I'm Not Moving
I moved to my hometown, Fayetteville, NC, in November of 1979 when I was in the ninth grade, then the final year of junior high school. I've lived here or close to here with a couple of short exceptions ever since. At the same time there have been tremendous changes in some areas and very little movement in others. When I came here, we were the company town for Ft. Bragg and now we are the town for Ft. Liberty, but the only thing that changed was the renaming of the post to remove the reference to a traitorous Confederate general. Ft. Liberty is now the largest military base in the US by number of assigned personnel. The 82nd Airborne Division is stationed here along with the Army's Special Operations Command, a couple of Special Forces Groups and two Army Airfields. We are also home to a large military retiree community, and it is rare to find someone who actually grew up here. It can be a transient community, although the Army does not move people around as much as they did during the cold war.
The economy is directly tied into servicing the military community. The largest private employer is Walmart. When I was growing up that distinction was held by a unionized tire manufacturer. The tire plant still exists but is hasn't grown the way the retail juggernaut has. It's still union though, very much a rarity in this part of the country. We used to have a lot more manufacturing, but all of the textile mills disappeared by the turn of the century along with a tool making factory and a home appliance plant. We still have a couple of factories left but the people who work there are continuously nervous. We have every big box store and chain restaurant than you could ever want, along with the usual military base companions: barber shops, surplus stores, used car lots, tattoo parlors and gentleman's clubs.
There are some good things happening here. The non-profit hospital at the core of the local health care system in partnership with the university where I work just broke ground on a medical school set to open in a couple of years. We already have a robust health sciences program training physician's assistants, nurses, physical and occupation therapists and are adding a program to train certified registered nurse anesthetists.
Like most cities, we are a big blue dot in a red state. The military influence has done a lot to integrate the city. Although we do have areas that are predominantly people of color, no place outside of the country club is lily white. The country club holds out though. They have admitted a tiny handful of African American members, like the chancellor of the local HBCU but it's still like a trip into the past to ride by their pool or golf course. Currently POC dominate city government, a testament to our resistance to GOP gerrymandering and manipulation of the electoral system.
Underneath all of military connections there remains a small southern city with southern trappings. My family has lived in this area since the 1840s. I have relatives who were relocated at the time of the First World War from the land where Ft. Liberty exists now. There are Scottish Presbyterian Churches formed in the 1700s scattered around the area. We are proud of our colonial history. North Carolina ratified the constitution here and we are the only city named after the Marquis de Lafayette that our French ally actually visited. If you don't want chain restaurant food, we have plenty of places to get good barbecue and seafood.
Wonder Woman has been in the area as long as I have. This was her father's last duty station before he retired from the Army. We dream of having a place in the mountains, but the reality is that we are ideally situated to be close to a good portion of our grandchildren and other family members. We both moved so many times growing up that we have had our fair share. We are a couple of hours from the coast and it's not much further to the mountains. Our house is nearly paid off and it's our home, a cozy retreat from the world surrounded by big oak trees on a street that's not too busy. I'm most likely not going anywhere.
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