Maryann & Ed Avery
We have Moundville, Greensboro, Akron, Newbern, and other communities in Hale County. Churches are the center of the community activity.
In our community we have an organized group that brings in people from different churches. It is called The Havana Community Improvement Club. We started back in the 50's, in conjunction with Auburn, to get involvement in building the community and improving the roads, the buildings, and the social aspects of the community. We had competitions between the communities in areas of community betterment.
The board of education deeded the schoolhouse to the Havana Community Improvement Club back in about 1956. The Community Club had programs each month based on the goals that were established such as gardening, cleaning the road side, or tourism. Our goals changed because people are no longer farming as they were in the 50’s and 60’s when it was organized. People work at jobs in Tuscaloosa and have children. We’ve got people here, like everywhere I’m sure, who work their eight hours, and it takes them 40 minutes to get there and 40 minutes to get home, and that’s it until the next morning.
It’s important to do work in the community to know my neighbors, to know what’s happening with them, to rejoice with them, to be sad with them, and to help them when I can. I try to prepare food to take when people are ill and have sadness and if you don’t have a way of communicating you don’t know about that need.
We have a covered dish supper once a month. The goals are probably not the same as they used to be but we enjoy getting together. We like going and taking several dishes and sharing food together. We don’t have the old front porch meetings we used to have when I was a kid. We used to sit on the old front porch and talk until it got dark at sundown. We had quilting bees and social clubs for people to get together. They would sit around and do that. I think other communities probably do it at their churches. Keeping up with people that we don’t see otherwise, and knowing what’s going on in their lives is important.
Maryann and Ed Avery
Community members. Havana, Alabama
Outsidein. A Community Space for Hale County.
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