Georgia

Dougherty County, Georgia, USA (North America) –April 2018 — I was born and raised in Albany, Georgia which, and I have spent 20 of 23 years of my life here. Albany is a bit of a strange town in that it is surrounded, for miles and miles, by a very rural area. Because of this, many people travel upwards of an hour on a semi-regular basis in order to partake in activities, shopping, or other amenities that are more likely to be found in a medium-sized city–the Metropolitan Surrounding Area(MSA). Albany is unlike the surrounding areas though. Albany is much more rural and quite poor. For this reason, there is quite a bit of crime, and depending on which part of the city you live in, a homeless problem. However, in recent years, I have found that Albany has been projecting a much cleaner image, and a great deal of detail and money have been spent improving the city. In Albany you will find a very nice aquarium hosting fish from the local Flint River, Cheehaw Park- a zoo that provides picnics and other recreational activities. I especially enjoy these activities, but there are quite a few more. Albany has problems, particularly with crime, poverty, and unemployment, but it certainly has its bright spots too.

Upson County, Georgia, USA (North America) — April 2018 – I currently live in Thomaston, GA. I have been living here for a little over a year. I moved here from a much bigger city, and there is a complete difference, however, it reminds me of my hometown back when I was growing up. It is a small quiet and reserved town. The crime rate is extremely low, leaving me at peace roaming around my day to day life. Sometimes I feel like I don’t fit in because everyone knows everyone, and I am just not a part of the group, the entire town. When I go out with a group or family, they find themselves talking to all the tables in the room, and I don’t know any of them. The town itself is beautiful and nice to look at. It is a country town with beautiful drives in and out of the town down country roads. Due to its location, not many people travel through day to day, leaving traffic slow and steady.

January 2018 — So i grew up in south georgia more specifically speaking i grew up in sale city georgia the zip code is 38801 this was in the nineties so most of the business in the town was already gone it was always a small town i mean really small like the post office i remember has like maybe 200 mailboxes at best most of the roads in the town were very old what i do remember pretty well was that there was a little community park where it even had a baseball field and as a kid we would walk to town because we lived about a mile from town down an old dirt road it was quite a walk but things were a lot safer in the ninetys so you didn’t really worry when your kids was walking to town the town meant a lot because its where i grew up its where my first friend was and where i had my first kiss on the benches behind the gym it has changed not that much actually there is a lot more buildings torn down and a few new ones build a couple of convenience stores but beyond that it hasn’t really changed that’s the way things are changing but somehow always staying the same.

Fulton County (and DeKalb County), USA (North America) — January 16, 2018 — I was born and grew up in Atlanta Georgia from 1955 to 1968. My family and I lived in what was then the suburbs, first in Brookhaven and then Tucker on the East side of town. This was of course before the Internet, or video games or any of that so my friends and I spent the majority or our time outside riding bicycles, playing sports, playing in the creek in the drained lake bed behind our houses, exploring, even camping, kind of living like indigenous people, but unlike them we got to go home at night to our modern, comfortable homes. It was an idyllic existence in many ways but also the time of the Vietnam War which to most of us seemed like another world, not something that concerned us, which is sad because it did concern us all and the carnage inflicted there is a stain on our history. One of my fondest memories of the time is the blackberries. There were wild blackberries everywhere and we helped ourselves to them at times bringing buckets and taking them home to our Moms to make pies. Next to the largest blackberry patch was an open field. My friends and I cleared this field and used it to play sports, baseball and football mostly. During football season we played at least once every day, and during baseball season, we played that game at least once every day weather permitting. We probably spent more time though just roaming the woods around our neighborhood which were still very extensive at that time. We roamed far and wide through many kinds of terrain. In the woods behind one of my friends house we built a bicycle track which was probably a 1/4 of a mile long. We spent many hours racing and riding on that. So my memory of my hometown is mostly of my neighborhood.

Henry County, Georgia, USA (North America) — January 15, 2018 — When I was very young, I moved around Georgia at least twice a year. I finally came to settle with my family in Hampton, Georgia. When we first moved, the neighbors from across the street and beside my house all came to say hello. I thought it was the greatest place in the world; We moved there July 2nd [content moderated to remove identifying information] and by the Fourth of July I already had friends to watch the fireworks with! I did not realize we were not in the best part of town, as we were allowed to travel up and down the street quite freely. The elementary school was in the middle of the town, so it was a few right turns from my house or a quick walk in the woods. I did not realize how bad my street was until school started in August, and I met the kids not seen playing on the street. I was exposed to sex, cigarettes, and drugs almost instantly. I was 9 when I moved there (so think 2004). I thought it just added a ring of “cool” to this city I moved to. A few years later, I meet a woman who moves across the street. She said that this is the type of town you never leave- and if you do, you come back. I used to pray she was wrong, but I have come to realize that there is a piece of this city that grows in you. The nicest woman I have ever met was a prostitute- she was talking to [content moderated to remove name and identifying information]. The crowds gather by the courthouse each month in the middle of Main Street, and activity creeps on steadily around them. This is not the type of small town that you can just “rid through”. This is truly a town you will never want to leave.