By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
FEB. 28, 2023 | What made you live where you presently live?
Did your family move here when you were young, and you got used to the area?- Did you come to this area to go to school, and liked it?
- Or did a job come open here, and you took it?
- Perhaps your company transferred you here?
- Maybe it was love that attracted you to this area.
- Many of us were born nearby, and have never lived elsewhere.
- And some were just born right here in Gwinnett.
But for sure, our area, and Gwinnett County in particular, has seen tremendous growth in the last 73 years. Gwinnett has zoomed from 32,320 people in 1950….to today’s near one million residents. Yep, big wow!
Just by reading the local obituaries, you can get a feel for the great number of people who have moved to the area from other places, not only throughout the United States, but today, often from throughout the world. You can feel overwhelmed by the many people who were born in other areas, but now called Georgia and Metro Atlanta home.
For me, I’m one born in Middle Georgia. But why I live in Georgia now was a conscious decision that I made when I was just before getting out of college. I remember it distinctly.
It was one of these glorious February days (like we have had recently) when I was 21 years old. I was visiting my future wife at her family’s home and farm in Macon, and the sun was shining brightly, and the leaves were beginning to bud out on bushes and trees, and I remember thinking: “Why in the world would I want to live anywhere else?”
Meanwhile, in those days you read in the papers, heard on the radio, and saw on the limited television we had then, that February days in other parts of the country were often cold, with snow storms, and often far from beautiful sunny weather.
That’s what drew my thought: “Yep, Georgia’s where I want to make my future home.”
Don’t get me wrong: February can be grouchy with dreadful and harsh weather. And sometimes such weather seems to last all month, with dreary, overcast and cold days, making the shortest month seem like the longest month. Your hands and feet stay cold, even when in the house.
Yet Mother Nature in February can show Georgians better days, as we have had in 2023, when February’s beautiful weather can enliven your spirits, and let you know that better days are closer than ever.
That can pump you up, and yearn to be outside in the good weather. Even though your outlook may be temporarily thwarted by the sure-to-come few days of blackberry winter, you are pepped up about the coming good weather in front of you.
That was the case of this Georgian. We would soon graduate from college, have nine months working as a newspaperman before going to serve as an officer in the Army and be sent to Germany for the next 3.5 years! (That was a grand tour of service for me and my wife, and a son was born in Germany). Then back to the States and to the soon-cold weather of Iowa for a year in graduate school….and finally, back to Georgia!
That’s why I live here. Think about yourself: why did you come to live in Georgia?
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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