Historic Druid Hills

I walked through the small sliver of Historic Druid Hills, south of Ponce De Leon Ave, this morning. This area contains the "linear" park designed by the Olmstead firm. Even though I live less than two minutes from this park, this is the first time I have walked along the curving paths. I was suprised by how much noise generated by the morning rush hour was blocked by the dips and hills of the park's design. A private school along the park is doing some major rebuilding, but even that noise disappeared and I could hear the birds that make the trees of the park their home. At one point, I stopped to read a sign describing the particular field I was standing in front of and realized that the linear park is actually divided into individually named parks corresponding to the block intersections along South Ponce De Leon. I could see the next park beyond a small hill and what I thought had been a narrow space actually opened into a wide field that any person or animal could enjoy without feeling like they were adjacent to a major east-west thorough fare in the city. At about halfway through the reading for the week, I am getting a better understanding of how suburban or "borderland" lifestyle has its perks for ensuring that people appreciate the beauty and health of a natural setting in conjunction with the advancing industrial "progress" of man-made urban environments. In this pure form, the suburb has the redemable qualities of tranquility and peace, but the setting of modern suburbia seems a far cry from this original borderland philosophy.