Growing Up in Helena Wasn’t Bad…

Photo Credit: Leslie Galloway

Today there was an article in Arkansas Business stating that my hometown, Helena-West Helena, might not be able to make payroll this week and that some of the elected officials might not get paid. I inadvertently started a conversation when I shared this story on Facebook. I know that this news may not come as a surprise to many of you that read my blog if you like in the mid-south. Helena-West Helena (used to be Helena & West Helena – 2 separate cities, but they consolidated and that’s the name they chose. I don’t know why), used to be a thriving little city on the Mississippi River back in the 70’s but when a few manufacturing plants closed their doors many of the jobs associated with them left and they never came back.

With just a few exceptions over the past few years, whenever Helena (I chose to call it Helena) is in the news –it’s usually bad news. Take for instance Operation Delta Blues, quite possibly one of the largest federal drug and corruption sweeps of all-time that involved multiple agencies from the FBI, DEA, to the ATF. You might also remember that CNN and many national media outlets covered this event wall to wall for about a week because there were 5 police officers involved in the investigation. Before Operation Delta Blues there was another story that gathered national attention when the past mayor released some dogs into a national forest because the city no longer had funds in their budget to operate an animal shelter. There was also a citywide curfew implemented because crime had gotten out of hand. You’ve heard the saying that “there is no such thing as bad publicity”, well, if you are a city that’s competing with other smaller cities to recruit employers for economic development, then yeah there sort of is such thing as bad PR…

“Helena occupies one of the prettiest situations on the Mississippi. Her perch is the last, the southernmost group of hills which one sees on that side of the river. ” – Mark Twain

Things weren’t always this way in Helena, I actually have some very fond memories of the town, in fact there are two Facebook groups comprised of former residents that just talk back and forth about the good times (Remembering Helena-West Helena and You’re Probably From Helena-West Helena If…).  I wish I had a dollar for every lap I have made around the dougbboy while cruising cherry street with my friends on the weekend. This is is the same street that my parents used to cruise when they were in high school. Teenagers in Helena have no idea what they are missing out on because it’s not allowed today… I actually grew up in a town that nobody has ever heard of called Lexa, where my family’s farm is headquartered, but since Helena was the nearest metropolis, that’s where we spent the majority of our time. I started school there at a private school and attended throughout my elementary years until transferring to the Barton-Lexa public school system for my high school years.

All during my high school years and into my first year of college I had an after school job at my uncle’s shoe store, Hart’s Shoe Store. Hart’s was located on the corner of the 400 block of Cherry Street. I could literally go on for hours and hours and still not cover everything positive about that job and what I learned from my Uncle Gene while working for him in that shoe store. He was the type of guy that could teach you things without even trying or knowing he had. One thing about my Uncle Gene was that everyone in town knew him and knew that he was one of two brothers that had ten sisters… yeah, let that settle in. My mom is the baby of the Davis clan and I grew up with 11 aunts and uncles just on my mom’s side, they all were born and raised in Helena. One of the things that my Uncle Gene taught me that I still hold onto this day was how to treat people in business and to take pride in what you are doing, and it doesn’t matter if you are selling shoes or hamburgers, if you build a relationship with your customers by taking care of them they will in turn take care of you.

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

The reason I brought up my Uncle Gene and his shoe store is because of his story. You see, being one of 12 kids during that period in history just about guaranteed you hard times, and trust me, the Davis family had their share of hard times but they always made due – that’s probably why they were all so close knit (that’s another blog post someday). Not being born into a family business that he could just jump right into he went to work at another shoe store in Helena that was owned by another very respected family in town. He worked in that shoe store for several years until the opportunity came for him to go into business for himself by opening up another shoe store just a few doors down the street. That’s right, that dried up little town that you hear described on the news and in newspapers has had two shoe stores on Cherry Street for as long as I have been alive. My Uncle had the tenacity and faith to step out and build his dream and the entire city and surrounding communities rewarded his hard work by supporting his business for the rest of his life. This is just one story, there are many, many others that I’ve heard where people were able to stake their claim and build a life for themselves in Helena. I’m not by any means implying that people in the delta don’t have the same faith, tenacity, or vision that my uncle had, but the point that I’m trying to make is that the one factor to his success, the part about the spirit of the community rewarding his hard work by supporting a second shoe store might not be as strong as it once was…

Photo Credit: Bonnie Jones

If I could be granted ten wishes tonight, somewhere on the top of that list would be standing on the corner of Cherry Street in front of that shoe store listening to my Uncle Gene talk about how things used to be and how they have changed. You see, at the time Cherry Street was flourishing (or at least it was in comparison to today) and each of the businesses lined up along that street had a story. There were only a few vacant storefronts up and down the street at the time and inside each of them you could find business owners just like himself that had came up pretty much the same way he did. Back in the day there was an unwritten code that you took care of one another and did business with each other when possible before taking your trade out of town. That spirit was pretty amazing back in the day as I recall but it leads me to wonder if things are still that way today?

We lost my Uncle after a lengthy battle with cancer and I think a lot of that spirit and overall awesomeness of the town died with him and several others from his generation. Even though I miss him sometimes I’m somewhat glad to know that he’s not around to see things the way they are now on Cherry Street.

Now, back from memory lane to the story that got me to blog all of this in the first place… #adhd. Oh yeah, the city is potentially unable to meet payroll this week due to lack of funds. Granted, I’m sure that there has been some mismanagement on a few occasions somewhere along the line by elected officials and those tasked with managing the city, although I think it’s important not to point fingers at any one person or group when passing blame for the current state of affairs because the reason the city is coming up short is because they don’t have enough revenue coming in, and at the heart of this is the fact that there is a declining population. I can’t remember the last time I saw any signs of growth when I have been in town, no new construction, etc. For the most part, with just a few exceptions, everyone I went to school with has left town and went to work for someone or built their own businesses elsewhere around the state, myself included. The loss of not only that economic stimulus as well as the shortfall in tax revenue is at the heart of this problem, or at least in my opinion it is…

Now, if you know me, you know that whenever I usually think that I’ve identified the problem, I’m always pretty quick to suggest a remedy or a solution but in this case I honestly don’t have one. I’ve mentioned several ideas to friends as to how the downtown area could possibly be renovated but to do what I have envisioned it’s going to take way more capital investment than anyone I know is willing to make. So, should everyone there just throw their hands in the air and vacate the area? Absolutely not, reversing the economic decline there isn’t going to be solved by electing any one person or supporting a single idea, it’s going to take a lot of good, hard-working people, like my Uncle Gene, who have a vision or a dream that they are going to pursue no matter what the cost. I know for a fact that there are several good people down there now that are hard at work trying to turn things around, although at times I know it has to seem like an uphill battle.

In closing, I would recommend any entrepreneurs out there that could use $25,000 in seed money to checkout a post I made last week about an upcoming startup challenge geared toward upstarts that are willing to relocate their business to Helena-West Helena…