This is the first installment in an original Clint Thoughts three-part series called “Where I’m From.”
Growing up in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, I would often hear classmates despair about how there was nothing to do there and how they couldn’t wait to leave as soon as possible. I never agreed with those classmates. When I was growing up, I thought it was a great blessing to be from Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. And now that I live out-of-state, I take even more pride in my hometown because I get to tell people on a regular basis that that’s where I’m from.
But what’s so great about Lawrenceburg? Other than it being my home, why is that tiny town on Shoal Creek so important to me? What does it mean to be from Lawrenceburg?
I think being from Lawrenceburg means knowing the value of community. This value shaped my raising and was present everywhere growing up in Lawrenceburg. Both sides of my family stretch across Lawrence County like a healthy network of watermelon vines, creating a community of blood relatives within itself. But aside from that, my teachers knew my parents, my friends’ parents knew–and probably grew up with–my parents, and if I were not connected by blood or parental familiarity to my friends, then it was very likely that my grandparents worked with their parents or grandparents at the Murray Ohio bicycle and lawnmower plant.
That sense of community meant that if I had an emergency, I could go to my neighbors for help knowing they would drop what they were doing to lend a hand. It meant that, at an early age, I knew that “love thy neighbor as thyself” was more than just pretty words tossed around at Sunday services. My parents taught me to help a neighbor in need; to stop and offer assistance if a motorist looked distressed; to be friendly and introduce myself to the people around me. I learned from growing up in Lawrenceburg that a community is a group of equals, sharing equally the tasks of keeping each other afloat. No obstacle stands in the way of a group of hard-working people pooling their abilities and resources for the greater good.
Growing up in Lawrenceburg, a big part of that community life revolved around my church family. Lawrenceburg is a town rich in Christian heritage. There are congregations of all sizes and denominations in town, and church buildings still easily outnumber shopping centers and fast-food restaurants. So it is no surprise that Lawrenceburg is not only the place of my birth, but also the place of my rebirth. My parents took me to church from an early age, and in August of 1993 I realized my need for Jesus and accepted Him as my Savior, and was baptized in Lawrenceburg. In First Baptist Church and Immanuel Baptist Church in Lawrenceburg, I met my first lifelong friends. Those friends became my second family, and I first learned the joys of fellowship with other Christians while worshiping Jesus in Lawrenceburg.
I never understood why other kids thought that there was nothing to do in Lawrenceburg. True, my hometown doesn’t have any shopping malls or stadiums. But my social schedule always stayed busy in Lawrenceburg. If there wasn’t a movie playing that we wanted to see at the Crockett Cinemas 3, my church friends and I would get together and play games or watch movies at each others’ homes. The woods near my house became a battlefield at least once a month when my friends came over for paintball.
Those same friends and I used to pack a corner booth at Dairy Queen on Wednesday nights after church. We would gather at Ledbetter’s Drug Store on the square on hot summer days to start an afternoon of adventure with peanut butter milkshakes. We rolled many yards, fished many ponds, waded many streams, shot many rifles, watched many fireworks, and drove many miles through country roads at night for fun. My answer to people who claim that they can’t find anything to do in Lawrenceburg is that they must not be looking hard enough. Being from Lawrenceburg means having fun regardless of where you are or what you do.
To be from Lawrenceburg means to have a life education. I had the best teachers in school at Lawrenceburg. They were just as dedicated to their students as the teachers at wealthier schools (if not moreso), only they did it for much less compensation. In addition to having great teachers in the classroom, I also had the world’s best teachers outside of the classroom. Lawrenceburg has no art museums or opera houses to immerse its residents in the culture of other places, but I count it as a greater blessing that I grew up near all of my grandparents, and they taught me to take pride in my own culture and the ways of my own people, the Southerners; how we speak, how we cook, how we worship, how we work, how we sing, and how we treat each other.
A big part of that culture (in Lawrenceburg, at least) is appreciating and enjoying high school basketball. My high school has the best gymnasium of any high school in Middle Tennessee, and when I was a student there I rarely missed a chance to see the Lady Cats flex their State Champion muscle against the other girls’ basketball teams in our district. The excitement and pageantry of a good basketball game in the Ralph Benson Memorial Gymnasium, with the Big Gold Machine playing, the fans shouting, and the championship pennants fluttering from the ceiling over the excited cheerleaders rivals the energy and overshadows the passion of any major league sports event.
To be from Lawrenceburg is to know the true freedom of small-town life. It is an intimacy with the freedom of wide, hilly fields and shady woods and the security of knowing–and loving–your neighbors. Lawrenceburg is a place and a state of mind–a very relaxed state of mind. It’s standing up for yourself and doing what’s right and expecting no reward. It’s raising your children in peace and rising and falling on your own hard work and motivation. Lawrenceburg is home, and to be from Lawrenceburg is a privilege and a blessing.
