Today is my thirteenth day in Atlanta. The original plan was for me to be here for about eight or so, but I’m still here, and I really don’t see myself leaving anytime soon. A good friend of mine is moving from Durham in a couple of days, so I’ll need to go up there for her farewell soiree.
After that, I might come right back.
Lemme give you some background so you can understand my thoughts on this a little better. I was born in Atlanta, but the familia moved to Houston right before I was seven, and we lived there until I finished high school. After my ninth grade year, my old man moved back here to take what was expected to be his last job before retirement. The plan was for me and moms to come back after my tenth grade year, but that never worked out.
Part of the reason that never worked out was that I really didn’t wanna move. I had a helluva time with adjusting, and it seemed the folks wanted to relocate right when I’d started figuring out how to have fun again (you tend to forget that between seventh and tenth grades). So I did a bit of kicking and screaming, and I didn’t have to move.
Ten years after the first intended move, I love Atlanta like nobody’s bidness. Not as much as I love my mama or my boys, but more than I’ve loved any woman that with whom I don’t share a genetic relationship.
I just feel Atlanta’s rhythm. Everything I do here is on beat. That was never the case in Houston. Sure, I could follow the basic rhythm, the kicks and snares of things, but I never felt like I was just floating with the beat. Living there always required a bit of effort for me. It took effort to understand where folks were coming from, and it surely took effort for them to get me. Being in Houston–and Southern California and Durham, for that matter–never really felt natural.
In Atlanta, I feel like I’m part of the beat. It’s not just a matter of following the drums. Here, I feel like I’m the bass line. I feel like I’m making moves in line with what’s going on, and I’m meant to be there. The things I do here are notes, and they’re always on key. I react as the vibe of the town changes, and it requires no thought at all.
If Atlanta’s Funkadelic, I’m Bootsy. I don’t need the band, but I’m so much better with it.
So, I’ve come up with all kinds of excuses not to leave. No need to start with, “I just don’t feel like it.” I’m not staying until Tuesday because one of my buddies needs me to hold down his house and wait for the cable man. Then, my nephew’s coming here to get settled in at this substandard school right near where I went for undergrad. After that, who knows? I’d planned to throw a birthday party for myself next week in Durham, but doing that would require me being in Durham.
At some point, I’ve gotta leave.
But I don’t.
Man, my brother and I bought my Daddy a router at Christmas, so I’ve converted the basement into my office. I’m in an office chair and on a patio table doing my work. I’ve made pitches and all kinds of ambitious things I have don’t nearly enough of lately. I’m just in the swing here, and that feels good.
I do miss Bomaniland, I must say. I even bought a new router while I was here to give me something to look forward to about going back (yes, I’m nerdy enough to look forward to hooking up a wireless router), but that hasn’t gotten me into the car.
It’s just that A, shawty. It’s getting breakfast at the Beautiful on Sunday mornings. It’s hearing Field Mob on the radio (“Georgia” with Luda is my song of the moment). It’s hangin’ out with my godson and his father. It’s knowing the backway to everywhere.
And it’s a bunch more stuff I can’t even explain.
And it’s still goin’ on until I tell you it ain’t.
21 thoughts on “Will I ever leave Atlanta?”
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
As a native Louisianian and frequent visitor to “Whoadieland”/New Orleans, I must disagree with Katrina’s post… NO isn’t nothing compared to ATL except for Essence, Mardi Gras and Bayou Classic time, you can probably throw in Sugar Bowl (but we know that’s not for us black folks..)
Although I do prefer Bounce over the GA Crunk sound…(except for my new fav “Georgia” by Luda/Field Mob)… that’s probably the only thing the NO prolly got on the A…
BTW: I was at HCASC in 2000 when Clark mollywhopped the House… like the narrator said in “When Keepin it Real Goes Wrong”: What transpired was one of the most spectacular ass whuppins ever caught on tape…dem boys at the House looked like they were the Five Heartbeats when the cops pulled them over…
I peeked in the ballroom, saw the score on the big screen (think it was like 400-50) and did my Young Geezy impression “Daaaaaaaaayyyyyuuuum!!!”
‘Twas 405-55. To see how one of those guys is surviving, please go to http://www.killacal.net.
i feel you on that. the rhythm in atlanta is why i went home so often when i lived in florida. nothing like twist to mjq to another random party followed by a drunken stop at “pick a waffle house” on the way back to the woods… i have my own amazing song that plays the entire time i’m in the A. i don’t know the words but from the time the flight attendant says “welcome to Atlanta” i hear it playing – i stroll in time with the baseline, i am the melody and harmony…
and i really love getting fresh fruit at the farmer’s market!
It’s all about The Varsity.
I just can’t relate. Hell, I’m almost jealous. I went back to my “hometown” a couple weeks ago for the first time in 6 years. There was a song playing alright, but it’s a song by those hillbillies on Looney Tunes that play the banjo with their feet. I’m not too into that.
Add that to the fact that the woods are the most exciting thing going on around there, and you got a real no-win situation. But hey, if Atlanta is what works for you, sell Bomaniland, pack up your shit, and move on to Jones Gardens, or whatever you’re gonna call Bomaniland 2.
It would be Bomaniland South, and that Grand Opening would be hot fire.
damn, i thought i was missing the A and excited about returning. q-tyme is better than the beautiful but the beautiful has GREAT tea.
don’t forget to tell lil buddy to join the quiz bowl team! aaaaah, the memories.
o/t kinda, i like this new tradition of playing clark for homecoming.
First, The Beautiful’s breakfast is far superior. Q-Time has dinner on lock, but only because of better prices. As for the quiz bowl team, maybe. My godfather’s the coach over there, but I just don’t know how I feel about that. Finally, that “tradition” is flawed for a couple of reasons, notably that it makes no sense to hold homecoming against a school that would draw, anyway. It doesn’t matter, though. Both Morehouse and Clark will be dreadful at football until my children are grown.
I don’t plan to have children anytime soon.
ATL does have a different rhythm that I can definitely pick up on, athough I’m not from there and the longest stint of time I was there was a weeklong chicken-and-beer binge while cracking jokes about said substandard school and lamenting the coonery that is Black Entertainment Television…
and the aforementioned NABJ convention…
My south Louisiana ass can get with the A,because it felt like home, except that I can buy my liquor in the grocery store itself here in Louisiana, instead of going to “package stores.”
but even if I hit Jackson-Hartsfield to connect to a flight to the Trey-oh-fizzie (AKA the 305/Miami AKA the WMDs summer/winter base of operations), it’s just something about being in ATL that makes your stride a little bit lighter and the dip in yo hip a little deeper, na’mean…
Hell for that…I’ll be James Graham’s bass line on Sly’s “If You Want Me To Stay” or Bun B’s verse on “Murder” or “One Day You’re Here”
I miss Atlanta…I haven’t heard T.I. on the radio in Boston (I don’t count Bring ‘Em Out) ever. And Bo’s right about the Beautiful on Sunday morning…but don’t forget Intermezzo at 3am on a Friday night. Damn…I’m gonna have to make my way down South again.
As far as that little crack about substandard schools, (1) it’s all AUC Love, baby…and, (2) If by “substandard”, you mean “SubSpelman”, well, then, Amen, brotha, Amen…
SubSpelman…Morehouse definitely fits that description. And, one day, we’ll all admit that “AUC Love” is a fictitious concept. The Operation Olive Branch Block Party in ’97 was off the meat rack, though.
Hmmm, the Beautiful! Nice grub, but I’m a Flying Biscuit fan myself.
Atlanta has this interesting vibe to it; it’s urban, rural, and bohemian all at the same time. You couldn’t get me to live anywhere else……
i can’t comment on breakfast, don’t think i’ve ever had any in atlanta.
what type of feelings are you having about honda? he’ll get so much ass thrown his way just for being kin to a legend. wait, does your mom still go?
the homecoming this is fun and never anything more. especially when most people don’t know who won the game.
NO is 7498374983794237 times better than atl. crunk is bounce gone acid. i’d bunnyhop or jig before i a-town stomped any day!
Simple–I’d prefer that my nephew not play for the enemy. Feel free to ask anyone about the 2000 semi-finals, the emotional impetus for Morehouse’s later success. As for the NO/ATL debate, you may be onto something musically, but New Orleans might be the most depressing place on Earth if it ain’t Essence, Mardi Gras, or Bayou Classic, and I dare the hardest wardie to tell me that ain’t true.
And moms still goes to HCASC, but you ain’t sayin’ nothin’ that’ll surprise her. A volunteer once told her that she “wishes I was twenty years older.” As if that stuff isn’t funny enough to me, talk about something that sounds awkward when relayed to you by your mother.
15 Days and I still haven’t seen you…
P.S. Da A is the shiznit… no one should ever believe otherwise.
it’s not about which school wins, it’s all about the winner being on the bus. oh wait, yall never rode with us. nevermind.
nawlins is a great place if you take away the swamps and humidity and killings and poverty and worrying that you’re city is finally gonna go under each hurricane season and stuff. we’re much happier in sportsman’s paradise and acadiana and the crossroads and plantation country. so maybe i’m a bit biased which makes my claim not exactly logical but there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home. not to mention atl has the blandest “spicy” food in the world. if only louisiana had pro sports teams. it’d be great if atl had a pro basketball team and a pro baseball team during the playoffs too.
Nigga, you are from Shrevport, right? Be glad you’ve got running water.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
shreveport is moving on up, there’s a target and krispy kreme now. don’t hate! not to mention, everybody who’s somebody got links there.
*rolling eyes*
Dang gurl…you sure you don’t work for the state Tourism Dept??? You sellin louisiana like you tryin to get commission..like you tryin to get all the ‘Tussin out of it…
Shreveport got a Krippy Kreme??? what the hell???
All I know is Derek Jeter’s daddy from the ‘Poate, Antawn Jamison was born in the ‘Poate and Bubba Skinner is from the ‘Poate…They still bangin’ in the ‘Poate???
What school did you go to? I knew people who went to Huntington, Byrd and Booker T? I remember when Fair Park and Shaw had to double forfiet the state-title game in basketball because they BOTH were illegal with players…
I still say Louisiana and Texas should work out a trade: Shreveport for Houston…cuz when I’m in Houston it feels like I’m back in Louisiana..and when I’m in the ‘Poate, it feels like I’m right outside Dallas/Fort-Worth “Awwwwlready”
i graduated from huntington.
don’t forget about terry bradshaw and johnnie cochran and um ledbelly and huey newton (okay, he’s really from monroe but whatever) and joe dumars, oj and um other people. it’s also home to the american rose society.
still bangin in the poate? hmm, i still have cousins so i guess that’d be a yes. although i haven’t heard anything like that really going on. we’re too busy making the pages of jet and getting air time on cnn and shit. cabbies getting robbed while 800 people watch and having rallies for men who run from the police for 8 hours and finally get out of his car pointed a silver object at them in the middle of the night, we’re doing big things baby!
oh and there was a krispy kreme in Shreveport before, they closed it and now a new one is back. there’s a fatburger and all types of shit around lsu now. mmmkay, i’ma stop.
*disclaimer: i travel and shit, i really do.
All Types of shit around LSU…. hmmm…sounds like Baton Rouge to me…lol
So does LSU-Shreveport act as a buffer between the hood and the white folk like LSU in BR???
Because once you go up Highland Road toward downtown…it’s nothing nice… when you go the opposite way… friggin mansions…
Y’all gotta start e-mailing each other on this. Nobody but me knows what you’re talking about.
I feel you on the A. It is just something about the rhythm of the town. Baltimore is my home and has a vibe that is nostolgic but Atlanta feels like my future. (if that makes any sense)
And if you manage to leave this town without me lying my eyes on you, I will be erasing you name from my friendship list.
Yeah, like I ain’t heard that one before.
intermezzo is off tha chain… 3a… yup. the beautiful has gone down, though, man. i can’t even get with it. BUT for sunday dinner, check out the green manner out in the woods. YUMMY!
bah, you can have intermezzo. there are a dozen better coffee shops in the atl than the overpriced, crappy service ‘mezzo.
where is the green manner?
I’m from Atlanta’s cotton-loving sister city of Birmingham, but I love it in the A. (Thanks for the official initiation and orientation). Always feels good to be there. Thought/thinking about moving there. Love hittin the spots and seeing the sights. Looking forward to being there again. Shout out to all you Honda nerds making your presence felt out here in cyberland too.
So…am I understanding that the party has moved? Oh, and before the non-alabamians get it messed up, the cotton thing is a joke…the only thing cotton in Birmingham is denim, white-tees and wifebeaters…and cotton swabs.
3 random sidenotes:
Gladys Knight stole the Uptown from my mama!
Oddly enuf, I miss The Bounce…Where is datnigga!?
“Georgia” bangs…I hadn’t heard it up here in DC, but I lifted it off a dude from Pittsburgh about 3 months ago…yes…it is real.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the A ya’ll! I ended up there for about a week before flying out to my first duty station years ago. I definitely felt the rhythm as well as saw a couple of pretty decent spots. There’s nothing like a man from the South, I’m trying to told ya! I loved the hospitality, the food, the sights, the men…If I EVER have a choice, I’m moving down South!
I like Atlanta as well. I have relatives in Buckhead and Decatur as well as East Point. I remember visiting my uncle back in the mid 80’s (I was about 15 then)and I couldn’t believe how many professional black men and women there were in downtown Atlanta. That first visit made a huge impression on me. I may have to live in the Atl before it’s all over with.