Marilyn Johnson, an education technician at the Fort McPherson Child Development Center (CDC), stands silent as she watches over a group of young children in her preschool classroom as they take their afternoon nap.
Johnson has been watching over children since she was a teenager, but today, she not only watches the world's future grow, but her own past come to a close.
"It's like a second home," she says of the CDC, where she began working April 30, 1973, when she was 18. "I'd hate to see it close down. I wanted to stay until I retired."
The brick structure, which sits on a hill off of Wetzel Drive on Fort McPherson, has always served as the CDC, and now serves as a haven for Johnson's memories before BRAC.
Unlike the legendary castle on the hill that defeats the invading horde in myths, fairy tales and other stories, there will be no such happy ending here. Due to government legislation passed in 2005, Fort McPherson and all its activities will be closing by Sept. 15.
While the ending may not be what Johnson would like to have seen, she said she takes comfort in memories that span 38 years.
"I've had kids I've watched here drop their kids off," she said. "I taught the first pre-kindergarten program here, coordinated the first Month of the Military Child and saw the daycare renovated twice."
In her own life, she has grown from a teen just helping to serve the military (following the footsteps of her mother, Mattie Barnes, who worked at the post bowling alley) to a grandmother. Her oldest daughter, Angela, now 39, was born at Fort McPherson, further stretching her roots to the installation.
The day those roots were planted were very different than today's environment - it was a time before the U.S. Army Reserve Command was headquartered here, before Jacob's Park was opened and before the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) had a footprint outside the main gate, Johnson said.
Just as she saw things spring up, Johnson said she has seen things close down, such as the NCO and Officer's clubs.
The one constant, which has gotten Johnson through all the changes, was her love of children, a job made even more satisfying after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, she said. Following the attacks, she said the positive feelings and support the public showed the military made her feel even better about her own contributions to helping military Families stay strong.
Those contributions have changed over her 38 years with the center, Johnson said. "We focus more on development. We went from more of a babysitting (center) to a development center.
There are more activities and opportunities for children to learn and grow today." Johnson has been constant throughout those changes, a reassurance for Harriet Holley, the new CDC director.
Holley, who worked as a child youth program specialist at U.S. Army Forces Command Headquarters from 1989 until 1997, is a flex employee employed by the Family Morale, Welfare and Recreation Center in San Antonio.
Flex employees work flexible time and hours at locations, as needed. An Atlanta native, Holley was assigned here to hold the position until closure.
"It made me smile to come back and see familiar faces who have made this a profession," said Holley. The people who helped make it into a respectable field and have shared days with Johnson are what she is going to miss most, she said. As for the rest of the base, thankfully its end isn't the "end," Johnson said, adding she hopes to one day come back to Fort McPherson and see what it has become. J
ohnson, who has been working full time since 16, said she plans to stay in the Atlanta area and take some time off before re-entering the work force.
"I hope they put it to good use," she said of the installation, adding she hopes they don't change the buildings. "There's a lot of history in them." And for one particular building, a lot of that history is personal.
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