I've lived in Rossville, Fort Oglethorpe, Ringgold, East Ridge, Rome, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. But when I list my hometown, I've always listed Fort Oglethorpe. Now, today's Fort Oglethorpe (going forward, I'll just use Fort O for short) is NOTHING like 1970s and 1980s Fort O. What I intend to do in this article is simply list 5 signs that you're from MY Fort O. My Fort O is the 70s and 80s Fort O. Let's get that straight up front.
Now that that's settled, here we go:
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1. You call the high school "Lakeview" instead of its actual name.
The high school's actual name is "Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School". I don't know of a soul in Catoosa County who calls it that though. Most people either call it "Lakeview" (which was its name when it was located on Cross Street...in the building that's now Lakeview Middle School) or "LFO". Here's how I've always been able to know if you were a longtime Fort O person or not. If you call the high school "Lakeview", then you've been around a while. If you call it "LFO", you haven't. See, according to legend, way back in the in the early 70s when the decision was made to build a new high school in Battlefield Parkway (more on this later), the fine folks from Fort O wanted their name on the school. Their reasoning was that the school wasn't going to be located in Lakeview anymore, so it should be called "Fort Oglethorpe High School" because, well, that's where the school was located. However, the Lakeview folks would have none of that and a compromise was made. The result is the longest name for a high school that I've ever seen: Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School. But again, no one calls it that. It's either "Lakeview" or "LFO". The middle school, located at the the old high school on Cross Street, is "Lakeview Middle School", but many of my friends...who are not from Fort O...call it "LFO Middle School". This is incorrect. Also, I have a good friend from Dalton who calls Fort Oglethorpe "LFO", but this is also incorrect. Lakeview is a place...not a town. It's over by Lake Winnie. That's "old Lakeview" to me. If you're talking about the town in which I grew up though, well, that's Fort O. I went to high school at Lakeview. Got it? Good.
2. The main road that runs through Fort O is "2A".
I know, I know, you think it's called "Battlefield Parkway" and it is. I mean, that's the address that's on all of the mail that goes to the businesses located along that road. BUT...if you've been around Fort O as long as I have, well, it's "2A". I remember when 2A stopped just past the high school. I remember when there was nothing from the high school to Dietz Road. When I was in school, we had to run from the high school to Dietz Road and back...on the first day of baseball tryouts. If you tried that now, you'd surely get run over. Sometime along the way, someone decided that "Battlefield Parkway" sounds a lot better than "2A"...and it does. But, I still call it 2A and if you've lived around here a long time, you do too.
3. You know where "Grant City" is.
Instantly, many of you thought, "I'm from Fort O, and I don't know where Grant City is!" That's because you probably have to be almost 50 years old to remember it. Grant City is what the shopping center that contains Big Lots used to be called. Aha! Now you know where Grant City is, right? Back in the day, that AutoZone on the corner was a Kay's Kastle and one of my favorite things to eat was a Kay's Kastle hot dog and a rainbow sherbet freeze. (By the way, Teriyaki House on Ringgold Road will still make you a rainbow sherbet freeze...and they are still delicious). Also, Kroger was originally located in Grant City before it moved over to where the Office Depot is now. I worked at that Kroger when I was in high school. It's "courtesy clerk" and not "bag boy", for the record.
4. You know that the most delicious milkshakes in the world came from "My Place".
I loved My Place. If you never tried a My Place milkshake, I'm sorry...your life will forever be incomplete. Let me tell you another reason that I loved My Place. Mr. Ross, the owner, didn't charge sales tax. Ever. Now, he probably got thrown in jail over it (that was the rumor), but all I knew was that if something said it cost a dollar, then after it was put into the cash register (a device that magically made something that cost $.99 actually cost $1.04 when I was a kid), the price was STILL a dollar. I didn't understand taxes then. I just wanted to know how much something cost. At My Place, it cost whatever the board said it cost and that was it. Also, if you made straight A's on your report card, you could go show them that card and get a free banana split. FREE! No wonder I tried so hard for all A's. There was also a pretty cool thing at My Place. They had this giant container of water with a little shot glass down in the bottom of it. You could drop your penny in, watch it make its way to the bottom and if it went in the glass, boom! Free ice cream! I won a few times, but usually lost. Still, that was fun.
5. Whenever you travel and someone asks you where you're from, you just say, "Chattanooga."
I mean, even though you're not from Chattanooga and Chattanooga is in a whole other state, you don't want to explain: 1. Where Fort Oglethorpe is, 2. Yes, you know that there's a college called "Oglethorpe" in Atlanta, or 3. that you don't live on a military base. So, we just say Chattanooga because everyone's at least heard of the Chattanooga Choo Choo, right? However, I didn't like it when people would say that Lakeview alum and 21 year Major League Baseball veteran Rick Honeycutt was from Chattanooga. I'd say, "he's from Fort Oglethorpe, not Chattanooga!" I got a huge kick out of seeing Rick's baseball card and it saying "Fort Oglethorpe, GA" on the back of it.
If you're close to my age and can't relate to any of these five things, then I seriously question your Fort Oglethorpe heritage. However, if you read these things and smiled at the memories, pass this on to someone who grew up with you. I loved growing up in Fort O. It'll always be home.
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