Family Type Homes For Adults. Livable Communities: Fill & Download for Free

Moving to AtlantaTen Things About AtlantaDuring my working years in NYC we had mucho business meetings in Atlanta. So, how does Atlanta stack up overall? There are ten things about Atlanta that stand out. Horrible traffic and crime and schools got to be number one, two and three. Building a new world class Braves stadium with no parking is number four with "What the Hell was they thinking." Atlanta being an amazingly diverse place for being in the 'Deep Bible Belt' very judgmental South' is number five. The greasy spoon Varsity is number six, and is not only the world's largest drive-in restaurant, but it's also arguably Atlanta's most famous "Greasiest" burger restaurant too. It's a bit divey, a bit touristy, and a definite fixture of Atlanta history. The Varsity is the real deal . . . a drive-in with car-side service in the old style. They also have indoor counter service and lots of seating.Most days, the restaurant claims to go through an estimated two miles of hot dogs, 2,500 pounds of potatoes and 300 gallons of chili. In ONE DAY. Those figures are still relatively slow compared to Georgia Tech game days, when The Varsity is visited by an estimated 30,000 people. Another fun fact? The Varsity's been around longer than the famous Atlanta novel, "Gone with the Wind." It's got to be on your 'Bucket List.' Actually, I love this place! A trip to Atlanta wouldn't be complete without a stop at The Varsity for chili dogs, onion rings and an orange frosty. So, whenever I am in Atlanta, whatever time of day it happens to be, we will stop at the Varsity and have something, like hamburgers or chili slaw dogs. I like them with their crunchy and somewhat greasy onion rings. This is stick-to your ribs (and roof of your mouth) comfort food. Ironically they have a sign that states they use a healthy oil . . . I suppose that's what lends the lite flavor to their very-good fries. Yes, you can find better food, better service, better location ... however it wouldn't be THE VARSITY, and as such just wouldn't be what this place is. As I said: this is the real deal. You will get hooked . . . I have been back a dozen times.Tonight the crew and I are hanging at the Lazy Lounge in Five Points. They have Mexican food so hot you could remove dried paint from your driveway. I tried some of their chili and it took me four beers to put the flames out. My ears are ringing, sweat is pouring off my forehead and I can no longer focus my eyes. I farted a wicked Hershey mist and four people behind me said "Oh my God." The server seemed offended when I told her that her chili had given me brain damage. It was then that we happened upon a black strip club called Foxy Lady. It was rough, it was like one of those rough motorcycle clubs found in NYC and I fell in love with the place right then. It was the first time I ever experienced a strip club down here in the South. I didn't know you could get naked like that. They don't just get naked here, they get asshole-naked. You could tell me to get naked standing in this room and I might do it. Then you'd tell me to bend over? Nope. Like I said, the girls were rough in there and I wondered: What if you had some real pretty girls in the club? What the hell could happen then?As long as we are talking down and dirty, the Clermont Lounge has to be number seven. This was a "thing' everyone in Atlanta has to do and is really worth writing long about. Located at the end of the dingy Clermont hotel with its rusty and deplorable look, there is the Clermont Lounge with the most eclectic crowd you can find in Atlanta. Big belly red necks mix with worn out COPs and shifty business types, black street hustlers and decrepit cowboy truck drivers. It's Atlanta's claim to fame for outrageous characters. There is a $10 cover that opens the door for experiences you will never forget. My first time there I walked down some seedy stairs behind an old hotel. Then you pass shifty retired prison guards security and walk into one of the lost circles of hell. The place was packed and smelled like an ashtray, the "club" is tiny and dirty, the broken down "bar" is a conglomeration of duck tape on top of the torn vinyl tiles. To the left there's a big stage where everyone is dancing and then in the back there are tables where the dancers that work there are mingling with guests. To the right when you walk in there's a (the one) big circular bar - and in the middle of that bar one dancer is on stage (rotating every few minutes) all night. It ranges - some young some old - all different shapes and sizes. All great people watching!There was a bandanna covered white haired Dixieland band playing while skinny wrinkled strippers were onstage dancing to the drums and wailing saxophone. We watched one dominatrix stripper spank the hands of tippers with a crop, the lady must have been in her 60's wearing a weird costumery boo peep peak tits and pussy getup. Definitely no place for prudes, so if you're expecting to find a fine wine no cussing smoke-free environment and you don't enjoy a raunchy grab ass good time, then this isn't for you. The qualities of this establishment are not the aging dancers, but how the uptight folks deal with each other. You watch them squirm. People-watching is key when visiting the Clermont, so keep your eyes open, and keep your narrow minds in the car. Laughter and conversation is good. Be entertained. Grab some wrinkled ass. The dancers will love you for it! This was the start of a fantastic evening of drinks / shots / naked ugly dancing women / more shots and breathing second hand smoke and finally getting drunk. I got to motorboat some breasts and spank them, so I'm not complaining.So let me tell you, if you are looking for a ritzy, classy night on the town, this is not the place for you. If you're looking to let loose, down some cheap drinks, and sing along to country classics, then head on down! The club is jammed packed, extremely hot, nasty, jammed pack, did I mention hot?! Yes sir, this is not your typical strip joint. This is an Atlanta institution where people rarely go for anything except to say they have been to the Clermont and make new friends with the deplorables. The crowd consists of people who would probably never hang out together in their daytime everyday lives, but somehow this rowdy atmosphere is the perfect catalyst for coming out in rare form. You'll find all walks of life visiting this establishment - people you would never expect. So you shouldn't feel out of place. It's loud music and trashy white 'Adult Fun,' where aged strippers go to get the last strip in before death becomes them.The ladies are very unique looking, not your typical sweet young thing sexy dancers with big boobs with hot hooches. These old dancers are fun and sweet as pie . . . maybe not as sweet as your grandma, but nice! There's the old lady who uses a handheld light-up rainbow ball thingy to flash you her 'camel toe.' Then there's the lady who attaches sparklers to her nipples. There's also the young chick that dances to pop rock, causing me to get all weirdly nostalgic. My favorite dancer had glow-in-the-dark panties that were slowly being eaten by her giant ass as she moved back and forth on the top of the bar. And, of course, there's the infamous Blonde'. She is the icon, the crPme de le crPme of Claremont Lounge, has been working here since they opened. I think she may have been one of the construction workers or maybe formed out of the rubble. She is a hustler but I can't resist, getting her to crush a beer can between her boobs for $5.00. That kind of entertainment pays for itself!I ended up sitting on the side of the bar where the dancers enter the "stage" and I really got to know them pretty well over the course of the evening. Here's the thing: everyone goes to this place because of the quirkiness of it, but sitting there while nursing my drink (s) it's pretty obvious that these women take their craft seriously. The girls are, to their credit, incredible - I suppose it is not easy to get up there and display to the world your wrinkled goodies - and they do show you all the goodies - roast beef and all . . . frankly they were great. The crowd is very mixed and this humid, seedy, smoke filled dive bar, fat bottom girl strip club can definitely be an "attraction" for bachelor parties and anyone who just likes to people watch for a good show. Apparently this is also a Celebrity attraction place. You are likely to run into someone famous here. The whole place was packed out with T-shirted big-bellied red necks, leather jacketed motorcycle gangs (no colors allowed) and business people in suits. Oh and I forgot the name of the dancer I met right away. She was from upstate New York Ithaca and her silicon filled tits were amazing. Most of the dancers are WAY past their prime. These are women you don't dream to have sex with but rather have a great time with kidding around. There was one who had the tits of a 20 year old and the saggy ass of the 60-whatever years she was. The "strippers" do their gig on top of the main bar. To say it's a freak show is an understatement. These are ladies who look pretty rough around the edges and some are easily in their 70's. There is one blonde lady who looks exactly like Baby Jane and dresses like a German Beer hag. So she lifts her skirt if you give her money, and it's hilarious if you are Steven Spielberg looking for an intercellular creature, but disturbing if you have a soul. Not a place for the faint of heart. I did see lots of breasts and pussy and meet cool weird people - all my type. I also questioned the legality of what was going on around me more than once.I will tell you, as an ex Navy man, the Clermont is much like a one night stand in Bangkok or Karachi. A night at the Clermont Lounge will change your life. For a prude it can become painful. As for me, I was trying to put it out of my mind and concentrate on other topics: Pulled teeth. Prostate exams. But nothing was going to change the reality: I was on a collusion course with destiny. Destiny was a fat woman who was funny as hell who sat squirming and squealing on your lap and I liked her. Then there was Ruby and Porsha and the woman who sets her nipples on fire. The Clermont is not so much a strip club as a super divey basement bar with crazy people having fun with body-positive dancing women. This place is the real deal. There a side show performance featuring hooks, snails, and a performer who would only accept tips if they were taped to her body. I was also impressed by the strippers being so nice. They walk around and say hi. This is literally the least intimidating strip club ever. Between the nice older strippers not working hard for tips, to the super nice bartender, and the cheap drinks, it's really a great hang out for people that love being out of the ordinary.It was fun and very odd and hot. This is a place you visit to cut loose and make memories. Just remember Ginger is my true love so if you see her tell her Jerry L recommended a lap dance from her. I sipped some Purple Thunders (which I'm sure is a mixture of purple Kool-Aid powder and Ever clear), and we danced ourselves silly after we spent all our cash on the dancers and jukebox. The second hand smoke was awful and so was the bathroom, but the hilarious conversations with strangers and watching Blondie's infamous beer can trick made up for that. This place is the best dive bar and strip club imaginable. The women are from all ages of life and looks and they know it but don't be a jerk about it. No one likes people like that. This is a business, and they mean business so treat the ladies nicely, pay your cover charge, and enjoy the show. The best time to show up is around nine in order to get a spot at the bar.And going to Clermont Lounge for the first time is like losing your virginity all over again. It's awkward. It's dirty. It's sort of life-changing. But no matter how bad or how good your experience is, you want to do it again to see what's in store for your second rodeo. I can also see Clermont as an excellent venue for sales team building or acquiring a new blood brother or sister. Or contracting Hepatitis. Holy $hit, I need to go to church next Sunday but I am going back to the Clermont ASAP! . . . P.S. BTW ask for Barbie, the really hot big ass blonde with great tattoos! Tell her Jerry L sent you!The excellent reviews from native Atlantans that sparkle with love and friendliness is number nine. Couple that with "Hollywood mentality" of "rappers" and folks hanging around trying to "get discovered," mega church wannabe superstars, and those nasty liberal New York attitudes disparaging native faith based Christian values. All real Georgians wish that the folks from California, New Orleans and New York would go home so we could have their beautiful city back to the nice right wing conservative white place it was, but alas it was not to be. ALL of Georgia is backward now, and Atlanta is rightfully known as a "diamond in a pig's ass." Now it's just a bunch of over-bloated Ugly New Yorkian liberal messiness.Living in New YorkNew York City is the economic engine of a three-state area with a 30 million metro populations; it is a collision of ideas, life styles, and actions, what with ten thousand exciting things to do on any given day. This ambiance of diversity radiates out toward all surrounding territories, including the beautiful Hudson Valley with bed room communities filled with standard bred horses, apple and black dirt onion farms, Shawungunk Mountains, lakes, rivers, Jewish Hasidic Villages, and bucolic small towns where Bettie and I lived for 28 years in the 70,000 thousand populations of the Middletown - Wallkill complex in the Catskill foothills of upstate New York. Our simple bi-level house had $6,500 annual taxes and were going up about $500yr and that was to much for us to pay on a fixed and very limited retirement income. That is why so many New Yorkers’ moves South. But there they come face to face with another world, the antitheses of freedom loving New York, and to an area ingrained with religious intolerance, racial prejudice and one minded, right wing, political thinking.New Yorkers come from a thousand backgrounds and traditionally have a thousand opinions on all that matters, mostly on economic issues around the struggle between capitalism and socialism. From all kinds of political parties, religions, races, ethnic types on whom to elect, what issues are important, what government should do for the people, but no one gets angry at anyone for having a different, even radicalized, opinion, there are just to many of them, and all people get along well; I think New Yorkers are basically liberal - libertarians with a smattering of crazies about. Even Conservative Republicans are liberal by very conservative Southern standards. Whereas in the South, a monolithic absolutist thinking culture, politicians win on just six things: Being an evangelical Christian, ultra conservative Tea Party Republican, hating Obama, and loving guns, stopping abortion and homosexuality - that is all it take to get elected in Dixie.But New Yorkers are without vanity, as they wear casual clothes, mostly levis and flannel shirts, maybe with sweatshirts over the top to manage the colder weather. No one drives a luxury car but ancient whoopee's are bountiful; small, gas efficient cars being the most popular, usually used for commuting to Manhattan, with older Jeeps with four wheel drive being for the snow. A new Yorkers idea of status is their education, in the South, it their "Bling" and what church they go to. It's snow country where people drive lots of miles commuting in old cars getting good mileage are the norm. Dodge vans were everywhere, along with small SUVs, most being more than five years’ old. There are no Home Owner’s Associations, every ones lives according to their, larger New York income, which basically means good restaurants, night clubbing, world travel and getting more education with extra college credits, plus loads of credit card debt, and that may mean a large Motor Home or Camper parked in your driveway. The neighborhood kids all play basketball with the basketball hoops sitting in front yards; swimming pools dot the landscapes, and because the snow is heavy and driveways get un navigable, snow blowers and a host of shovels are housed in various sheds at homes. Our upstate area has good schools, with awesome entertainments like boating, fishing, ethnic foods, apple picking, horse back riding, rock climbing, Broadway plays, the Opera, New York Philharmonic performances and football games at West Point, July 4th fireworks at Orange County Park with 70,000 people, soccer and baseball sports, small town parades, and is a bewitching sophisticated salad bowl just like New York City and if you enjoy people, a great place to raise your kids.Public sector employment and unions are the largest sector of employment in New York which makes for low poverty and lots of 'You we me crowd.' NY's saving grace is NYC with its high skill, high intelligence type employment in Fortunate 500, banking, publishing, advertising, performing arts jobs. What with abundant union and State or Local government work, and with the swarms of skilled trades with NYC wages, there is very poverty and lots of social problems and complex educational add-ons to get students through school. Wealth disparity is omnipotent in New York, anyone can be rich, White, Black, Asian, or Latino, the money is spread around and one can never tell by an individual’s appearance if they are poor or rich. New Yorkers are not flashy or pretentious, but when they open their mouths, you hear education, worldly knowledgeable, mostly common sense oriented opinions, often with Brooklyn accents, with big hand gestures and solve the world’s problems ideas.I work in NYC and live upstate in a 70,000 community made from the Town of Wallkill Middletown. The whole area is full of bi-level ranch homes, is a regional mega-shopping center with hundreds of new apartment/condos complexes for New York immigrants who came upstate to the Catskill Mountains foothills for better housing and schools. Recently, Kiplinger Magazine billed Middletown as one of top ten small cities to raise you children in the Unites States. The magazine cited several reasons; Middletown’s good schools, median family income is big enough to live comfortably at $68,000, low crime rates, affordable median housing at $220,000, plenty of parks and pools, a culturally and racially diverse population, located in the beautiful Hudson Valley with a plethora of performing arts and sophisticated cultural activities, near the Catskills Mountains for skiing, canoeing and fishing, and closeness to New York City for the big paying jobs and all connected with multiple mass transit systems ending in midtown Manhattan subways, trains or bus station. Mass transit get one to work weather you work in Brooklyn or upstate, New Jersey, Connecticut, or Pennsylvania.It is not the gargantuan size of the New York Metro 20 million population region, or the crushing and suffocating commuting to Manhattan through a few tunnels and bridges that defines New York City, it is the diversity of people and everyday experiences that generate the excitement of living or working in the Big Apple. Just think, 45 per cent of New York City residents are foreign born and each ethnic group has its own colorful neighborhoods, restaurants, Bodegas, social styles with its own ethnic parades like St. Patties Day that millions watch and hundreds of thousands march in on 5th Avenue. There are similar parades for Halloween in Greenwich Village, the Caribbean, Asian, Middle Eastern peoples and that grand daddy of all, Wall Street Ticker Tape Parades. New York is not about whom to hate but who to love, because hating would be fruitless in this widest expanse of diversified humanity on earth and loving is so much fun . . . and Godly!It is because this gigantic collage of differentiating humanity is thrown into a bucket and stirred around and mixed up really well, the result being a salad bowl with political opinions and life styles that are so different and varied that the typical ideological wars between Republicans and Democrats or Whites and Blacks seem like childs’ play, like confrontation 101. Believe it or not, everyone gets along, because they want to keep the peace and because they have learned to enjoy each other. New York’s life style has always been to “Live and Let Live.” They work together, socialize at the dance or night clubs, date and marry, go to church with each other, and now you can understand New York City Region, it’s all about connecting to the world in a small peaceful space. The funky culture of New York City extends well into the 100-mile radius of the commuting region with its performing arts, academic intellectual curiosity and liberal social life styles.In 1992 I took an Early Retirement from high tech strategic sales and worked in Upstate NT in various Route Sales to Resorts, Institutions and Municipalities for another 15 yrs. Early retirement was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing was that early retirement removed me from a world of stress - found in commuting, working in Manhattan, and the corporate sales life. I would be upstate with my family again instead of traveling all around the USA. The curse was not being to satisfy my deep emotional need to be around the type of talented people I spent my entire life with, those found in a competitive business environment. I had always enjoyed participating in a tremendous learning environment with colleagues, friends and acquaintances within the fast paced computer industry that was going to end when I left the world of high technology and entered the world of what I called, upstate New York type jobs where the largest and only salaried employer was the public sector. There, I found unions and civil service oriented people who were embedded in New York’s “System.” There skill sets revolved around managing process and the mantra was “its not my job.” Gone were the associations with sales, engineering and MBA type A personalities that filled the computer industry. I died every day for a decent conversation on world events.I found local hourly upstate sales jobs in various industries and companies. They proved to be interesting, albeit low paid and not career-oriented. Bettie and I traveled the world with one cruise after the other. We also often traveled to the South and developed a taste for warm weather and Southern Hospitality. With New York’s love of socialism and ever increasing taxation, it eventually became necessary to move South where taxes are very low and the overall quality of life is much higher than in New York.During my NYC career I had traveled the USA extensively and found a great county, one could live a good life anywhere, even parts in the deep south. I have been in Atlanta many times over the last ten years, many visits were business trips and to visit my wife's southern family. Every time I come, I see huge development everywhere, new roads and real estate commercial and residential development describes Atlanta, which is growing very fast, more than 400,000 people a year.The best way to describe Atlanta is to think about this hot-summer region as an ultra modern African nation filled with hardworking and very successful American Black people. This is really a Black town, and except for a very few areas to the North and West of Atlanta, there are few Whites here. The Blacks exude a classy and showy countenance as they ride around in their luxury cars and retire to their colonial brick mansions.In New York, many people say, including Blacks I know, that you cannot put a thousand Blacks together without a riot or some kind of police problem. In New York City, Rap concerts generally become violent affairs. Not here in Atlanta where you could put a million Blacks together with no problems what-so-ever. Perhaps it is because most of the Black people in Atlanta are middle class and there is a strong contingent of the upper class too. Political pundits say that most of the Black intelligentsia living in the United States are in Atlanta. The wealth of the Atlanta area is readily observed anywhere you go. Perhaps it is a Southern or Black Thing, but most people drive expensive cars and trucks. Ford ‘Expeditions,’ Lexus, Acura, and Cadillac Seville vehicles are constantly seen everywhere.There seems to be nothing poor about the Atlanta region, real estate and cars look new and well kept up. Fast Food is everywhere, whereas where I live in NY just has 3 fast food restaurants, there would be more than a hundred for the same population in ATL. Atlanta is all about flash, newness, growth. Also, the girl watching is as good as that available in Manhattan, or maybe better. On any given day in Atlanta, there must be a million beautiful Nubian Centerfolds walking around the shopping centers and high rise office buildings. But Atlanta is not like multi cultural and funky New York. I would describe ATL as new and classy!Atlanta is a ‘classy’ Black town. Downtown Atlanta is clean, full of parks, old period Craftsman homes, high rise buildings, and everywhere you go, there seems to be a nice walk-around neighborhood. Buckhead is an old and expensive neighborhood of extremely elegant homes. It looks like Middletown’s Highland Avenue or the suburbs of Greenwich, Connecticut. Atlanta reminds me of Boston, one of the most livable big cities I have ever visited. I do not know where the drug sucking, welfare loving, criminal class lives. There public housing projects somewhere in the inner city of Atlanta. but I never saw them.New York EpilogueI think New York state is the most majestic and grandiose or at least in the top three, of the most beautiful and geographically varied states in the USA. Most people, when they think of New York envision only New York City. But Upstate is full of big rivers, lakes, mountains and hundreds of small towns with great people and a good quality of life that exemplify the American Dream. The life style in Upstate is outdoorsy what with the unbelievable distinction between the four seasons with things like hiking, horseback riding, snowboarding, and canoeing/kayaking. Upstate has everything from skiing, to hunting, to boating, and to sight seeing. I lived in the Tri Cities - Endicott, Binghamton, Johnson City - and Poughkeepsie for several years attending IBM schools. Bettie and I lived ion the Hudson Valley in Middletown for 28 years. Some places I have visited include Lake Champlain, Lake George, Niagara Falls, and the Catskill Mountains. I organized twelve years of Delaware River Canoe trips and had Route Sales retirement jobs in the resort areas of the Catskills and Delaware River Valley. Every time I visit Upstate New York I am more and more impressed!Upstate New York, especially the Hudson Valley, Finger Lakes, Lake George, Adirondacks, and St. Lawrence River regions, are simply Heaven on Earth. I recommend to all my friends that they visit Upstate New York and not just New York City. Norman Rockwell must have had Glens Falls in mind when he created his wonderful artwork. Upstaters are special breed: tough, generous, hard-working. Winters are beautiful even if long and very cold. Mountains are breathtaking. Ironically, the most memorable moments of my life were the hardest for me. I cannot simply express in words how being a New Yorker has affected my existence, my very soul. The Finger Lakes, especially Skaneateles, are spectacular. Their clarity and periwinkle blue color are exquisite. Supermarkets Top's and Legman's are unbeatable. Events like Ithaca Festival, Homer's arts and crafts festival are wonderful. Ithaca Farmer's Market is terrific, just what a farmer's market should be. I can still taste the Shri Lanken combination plate. Wines fantastic. Cornell Campus is the most beautiful I've ever seen and may be most beautiful in world. Many fine ethnic restaurants in Ithaca, Cortland area that don't cost an arm and a leg. This reminds me of wonderful apple juice maker in Virgil that makes best apple pies in world.Friends Advice on Moving South?One of our friends who has lived in the South for years, told me that if I moved there I would have to buy in a development because if I bought elsewhere, I would find that nice home homes are next to shacks and single wide trailers, the South being full of poor people living in decrepit housing, and because there are no zoning rules or regulations that prevent people from building whatever they want anywhere they want, the consequentially, the south is rife with nice homes being surrounded with trashy homes. The main reason is the extreme poverty and racial disparity in the South (its still pretty much segregated) and so many homes do not have a garage so they put their spare refrigerator, an ice box, lawn equipment, etc. on their front porch ‑ and that old couches for sitting and watching the chickens and goats running around. He said that “Bling” is the most important value in the South and not education and even the city of Atlanta has plenty of Rednecks. He also told me a home in a development will usually have a Home Owners Association (HOA) that will keep the neighborhood decent as Southerners are prone to park their trucks and cars on their front lawn thereby tearing up the grass, but be aware some HOA’s are filled with home-grown Nazis who think that manicured lawns are the most important thing in the world and will bug you to death for a single weed. Finally, he told me I would not be happy in the South since I was a social liberal and politically progressive, an anathema to Southerners who are very right wing and who only elect ultra conservative extreme right wing Republicans, and being in the Bible Belt means nothing as far as the Golden Rule, I: E “Loving your neighbor” is concerned, as Southerners have a long history of anti social feeling toward Blacks, Hispanics, immigrants, Jews, Catholics, Yankees, Gays, and especially New Yorkers. Which, by the way are grouped together and called “Foreigners” excerpt for “Yankees” which carry’s a particularly nasty disdain. Well, I thought my friend was crazy, after all, this is the Unites States and my business many trips to Atlanta had shown a “New” South was appearing. He said, “Stay out of the rural south!”House Hunting in GeorgiaOne of our daughters moved to the Atlanta region in 1998 and we started to look around the south. This time we drove to Atlanta, on the way down 85 we stopped Jefferson, a small town outside of Atlanta, for gas. The counter lady heard me talk and asked where I was from. I said New York, she said she was from the sea shore town of Mt. Pleasant, New Jersey. Without me asking, she told me how she hates Georgia, says it is too hot, boring, and unfriendly. She is moving back to New Jersey soon. She says the locals want to keep fighting the Civil War all over again with her and they call it the War of Northern Aggression. She says when people come in and hear her talk, they give her a hard time and call her a “Damn Yankee.” This makes her want to cry. She wants to go back to her cool Sea Shore style of living in New Jersey.We stayed at my daughter's house in Lithonia and went out looking at apartments and houses farther out from the city. We wound up in Snellville. Only in the Snellville area did I see any White people in any significant numbers. I had heard about this area and thought it was way out in the country. Well, it isn’t! It is like Middletown, except it is all new. Imagine Wallkill’s commercial development on Rt. 211 which is called the Miracle Mile. It is one of Orange County’s hot spots for commercial real estate development and consists of retail malls and fast food stores. Compare that to the highway running through Snellville which is eight lanes wide and runs for ten miles, with every inch loaded with (much larger) retail and food establishments. The road to Snellville is lined with dozens of signs pointing to new real estate developments of homes and garden apartments. In the area, there must be at least hundreds of developments every one with a sign saying how much the homes cost. The signs read ‘from the eighties, to the nineties, to the mid-hundreds.’ The homes are usually brick, two stories tall, and built close together on cull-de-sacs. There do not appear to be any large housing developments like our Scotchtown in Atlanta. The housing we saw was developed in smaller sections. Also, I did not see new housing that interested me. Everything we saw was two -story colonials on small-hilly lots. I like a ranch style on a large-flat lot. As in most new Atlanta real estate developments, there are red brick bicycle paths everywhere, I think they are all interconnected to make long bicycle rides possible. All real estate development is built with extensive landscaping. I think the semitropical climate makes beautiful landscaping easily achievable at low cost. Finally, we pulled into this brand Golden Coral cafeteria-style restaurant to eat dinner. The restaurant was filled with ‘the beautiful people.’ Everyone was nicely attired in the standard uniform of Atlanta - shorts.Saturday morning we went to Denny’s and had breakfast. Full of good looking and nicely dressed Black people, the place was nicer than Denny’s in Middletown. Our Atlanta Denny’s was designed so everyone had large window views, had plenty of table room, and sat on luxurious seating. Also, here the waitresses were all very attractive Black women with personality plus dispositions. My waitress asked me if I wanted white Hen eggs or brown Rooster eggs. I told her that in New York, the Rooster eggs were red and that was what I wanted.After a good laugh - and more joking around every time she passed by - we settled down for a great meal. Do they fix the food different here Atlanta too? The waitress at the next table looked like Naomi Campbell. Will Atlanta ever run out of beautiful black women?We pulled into this brand new Snellville - Cafeteria Restaurant to eat dinner. It was similar to the Morrison family style restaurant Bettie and I go to in Florida, except this place was bigger, fancier, and it had more food choices. The food was served buffet style and for around seven dollars, you could eat and drink all you want, including dessert. I thought about Tommy Parlipiano from my job. With his metabolism, he can eat a ton of food and not gain any weight. He would really enjoy gorging at this place. The restaurant was filled with ‘the beautiful people.’ Everyone was nicely attired in the standard uniform of Atlanta - shorts. There were no long haired, big-bellied men or fat women like I see in Middletown all the time. People in Atlanta are physically fit, attractive, and well dressed, it seems to be their cultural icon. Some of the women standing in line were so beautiful it made one swallow hard. The food was delicious, the waiters kept your cup and plate full until you gave up. Yeah, Tommy would really love this place!Saturday morning we went to Denny’s and had breakfast. Full of good looking and nicely dressed Black people, the place was nicer than Denny’s in Middletown. Our Atlanta Denny’s was designed so everyone had large window views, had plenty of table room, and sat on luxurious seating. I loved the fact the smoking section was off to the side. In Middletown, they put the nonsmokers in a creepy back room. Do these fast food companies have a larger and better design for Atlanta? Also, here the waitresses were all very attractive Black women with personality plus dispositions. My waitress asked me if I wanted white Hen eggs or brown Rooster eggs. I told her that in New York, the Rooster eggs were red and that was what I wanted. After a good laugh - and more joking around every time she passed by - we settled down for a great meal. Do they fix the food different here Atlanta too? The waitress at the next table looked like Naomi Campbell. Will Atlanta ever run out of beautiful women?Finally, our house hunting completed, we went to a friend's apartment on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta. She moved to Miami, became a computer expert for a law firm, and recently moved to Atlanta for a better job making $40,000 a year. She lives in the ritzy - Gables Over Peach Tree - apartment building on the sixteenth floor. This is a secure building that you must be cleared to enter. The lobby is somewhat ostentatious, the woman(?) at the front desk is a Black Transvestite, and the elevator is full of White homosexuals. Well, I finally found a piece of NYC in Atlanta. Erica’s one bed room apartment is just like the one I had in Jamaica on Parson’s Blvd in Queens. Hers has a wall closing off the bedroom while mine did not - She pays $850 per month plus parking. She prefers living the cosmopolitan life of an Atlanta sophisticate. She is close to her job and the Marta subway. She dates regularly and knows many of the executives who work in the Fortune 500 Companies nestled in downtown Atlanta.Piedmont ParkErica takes us to Piedmont Park, where the Black Arts Festival is going on. She takes us there in her 1997 Civic ES maneuvering through the crowed streets of Atlanta. Yes, this does remind me of elegant Boston. Scranton, Pa. is also very much like the neighborhoods we travel through. Piedmont Park is somewhat on a hill over looking many tents and a bandstand playing Creole music. The tents are filled with Africans selling quality carvings and other native goods direct from Africa. Inexpensive items cost around two hundred dollars, I saw a huge carving that cost $8,000. I got the sense that these items were all worth what the vendors were asking, they had the mark of uniqueness and quality about them. There are literally hundreds of gorgeous young Black women walking around in shorts, native costumes, or tight fitting blue jeans with tiny halters. With their long legs, large butts, and full breasts, these women created nerve-wracking responses to any man’s system. The Creole band played music right from Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Italian Ice, ice cream, pizza, sausage and peppers, and soul food dinners were available from vendors. There were very few White people there and most of those were pairs of Homo sexual men.AtlantaAtlanta is said to be the New York City of the south, meaning cosmopolitan, diverse and hip – for short. When the south was a bastion of Jim Crow segregation and Bull Conner tactics, Atlanta led the south forward to a brighter future of equality. But it is not New York City, not even close in my opinion and I am a 40 year New Yorker. So, Atlanta does not have the number of world class universities, Broadway, Opera, Ballet and six thousand grooving night clubs like in Manhattan but for a southern town it does OK.The south is God and Guns country. Even so Atlanta is a civilized place on one hand and a terrible place on the other – it has the most guns in the hands of violent predators, ranks in the USA top five of worst crime and murder rate, worst schools and traffic – of that and many other things. But you see skyscrapers in Atlanta, dozens of business parks filled with the top corporations, condos going up all around town, new baseball and football stadiums (they forgot to put in parking lots). A good night life and lack of racism for a southern black town with lots of suburban whites. There are no sidewalks in Atlanta, highways take you everywhere, so it is not a walk around town, there is no NYC type mass transit and you need a car which clogs the roads up even more. But Atlanta is still lovable what with the greasy yet contagious Varsity is still around and the world famous Clermont Lounge strip club opened up again. And naked in Atlanta is ass hole naked – you will see it all right in your face.Yes, Atlanta is hip and crazy and lots of fun but is dangerous what with the high violent crime rate and terrible traffic. Every night on local news there are guns everywhere and every day murder(s) somewhere, many times multiple killings, its all black on black crime and the city has not put in the police resources or upgraded the schools so the kids get a decent education. The south does not raise taxes for schools or police much less amenities like NYC. The highest crime filled districts only have a handful of Cops whereas in NYC there would be thousands and the prisons to put the crooks in.Atlanta is basically a black town with about 500,000 people but it is surround by many mostly mixed black / white cities calling themselves part of Atlanta for a total metro population of about six million. So who moves to the area; first, lots of blacks from the south and those coming back to the south from the north? Second, businesses relocating from the north that sends lots of their people here. These are generally not first tier high tech and corporate headquarters of major companies who need a more sophisticated environment, but second and third tier administrative and manufacturing stuff. Third, retirees like me looking for warm, low cost housing and taxes and relaxation out in the suburbs which is really good living.Monroe, GeorgiaWe have a nice new house with low taxes, better than we could afford in high cost / tax New York. Life here is slow, nothing ever goes on, neither Bettie or I have good friends or activities here. Southern people don't socialize like New Yorkers do, everything centers around their church activities here while in the north there are dozens of venues for socialization. It's a day to day boring existence of shopping, going to church, Bettie's Quilting, my volunteering and our charitable things. Ironically, the famous hospitality oriented south is self righteously religious but judgmental and very hateful against many types of people.Today it's hot outside, been that way for the week, in the mid 90s, and nothing moves now. I have been to the pool a few days to cool off, but mostly we stay inside and camp out from the scorching outside heat. Our daughter Judi and her family drove up to New York for the July 4th holidays, and Bettie and I are alone here. But we are always alone. People don't walk around the neighborhood and visit, no one comes over for a backyard hot dog. We only have a few people over for Thanksgiving, nothing like the 50 or so we got over in New York, but here in Monroe, no neighbors, only a few church friends.It's been like this since we moved to Georgia, its nothing like New York where our house was the center of activities for the neighborhood, church and our many friends. Yes, my wife was Middletown's Mother Teresa while I was the quirky curmudgeon, involved in Church as a Deacon and Trustee, got elected and/or appointed in politics as a Republican for the Planning Board and School Boards for many years. But a NY Republican ain't a Georgia Republican. Northern Republicans are more positive thinking, while Southern are very anti oriented, where you have to be a Christian, Obama hating, anti abortion and Gay rights, immigrant hating conservative. Southern Republicans are focused on social issues while northern are focused on economic issues. I hobnobbed with all the state and federal politicos, there was always a huge mix of ideas, values, ethnic, racial, religious types, and politics in NY while the south is monolithic. .Living in AtlantaLiving in Atlanta is a mixed bag. It's all about a gun / pawn shop is on every corner, along with pay by the month motels and used car lots with questionable titles is typically what you find within the I-285 perimeter which is also filled with modern skyscrapers, corporate headquarters, world class hotels and convention centers. I wonder, is it a southern thing that so many people seem to be very materialistic and attracted to appearances (how you look, what you drive, how big your house is, etc.). I think Atlanta tingles with Bling, crime and unnecessary racial sensitivity. At 60 percent, Atlanta is predominately a black city, the south side being black while the north side being white with Buckhead where the Governor and many celebrities live alongside Decatur my favorite section of town, which is the closest thing to Mayberry you'll ever find. In fact, articles have been written describing Decatur as "Mayberry Meets Berkeley." No particular area is completely wonderful or completely safe. But in general, there are a lot of great places to live, both inside and outside the I-285 perimeter. Atlanta is, after all, a teeming 5 million population metropolis the same as New York City or Los Angeles. You gotta have a car. There is no way to walk to where you got to be and even though the MARTA rail and bus serves small parts of the city well, everything is spread out.