Odes to Roswell · Track 19 · middle

Alpharetta, Milton, Sandy Springs: The North Fulton Family

The north Fulton cousins — Alpharetta to the east, Milton to the northeast, Sandy Springs to the south (across the river). The way north Fulton is a quartet of small cities sharing GA-400 and the Chattahoochee. Sisukiro names the family.

Lyrics

[Intro]
Roswell, my Roswell.
You feel like an island sometimes.
With your old brick and your quiet creek.
But you're not.
You have kin.

[Verse 1]
To the east, there's Alpharetta.
James S. Abercrombie knew the name in 1858.
Now the tolled lanes of GA-400 hum between you.
A shared pulse.
A sister city just up the road.

[Chorus]
You are a family of four.
Bound by the Chattahoochee's brown water.
Bound by the heat rising off the highway asphalt.
Alpharetta, Milton, Sandy Springs.
The North Fulton name you all answer to.

[Verse 2]
And Milton, to the northeast.
The quiet one.
The one who disappeared for a while.
A whole county, gone in 1931.
Just one record book left behind.
But they came back.
Reborn in 2006.
A story of memory kept in the soil.

[Chorus]
You are a family of four.
Bound by the Chattahoochee's brown water.
Bound by the heat rising off the highway asphalt.
Alpharetta, Milton, Sandy Springs.
The North Fulton name you all answer to.

[Bridge]
I feel it crossing the Holcomb Bridge.
The metallic tang of river water.
The diesel from the boat ramp.
I felt it on a Tuesday in July, 4:17 p.m.,
the floorboards of the car warm from the road.
This is the air you all breathe.
This is the ground you share.

[Verse 3]
Then south, across the water, the youngest.
Sandy Springs.
Eva Galambos gave her a new start in 2005.
A city born from a fight to be named.
You wave to her from the Roswell Road bridge.
A different county line, same river flowing between.

[Outro]
Roswell.
Alpharetta.
Milton.
Sandy Springs.
The river holds all your names.
The road calls you home.
Family.