just visiting
Jan. 12th, 2011 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotheranonIt occurs to me that with the visits for Christmas and Nationals, I've probably spent more time inside Atlanta city limits in the past year than...a long time, at least. Maybe ever.
See, as often as I've said I'm "from Atlanta", it's not true, not really. I lived there until I was about 18 months old, but I did most of my growing up in the exurbs. I got into the city occasionally through my teen years, but it was mostly for record shopping or clubbing/concerts. I told everyone I was from Atlanta because 1) no one's ever heard of Duluth, and 2) my self-conscious teen self was anxious about being perceived as an awful suburbanite mallrat or [insert cliche here].
This is why I can't answer many questions about what are the best restaurants, nicest neighborhoods, etc.: I really didn't experience Atlanta at that level. Much of what I remember from my teen years has changed dramatically, if it's still there at all - indeed, on both of my recent visits I stayed in the Olympic Centennial Park area which wasn't even built until I after I moved away (1995). I couldn't even tell you how to drive from point A to B because I wasn't allowed to drive :P
As such my recent visits have been an interesting mix of nostalgia and discovery, i.e. "so THAT's how I get to x", "this looks like nowhere I've ever been - because it wasn't here when I was", etc.
See, as often as I've said I'm "from Atlanta", it's not true, not really. I lived there until I was about 18 months old, but I did most of my growing up in the exurbs. I got into the city occasionally through my teen years, but it was mostly for record shopping or clubbing/concerts. I told everyone I was from Atlanta because 1) no one's ever heard of Duluth, and 2) my self-conscious teen self was anxious about being perceived as an awful suburbanite mallrat or [insert cliche here].
This is why I can't answer many questions about what are the best restaurants, nicest neighborhoods, etc.: I really didn't experience Atlanta at that level. Much of what I remember from my teen years has changed dramatically, if it's still there at all - indeed, on both of my recent visits I stayed in the Olympic Centennial Park area which wasn't even built until I after I moved away (1995). I couldn't even tell you how to drive from point A to B because I wasn't allowed to drive :P
As such my recent visits have been an interesting mix of nostalgia and discovery, i.e. "so THAT's how I get to x", "this looks like nowhere I've ever been - because it wasn't here when I was", etc.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 02:56 am (UTC)I feel this way about Miami. Driving there now is a string of constant surprises -- "Oh, look, we're passing this! We're passing that!" And even knowing "where I am" (at the synagogue my dad worked at while I was growing up!) doesn't mean I know how to get where I'm going.
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Date: 2011-01-13 03:48 am (UTC)