With the Langdale reunion having taken place earlier this week and so many others just like it happening frequently around Chambers County, it is clear that people enjoy coming back to their past. Whether it is visiting with old friends, observing whatever changes have happened to old stomping grounds or just breathing the same air one did in their youth, coming back holds something for everyone.

As evident by the reunions, this is especially the case for Chambers County residents and those who have moved away but keep involved in their old home via word of mouth, updates from family and online versions of The Valley Times-News.

Everyone who has moved away has done so for different reasons, but no matter where they go, many come back no matter how far they have to travel. At the Langdale reunion which brought together those who lived, worked, went to school or worked in Langdale Mill, native Carey Wilkerson traveled 924 miles from Chickasha, Okla. to be there.

Those who have just come to the area quickly realized upon arrival that the people who live here care about their community to a dedicated degree.

A community is technically defined as the area in which everyone lives and works together but Chambers County proves, in its everyday goings-on and the reunions that celebrate the goings-on of yesteryear, that the community is actually defined by the people.

The community is not limited to the county lines drawn up on a map, but extends out to wherever the community members may go and the interactions they have with others that bring them back. Community members care about what happens to their neighbors, their kids and themselves to the point where they organize these reunion events, speak up in political settings and contribute directly to the news. 

The Chambers County community isn’t a place, it’s a people.