Be proud
Maybe it’s the “Best Six Days of Summer” and the Anderson County Fair, but as I sit typing this I realize Anderson County and Clinton have a great deal in which to take pride.
The aforementioned fair is one of my favorite things not only of the year, but also of the area. Until you have experienced an evening — yes, even in the heat and humidity — at the fair, you haven’t experienced fun in small town America.
From the petting zoo to truck pulls, barrel racing to live bands, an exhibit to the midway (and food, don’t forget the food), the Anderson County Fair has a little something for everyone.
I’ll get to its most important offering in a minute but it’s more than the fair folks in this county and city have a right to take more than a measure of pride in.
Area high schools have a right to be proud of what they have — the turf football field at Anderson County High School, which puts some colleges to shame (I won’t even compare it to what their counterparts to the immediate south call turf) and the new Hollingsworth Sportsplex, an impressive facility soon to be open at Clinton High School.
And as much as the Mavericks should be proud of that turf and the Dragons of that new facility if that’s all they take pride in they have missed the point.
That turf — no matter how many years it lasts — will eventually wear out and need to be replaced.
After all, at the end of the day, it’s just fabric. Granted, it is high-dollar fabric but fabric nonetheless.
The Sportsplex is an outstanding resource for high school athletics and academics but you know what? It’s still just a building — a collection of concrete, steel, glass, etc. One day, it too will need to be repaired or replaced.
I point that out to say this: Those things, the turf and the building, are just that — things.
Here’s where it becomes a matter of community pride.
You see, that turf didn’t sprout up out of the ground and the Sportsplex didn’t either. People worked hard to bring those things to each school.
Numerous people gave of their finances, talents, and time to take each of those projects from concept to reality. On each project people little gave blood, sweat, and if they would admit it or not, even tears to make it happen.
Those folks didn’t make that effort to puff out their chests and say, “Look what I did.”
More often than not, people worked in virtual anonymity with the singular goal of completing the project.
These people have given back to their communities according to his or her ability to do so. They did to give their respective school something they did not have. They did what they did not out of obligation but out of an exceptional sense of love and loyalty.
I point these things out because not every community has that these days. We live in a world increasingly devoted to self and by extension, self-interests.
Remember, I cover sports. Over the years I have witnessed the steady erosion of the concept of team. It’s gone from what can we do for the team, to what can the team do to get my son/daughter a scholarship?
How about that?
I got some sports in this column after all.
This area should be proud that it still has people willing to make a sacrifice, willing to pay a price, willing to do what they need to do to help out their community.
And that brings me back to the Anderson County Fair. I know. I took the long way around. Somehow that seemed better than a short cut through the briar patch.
You see, the greatest thing the fair has to offer is not an attraction, ride, event, or exhibit.
The greatest thing the fair has to offer is the sense of neighborhood — friends and neighbors gathering to celebrate the community for no other reason than their love for it.
I’m not from here and I don’t live here but I consider the Anderson County Fair my hometown fair — that’s what it means to me.
It’s that same sense of community that leads people to contribute and give back to their schools and ostensibly, to their friends and neighbors.
That kind of thing doesn’t happen just anywhere, especially these days.
This is a week to celebrate Anderson County.
This is a week to celebrate friends.
