Unincorporated DeKalb

My House in Unincorporated Dekalb

For eight years before I moved to Pine Lake, I lived near Northlake Mall in unincorporated Dekalb County. My street was a cul-de-sac with about 20 single family dwellings.

Over the years I spoke twice in passing with the gay male couple who lived on one side of me and once with the husband of the Middle Eastern family that lived on the other. We never learned, or, if we mentioned our names in our brief conversations, remembered one anothers' names. Not in eight years.

Some neighborhoods are more prone to socialization than was my my cul-de-sac, but my street was unfortunately typical of suburban Atlanta. People live insular lives, unconcerned about and for the most part unaware of their neighbors. I know I did.

Things changed when I moved to Pine Lake. Even before I bought my home I knew the names of several people. Within months I knew more than 100 names, soon after that, perhaps 200.

Before I even moved into my new home, on the night of the lighting of the lake for the 2006 holiday season, I realized how much I was going to enjoy Pine Lake. I ran into a couple of my acquaintance, remarked that I needed to change a lightbulb and was going to Home Depot the next day to buy a stepladder. Nonsense, they said. They would loan me theirs. After the ceremony, I and Donna Johnston, my visiting friend, walked with them to their house.

After visiting, Donna and I found ourselves walking down Clubhouse Drive toward my house on Pine, at midnight, carrying a stepladder. It seemed the most natural things in the world, and I suppose it was.