A Slice of Southern Life - The Old Picnic Table, at The Country Store...
If you head west out of Mobile on Old Shell Road, you will ultimately end up on Tanner Williams Road. If you follow it on out, you will wind up in the West Mobile Community of Tanner Williams, AL.
It was named for the families that first settled this area. A quiet neighborhood, where most folks know each other at least by sight, if not by name.
I am blessed to live in an area where the new does not encroach upon the old as swiftly as it does in some places. Each weekday, as I drive westward through our small community, I cross over one of the prettiest places in lower Alabama; the dam across Big Creek Lake. A mile or so after the dam is the old country store, and each morning I witness the same gathering.
They meet and greet each morning, settling around the picnic table outside the old country store. A weekday ritual they have carried on for many years now, discussing over coffee and the daily newspaper, the ups and downs of everyday life. They discuss the economy, the progress of the fields of cotton, peanuts, corn, and soybeans... or at least that is what I think they talk about.
Some of them been planting and farming, nigh on fifty years... They'll tell you quick how things has changed over the years. How it was when they was coming up. Yet, even though they worry about how they are going to survive and feed their families, they laugh at each others jokes, spin tales, and enjoy the
camaraderie
around the old picnic table, at the Country Store, in their southwest Alabama neighborhood.
They inherited farming and cattle ranching from their fathers and grandfathers. For some, it's the only life they've ever known. They do what they know how to do best. Raise crops and cattle, be neighborly and survive each day, around the old picnic table, at the Old Country Store.
March 3, 2009 © Susan C Beck aka Justplainolme
All Rights Reserved. No republication of this material,
in any form or medium, is permitted
Isn't it great to be living in a place like that?? I also live in a place that is virtually unchanged. Of course there are some things that change.
ReplyDeleteI have family buried on Tanner Williams Rd. Pierce's and also some, um, let me think....Oh yeah, COCHRAN!
We also have a Parker/Pierce/Woodard/Christian reunion right off that road at Walter's Park every year. This year it is set for Sat. June 13. You are WELCOME to come!
Yes, it is :) sorry I'm so late replying. I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off lately. I hope y'all have a wonderful reunion. I'd love to come if time permits... Hugs, Susan
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