1075 Huntcliff. Roswell, GA. 30350.

Jane has grown up in a modest home with her three siblings and her neighborhood gaggle of pals. She spent her childhood embracing life with the friends she created in her own backyard, which makes her “want [to live in] a suburb that is close to a city.” She dreams of her children having the same experience growing up in a tight knit community similar to her current abode.

Her neighborhood pals have mostly moved on to different phases in their lives or moved away, but that does not stop Jane from cherishing her memories with a grin and a giggle. A brief stint across the world in Japan took her on one of life’s greatest adventures. Her family moved back to their original home after three years, and began the quest to acclimate into American society once again. When she moved back, the majority of her neighborhood friends “kind of forgot [she] existed.” They had all moved on with their lives and continued their adventures with their friends at school. Jane’s neighborhood friends attend Mount Vernon Presbyterian while Jane continued her education career at The Galloway School. The distance between her and most of her neighborhood friends does not stop Jane from looking back on her neighborhood memories with sweet fondness.

Jane and her friends took full advantage of living in Roswell, a suburb of Atlanta. She and her friends partook in all the standard neighborhood hangouts: swimming in the pool, having lemonade stands, biking down the streets, and climbing trees. They also took advantage of their location as their neighborhood backs up to the Chattahoochee River and went in the river. The groups took frequent trips to Goose Poop island, a patch of land they discovered in the Chattahoochee with “a ton of goose poop.” This so-called island became the gathering spot for Jane and all her friends to go before continuing on their adventures.

Jane’s neighborhood has always been the place to be for holiday celebrations. Her family was the host of the elaborate neighborhood Christmas party for many years. The holiday extravaganza “was bopping” with people enjoying the company of their friends and family. Halloween is a huge deal in the Huntcliff neighborhood with the neighborhood transforming for the annual holiday. Hundreds of kids walk around on October 31st enjoying the last of the spooky season. The community has the well known Halloween houses: “the king size bar house, the purple spider house, the guy that has a haunted house” and the parent party houses. While the holiday celebrations have toned down in the recent past, the memories of holidays have not faded.

Jane’s passionate about the joy her neighborhood has brought her. Some of her favorite memories might feel mundane to some, but to Jane they are special as they were spent with the people who grew up with her. She and her friends did not always do boring activities as they played epic game of “manhunt with everyone in the neighborhood.” The games would begin by gathering at her close friend Belle’s street and break out into a giant version of the iconic game. By the time the game was over, the group would have expanded into the golf course that is connected to their neighborhood. Mari, a close friend of Jane’s who used to live in the neighborhood, said, “we would get lost in the woods until the [neighborhood] police found us.” They would spend hours tagging each other and embracing one another.

The neighborhood friends became close to one another largely in part because of their location. Roswell is a forty-five minute drive from the center of Atlanta. Many think of the suburbs as sleepy and boring, but Jane made Roswell come to life without stepping into Atlanta. Her neighborhood friends took full advantage of Roswell’s offerings beyond her neighborhood. They adventured to Old Roswell, ate at restaurants nearby, went to the Roswell Mill, and explored nearby waterfalls. Jane argues there was so much to do and “being in Roswell is why [they] were closer.” The gaggle of friends found numerous ways to spend time together beyond their neighborhood and create memories that last a lifetime.

Jane’s memories of her childhood in the Roswell Huntcliff neighborhood highlight the power of community. She is an empowered individual who feels free to be herself because of her transformative experiences spent galloping around her neighborhood with her childhood friends. According to Jane’s dad, he picked her neighborhood so he could “play golf” but ended up staying for the community. Jane so lucky her parents picked her neighborhood. She has blossomed into a smart young lady whose prepared to take on the world by storm from her carefree adventures.

By Sophie Kieffer