Peachtree City is Better than Ever

I’ll be the first to admit being a nostalgia junkie and as such I love curating Peachtree City Library’s Throwback Thursday posts on Facebook. But I’m always surprised by the comments from people wishing we could turn back the clock. Really?

If you listen to the Joel Cowan interviews, he talks about how difficult it was to get people to actually live in Peachtree City because there was nothing here to attract them. In fact, the owners of the first industries in Peachtree City chose to live elsewhere!

When my family first moved to Peachtree City in early 1984, it was bo-o-ring. The only thing that really impressed us that first year was the paths, all thirty miles of them; however, as teenagers we couldn’t drive a golf cart without a valid driver’s license. Oh yeah, the paths weren’t fully connected either. To ride our bikes around the lake we had to take a wooded dirt path around the south end of Lake Peachtree between Boxwood Court and Bowfin Bay (Kelly Drive was not connected to McIntosh Trail yet).

Of course, our family bought a golf cart and when extended family came to visit, they loved tootling around on the cart paths. Yet to this day, they remember Peachtree City as the place that was thirty minutes from everything—and by everything, they really meant anything. We had a grocery store and a pharmacy, but it was a twenty-to-thirty-minute drive to a discount store like Walmart or Kmart. To do any kind of clothes shopping you either had to go to Smith & Davis or make the trek to Shannon Mall in Union City. We used to go to Griffin to bowl. Movie theaters? Union City or Morrow. And the drive to these places outside “the Bubble” was on two-lane roads.

I took dance lessons as a teen at Glenloch Recreation Center. The instruction was first-rate, but the facility—not so much. We danced on a raised wooden floor with planks spaced a quarter inch apart causing the soles of our ballet slippers to catch. No, it was no ideal. I later followed my dance instructor to better facilities in Newnan and Atlanta.     

The amphitheater was not the impressive venue that it is today. It had backless wood benches, and the entertainment was old-time country music and/or bluegrass on Saturday nights. My parents probably enjoyed it. We kids did not.

Four years later, my family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, and it was a shock to the system—both good and bad. The bad: the schools in Raleigh were overcrowded. The good: our family loved the convenience of being close to shopping, restaurants, and numerous institutions of higher learning practically in our backyard.    

I was living in Pennsylvania in 1998 when I finished my master’s degree in library science and applied for an open position at Peachtree City Library. Four lanes from Peachtree City to I-85 was like a dream come true. Restaurant choices included Shadows, Ruby Tuesday, Agnes & Muriel’s (remember that one?), and Outback Steakhouse. It wasn’t long before they widened Highway 54 in both directions. Then came The Avenue. Hello, Ann Taylor!

Big Star may be gone, but now we have Kroger, Publix, Fresh Market, Sprouts, ALDI, and a Trader Joe’s. The owners of Partner’s II Pizza opened a bowling alley, and you find just about any cuisine in Peachtree City. And a movie theater is just over the Coweta County line!  

I’ve lived in seven states and at least twelve different towns and/or cities, and one thing I know for sure is that change is a necessary ingredient for prosperity. Think of a town and/or city that hasn’t changed, then look at their population and median household income over the last fifty years. It isn’t a pretty picture. Most, at some point, try to reinvent themselves. One city I lived in has tried, semi-successfully, to market themselves as an artist enclave. Another, a regional sports destination. You either change, or you die.Peachtree City is a little bit different in this regard. It never had to reinvent itself because the original formula has stood the test of time. The village concept is alive and well—don’t let anyone tell you any different. Peachtree City still has that small-town feel where everybody knows your name. The difference is that it has professional, big city amenities to go with it. And it’s an irresistible combination.