This is my town…

    My county is small town.  Small enough that when we get to the four lane we know we’re going to the city, or near the city, or at least somewhere other than small town us.  Not that the city is all that far away, it isn’t, but small town people need to have some good reasons to go there.  And when we do, we call it Big Time.  You know,"I’m going to the city to do some Big Time shopping!"  Big Time shopping means furniture or designer clothes or a car that isn’t a truck.  ‘Course, you need a truck to bring most of it back but that’s okay too, we’re small town and we all have trucks.

    Peopleofwalmart.com isn’t all that funny to us because we are the people of walmart.  Now, if you really want to see some pics, you need to come on by here on payday or when the relief checks come in because that’s when Wally World really hops.  We’ve  got a Super Wally World in each section of the county so if you’re from the ‘Burg, you can wear your ‘Burg pj’s with everyone else and not feel out of place.  You can wear them to Tanglehood too…we’re all sisters.  We delight in wearing them to the Island Wally’s because they hate it; they done went all high falutin on us when those rich folks put in the golf course and gated their communities.  Wally’s over there couldn’t even be on the street, it had to be hidden behind some trees way in the back so rich folks wouldn’t get caught shopping there.  People are funny, aren’t they?

    We don’t mind if you laugh at us because we laugh at us too.  Somehow we’ve managed to nestled some 200,000 people here who stay small town and know it. 

    "Whatcha got those boys doing up there on the roof?"

    "Ahhhh, someone got the brainy idea to take the yard blower down the dryer shaft to unclog the lint."

    "Lotta butt crack is all I see."

    "Hey, that man’s mine, you stay yourself away."

    Small town.  That’s just how it is in a small town.

    Not that we don’t got big town problems coming in, because we do.  Drugs have been real bad and we’re a prime stop on the Flamingo Pipeline that carries pills all the way to New York City.  Can’t tell you how much of that I see anymore – seems to be the number one thing I face in ministry these days.  Economy hit us hard too.  We’ve got hundreds of abandoned houses sitting isolated on acreas of land and they look real good to the bad guys who want to cook up meth.  Scrawny strung out women trying to trick off the two lane…bad stuff.  I see too much of that too.  We’re still small town enough to try to stop it.

    Detective David White was one of our county  boys who worked narcs.  He was homegrown, most of our police are.  Grew up here, graduated down the road from me, joined the Army and served his country well.  Came home, married a homegrown girl, got his degree, and joined up with the county boys.  Left for awhile to do a couple of tours in the war with the Army Reserves and came back home.   A decorated war veteran, he was also a decorated police officer who had been instrumental in locating and dismantling the meth operations that have been setting up in our county.

    Last Thursday evening, Detective David White was killed in the line of duty during a raid on a meth house.  He was the first officer killed in the line of duty in our county in over 99 years.

    Homegrown in a small town.  

    The Big Time news people have been all over the county the last few days taking pictures and videos, showing the signs on the businesses along the road that have all been changed to honor our hometown hero.  They’ve interviewed the florists who are donating their flowers and time, the resturants who supplied the food to all the hundreds of officers while the investigation went on for days, and the people, small town people, who waited in a 4 hour line to pay their respects.  They just couldn’t understand how small town is, you know?  Why they couldn’t come inside with the cameras, why the funeral was closed, why the man’s favorite song was "Victory in Jesus",  why everyone stopped everything they were doing to pay tribute to the character, the honor, and the life of a man who served his Country, his community, and his Lord with his life.  But they reported it and I think that was good…to show others what small town really was.

    Detective David White was laid to rest today.  His funeral was at my home church and even the governor came.  And…about a thousand police officers, some from as far away as Chicago.  Thirteen counties in our state came to honor him and fill in the beats of our county boys so they could attend.  They had to close the funeral because there was just no way the whole county could get into the church.  But….they didn’t close the roads.  

    The funeral procession was 11 miles long.  It went down the big street from the church, right along the main country road past the high school he graduated from, right along our little county road where Roo and I stood with the girls, and then down the little country road to the cemetary.  When the first car was pulling into the cemetary, the last car was still leaving the church.  And all along the way, small town people lined the edges of the roads on either side of the procession, standing at attention with their hands over their hearts.  Some held flags, others dropped roses and tulips, many released green and white balloons -our county colors, and most cried.  Even the children, who had ran up and down the road in antsy children way while they waited for something to start, stood bone still and somber while the procession passed.  

    It took one hour and twenty minutes to have every car pass.  Not one person moved.

    I like my town, small town that it is.  I like that our high dollar eating is at the fish camp and you can buy Mickey D Sweet Tea by the gallon.  I like that no one really uses the front door and people still come in through the kitchen door or the garage with a big "Hey Y’all" instead of a door bell…we’re always mindful to keep our britches on here.  I like that after my boys left and joined the service to see the world,  that they come home after seeing the world to raise their families in small town too.  I like my friends, that ragtag bunch of redneck women, and my neighbors, and the people around me who still say ‘Yes sir’ and ‘No ma’am’ and remember what honor is all about.  It’s just small town….

    This is my town.  <br />

    Thank you for your service, Detective David White.  Oh, what a glorious place you went home to!  We promise to take care of your family…like small towns do.

Lama