You can’t define quality, but you know it when you see it. A local contractor.
The contractor was talking about construction, but his words apply to most everything else, including living in a small town.
Recently, our five-year-old cell phone died. As seniors sheltering-in-place during COVID-19 shut down, we didn't have the luxury to shop for a replacement. We knew what we wanted, and we wanted to keep our service which works well in our area along the coast. After advice from our children and some research on line, I spent a grueling day trying to talk with national customer service agent. While I eventually talked with two different people, both were stifled by the company’s policy of sending all information to a customer’s text. Our phone had completely died; I could not access text. They could not help me.
I ended up calling a store in Jesup. The young woman who worked with me by phone was extremely helpful. Shortly thereafter, our children went to the store with the information we had sent them. The young woman with whom I had talked was on duty. Quickly, the three of them filled our order and kept our service ongoing.
We are also are grateful to those Wayne countians who have brought service to us. Once again, I say thank goodness for small towns and the people who live in them.
After we moved to Jesup, mid 20th century, I quickly learned two lessons about small towns.
First: Never say anything about anyone because everyone is related one to another.
Shortly after we moved to town, Bob bought some antiques from a neighbor who was selling the furnishings from an old house he had bought. His mother asked to see the furniture. As we chatted, she said, “My cousin married a Denty.” Turns out her cousin was Bob’s aunt who lived at The Ridge in McIntosh County. Remember, I had just moved across country from a cosmopolitan city to small town America and I loved the idea of being related to someone, even if by marriage, in Wayne County.
Secondly, it didn’t take me long to appreciate the ease of living where shopping was convenient, where people offered to help, where people dropped by for a visit. I, who grew up in Dallas, Texas, was soon saying, “I’ve been a small town girl all my life and just didn’t know it.”
I learned that raising children in a small town, even with some of the big city problems, was easier. It didn’t take me long to see why some parents in moving to Northern cities for jobs, often sent their children home for grandparents to raise in a small town. I taught a number of those transplants.
Children growing up in small towns may not have all of the advantages that big time money can buy in a city like season tickets to the opera, frequent tours of museums, or box seats at Major League Baseball. However, they learn to be self sufficient.
One of my former students, selected for the Governor’s Honors Program, was hesitant about attending. She doubted her abilities to compete with students from the Atlanta. When she returned, she was confident. She told me, “I want to thank all my teachers in Wayne County. The others in my group had read books that I’ve not yet read, but none of them were comfortable writing anything. I wrote all the reports for my group. I can read the books that I haven’t yet read on my own.”
I consider the real strength of small towns, Jesup especially, is the fact that problems, no matter how dire, seemed solvable. The bigger the cities, the greater the problems.
I’ve also discovered that long time residents, while they may not have have all the updated bells and whistles that an outsider might bring, often offer the best leadership skills. The true professionals, the ones who have continued their learning process far beyond all requirements, the ones who care about the town and all of its citizens of all ages, the ones without a one-issue agenda, view leadership not as a raise in pay, but rather as a calling. Decision makers are wise when they tap this immense home-nurtured talent.
The contractor was right. We might not be able to define quality, but we know it when we see it in our small town.
2020
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