Hot Times in Hotlanta

I recently had a few days in Atlanta with Daddy, Buddy, and Caryn and her family. You could call it a "working vacation," but the "work" was very pleasant and rewarding (not just the pennies we found, either). In a way, the whole week was like an early Father's Day celebration. We found once again that the boxes and closets we were going through were bathed in very special memories. I brought home many old letters and photos that collectively contain much of our family's history. That's "the Loyd treasure" to me.

There were also plenty of articles that deserved only a passing glance before being tossed. This old gym shirt from dear old CK High School now adds to the dustrag pile. Not too many great memories wrapped up in gym class! In fact, come to think of it, that's where my knee trouble started!

When the Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966, I was thrilled to adopt a real major league team. I had followed the AAA Atlanta "Crackers" up to that point. '66 was also my first year in Little League, so baseball was a growing part of my life. Caryn found this old popcorn box from one of the first games we attended at Atlanta Stadium.

When I was growing up we even took our "play" seriously. This poster is a map of our backyard as Buddy divided up territory for one of the mock wars we fought with tanks and WWII aircraft.Over a period of years, Mama created inspirational bulletin boards for her and Daddy's Sunday School class, the Forum Class. Here are a couple of samples, and I intend to blog about more of her efforts soon.

We found plenty of old school papers and projects. Hard to believe the poster below would pass for a health project.

Daddy's really happy with the flowers on his front portico, courtesy of Caryn and Steve, with the lily from Chic Fil-a. He waters them religiously.

Steve worked for over six hours getting the yard in tiptop condition. It looked the best it's looked since, well, the last time he did it!

Few people in Atlanta have the Eden-like backyard Daddy has. One full acre of towering shade trees and lush undergrowth. In fact, I actually saw a serpent! It was just a red-bellied water snake sunning on his brushpile.

From some spots, you can barely see the house from the nearby road.

While I was in Atlanta, I enjoyed meals at Athens Pizza, IHOP, The Varsity, The Colonnade, and Chic Fil-a (times 4)! Never a shortage of good food. We all had some great family time, got a lot of work done, and began talking about their plans to visit North Carolina soon--once both great-grandbabies are available. The countdown is on!