While I had spent most of my life in Atlanta, I left to go to school in Macon, GA.  There I found a whole new world.  I had always liked “different” music, but a lot of it was being made in Macon.  I had gone to the Municipal Auditorium in Atlanta, sat in the “white only” balcony to see Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, and many others while in high school. But,  I was introduced to The Magnolia Ballroom and Peacock Lounge during college.  In Macon, we hung out at the gay bar, the biker’s bar, the black jazz club, the trucker’s lounge & really listened to R & B, and the beginnings of Southern Rock.  I let my hair grow — and got rid of the bleached blond look.  T-shirts and jeans, brighter colors and pierced ears entered my life, along with opposition to our involvement in Vietnam, and actively trying to integrate my college and Macon.

During a visit home — Atlanta— I discovered the Illien (sp?) Gallery and then, the Stein Club. After meeting a lot of people at the Stein, I decided to move back to Atlanta, and go to grad school at GA State.  Living just off Piedmont, I could walk home at 2 AM from the Stein with no problems.  I knew the folks at the A & P, the hardware store, the bakery and the deli.  It was small town life, but, oh, so different !

Music was available all up and down the Strip.  The Atlanta Pop Festivals, seeing Stevie Winwood and the “British Invasion” at the old Fulton Stadium, Little Feat on 10th St., shows at the Sports Arena, the Great Southeastern Music Hall—-such great music ! Then, there was soccer at the Stadium —- and those pre-game parties– and rugby games and parties ! The big Atlanta Snow 1972 left about 15-20 of us “trapped” in a house on Piedmont, across from the Park.  Survival parties would set out for the liquor store at Ansley Mall, and come slipping and sliding back with cases of beer, etc.

During all of this, there was the Stein.  My home away from home where I could always count on finding friends, something interesting to talk about, meeting people from all over the States and elsewhere, discovering new places to go, finishing a pitcher while my clothes were washing/drying at the Laundromat…….the place where, when some of us started having kids, getting married, etc., the management built a beer garden with swings and a sandbox !  Both my children learned to walk at the Stein, rolling around in their little yellow walker, and then being helped out of the walker and picked up a million times by all their friends there at the Stein.  The Stein spawned other parties —- Orphan’s Thanksgiving, the Opera Party, 4th of July, the Halloween Costume Party, the Kentucky Derby Party — all fun and a little crazy.  We would wander off to Rose’s Cantina, the Chinese place on the corner of 10th, down to the Fox to see The Grateful Dead, to “the Park” where I heard the Dead and the Allman Bros. playing together about 10 feet away from me, but always coming back to the Stein to start the evening, end the evening, or both !  Suzanne