An interview with a neighbor: Ronald Edwards

Ronald Edwards, 74, is a former Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill worker and longtime Cabbagetown resident with a seemingly endless repertoire of Viagra jokes.

I’ve been back here about 25 years now. I was out of Cabbagetown for about 15 years, but it was never out of me. I lived in that Grant Park area over there for a while back in the ’60s, but mostly right here in Cabbagetown working at the Cotton Mill. That was back in the ’50s. Grant Park looked like the rich side of town to us back then, with wide streets and well-kept-up houses.

My favorite thing about Cabbagetown, and I guess you’d call it memories, is the people that used to live in here. And like I said, I’ve been back here — December will be 25 years — and the people that was in here, some of the old-timers have died out or moved out. People started coming in and buying up houses and fixin’ them up. They were kind of snooty and stayed to themselves. But when they got their business done, whatever they done, they moved out and a different crowd moved in. The crowd in here now, they remind me more of the people I remember in Cabbagetown. They don’t visit like you settin’ right here. Every now and then they’ll come by and visit, but they just don’t take up much time as the old-timers used to. A few of them will. Everybody still helps out when somebody gets sick and all, so it’s good.