I was sorting through some old family documents this week and came across a few diplomas of the women in my family including one for the Georgia Normal School in Milledgeville, Georgia. Which brings up the question-why did they call them “normal”? Normal Schools were established in Georgia towards the end of the 19th century to prepare teachers to teach elementary aged students.  It was usually a two-year program and the term normal referred to establishing clear standards or “norms” for public schools.

I was recently told that Ed Labon of Woodville, Greene County, Georgia, a Black soldier who reported to Camp Gordon in 1917, is buried at Wilson Cemetery in Penfield, Georgia. He died April 13, 1940. Like many Black recruits, Labon was in the 157th Depot Brigade during World War I.

The development will be called Lulah Hills, a name which was originally planned for a neighborhood north of Decatur decades ago. Decaturish.com says the name originally came from landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

According to documents in the DeKalb History Center archives, Pearidge refers to an area of Tucker between Lawrenceville Highway and North Druid Hills Road, Burnt Creek and north to the railroad. Several farms were in the area, including the 250-acre R. F. Sams Truck Farm and the Honea dairy farm on Montreal Road.

The Ashford in Ashford Dunwoody came from the W. T. Ashford family, who owned the home and land that is now part of Peachtree Golf Club as well as land extending across Peachtree Road.  The Ashfords operated a nursery business on this land.  The Ashford home was inherited by Mary Ashford who married Cobb Caldwell and led to another street name, Caldwell Road. The first owner of the home was Samuel House and Windsor Parkway was once known as House Road.  

Recently, while visiting Atlanta History Center, I noticed a plaque for the Frank A. Smith Memorial Garden. The plaque states “The Azalea Chapter, American Rhodendendron Society at the Atlanta Historical Society, designed by C. Gordon Tyrrell, AHRHS. Developed under the direction of Ben W. Sims, Chairman, Azalea Chapter Garden Committee, 1987.” Frank Smith died in 1985.

There is a small, old home on Chamblee Dunwoody Road that was once one of three railroad section houses in Dunwoody. In 1994, two were demolished. It happened very suddenly and without warning. The houses were part of the Roswell Railroad line that ran from Roswell, through Dunwoody, to Chamblee from 1881 until 1921. They were built as housing for men who worked on the railroad line.

The Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac Assembly Plant in Doraville was built on a former cow pasture. The site was initially 386 acres, but some of those acres were later sold for a housing development, Chevrolet parts warehouse, and other industrial development and highway and access road construction.

The groundbreaking took place in 1945 and in 1947 the first automobiles were produced and shipped from the plant. The assembly plant would later become the General Motors Assembly Plant. It was 980,000 square feet, eventually expanding to about 1.5 million square feet. By 1948, there were 1,363 employees. (“History of Doraville GM Plant”, DeKalb History Center archives)  

Every now and then I open a book that once belonged to my mom and discover that she placed a note or a newspaper article inside. That was something she did whenever she read an article in the newspaper that related to one of her books. I love to find these hidden treasures.

I still purchase paper books occasionally, but I also have many books on my Kindle. How can I place a relevant newspaper article inside a Kindle book?

I opened mom’s copy of “Every Child Should Have a Chance” (1971), by Leila Daughtry-Denmark, M. D. and found a newspaper clipping. Mom spoke often of Dr. Denmark.