I live in a town
I live in a town that is marked by what makes it different.
It stands out for its history that carries hurt and carries healing.
A city where cobblestone streets are still in tact and yes, you will tear up your car if you think you’re too good to drive slow over them.
A city with an interstate piercing straight through the middle of it.
A town where locals have their spots where they go and the rest of the world would never understand why.
A city where the town may try to move and migrate every few decades, but the people always find their way back to the bakery that was there when “they were a boy..”
A place where old folks start sentences with “used to…” when referring to what happened years ago.
I live in a town that holds the church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached the gospel and footsteps are marked out in honor of those who marched for their right to vote.
I live in a town that has a school for boys from frustrating circumstances and gives them a second chance at a better education.
Valiant Cross Academy, where students are scholars.
I live in a town where one woman moved into an abandoned firehouse and started a business that offered hope beyond herself.
Re-invention… look it up.
I live in a town that undoubtedly has a love for college football. Yes, half of the fans never attended the college they root for, but cheer as if they did.
I live in a town with a baseball stadium named after a breakfast food.
I live in a town where people still park in the middle of the road to pay their power bill.
I live in a town with Dairy Queen on the left and cow pasture on the right.
I live in a town with a fountain that glows in the morning light and hosted the moment that Rosa Parks didn't give up her seat.
I live in a town with more chain food restaurants than you can count, but the old hotdog shoppe founded in 1917 will never die.
I live in a town with over 200,000 people yet, it feels so small.
I live in a town where people will talk to you in the grocery line and ask you if “you have a church home.”
I live in a town where men will hold the door for you and offer their seats.
I live in a town with a coffee shop that has managed to create community with it's coffee and atmosphere.
I live in a town with a farmer’s market that hosts the same sweet ladies from counties over, offering the best casseroles and pies and vegetables you will ever eat.
I live in a town with Mrs. Jozetties cupcakes. I’m really not sure if I even have to say more.
I live in a town that I spent my whole life hearing everyone say, “I can’t wait to get out of here.”
I even said that too.
But when I see the school that has honored young men who need their hearts poured into…
When I see the lines down the street for a hotdog on the 100th anniversary of the restaurant….
When I see a city rally all the churches together for a unity service in a baseball stadium named after buttery bread, to worship God in multiple different languages, honoring what scripture truly talks about with unity…
When I see old buildings restored to its beauty to host new business…
When I see the dozens of businesses that are somehow still surrounded by cow pastures…
When I see the capitol building shine in the sun next to 100 historical markers…
When that man in the parking lot loaded my car for me out of the sheer goodness of his heart…
When I am at a college football game and hear that someone playing is “from Montgomery Alabama”…
When I see a handbag made by my friend in the firehouse…
When I see my city, the one that raised me, be the city that it unashamedly is, I hope the love I have for it never leaves me.
When I see how the people make the town and realize the town doesn't make the people…
I realize I live in a wonderful town.
Call it crazy, call it boring, call it incapable.
Call it what you want, but I live in a town where what makes us different makes us strong.
The capital of Alabama.
The gump.
I live in a town.
I call it home.
Tell me, what do you love about your town? Or the town that raised you?