As we all know, Cabbagetown and The Stacks are full of wild, weird, wonderful and whimsical stories. We see our neighbors everyday…but what we don’t see are all the memories, emotions, tough times, turning points, heart-ache and love.
Here’s one story about two of your neighbors from the fifth floor of Mill Bldg. No. 1…
Adam Guy eagerly gave Janet Caracciolo a hand carved, cherry red heart on the last day of summer camp in 1986. He was 11. She was 15. Guy picked Caracciolo’s name out of a hat at the start of camp in a secret-Santa-style game. They went on hikes, tie-dyed T-shirts and sang camp songs together. Adam could hardly wait to give Janet the heart with her name on it.
“I had a crush. As much as an 11-year-old can have,” Adam said.
“It was so sweet and so nice,” Janet recalled. “But I also thought, ‘Uh-oh,’ I have to be careful, he has a crush on me.”
After all, Janet wouldn’t be just a camper the next summer, she’d be a junior counselor at the summer camp in the mountains of western North Carolina. Adam never stopped lavishing Janet with sweetness. He once told her he’d be the first one to give her a hug after she returned from an Outward Bound-like experience.
“Eew, you stink,” Guy told Janet after she lived in the elements and without a shower for several days. But he stayed true to his word and gave her that hug. She took his heart-shaped gift home with her.
Fast-forward many years. They went to college, started careers. He lived in Atlanta. She lived in New York. And then one day, Adam sent Janet an email out of the blue.
“This is going to sound like the most bizarre question
. . . but did you attend Eagle’s Nest Camp in North
Carolina about 15 years ago? Sincerely, Adam Guy”
Her jaw dropped. “Yes, I did. And if you’re who I think you are, you were the lead in “The King and I” one summer… so my bizarre question is, am I right?” Before long, they were talking to each other on the phone — for hours at a time and falling in love.
Adam was no longer the kid that the camp counselors (including Janet) called, “Little Adam Guy.” He was 28. She was 32. Janet moved to Atlanta. Six years ago, they got married.
And the red heart? Everywhere Janet went over the years, she took the heart with her and kept it on her night stand. Visit Adam and Janet today and you’ll see It hanging in the hallway of their cozy Stacks loft.
Helena Oliviero and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, contributed to this story
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