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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
Water Valley had a city election last week. The outcome, as everyone knows by now, is that we have a few new alder-people, a couple of returning alder-people and the exact same mayor as before. Some things change, some things stay the same.
One thing that changed for me in terms of this election is that I was a poll worker for the city, as opposed to the county. Typically, I work the Sylva Rena Community Center for general elections. If you read my column regularly, you know that I am very partial to the Sylva Rena polling station. Spending a 13-hour shift there is like day-camping atop one of the prettiest hills in Yalobusha.
I love the “visiting” among voters because I get to hear about gardens, grandchildren, animal traumas and updates on medical conditions. As a nosy person, this is all of peak interest. I was under the assumption that this was all exclusive to Sylva Rena. Despite that assumption, working the Depot or the Courthouse were definitely items on my poll worker’s bucket list. Well, imagine my joy when Vivian Snider texted me to fill in at the Depot!
Showing up to poll-work the Casey Jones Train Depot compared to the Sylva Rena Community Center made me feel like a field peasant walking into the glass halls of Versailles (except with good intentions.) Most impressive is that the Depot has central heat and air! They also have a pleasant lack of spiders. The Depot has framed historical pictures on the wall alongside artifacts of yesteryear with lighting bright enough to read the labels. The Depot also has a large wall of ceiling to floor windows through which a poll worker may gaze upon the current happenings of the town. In this case, the happenings of the town were a block-length section of political tents filled with candidate’s family member staring back at you.
Obviously, what Sylva Rena Community Center may lack in amenities, it makes up for in the beauty of landscape and character of the people voting/visiting. But, man, that HVAC system at the Depot was nice. The city voters came in all day complaining of the heat outside but as a palace princess I was none the wiser.
Some similarities between the two stations are that my fellow poll-workers were funny and talked about food and flowers. And like Sylva Rena, the Depot poll-workers told great stories. Netflix screenwriters have nothing on some of the stories I hear from fellow poll workers. They have generations of local knowledge and 13 hours to kill so just know that if you have ever walked into Sylva Rena (and now the Depot) on voting day, then I know your family’s entire history. But perhaps my favorite knowledge is knowing who did and, more specifically, did not vote.
Which brings me to my conclusion: Y’all get out there and vote! It’s so easy. It takes under three minutes. We’re fortunate to live in a town so small that there’s no line at the poll and the poll worker can tell you what ward you vote in off-the-top-of-their-head because they already know where you live. If anything, show up to vote so we poll-workers will have something to talk about when you leave. Oh, I’m just kidding! We would never…
