Welcome to our new weekly feature: Ride to Church. On D&S 2, and usually on a Sunday, we’ll explore a journey from a part of the world which one of our readers calls ‘home’.
As the first ‘Ride to Church’, you’ll see the drive our family has made hundreds of times over the past decade in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Because the city is so large and the number of members so few, our ward covers hundreds of square miles- all of the west side. We live a block from the northern boundary and drive about 11 miles to our building, straight through downtown Atlanta. Members living on the southern boundary drive at least as far. Here you see it on a bright Sunday morning this past fall. Sunday mornings are a breeze- we usually make it the drive in under 20 minutes (I think I clocked it at 12 one time). Weeknights are a different story altogether, as you might imagine.
It’s a drive that offers a variety of scenery: we head south from a more ‘suburban’ type intown neighborhood to a more ‘urban’ type neighborhood. Our meetinghouse location is almost always a surprise to out -of-towners. We get lots of visitors since our ward is the closest to downtown and airport convention hotels and is on the Marta (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) line. Look me up if you will be in Atlanta, Doves and Serpents Readers! I’ll watch for you in Sunday School.
What is your Ride to Church like? We’d love to feature your selection of photos documenting a drive in your area of the world. Please contact us with your submission: andy[at]dovesandserpents.org or claire[at]dovesandserpents.org .
FIFTY socks for ten bucks? :) I love this visual account of your journey, Claire… it’s amazing how much LIFE we pass while going to church. So many livelihoods, dreams and realities. Atlanta looks like a place of many facets and communities.
Yes Andy… don’t you need 25 pairs of new socks???
It’s true though…. even on a short ‘ride’ (or even walk) to church one can pass through or discover whole communities we might not otherwise. Would love to see an English version!
Claire, I know I said this before but loved the “church zone” sign. This really give me a sense of your community. Isn’t is kinda sad that Mormons tend to miss-out on the Sunday flea market and farmer’s market culture?
I kinda feel like we miss out on plenty of family-oriented Sunday stuff. We went to the university pool once on a Sunday afternoon a year or so ago. One of the kids wanted to do it and was arguing that it would be infinitely better for us to enjoy each other as a family than to watch TV or each read our own book or take a nap. Another kid didn’t want to go because she thought we shouldn’t. I agreed with her, but wanted to go along to get along. I had this crazy sensation like people were watching me as we approached the pool (I’m joking, but only sort of), or that we would get caught. (Hello, yes, I am a fully grown adult and I am confessing here that I was honestly worried about someone seeing me at a swimming pool.)
Once we got there, all I saw were families really, truly enjoying each other–siblings playing volleyball or basketball, dads going down the lazy river with their kids, a mom and a daughter sitting poolside chatting . . . and I thought: THIS is supposed to be wrong somehow?
I know that’s not related to Claire’s post, but Matt’s comment got me thinking . . .
Heather, I hadn’t really thought about how Sabbath observance fits in to this feature. Interesting story. We long ago gave up the ‘no recreation on Sunday’ idea, especially with regards to hiking, biking, the beach, etc. The pool on Sunday afternoon is a family tradition for us :-)
Man, I miss passing that Big Daddy’s every week. I could get there in 14 minutes if I ran two red lights. I only ran them on Sunday mornings though. :)
Wendy, I always knew you were a rebel inside :-)