Familarity

Interesting carving on a building in Atlanta (3) a photo by litlesam on Flickr.

I love the city of Atlanta.  I lived in Atlanta in the mid 1970's.  I was in my early twenties and had lived all of my life to that point in a small rural town of less than 10,000.  Suddenly finding myself in a big city like Atlanta was pure culture shock.  I had to learn to live in the big city much like the kid who is thrown into the lake and has to learn to swim.  It was exciting, thrilling and yet terrifying all at the same time.   I have returned to Atlanta many times since that period in the 1970's.   Like me, Atlanta has grown and changed over the years.  When I walk down the streets  that  I was so familiar with in the 1970's today, it is at times difficult recognize where I am.  Huge skyscrapers now reach up to the sky where small shops and theaters once stood.  I saw this carving on an old building on Peachtree Street near Five Points.  The carving was one that I have walked past many times and has always caught my attention. The eyes and the expression always stop me when I walk past this building.   There was a small movie theatre next to this building in 1974.  I went to see a really bad movie at this theatre.  The movies title was Bug.  It was one of the later movies in the career of William Castle.  William Castle was the king of gimmicks and promotion for his movies.  His movies were never great, but this one was really bad.  The story was about mutant cock roaches released on the earth by a massive earthquake.  The theatre is long gone.  The entire area around the building has changed.  But this carving which I have always loved still exits.  And so does the memory of a really bad film.   Familiarity exists even when everything has changed.  And at times it brings back to mind a really bad movie.