Home for Good

America’s population shifted away from metropolitan centers in the last decade three times faster than during the previous 10 years, and hometowns such as Mount Vernon, Ohio, are one of the reasons why.

Phil Herald left the tree-lined streets of this quiet town in 1981 for a high-paying, high-pressure career as an electronics salesman in Southern California, but through the freeways, smog, and stress, the memories of a simpler life in his hometown of 14,000 lingered on. Then in 1991, right after the birth of their second child, Phil and his wife Dina finally packed their belongings and their children — newborn Christine and 3-year-old John — and returned to Mount Vernon. Phil still sells electronics, but now it’s from the appliance store founded by his father nearly 40 years ago.

“I’m the appliance guy in our small town,” says Herald, 41, standing amid the Whirlpool and KitchenAid refrigerators at Herald’s Appliance and Electronics on South Main Street. “I left a high-paying job for a simpler lifestyle, making less money but enjoying the quality of life more. Money doesn’t always equate to happiness.”

Dina, 37, grew up in a metropolitan area of New Jersey, but visited Mount Vernon often with her college roommate—who happened to be Phil’s sister. “I feel safe here,” she explains. “I feel part of a community that looks out for my children. When my son started the sixth grade, the teacher said, ‘I’m sure your dad is Phil Herald because you look just like (he) did when I taught him.’”

The Heralds are among millions of Americans who choose every year to remain with, or return to, a way of life involving neighbors, trust, a sense of community, county fairs, front porches, and Fourth of July parades. It’s a life of first names and extended families.

“I know the banker, the doctor, the garbage man. I know everybody, and I even know their kids,” Herald says. “In a small town you become connected to the entire community.”

Even between strangers, this connection of faith helped net Mount Vernon the honor of being named Ohio’s most livable small community by Ohio magazine in 1994. It seems an elderly lady was having trouble parking her car on Main Street just as a reporter from the magazine happened by. The reporter, who was checking out Mount Vernon, watched as the elderly driver finally gave up on her parking attempt and flagged down a complete stranger, gave him the keys, and asked him to park the car for her. He did, and returned the keys.

The reporter related this incident to his editor, concluding that, “Any town where you can give a stranger the keys to your (car), and expect to get them back, is a most livable town,” according to Mount Vernon Mayor Dick Mavis.

Deep roots in Texas

Homer and Ruby Martin of Gilliland, Texas, know the stability of deep roots. Homer Martin has walked the same sagebrush-dotted soil every day of his 88 years; his wife has been there for 66 of those years.

“We wouldn’t be satisfied anywhere else,” muses the tough Texas rancher of the tiny windswept town 100 miles north of Abilene that’s now little more than a grocery store and filling station.
“I love the wide open spaces and you can go anywhere you want and have yourself a big time,” he notes, surveying the 193-acre homestead where the couple raised cotton and cattle for a half century.

“My granddaddy came here in 1908 and my family has been here ever since. Used to be a bigger-sized town, but we’ve still got about 100 folks scattered over the country,” he says.
“And, we know ‘em all,” Ruby Martin adds.

Creating close ties

Hometown living—for natives and transplants—means focusing on the important things such as safety, caring about others, trust, and slowing down, says Lisa Rogak, a writer who left New York City in 1988 for a west central New Hampshire village of about 1,000.

She now can do the kinds of things unimaginable to her former city neighborhood.

“I leave my keys in the car so I won’t lose them. They never leave the ignition,” says Rogak, 37, who has authored 25 books including the guide “Escape to a Small Town”, and concludes there’s no better place to call home. “When I’m driving my car, I can stop in the middle of the road and have a conversation with someone.”

Hometown living creates the kind of close ties that allow neighbors to do favors for each other without a second thought, Rogak says.

“If I ask someone to come in and feed my cats while I’m gone, they do it,” she says. “Recently, a neighbor needed me and I ran down to throw wood on the furnace so their house wouldn’t be cold when they returned home.”

Randy Owen is Down Home in Alabama

Hometown values are why Randy Owen, lead singer of the country supergroup Alabama, and his bandmates remain in rural Dekalb County near Fort Payne, Ala., a town of about 13,000, though their money and fame could take them anywhere.

The four-member band, recently named “Top Country Group of the Century” by the Recording Industry Association of America, has sold more than 60 million records singing about everyday life—country roads, the daily grind of mortgage payments, the minimum wage, and family relationships—with such down-to-earth lyrics as “down home a man’s good word and a handshake are all you need.”

“I am blessed to live today on the same land where I grew up and farmed as a boy. It’s great to be able to stay where your roots are,” says Owen, 50, who checks on his cattle from a pickup truck when he’s not recording or touring.

They may be worldwide celebrities, but in Fort Payne, Owen and his bandmates are regular neighbors with their “just folks” humility and common-man work ethic.

Living in Fort Payne and away from the frantic entertainment world gives the band the time and space they need between their professional and personal lives, Owen says.

“When we’re home, we’re home and just doing day-to-day business like everybody else—the kids are in school and we’re working,” he says.

“Fort Payne is just home.”

 

Barbara Jenkins is a best-selling author and keynote speaker living in Nashville, Tenn.

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