Cherishing old memories in Martinez Georgia

It’s Matt – This past week I traveled to Atlanta for a blogging conference. Due to conflicts in our schedule I had to attend the conference by my self and Sarah stayed home with our kids. I was excited that I was still able to attend. Not for what I learned there, although I did learn a lot. But I was excited because I used to live outside of Augusta Georgia, in a town called Martinez. I lived there during my third grade through my 6th grade year and attended Martinez Elementary School.

If you are familiar with Georgia, you will know that Augusta is over 2 and a half hours away from Atlanta. But if you know me I am really big in my history and genealogy. I have always thought it would be fun to go back an see my old homes that I used to live in. So what did I do? Well I rented a car, and reserved the thriftiest price I could find. I arrived late in the night last week and approached the car rental desk. The lady told me that they were busy that day and had rented out all of the economy class cars. She then said that they wanted to give me a higher class car but still keep my price the same as what I reserved. She then asked “Can you drive a stick?”. I smerked  and said “Yes” while my mind raced back to my teenage years and trying every driving trick in the book with my old high school car. What hormone driven male teen hasn’t right? Well she scanned through their inventory and handed me the keys to a Dodge Challenger. Not just some two door V6 model with entry class options, but a V8 HEMI charged with 375 horse power, satellite radio, power everything street machine. When I walked up to the car in the parking bay, I just smiled! This trip is going to be fun! Now I had to make the trip from Atlanta to Augusta. Who wouldn’t want to take this thing out on the open highway?

Yes I enjoyed the ride… I won’t go into details 😉

So yes I drove out to Martinez Georgia to visit my old home. Who knows maybe one of our 8.5 million visitors to our site actually attended the same school back in the mid 1980’s?

For privacy I wont mention the street or the address but there are so many memories of this home:

In the back yard, that is the exact same deck I helped my Dad build. And not sure if you can see just to the right of the deck there is a brown patch of sunken dirt. That is the hole I helped dig to put in our pool. So strange to see it.

Next I went over to my old school. At first the only thing I could remember about the school was a corridor into the gym/cafeteria. In 5th grade I got 3rd place in the school art contest. I was so proud as I walked back and forth in the corridor where they hung the winners art work.

Needless to say, but as soon as I entered the school to ask about old teachers, flashes of past memories started to flood my mind. I visited my old school library and talked with one of the librarians there while I looked in old school year books. One of the only two teachers I remembered – Mrs Powell, and the other Mrs Morris. The librarian actually knows Mrs Powell and she recently retired. It was such an enjoyable day there. I was sad to not be able to meet any of my old teachers.  I even tried to introduce myself to the current owners of our old home, but they weren’t home.

There are no children in these pictures so I will share the photos of the front of the school in hopes one of you might of gone there.

So if you ever get a chance to visit an old home, or old school that you haven’t seen in 25 plus years, I would recommend it! Memories you long had forgotten, will come racing back! Needless to say the rest of my trip was so relaxed in knowing of the satisfaction I gained from cherishing old memories.

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