Helen Davis and her husband, Ren, are usually out the door at 7:15 a.m. for their first walk of the day.
Sometimes neighbors join them, other times they enjoy the scenery simply as a couple. Then comes afternoon, when the Davis’ try to fit in at least one, sometimes two additional walks.
If there’s a path, they’ve traveled it -- to the calculation of about 1,500 miles a year.
Longtime freelance writers and photographers, the Atlanta-based Davis’ have authored several Georgia-themed guidebooks, including a recently released fourth edition of “Atlanta Walks: A Guide to Walking, Running and Bicycling the Area’s Scenic and Historic Locales.”
They’ve also just unveiled a long-in-works historical guide about The Civilian Conservation Corps, the initiative sparked by President Roosevelt that employed men to plant billions of tree, restore forests and farmlands and build lakes and dams.
“Our Mark on This Land: A Guide to the Legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps in America’s Parks” spotlights 11 CCC parks in Georgia and hundreds of others nationwide.
The couple is retired – he from a career managing and consulting health care issues and she as a teacher at Atlanta Public Schools and an adjunct at Oglethorpe University – but hardly, obviously, idle.
They talked to us earlier this week about their recent projects, as well as their own favorite Atlanta walks.
Q: The CCC seems like the kind of thing that people don’t even think about when they visit these parks every day.
A: Ren: Part of our objective was to inform today’s generation about who these men were, how these buildings came to be, the circumstances they worked under. The work they did in the parks and other places as well, there was quite an emphasis on manual labor. The intent was to employ as many people as possible.
Helen: As we listened to the stories of the veterans and the descendants of the veterans, we heard the deep passion they had for their years in the CCC and how much it made a difference in the quality of their lives. Many learned other skills that they could take with them into jobs when they left.
Ren: These men were what they called ‘dollar-a-day men,’ earning $30 a month. A lot of these young men came from families where their farms had been foreclosed, so they were looking for any way to earn a living and support their family. Men jumped at the chance to join the CCC.
Q: It sounds as if there wasn’t really a downside to the CCC.
A: Helen: We look at these things through rose-colored glasses, but there were environmentalists who thought this would bring too many people into the protected parklands. It enabled parks to designate areas for camping and limit the damage caused by people picnicking.
Q: The book took eight years of research and writing. Did you visit all of the parks?
Helen: We visited about 20 or 22 of the state parks. We tried to get to as many as we could.
Q: What can we expect at your book signing?
A: Ren: We’ll have a powerpoint presentation and we’ve gotten snippets of Roosevelt’s address when he introduces the idea of the CCC.
Helen: We’ll talk about where our research took us, the number of hours we spent in the archives at the national and state level.
Q: And you have the fourth edition out of the ‘Atlanta Walks’ book. What kind of updates can readers expect?
A: Helen: We have five or six additional walks and we’ve added GPS coordinates for the beginning location of the walks. We re-walked everything with newer quality pedometers, so we revised our distances and added tips for teachers and people walking with children.
Q: What are some of the walks you’d recommend?
A: Ren: Kennesaw Mountain is one of my favorites. I love the old architecture.
Helen: We live where we live – behind Silver Lake – because this was one of my favorite walks. I love many sections of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. I love the neighborhoods of Druid Hills and Ansley Park. I love the downtown walks. They all nurture the soul so much.
Author appearance
Ren and Helen Davis. 2-3:30 p.m. Jan. 22. Eagle Eye Book Shop, 2076 N. Decatur Road, Decatur. 404-486-0307, www.eagleeyebooks.com.
About the Author
