Comments on: Midweek History: Centennial Park Before-and-After

By: Veg

Veg — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 02:12:50 +0000

Lol!

By: Parker Cross

Parker Cross — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 04:00:56 +0000

Nice point about the Games, Native. It was a huge turning point for my relationship with Decatur, too. It was the first time we hung out on the square, and it was very cool. We had adult and kid guests at our house for the games, what to do for evenings with no tickets? Adults listened to the music on the bandstand and watched the events on the big screen against the SunTrust? building, kids went wild at the pin trading tent. We all visited the Olympic memorabilia exhibition.
We live on the west side of town and prior to that fortnight we were always focused to the west: VAHI, Midtown, etc.
I realize this wasn’t the point of your post, but your comment about the games and DM’s post made me a little nostalgic.

By: Larkspur

Larkspur — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 03:31:13 +0000

I was also at Centennial Park the night of the bombing, but left before.

By: CKort

CKort — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:20:07 +0000

Check out those gorgeous trees around the perimeter of the “after” photo. They have really grown in just 15 short years and provide some substantial shade. Nice news in 95* weather.

By: jonat

jonat — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:18:20 +0000

Call me crazy, but might this have become a neat warehouse district like “West Midtown” had the buildings been remodeled/renovated instead?

By: SR

SR — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:54:12 +0000

Thelma’s Kitchen is still around – relocated to Auburn Ave. right next to the interstate (hopefully the move was sans cockroaches). I hear Thelma has passed it along to the next generation, but she is still there most of the time.

By: JoeBlow

JoeBlow — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:55:17 +0000

I’ll do you one better. I was standing just in front of the Swatch Pavillion (right near where the bomb went off) for most of that evening watching whatever musical acts were performing that night.

Right around midnight a band called Johnny & The Rockets came on and were pretty lame, so we left (it was also roughly my curfew as I was 18 and not yet off to college). I believe the bomb went off around 1:00 AM.

My mother, who knew of my general whereabouts for the evening but didn’t hear me come home, came flying into my room shortly after 6:00 AM after seeing news of the bombing, just to make sure I was home.

By: Tom L

Tom L — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:23:30 +0000

Speaking of the Olympics, I was at Decatur Beach Party the evening of the Centennial Park Bombing. The only thing that kept me from going downtown was my lack of correct change to ride MARTA. I am eternally grateful that I went home safely that night.