Lil' Fam Takes in Lil' Five For the Day

It is hard to believe that the two little kids in this picture are the same kids I just spent a day with in my favorite part of Atlanta, Little Five Points.


We started off at Children's Healthcare for a rigorous first round of physical therapy for Massey's bum knee. Therapy must be a synonym for "torture." We ended the day in our new favorite store...RAG-O-RAMA. I bought Zach a pair of $65 jeans for $16 and he got five new (vintage) tee shirts to wear with his new uniform pants.



Massey enjoyed the sunglasses collection, they had HUNDREDS of them.

My nephew's girlfriend made the day trip with us...looking at her photo lets you see why Zach is so crazy about her (as we all are.)

No trip would be complete without me making an idiot out of myself. I mean, REALLY...they had about thirty pairs of these shoes I am modeling. Zach just kind of hung back while we made this shot like he really didn't know us but was just watching a middle aged woman make a spectacle of herself.

Here is a picture of my Zach in one of his new uniforms. I'm so used to seeing him in a black tee shirt that it is a joy to see him in a shirt that matches his eyes instead of his demeanor. He's a big fake though. He puts on a tough act but is still the little boy in the first picture and always will be to me.

We had an awesome day. Massey was feeling the effects of her deep tissue massage and therapy ... slept the whole ride home. Zach actually told me thank you for his clothes and said it was a great day. That's a LOT coming from a seventeen year old boy/man.

Spending a day in Lil' Five is like spending a day on another planet. You see things you have never seen and people that are simply entertaining just to watch.

We were walking down past one group of shops when two homeless guys with beards that ZZ Top would envy were sitting with their backs to the building talking to each other and smoking butts of cigarettes. Massey made the comment that when she had been in Little Five two months ago those exact two men were sitting in the exact same spot. I told her of course they were...It was their living room. But if you're homeless , Little Five is better than under the bridge by Turner Field.

We ate at Little Five Pizza. It is exactly the same kind of pizza joint I worked in when I started working for Johnny's Pizza back in 1981. A hole in the wall. When I started with Johnny's they had two stores. One on Cheshire Bridge Road (another hole in the wall) and the one on Virginia Ave. We were next door to the original Starship Enterprise store and our little strip center was like a family. I can still remember all the shops. Johnny's was on the end, in a former Huddle House. Next store was Starship. Next store to that was Washington Printing (never got that name...he was an Asian who's family ran it.) Maybe they used to be in the laundry business and once through with all that 'washing' learned how to run a print press instead of a pants press and just kept the'washing' part as their name. Maybe after "washin a ton" of clothes they changed their vocation but couldn't think up a new name...hence "Washington Printing." Next to them was the locksmith shop and on the end was the tailor shop run by a Cuban woman. We were like our own little five...before Little Five was Little Five!!

I have been lucky enough to survive and enjoy life for almost half a century.

Going to Little Five reminds me of when I was a reckless twenty year old...reminds me of working at Johnny's (now franchised with well over 100 stores) and reminds me what it means to be young , eclectic or just marching to the beat of a different drum or simply searching for yourself.

All I have to say is I am glad "TATS" weren't the rage when I was young and stupid but can see "Laser Removal" being a booming industry in about twenty years.

Who wants to be in a nursing home when your nurse says "Now Mr. Jones, we got to turn you...you're getting a bedsore where that tattoo is that says "FU#@ the System."

Had a great day and have a great family . Days like this are what make memories for a life time.

Til next time...COTTON