We’re in Atlanta now. Actually, the suburb of Stone Mountain. And actually only I am. Julia is back in Los Angeles to teach at the workshops, so if you are in the Los Angeles area and like photography – and you want to take a class with the finest photography teacher, with the most winning personality, you are ever likely to encounter – click on the brochure link to the right and check her out.

Left on my own, I’m doing dog duty. I led Homer and Penelope west along the walkway of busy Highway 78 looking for a side street to follow toward some still unknown and interesting terrain for canine romping, foraging, and sniffing. Passed a Days Inn motel, and just beyond it a moderate size generator, or maybe transformer. I’m unsure because my focus quickly shifted to what was just on the other side of it. In a small, shaded clearing, next to a fenced-in hotel swimming pool, bordering the long, curving, tree-lined suburban street, was a tiny cemetery. There were maybe fifty graves, including one family plot. The most recent burial was 1986, but most of the graves date to the first half of the twentieth century, with birth dates in the 1830-1880 range. Many had obviously lived thought the Civil War, perhaps the burning of Atlanta.

Clearly, suburban growth had reached a formerly rural area, and what is now a typical commercial corridor, with chain and fast food restaurants, hotels, and all the small businesses of busy megalopolis life, has pushed Pleasant Grove Cemetery into a dark corner, even on the sunniest of days, where it is unlikely, often, to be seen or recalled.

It put me in mind of the long awaited (by me, anyway) part four of Blink, coming very soon. You can catch up on the first three parts under “essays” on the drop down menu.

AJA