Rooted in Oxford – A Sream of Consciousness Rendering
by Laurie R. Oliver
November, 2014
One thing I’m sure of… I’m thoroughly rooted in the Love and Community of Oxford, Georgia. Oh, I’ve branched out through the years, for sure, but the roots of my beginning are strong and deep. My parents moved to Oxford in 1966 when dad was hired as a professor at Oxford College of Emory University. I was born in March of 1968. Brought home from the hospital to our college-owned home at the corner of Dowman and Bonnell Streets. The yellow brick house. Three years later, my brother was born. We lived there until 1975.
The college owned most of the homes on that street, and the neighborhood was full of faculty families with children. Many playmates! We had the only sandbox on the street and multitudes of sand/mud pies were concocted there with my neighborhood buddies. A game of kick-the-can through the yards of the neighboring houses was a regular event during the summer evenings. I learned to ride my bike on those streets, and it was safe enough for me to ride about without any thought of danger – except falling off a time or two. But neighborhood parents or older children were always on hand to brush me off and send me on my way again.
Playing outside… always the awareness that some adult would look after us somewhere along the street. We were safe. We were cared for. We were loved.
My parents bought the Florida Hall property on Clark Street and “re-did” it – and by 1975, it was ready for us to move in. The reconstruction of that house was a bountiful treasure-trove of expeditions into new worlds and lessons in creating playthings out of scraps of whatnot. I know it was back-breaking and sometimes extremely overwhelming for my parents – but it was quite an adventure for me and my little brother and our friends! We ran about pretty freely through the woods on the property – sliding down gullies, swinging across the creek on wild grape vines. Interesting to realize that I would be afraid to let young children do that unsupervised today – but those were different times!
And that nest they built is still our family home!
Starting off on the south side of the college and moving to the north side by the age of seven, Oxford College and Allen Memorial Methodist Church were at the center of my young world. Those two establishments are where my extended family came from – oh, not blood relations, but definitely “family!” Those were my stomping grounds. Learning to swim in the original college pool; hiding amongst the book shelves of the library; pretending the purple staircase (no longer purple) in the student center was the winding entrance to my castle; running through the Quadrangle; and again perfectly safe, with loads of built-in babysitters in the form of college students and employees of the college! My parents were very active members of the Allen Memorial church and sang in the choir. Dad still does! Many of the members of that church had a huge hand in “raising” me and many of them are still there. Kindergarten was held in the Education Building of Allen Memorial and some of those people are friends I went all the way through school with and am still friends with to this day.
Yes, Oxford, Georgia was an enchanting place to be a child… And I am grateful that as an adult, I chose to move back to Newton County to build my business. Today, as I enjoy walking the streets of Oxford and the Oxford section of Newton Trails, I realize with new eyes what a special and unusual place it is.
And I am Thank-Full that it is where my roots began and continue to run deep.
The college owned most of the homes on that street, and the neighborhood was full of faculty families with children. Many playmates! We had the only sandbox on the street and multitudes of sand/mud pies were concocted there with my neighborhood buddies. A game of kick-the-can through the yards of the neighboring houses was a regular event during the summer evenings. I learned to ride my bike on those streets, and it was safe enough for me to ride about without any thought of danger – except falling off a time or two. But neighborhood parents or older children were always on hand to brush me off and send me on my way again.
Playing outside… always the awareness that some adult would look after us somewhere along the street. We were safe. We were cared for. We were loved.
My parents bought the Florida Hall property on Clark Street and “re-did” it – and by 1975, it was ready for us to move in. The reconstruction of that house was a bountiful treasure-trove of expeditions into new worlds and lessons in creating playthings out of scraps of whatnot. I know it was back-breaking and sometimes extremely overwhelming for my parents – but it was quite an adventure for me and my little brother and our friends! We ran about pretty freely through the woods on the property – sliding down gullies, swinging across the creek on wild grape vines. Interesting to realize that I would be afraid to let young children do that unsupervised today – but those were different times!
And that nest they built is still our family home!
Starting off on the south side of the college and moving to the north side by the age of seven, Oxford College and Allen Memorial Methodist Church were at the center of my young world. Those two establishments are where my extended family came from – oh, not blood relations, but definitely “family!” Those were my stomping grounds. Learning to swim in the original college pool; hiding amongst the book shelves of the library; pretending the purple staircase (no longer purple) in the student center was the winding entrance to my castle; running through the Quadrangle; and again perfectly safe, with loads of built-in babysitters in the form of college students and employees of the college! My parents were very active members of the Allen Memorial church and sang in the choir. Dad still does! Many of the members of that church had a huge hand in “raising” me and many of them are still there. Kindergarten was held in the Education Building of Allen Memorial and some of those people are friends I went all the way through school with and am still friends with to this day.
Yes, Oxford, Georgia was an enchanting place to be a child… And I am grateful that as an adult, I chose to move back to Newton County to build my business. Today, as I enjoy walking the streets of Oxford and the Oxford section of Newton Trails, I realize with new eyes what a special and unusual place it is.
And I am Thank-Full that it is where my roots began and continue to run deep.