I Love small towns because people in small towns
are not in a hurry, they see things that most of us are too busy to see, and
they like to talk about the people that they have met and the thing they have seen. A few years ago I found myself visiting the small town of Moreland, Georgia. What is so interesting about Moreland, Georgia? Nothing really except that it was the home of Columnist and Comedian Lewis Grizzard. As I enter the town of Moreland I pass what is or maybe was “The Lewis Grizzard Museum.” This is my second trip through Moreland and the museum located in a small junky looking building hasn’t been open either time.
Moreland is a quiet little town, with tree lined streets and homes with front porches. I had an old man in another small town tell me one time that America needs more front porches. "You see," he said, "a front porch invites people to visit, to talk and to get to know one another. On front porches, strangers become neighbors, and neighbors become friends, and you can never have too many friends. The is nothing more inviting than a rocking chair or an old porch swing." I drive through the streets of Moreland I can't help but notice there are a lot of rocking
chairs and swings on the front porches.
After passing by the Moreland Methodist I turn on a side
street and happen on the Moreland Cemetery. I decide to stop and see if I can
find Lewis’s Grave. Lewis died in 1994 or heart failure and was cremated. Half of his ashes were spread over
Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia and the other half was buried here in the Moreland Cemetery. I drove around
looking for “Girzzard” on the head stoned but was unsuccessful and was ready to give up. Just as I was getting ready to leave the cemetery I spot a head stone with the name “WORD” on it.
Recalling that Lewis mentioned his Grandmother “Mama Willie Word” on one of his
albums I decide to stop and see if the grave here might be related. As I walk up the first grave stone I see is
inscribe with the words, “A Great American – Lewis Grizzard.”
Lewis I buried next to his mother Christine Atkinson and his
grandmother Mama Willie Word. As I was returning to the car from paying my respects to Lewis, a gentleman who had been walking around the cemetery stops
and ask if we knew Lewis. I told him that while I had never met him I certainly
knew him through his columns and tapes. The old man then proceeds to tell us that
even though he has lived in Moreland all of his life and he never met Lewis but he knows his first wife and “she lives in that brown house over there,” pointing to a small house just across
the road from the Cemetery. "I remember the day that Lewis came home for the last time and was laid
to rest here in this cemetery, the old man continued. “There was a
crowd, I mean to tell you, and ole Zell Miller, ( a former Governor and U. S. Senator) came and gave a talk. You should have seen it, all three of Lewis’s
ex-wives were here. It was a sight, I tell you.” After Lewis was buried they “had a to do up at the park
near the mill. It was the biggest thing to hit Moreland in a long time. I guess ole Lewis was smiling up there watching all of the goings on."
I ask the old gentleman about the museum that we passed on the way into town. He said that it was rarely open anymore but he could call the lady that runs it and see if she would come down and let us look around it we want too. Being late in the afternoon, I declined his offer and he said that he was going to finish his
walk and thanks us for “stopping by and visiting with Lewis..” We thanked him for his time and we went our separate ways.
This is but one example of why I like to visit small towns. The people of these communities don’t
view you as strangers but as a chance to make a new friends. They are not afraid to talk to you
and to share their stories and experience with you. But most of all I like
their sense of pride, pride not only of their community but of the people which
make up their community. Today in a little graveyard in Moreland, Georgia, I met a
new friend, a friend who took time to stop and share a small part of his life
and his community with me. I LOVE SMALL TOWNS!
