Tears and Laughter: Lost and found in Wilcox County

Wilcox County isn’t the place for everyone. A lot of people may require a little more than Camden has to offer. It helps, I think, if you are of here and from here because then it all seems real normal and feels natural. So much so that those of here and from here tend to think those who find the place a bit eccentric to be odd too. It’s funny.

I am not of here or from here, but now I have raised kids here, who are of here and from here and so that makes me…still here. I was raised in Thomasville. Growing up all I knew about Camden was what all the rest of my classmates knew about Camden. It had the nearest ABC Store. Wilcox County was wet and Clarke was dry, until 2009. That had to have been a sad day for stores at the Wilcox and Clarke county line. They had enabled Clarke to be the wettest dry county in South Alabama for generations. You used to could see anybody and everybody from Thomasville and surrounding communities at the county line on Friday afternoons.

I’m not sure if kids in Thomasville have any awareness of Camden existing across the river from them anymore or not. It’s about 30 miles, and a whole world away. Parents in Thomasville should bring the kiddos over for a fieldtrip. Or the schools could organize it, I suppose. We have the river. And…I would probably plan on having chicken for lunch. Chicken is very popular in Camden. We have some cultural stuff, some quilts, and old houses. We have ghosts of the past, and the spirit of things that used to be. They may not be here anymore, but there are those who aren’t about to let their memories fade away too.

It would be an educational opportunity. Just by seeing the increase in liter on the sides of the roads during the trip over, along with all of the closed businesses once they get here, will speak. Students will recognize that this is not a place of economic advancement. Their teachers could then be able to expound upon this explaining that what they see can only happen after decades of mismanagement. Wilcox County is an example of both why government matters and why it clearly doesn’t.

All anyone who lives here has to do locally is renew their car tag and pay their land taxes once a year. We all shop and entertain ourselves elsewhere. Politics here are like a chess game. It’s slow and mostly pointless. The game is still played, but it shouldn’t be taken too serious. If you doubt me, just look around and be honest with yourself.

It is easy to have such an attitude, even in a county blessed with a bounty of beauty and natural resources. And we know people away from here wonder, some are even so bold as to ask, what makes those who are here stay. I usually tell people it’s a feeling, mostly. Like Sunday, just after noon, when one of the local ladies took to Facebook asking for help to find her lost study Bible. She said she had traced her path back to the church without finding it. She spelled out her grandmother’s name as it was written inside, and said how much it meant to her.

News of the lost Bible spread throughout the county within minutes. And whatever that is, that connection that causes a place to care that somebody gets back their grandmother’s treasured Bible – an unspoken understanding of the importance still of those who walked before us to those of us who remain…is what holds people here.

The Bible was found. It was left for her, quietly and anonymously, on the front pew. She said she was overwhelmed by everyone’s response. “I haven’t felt that kind of love and concern in a very long time,” she said. “That’s what Camden is all about.”

This is an opinion column.

Amanda Walker is a blogger and contributor with AL.com, The Thomasville Times, West Alabama Watchman, and Wilcox Progressive Era. Contact her at walkerworld77@msn.com or at https://www.facebook.com/AmandaWalker.Columnist