A sense of belonging
Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles marking the 50th Anniversary of Hartselle City Schools.
Iwas recently in a conver sation with a teacher who retired from Hartselle City Schools a few years ago. We were talking about Hartselle turning 50, and both of us began sharing memories. Her memories dated back to when Hartselle first became a school system but retained the name Morgan County High School for a few more years.
She had just moved to Decatur from Bimingham and had begun attending Austin High School when she started dating a young man who played football for Hartselle. He asked that she attend one of his football games, and she did.
She remembers first being surprised by the number of people in attendance at the home game. She then remembers being surprised by the families in the stands who not only cheered for their own children by name but for all the other players on the team by name.
She says she can recall overhearing the people around her casually speaking about the athletes and how amazed she was that they knew the players, their siblings, their parents, who they were dating, their girlfriends’ siblings, their girlfriends’ parents, and more.
Having recently come to the area from Brimingham, she had no idea that a community could be so close that people in the stands some of whom were not the parents of players, cheerleaders, or band members would be that familiar with all the students on the playing field. She says it was her first real taste of small town life, and she liked it so much that she found her way back to Hartselle to teach at Barkley Bridge Elementary. Each week more and more research makes its way to the media regarding the impact of isolation on mental health. The reduced sense of belonging and lack of a support system that come from being separated from others negatively affect the young and the old and all the people in between. Community is healthy.
We’ve all had those exhausting days when we do not want to talk to another soul, and we’ve all had those moments where, for the life of us, we cannot understand why a person shares so much so freely with everyone around them. Still, community is healthy.
(I can recall once sitting down in a medical waiting area where two women were in mid-conversation about two people who were ending a marriage. Right there in that public area, the women called the couple by name and then went into detail about the marriage itself, how one of the two had an affair outside the marriage, details about the life of the third person in the story, and more. I felt embarrassed to be there overhearing all of it and felt certain these two close friends had let their story and the volume at which they were telling it get away from them when a nurse stepped to the door of the waiting area and called one of the ladies back for her appointment. The lady stood and said to the other, “Well it was nice to meet you.” I don’t think I’m alone in believing that some can sense a little too much belonging.)
Nevertheless, that feeling of community is one of those things that makes Hartselle a special place to live and a special place to grow a family. The schools play a part, and they have been playing that part for 50 years and long before they broke from Morgan County Schools.
A football game is one of many places where that can be experienced. Go Tigers!
