The tug of history and nostalgia

The Boggan-Hammond House in Wadesboro

I was born and raised in Anson County, about 40 miles east of Charlotte and 10 miles from the South Carolina border. When I finished high school, I was eager to leave there and have been back only for visits, which have grown quite rare since my parents died. None of my siblings stayed in the poverty-stricken area, either.

Nevertheless, the mooring lines of experience, sentiment and nostalgia still tug at my heart, and I pause on my occasional visits just to take in the sights, sounds and smells of the place that once was so familiar. Those sensory stimuli once were my whole world. All four grandparents and nearly all of my aunts, uncles and cousins lived in the area, and none of us wandered far from home in those days. Even now, I can drive down a country road and be suddenly overwashed by a lost memory by a house or a turn in the road.

Since leaving the place more than 40 years ago, I have come to better appreciate its history. Anson was one of the first counties of North Carolina, originally stretching from the Pee Dee River on the east to the Mississippi or (depending on whom you ask) the Pacific on the west. From it was carved all of the westward counties along North Carolina's southern border.

That long history (the county was founded in 1749) has become a source of pride for remaining county residents as the once-dominant cotton mills have all closed and more and more county residents have taken jobs requiring long commutes to Charlotte. I joined the Anson County Historical Society to keep up with what is going in the area that gave me birth and nurturing. For a county with so little wealth and so few residents (around 25,000, about the same number as 50 years ago), the Historical Society is surprisingly vibrant and ambitious. The society owns, if I'm counting right, five historic buildings, including the oldest house in Wadesboro, a medical museum, an office building and a "museum of early America."

The society's latest newsletter (which, by itself, is a big undertaking) issues a plea for $135,000 for the repair of the Historical Society's restored but badly deteriorating properties. The low wealth of residents and the high costs of repairs make this plea a desperate one. The founders and foot-soldiers of the Historical Society are aging and dying. It seems possible that the entire association could expire.

The Anson County Historical Society has a Web site and is a 501(c)3 corporation, making gifts tax deductible. The address, if you're interested, is 206 E. Wade St., Wadesboro, NC 28170.

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In a recent post, I complained about the frustrations of job-hunting using the N.C. Employment Security Commission's job listings. Since that time, I talked to a very helpful Job Service agent who cheerfully and professionally provided the information I needed. This morning, I received an e-mail with the contact information for jobs I was interested in. I had asked the Job Service for an e-mail instead of a less-efficient and more time-consuming telephone call (actually two calls were required). So I'm pleased to report that ESC can be helpful and even responsive to individual clients' requests. I withdraw my complaints.