Those are activities in which I participated through the years at First Methodist. I remember going to Sunday School in the fellowship hall, years ago, when the education building was under construction. Through the years there were many people who made an indelible impression on me. The late Martha Yeargan, and the late Dr. Garnett Wilder, and many others, come to mind. What wonderful people they were.
Ever since I can remember, I admired those stunning stained glass windows in that beautiful sanctuary. A dogwood bloom is carved on the end of each of the pews. Those pews and the wood of the chancel and the choir loft are gorgeous. That sanctuary was a magnificent place to worship.
Broad Street
These days, about 5:30 p.m. every afternoon, I park my car in front of the old Carnegie Library and ride my bike through downtown Rome — to the far end of the levee at Heritage Park and back. There is so much history in downtown Rome and I think about that while I am riding through town, admiring the iconic Masonic building and the buildings in the Cotton Block. I hear the historic city clock strike the hour and I think back on many great memories, like ringing in the New Year on Broad Street with my family and friends — and I am delighted to be living in Rome.
I love Rome. I had an idyllic childhood here. I wound up where I started, at Mama’s house. Even though I sold Mama’s house in 2016, I remain in Rome because it’s the place I’m supposed to be.