A lifelong resident of Snellville, Kenny Flowers is proud to tell people he’s a graduate of South Gwinnett High School.

It’s a school where he graduated from in 1978 and his children did the same in the early 2000s. There was at least one teacher who happened to teach Flowers and his children, and that’s one example Flowers said to explain how South and the Snellville community have been intertwined over the years.

“It’s been a beacon there on the Highway 78,” said Flowers, who lives in Snellville and has worked for UPS for some three decades. Flowers added that the school remains a landmark on the drive between Stone Mountain and Athens as he remembers a time when 78 was a two-lane road.