As The War Turns
This is a repost from three years ago. (It was repeated last year. ) Large Tony has a new blog, but doesn’t post very often. The house on Virginia Avenue is still there. The granite building by Piedmont Park is part of a restaurant. Paul McCartney played a show (not for free) in the field behind it.
On September 10, the last episode of As the world turns will be broadcast. This is episode #13,858. It was the first soap opera to be a half hour, instead of fifteen minutes.
Pictures for today are from The Library of Congress
One of my favorite blogs is Large Tony. He is going to retire soon, and will be missed. He stays with his Granny in the hills of Tennessee. Yesterday, he was talking about the time when he was up at Grannies house as a young boy. They got up early one morning to see the wedding of Charles and Diana. I dare say the bond between them is more genuine than the bond between Charles and Diana.
I saw an earth changing event at my Gran’s house one day. ( And why do people say Granny, or Nana, or Gran? Its not like I remember having a choice ). Gran lived in a little apartment in Mrs. Stuckey’s house on Virginia Avenue. This was a few years before Virginia Highlands was uber trendy. I was staying with her one summer day when I was ten years old.
We walked down to the granite house next to the golf course in Piedmont Park. Gran’s friend worked there. This was the summer of Beatlemania, and Gran’s friend made a point of telling me that she DID NOT LIKE THE BEATLES ” If The Beatles were playing for free across the street, I would not waste the energy to walk across the street to see them”.
Gran and I walked back to her apartment to see “As the World Turns”. The show was interrupted for a news bulletin. Walter Cronkite came on the say that a North Vietnamese boat had fired on an American boat in the Gulf of Tonkin.We did not know, at the time, that this was a world changing event.I doubt Gran ever thought much about it. But Congress used that incident… which turned out to be largely fabricated… to justify our sending many more troops to fight in Vietnam. That war was a world changing event. We are still dealing with the effects of that conflict.
Chamblee54 
I grew up on Va Ave myself – hmmm, Mrs Stuckey . . . sounds familiar between – Barnett and Highland? That stone building was the golf “Clubhouse” – public course – boys were tolerated . . . barely – Woody’s was a Spur station – the Trolly Barn apartments was . . . The Trolly Barn – mysterious cavern of buses and trollies and arc-welding – Jenning’s Rose Room, a classic poor white juke and dance hall, was where Trader Joes now sits. Sig Samuels was Sig Samuels :) Silver Grill was very happening. Grady High was known as Hebrew High to the rest of Atlanta teens, and if you went downtown w a Grady sweater or jacket you just might get called, “Jew Boy.”
Thanks for stopping by. Mrs. Stuckey’s house is two doors east of John Howell Park.
It is a good thing they tore down the walls to Jennings Rose Room, before they started to talk. I went to Richards a few times, which could be another post or two.