Vardaman, Mississippi, will always be home to me.
Granted, my family only moved there when I was 11 years old, but for me, it is the place where I first learned the meaning of community, and the first place where I felt like a member of a community. My lifelong friendships were forged there during the last, sweet days of my childhood. I also learned the importance of having and being an integral part of a church family back there in Vardaman. And that childhood church home was where I married my husband over 46 years ago.
My love for teaching and my choice of education as a profession were born there, as I learned firsthand from an entire school filled with teachers who dedicated their all to us. So, if the truth be told, I owe a huge part of who I am and what I accomplished in life to the people of that small Mississippi town – humble people who believed that every child was a part of the Vardaman family.
They lived out that belief by treating each of us kids like we were their own – be it through providing food, clothing, jobs, encouragement, or hardcore discipline when needed. In fact, I got my fair share of hands-on discipline from lots of mommas and daddies in Vardaman. Though I may not have liked it at the time, even then, I knew their actions and admonitions were proof of their love for me.
Those men and women were and still are my biggest fans. All these years later, they read every word I write and purchase more of my books per capita than any other town in Mississippi. And they will defend me – and all their Vardaman kids – to the ends of the earth.
In the best times of life, my extended Vardaman family is always there to celebrate with me. But it has been the darkest times in life, like during the loss of our son Chris, that my Vardaman mommas and daddies rushed in to take up the slack for my own parents, who had died a couple of years earlier, by continually hemming me in and lifting me up with their love and prayers.
I owe Vardaman, Mississippi, more than I can ever repay. Ever. But they are not looking for payback. They do expect me to share what I have been given with others. And I do. I love and encourage (and even gently reprimand) kids that do not belong to me by birth but rather are connected to me by community.
And to be honest, that is all my Vardaman family will ever require of me. But today, I want to do something extra for them.
I want to personally invite you to my hometown this weekend to meet my family and celebrate our world-renowned farmers and their families during the 52nd Annual Vardaman Sweet Potato Festival.
It’s a fun-filled weekend with delicious food, good music, as well as an arts and crafts show, a car, truck, and tractor show, a fun run, some beauty pageant royalty, and lots of other activities. Check out the upcoming festivities here: https://vardamansweetpotatofestival.com/.
But more than that, the Vardaman Sweet Potato Festival is a great opportunity to meet some of Mississippi’s finest citizens. And once you meet them, like me, you will forever call them friends – and family.
So, I’ll see you at home, this Saturday, November 1, in Vardaman, Mississippi.
