Odes to Chamblee · Track 19 · middle
Brookhaven, Doraville, Dunwoody: The North-DeKalb Cousins
The cousins — Brookhaven (incorporated 2012), Doraville (Ford plant), Dunwoody (Perimeter Mall) — the way north DeKalb is a quilt of small cities sharing GA-400, MARTA, Buford Highway. Sisukiro names them all.
Lyrics
You can't see the line when the train crosses it. Just a change in the light through the window. One town's name on a bus shelter, then another. No fence. No gate. The oldest cousin is Doraville. Incorporated 1871, but really born in 1947, when the Ford plant opened. My father remembered the smell of weld smoke and paint fumes on the night air. Said you could smell the money being made. The city council minutes from 1973 mention a twenty-five dollar fine for letting your peacock wander onto the Buford Highway median. A different time. The plant closed in 2008. The peacocks are gone. It's a family quilt, north DeKalb. Stitched together with asphalt and steel rail. Brookhaven, Doraville, Dunwoody. All sharing the same Peachtree Creek water. All breathing the same GA-400 exhaust. Cousins at the same long table, passing the bread. Then there's Dunwoody, the shopping mall cousin. Born in 1971 when they opened Perimeter Mall. Rich's on one end, J.C. Penney on the other. A city that decided to incorporate in 2008, drawing a clean line around the big stores and the quiet subdivisions. The patches are more square over there. It's a family quilt, north DeKalb. Stitched together with asphalt and steel rail. Brookhaven, Doraville, Dunwoody. All sharing the same Peachtree Creek water. All breathing the same GA-400 exhaust. Cousins at the same long table, passing the bread. And the baby of the family, Brookhaven. So new. Just born in 2012 after all that fighting. Lawyers drawing lines on maps in the courthouse downtown. A city made of old neighborhoods that decided they wanted a new name. A brand new patch, sewn on last. We watch them from here in Chamblee. We share the Gold Line platform. The same robotic voice echoes over the concrete. Doraville station. Chamblee station. Brookhaven / Oglethorpe station. Dunwoody station. One train, four front doors. We are all just stops on the same line home. A quilt. Thrown over the red clay hills. Doraville. Dunwoody. Brookhaven. Our cousins. Goodnight.