Photograph courtesy of John Gibson
This is how our neighborhoods change: Little by little, then suddenly. When Reed’s Physique Store on Memorial Drive closed in 2022, Reynoldstown immediately felt completely different. Anybody who has introduced a fender bender has by no means been handled half in addition to Doug Reed and his son Robbie. For greater than 68 years, Reeds has cared for our automobiles as in the event that they had been their very own Of their state — a random metropolis block wrapped in chain hyperlink and barbed wire, half filled with junkers and clunkers — individuals received a sq. deal.
Robbie credit his mother and father for that “sq. deal” mentality and his mom, Betty’s, love of wildflowers for the visible signature of Reed’s Physique Store. Each summer season, for so long as anybody can bear in mind, 1000’s of brilliant orange flowers have taken over that complete chain-link fence: maybe the prettiest spot within the universe in all of Atlanta. Swarming with bees and butterflies reminds Betty Reid of her childhood. When he retired, the Reeds’ worker and good friend, Timmy Adams and his spouse, Debbie, tended the wild backyard season after season. Strolling by the entrance door of House Grown Restaurant on any given summer season morning, stomach filled with comforting hen biscuits, you may look to your proper and there they are going to be, shining within the slanting morning solar. Magnificent.
I am not mad that Reid has stopped. That they had an incredible run, received out on their very own phrases. Nothing lasts ceaselessly. And it is tremendous that our neighborhood is getting denser. I like having all new neighbors. That is how cities work finest. However is there a option to hold the previous alive, whilst you progress into the longer term? What makes a spot a spot?
Reynoldstown has lengthy been plagued with such questions. Our household measurement has tripled in simply 20 years, but the necessities, the intangibles, stay. The odor of sidewalk barbecue from Franklin and Williams. The hustle and bustle of Hulsey Yard. Gathering beneath the mighty oak timber within the park grounds. Different neighborhoods embrace stone monuments and brick palaces. Reynoldstown has very good weeds between skinny roads and chain hyperlink fences. Markers are nonetheless essential.
Now, although, because the bulldozer warmed up, our very stunning weeds — the orange flash that claims you are right here, and it is now — had been in danger. That is the place Reynoldstown Rangers got here in. Born from porch chats between neighbors, Rangers is an engine that runs on curiosity, dedicated to mapping and characterizing our house, distinguishing neighbors from strangers. Rangers had been preferrred stewards for what we name “reed’s seeds”. Month after month, lengthy into autumn, with a gate magically left open, ranger volunteers collected the spiky brown seed heads, dried them and packed them into mason jars. Then we waited.
On the primary Saturday of spring, dozens of neighbors gathered in teams and set out throughout the neighborhood, seeds and trowels in hand. Rangers have mapped 30 websites the place cosmos can thrive: marginal soil, all-day solar, no likelihood of mowing. Cosmos aren’t native, however they’re good neighbors, thrive in robust locations, pollinate like loopy, reseed neatly. Many teams had been led by moms and youngsters. Like Betty Reed, these moms had been passing alongside their love of wildflowers. Their Reynoldstown youngsters will develop up in a spot the place a flash of orange assures them it is summer season, they usually’re residence.
John Gibson is among the founders of Reynoldstown Rangers. About them and Reed’s seeds might be discovered at reynoldstownrangers.com.
This text appeared in our June 2024 concern.
commercial
