This story centers on my dad’s side of the family, which has lived in Central Georgia for generations.

My father is the oldest of the three children of Robert Sidney Tiller (b. 1937) and Sherry Goss Tiller (b. 1943). He is Robert Sidney Tiller Jr. (b. 1963), and he can be seen grinning at the top of the first photo. His brother is William Scott Tiller (b. 1965), and his sister is Tiffany Tiller Haynes (b. 1969).

Robert Tiller Sr. (whom we call Bobby, or Papaw) joined the Navy right out of high school, and eventually ended up working three decades as a mail carrier in both Fulton and Gwinnett counties. During that time, from the late 1950s to the mid 1980s, the makeup of the neighborhoods on his routes changed a lot.

“The neighborhoods around Grady (a public high school in Fulton county; one of the four that were first integrated by the Atlanta Nine) were a lot different back when I was walking them,” he told me. “And they’re even more different now.”