At the end of a radio interview this past week, the host of the program, David Dallas, said he wanted to ask me the final question he puts to all of his guests.
“What do you like most about Greenwood?”
I wish I had listened to some of David’s other interviews before showing up for mine. I might have come prepared with a more elaborate and impressive answer.
I responded with the first thing that came to mind: The food.
For a town of this size, Greenwood is blessed with some really great restaurants. My sister Patrice and her husband came to visit a few weeks back, and Betty Gail and I took them out to a couple of our favorite dining establishments. They were impressed.
They live in Kansas City, where there are tons of good restaurants. They travel a lot, including outside the country, and so they are exposed to lots of fine cuisine. When they say the food here is super, that’s a pretty fair recommendation.
And it’s not just the restaurants. People in the Delta know how to cook. Their fare may not always be the most healthy, but it certainly tastes good.
Coincidentally, this newspaper asked a similar question about Greenwood’s best attributes to 30 young professionals who were recognized this past week in the “Top 30 Under 40” class for 2021.
While the quality of the city’s restaurants got several mentions, there were other attributes that popped up over and over again.
The biggest one was how friendly and welcoming this community is, and how it’s a good place to raise a family because of its small-town atmosphere and charm.
I liked how Hunter McNeer, a project manager and estimator at the family-owned construction company KT Builder, put it: “Walk into a church, and there are five to 10 folks waiting to shake your hand. Pull a chair up to the bar at Webster’s, and I can guarantee someone will strike up a conversation.”
Hunter has lived here his whole life, but even newcomers pick up this warm and welcoming vibe soon after their arrival. Danisha Williams, who moved here two years ago to become the director of admissions and recruiting at Mississippi Valley State University, felt a part of this community right away. “Even though I’m an Illinois native, it wasn’t hard for me to find members of this community who embraced me,” she said. “What the area lacks in social life, it makes up for in the way newcomers are treated.”
As far as that lack in social life, it’s not difficult to imagine what these young people think our community needs. A lot of what’s on their wish list, we used to have, such as a bowling alley and a movie theater. The lack of recreational outlets has been a recurring theme for every “Top 30” class since we began these awards in 2009.
You’d hope some entrepreneur would hear this refrain, too, and open such a venue.
“There’s really not much to do here other than to eat,” said another honoree, Shulundia Drake, who also co-owns Drake’s BBQ.
Maybe that explains my initial answer.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
