To the right is a clip from “A Day in the Life of the Colonel,” a local Atlanta television program from the early 1980s built around Hampton’s particular perspective on life and the city. While some of the details Hampton provides about the old Ponce de Leon ballpark seem dubious (like Babe Ruth’s 752 mile home run), his deep love for the place makes it seem like the old ballpark is still there years after it was torn down. Atlanta is infamous for not preserving many of its historical sites, but, with Hampton, I always got the sense that long-gone places and people remained real and present in his consciousness. The city’s past and present blended into an imaginative space that was about 88 percent true.