Peachy

Have you ever been in Atlanta? If not, consider visiting some April when this hilly, heavily planted city displays its best (in the words of a native) “swagger”. Flamboyant flowers are everywhere; dogwoods, azaleas, camellias and redbuds to name but a few. A visit to this floral Mecca will not disappoint.

BUT……be careful as you navigate around Atlanta. These folks (and I do love them) are masters of the southern gotcha. With a polite courteous smile, they will tell you that something is located on Peachtree Street. What they don’t tell you is that 71 streets in Atlanta are named Peachtree. There are lanes, roads, boulevards, ways, wests, olds, lanes and the list goes on and on.

The worst gotcha is that big downtown Peachtree Street that has another Peachtree Street running parallel to it just two blocks west. And, of course, with 71 different Peachtrees, they are constantly crisscrossing each other. Finding yourself on the corner of Peachtree and Peachtree is a distinct possibility.

Historians agree that the first Peachtree was an Indian Trail that stretched from Fort Daniel in Northeast Georgia to a place called Standing Pitch Tree by the Creek Indians. Some historians claim that over time the settlers morphed “pitch tree” into “peachtree”, thus making all those Peachtree streets a misnomer. It is a fact that there are more streets named Peachtree than actual peach trees in the city of Atlanta.

And, finally, even though Georgia does grow succulent peaches and sports a large peach on their license plates, California is America’s top peach producing state. Georgia comes in third after South Carolina. However, Georgia is the leader in the production of another fruit, and I would not have guessed this one…….it’s blueberries.

I doubt that all those Peachtree Streets will be renamed Blueberry Lanes. The Georgians are just having too much fun being peachy.

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