Columbus/Phenix City

Columbus, GA and Phenix, City, Al are the “twin cities”, my “twin hometown” in my heart. They are one big hometown for me, even though the Chattahoochee River divides the two cities and assigns each one to a different state. I have lived, worked, shopped, learned, worshipped, and been entertained in these cities together for almost my entire life. Usually, I am not even conscious of leaving one and entering the other.

I spent my school years in Columbus, my thirty married years in Phenix City, and my ten widowed years back in Columbus. My precious marriage ended on the premature death of my husband at age 49, (“till death do us part” and it did).

First of all, my husband’s memory lives on in this area. A plumber for 30 years, he installed plumbing and helped to build industrial sites, new homes, movie theatres, apartment complexes, residential elderly care homes, restaurants, schools, and churches. His generosity, work ethic, and philosophy of life manifests itself in my three grandchildren, three children, sister, brothers, and family who live in this area. They and their families use stores, churches, shopping centers, schools, and theatres, that he plumbed. Their friends live in homes he helped to bring to life. I teach in a school system where his work is a part of the buildings. My four brothers were trained by him to be plumbers and they continue to build this area. I eat at restaurants where he installed plumbing and/or remodeled.

Second, my memory will live on in this area. I attended twelve years of public school and six years of college in both cities, educated twenty-two years worth of children in classrooms in both cities, and happily experienced the sustaining love of my children and grandchildren here. I still share my love of God and freedom of religion with friends and loved ones here. I wrote a book, “Don’t Run for President with Skeletons in your Closet”: (Publish America 10/2003) about my life in the area. I experienced the returning of my mother and father, husband, two brothers, uncles, and dear friends back to the dust here from where they came. Their bodies rest here while their souls experience eternity.

Columbus/Phenix City is centrally placed for easy access to great places. It is located 100 miles east of Montgomery, the capitol of Alabama, heart of Confederate and civil rights history. It is 100 miles south of Atlanta, Capital of Georgia and the Historical South - Atlanta, with the Braves, and the Hawks. Stone Mountain and Six Flags are less than 100 miles away. Providence Canyon, Westville (1890’s town), and Plains, Georgia, home of President and Nobel Prize Winner, Jimmy Carter are all within 70 miles. I’ve been down to Plains at least seven times to hear Mr. Carter teach Sunday School at his church. Habitat for Humanity headquarters are just a few miles away in Americus. We are located a few hours north of historical Savannah, beautiful scenery, beaches, and tales of international trade. It’s thirty miles to Auburn University, where sports and agriculture excel. It’s a few hours to Florida and Disney World, the place that everyone loves.

In my heart and mind, this area is one big place that the Creator has put together in a great big wonderful package, a beautiful place where Native Americans lived and loved nature, but were forced to leave. Today, education and vacation opportunities abound: museums (art, naval, civil rights, military, science, space), colleges, newspapers, schools, and libraries are all easily accessible to enhance adult and youth intellect, to provide continuing education in a growing technology and information society. The Chattahoochee River and its backwaters flow through the land overflowing and filling needs for water, creating places for electricity and dams, fishing, boating, river walks stretching for miles, and backwater cabins. A major airport that provides shuttles to Atlanta sits a couple of miles behind my house.

Sometimes we are called the Columbus/Phenix City/Fort Benning area. Almost any Army soldier, from Private to General, has experienced their basic training at Ft. Benning. It is a major Army training base with special forces from other services stationed there. It was given the award last year by the Federal Government as the “Best Army Base in America". The base is actually in our area, on the Georgia side, with bridges to enter and leave from the Alabama side. The Third Infantry from Fort Benning was the first unit to be deployed to Iraq during this current war. The Phenix City Reserve Units were big parts of the 1992 war and the current war in Iraq.

This area is a highly patriotic people and Fort Benning brings a wide diversity of citizens from all over America and the world. Military wives and husbands from other countries who married soldiers while in their countries feel at home here because of the wide diversity of people and the broad acceptance of international cultures. Muscogee County (GA) and Phenix City (Al) schools are very diverse, due to the proximity of Fort Benning and the many people who settle here after leaving the military.

There is last thing about the Columbus/Phenix City/Fort Benning that makes me proud. My hometown area has grown over the years from a segregated society with “separate, but equal” (mockery) opportunities to a highly, diverse integrated society. It makes me proud to see people of all cultures, races, and religions beginning to come together to solve problems and to make life equitable for every person in the hometown area. I feel that we are on our way to providing, as the American Constitution states: a comfortable, caring place for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Pearl M

Submitted: Saturday 7th February 2004, 3:15 PM

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