Atlanta Summer

In the early sixties, my mother worked for S.E.F. (the Southern Education Foundation), a foundation formed primarily to facilitate opportunities for disadvantaged people to attain higher education. The office was located on West Peachtree Street and was situated catty corner across the street from the Biltmore Hotel. A few of my summer time days were spent in her office. Those days were long and stretched out forever in front of me. I remember finishing the better half of the book "At the Back of the North Wind" on one of them. It would, sometimes, help to break up the day, my boredom and probably give my mother a much needed break, to send me across on a trip to the Biltmore's little in-hotel drugstore where i would peruse their items to see what a few dollars might afford or gawk at the things that it couldn't. The hotel provided accommodations for celebrities who were in town and they often would be, basking in the sun around the outdoor pool on it's colorful lounge chairs being waited upon by hotel staff members who delivered mixed drinks in Tom Collins glasses. I would catch a furtive glimpse of their glamour on my way. I once saw Van Johnson when he was here for what used to be the summer musical season at Chastain Park then known as "Theater Under the Stars."
After school began again, during one of the field trips that our elementary school took, we visited the Coca-Cola bottling plant in downtown Atlanta. The plant was located not very far from the same downtown area near the Biltmore -- at least our bus trip took us close enough for me to spot it's massive radio tower and seeing it precipitated a wave of desire to be there with my mom in the office rather than where I was headed, back to school. To this day when I see that tower, I remember how seeing it made feel that day, realizing my babyishness, but still wanting my mother.