60 Years of Growing Up

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: June 2023

George and Karen Powell

They met in Atlanta, in the halls of Druid Hills High School. George Powell had just turned 16. In a few months, Karen Edgar would celebrate the same birthday.

For their first official date (George’s first after receiving his driver’s license), they went to The Varsity.

“It was where you went on a date then,” Karen told me. They engaged in what could only have been typical teenage chatter, and quickly realized they were enjoying each other’s company; having fun together. For the next year, they spent every weekend together – visiting the Fox Theater, going to movies, frequenting The Varsity with friends. It was 1957, and the beginnings of a friendship, now 67 years old.

The summer of the following year, Karen’s family moved to Cocoa Beach, Florida. Her Dad, an electrical engineer, had joined the nascent space program. (On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite.) The couple kept up through letters – corresponding daily.

“Stamps were 3 cents then,” George reminded me. That year Karen returned to Atlanta frequently for social occasions and school events, and George regularly brought a carload of friends to Cocoa Beach during school vacations.

George and Karen, 1972

Recounting those years, Karen reflects that, “My mom and dad helped raise George and, in some ways, they helped raise me as well. I was frequently at George’s mom’s side learning how to cook Southern specialties – making hot water cornbread sticks and cube steaks.”

The yearlong separation finally ended in 1959 when they began studies at Florida State University, where they were both awarded scholarships. By then it was clear they were a committed couple. As Karen told me, “We were seriously dating from the beginning and just assumed we would get married because we enjoyed each other – we’ve always gotten along.”

Their intentions of a lifelong camaraderie became a reality soon after graduation. They were married on June 22, 1963, in an intimate ceremony, surrounded by college friends and family at a small community church in Cocoa Beach.

Their first son, Trey – was born 11 months after their wedding, and their second son, Clay – two years later. George took a job as a rug buyer for Sears, and they moved to Chicago where they remained for 5 years.

Longing to return to the South, George managed to wrangle a position with Sears in Valdosta, Georgia. Karen, who had returned to work after her boys started first grade, began teaching at the same school the children attended. Eventually, she would take a job with the Georgia Department of Education and then work as a global consultant for language arts. George leveraged his experience with Sears to start a contract delivery company. When the company got bigger than he wanted to manage, he recruited a long-time friend to operate the business.

George and Karen, 1996

Over decades of marriage, they have shared interests in boating, and tennis, and in particular their pets – horses and dogs. And it was because of the horses that they bought property in Scaly Mountain in 1999 – they needed a place to exercise them during the hot summer months in Valdosta. And so it was that for the next dozen years they alternated residences between Valdosta and Scaly – until George’s retirement in 2011 when they moved to the Plateau full time.

It wasn’t long before George got restless. “By May, I had been sitting around all year and decided I needed an activity, and I got a brainstorm to install an aerial zip line.” Karen’s acquiescence in the startup highlights the couple’s compatibility.

George grinned broadly retelling the incident, “When I told Karen I was building a zip line park, she asked how much it would cost. When I replied that it didn’t matter because it’s too late for us to be rich; she responded, yes, but it’s not too late for us to be poor.”

Highlands Aerial Park opened in October 2012.

As George explained, “It was the business that would infringe the least on the land; we were intent on keeping it pristine for generations. Those feelings run deep within us. Among the charities we support are the Land Trust and the Biological Station.”

Although surely their lives have hit rough patches, they are more likely to reminisce about the good times – raising their boys, their seven “perfect grandchildren,” the two of them each carrying a torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, their involvement in community activities, and the friends they have made on the Plateau.

At the end of our talk, I asked George if he had any advice to give on making a marriage last. “Be patient, and wait until you find the right person, someone you like. Be friends first. Our grandchildren are examples of how to do that – they have all waited until they found the right partner.”

Or perhaps it’s also as Karen said, “We grew up together, and we’re still growing up together. We do it one day at a time. Sixty years later we’re still enjoying each other one day at a time.”