Since the Atkins family is a small one, there aren't many cousins with whom to keep in touch. So it was great news when we learned that one of the few – Jeff Burns who lives in Ohio – had worked out a time to bring his wife of one year, Debbie, to Lilburn for a few days this month. It was our first opportunity to get acquainted with Debbie and to visit with Jeff as a mature individual rather than a son in his parents' household.
And what a treat it was.
Considering that we range in age from 83 to 19, counting Greg's friend, Hannah, it's nothing short of amazing that we never ran out of things to do or talk about. We talked from Sunday afternoon through Thursday morning. We talked from first thing in the morning till late at night. Scott and Jeff talked two nights in a row till our automatically timed living room lighting left them unexpectedly in the dark.
The Atkins Boys and Jeff talked about cars and guns and guns and cars and whatever else guys talk about. Jeff helped Carl bottle wine – his first experience with a corker – and learned first hand what it was like to participate in the landing in France during WW II. Debbie and Sallie talked about family history, different religions, and potential baby names. Debbie and Hannah talked about teaching and all of us talked about beautiful Hannah's decision to enter the Miss Georgia contest. And we saw a demonstration of Greg and Hannah's unique dancing style (she stands on his feet and he dances).
In between, we took in some sights that are unique to this part of Georgia. Since Jeff is quite a gourmet cook, we spent a morning at the DeKalb Farmers' Market browsing the aisles for food not often seen in Ohio. Let's just say that most of what we brought home was fresh produce. We did not ask the employees to kill and gut any exotic creatures from the sea or feel the urge to buy cans or bags of things we couldn't pronounce. We did get stuck in the bread and pastry aisle, though.
The next morning brought the exotic experience of attending the mid-day service at Lilburn's amazing Hindu temple, the largest of its kind in the USA where Debbie and I blessed ourselves along with the sari-clad women while Scott and Jeff sat cross-legged on the floor up front, surrounded by prone Indian men. Women definitely take a back seat in this culture and their devotion to marble statues is a bit of a puzzle to those of us whose religious roots are in rural West Virginia.
And, since Debbie has a particular interest in the Civil War, we visited Atlanta's Cyclorama, the largest painting in the world and one of only two such paintings that still exist. The Battle of Atlanta, enhanced by its well lighted diorama and excellent narration, gave all of us an up close and personal view of how the Civil War was fought and how it is still viewed here in the deep South. Just how far we've come as a nation was brought home by the fact that the story is narrated by James Earl Jones and our tour guide was an articulate young black man.
Our time together can best be summed up by words from the song, "Getting to know you, Getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me."
We did. We do. We think they do too.
