One of my favorite subjects as Christmas approaches is the Pink Pig at Rich’s downtown Atlanta.

Those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s recall the Pink Pig downtown. Many recall when the ride was a monorail that rode above the toy department, so that children got a good a look at all the toys available. Some remember an elevator that went upstairs to Santa’s igloo.

Cherokee Theatre first opened in 1963 at 3861 Peachtree Road, just one year after the Brookhaven Theater down the street on Peachtree Road had closed. The first film shown at Cherokee Theater was the three hour film “55 Days at Peking.” The film starred Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner.

Peeler Road in Dunwoody is named for the family who once lived along the road.  The Peelers first became interested in the Chamblee Dunwoody Road area when some of their family, Uncle Joe and Aunt Mabel Powell, began working for Dr. Luther Fischer. 

As World War II veterans returned to the United States following the end of the war, there was a shortage of housing across the country including the Atlanta area and a rush to build housing for the soldiers. Oglethorpe Apartments on Ashford Dunwoody Road were built to help with this shortage. During this time, some returning soldiers and their families lived in military tents on rented land and in mobile home parks.

The red brick apartments were on land that is Blackburn Park today.

On the property of Life Center Ministries is a historic home that originally belonged to the Ware family.  You can best see the small home by pulling into the church parking lot.  The property was purchased by publisher Norman Berg in 1938 to use for hunting.  He was the Southeast representative for MacMillan Publishers.  He later sold all but five acres, remodeled the barn, and made that his home.  He used the old Ware home as a guest house, letting authors stay there when a quiet place in the country would help them with their writing. 

This history leads to the old stone church at the corner of Mount Vernon Highway and Glenridge Drive. First Baptist Church of Sandy Springs across the road is also part of the history. The church began in Dunwoody and sat in the area where Caldwell Banker Real Estate, KinderCare and New Hop Cemetery are located today along Chamblee Dunwoody Road.

I remember the Putt-Putt Golf & Games at the corner of Shallowford and Chamblee Tucker Road well, because I went there many times with friends and family.

I asked a group of Chamblee High School alumni who have been helpful in the past by sharing their memories, what they remembered about Putt-Putt Golf & Games. I am not an alumnus of Chamblee but of Henderson back when it was a high school.

John Hardigree, born in 1844, came to Dunwoody from Coweta County, Georgia in the late 1800’s. He began working as a carpenter. There he met Catherine Elizabeth Dalrymple and they were soon married. For a while, they lived in her parents’ home on what is still known as Dalrymple Road in Sandy Springs. Then they moved to a home of their own on what is now Lake Hearn Drive, in the district of DeKalb County known as Cross Keys.

The website of AMEDD presents history of the Army Medical Department and includes data of the various Medical Department Technician Schools across the US during WWII. In addition to treating patients at Lawson General Hospital, which was in Chamblee on the outskirts of Atlanta Georgia, men (and women with the Red Cross) were being trained to provide medical care to injured soldiers. This training began in July of 1942 for Lawson General Hospital