Valdosta vignettes...Morven minutes

Instead of driving Miss Daisy, I was driving Miz Shirley down to the farm in South Georgia for Thanksgiving weekend. We drove on the back roads through beautiful farmland, past black and white speckled Holsteins reclining under water oak shade trees, passing small towns with rich history, on our way to see Uncle Harold, my father’s only surviving brother, in Tarrytown. It was a straight shot from Soperton to Tarrytown, past the town cemetery where many of my relatives are buried, turn left at Miss Ora’s house (my step-great-grandmother, gifted quilt maker), past cousin Jaymond’s house, turn right at the four way stop, then left on the dirt road named Vance Road after my grandfather, second house on the right. After a short visit we headed out to Valdosta-Morven and the farm, needing to be there by supper time.
We were only going to be there for four full days and there was a lot to be done. The house had mold in it from being shut up for ten months. Our first task after eating a sandwich was to scrub cabinets, furniture, and floors to get the first layer cleaned up. We saved washing the dishes for the next morning. We slept the sleep of the righteous that night worn out by the trip, the cleaning and all the emotions of being home again.
The new well pump wasn’t working so mama called the well men early. They could come the first part of the afternoon so we occupied ourselves with work that needed to be done inside and outside. After cleaning chores in the morning, we began picking up pecans from under the trees in the backyard. It was a bountiful harvest and we filled two five gallon buckets quickly. After a walk down the lane to check out the barns and speak to the one remaining barn cat Sam, we began weeding the flower beds overgrown with dog fennel. The well men came and just jiggled the pipe. Much to mama’s aggravation, it clicked right on. A quick run to the grocery store set us up for food and we settled in for the visit. Thanksgiving Day was filled with more yard work, turkey and trimmings, grace and gratitude for our family’s life on this little farm, and picking up more pecans. The writing that follows are short snapshots of our days in South Georgia...Valdosta vignettes and Morven minutes, a collection of where I come from and who my people are.
Valdosta... We drove into Valdosta to take the pecans to Everett’s for cracking. They do a better job than Exum’s just down the road from the farm. It was a neat old brick building, open on one side with a closed in small office space-gift shop to one side. In the back, the cracking machine ran tended by a black man and in the front, a Latino woman minded the tables laden with vegetables. The greens were freshly picked from the patch out back. Mama asked the owner if anybody ever stole his greens. He said, “All the time but I planted enough to feed them and me, too. If they care enough to take the time and trouble to pick them, they are hungry so I don’t mind.” There was laughter and joking and teasing between customers, workers and owners, each giving as good as they got.
As the owner’s thirty something son was checking me out he asked, “Is life in the mountains wonderful?” “Yes and no”, I said. “Mostly its life like everywhere else surrounded by great beauty.” He continued to tell me of his fears. He said there was so much racial hostility now, more than ever before, volatile and dangerous. Ten murders in this little city this year with a shooting the week before that injured eleven and killed one... all young black men. The violence is fueled by drugs and gangs sending those who can afford it to the county to live leaving a shell of the vibrant downtown I once knew. He worries about the future of this town he loves, this business he runs. “I’m caught between here and not here”, he says, “and I don’t know what to do.” Betwixt and between my grandma would say and for that I have no answer.
With an expanded Air Force base, a growing state university, a sturdy base of manufacturing companies and a mostly rural community, Valdosta has felt the pinch of the recession but is not yet desperate. Jobs are not plentiful but there is still work available. It has never been an area made rich by high salaries, flush with money. Folks have not forgotten how to get by, to make do, to do more with less. Food and living expenses are much cheaper than here in the mountains so it takes less money to make a life in South Georgia. Most of the places I knew and loved in downtown are closed. Crime has shut down the business district and most of the beautiful old turn of the century buildings sit empty and idle. Betwixt and between... the old ways and places are gone and it is not yet clear what will come to take its place.
Morven minutes... Mama and I run to the Dollar Store to pick up some freezer bags for our shelled pecans. As we stand in the aisle, a young blonde woman walks by, stops and hugs mama. Her name is Debbie Cason. Her family lives in the Morven community and we bought cane syrup from her daddy every year. He still made it the old fashioned way and a trip to the Casons was an annual ritual for us. When Mister Cason bought his small farm, the bank wouldn’t loan him the money because he didn’t have enough down payment. Daddy loaned him his down payment money for no interest and Mister Cason paid back every penny. Debbie was a part of the medical team that tended my daddy the last week of his life in the hospital. She and mama caught up on family talk while I listened.
And around the end of the aisle came a buggy pushed speedily by Wilma Elliot who heard mama’s voice and wanted in on the reunion. Daddy bought his farm from her daddy and they lived up on the road near our house. Wilma is a little older than I am and had become a good friend to mama after my sister and I left home. She and mama keep in touch by phone. “So, how long are you staying this time?” Wilma asked. Mama explained she no longer felt safe staying by herself at home so far from us. I felt her struggle with the loss in those words, saw Wilma’s eyes blur with tears, choked up myself. Beloved community there in the Dollar Store aisles in little Morven... women who have loved one another for years facing bravely the loss of the presence of one of their own. “No help for it”, mama says and so it is.
Morven has changed some. An Indian family bought the little grocery store. There are more Latino faces now and along with a Bar-B-Que restaurant owned by an African American family, a seafood restaurant will be opening soon. Jean’s beauty shop is still in the former service station and the bank is doing fine. The old brick stores are a little more decrepit than before but still standing. The phone booth at the crossroads is gone and has been replaced by a pay phone at the Flash gas station. The Baptist and Methodist churches still look active and well cared for. The old school has become home to a plethora of offices and looks a little shabby. Crime here, too, is a growing problem with drugs and home invasions a new reality for this little country town. Personal safety is no longer taken for granted.
Life goes on there and here. Changes come. Some are good and some not so good. The ties that bind are stretched by distance but not broken. There is much to say grace over in the here and not here of life. From the betwixt and the between of life in South Georgia and life in the North Carolina mountains, I affirm the grace of God, the goodness of people and the gift of life. These were the days the Lord made and we did give thanks and we were glad in it. Amen.