Maryanna Williams
Greensboro has really changed because so many people have moved in who did not grow up here. A lot of people who come here are not accepted by the old Greensboro people, which is bad. There was really a status thing with the old families. If you did not marry a local boy who was accepted, you were not accepted. It wasn't hard for me because I married someone who was accepted. It was hard for people who were not in the inner circle. You just didn't run around with them. But a lot of those old aristocratic families have died off, those old ladies were something! It was sort of a little snobby group, I look back now and realize it.
A lot of the older families didn't want change, and I think that's one of reasons Greensboro dried up. We've pretty much gone backwards. They wanted it to remain like it was, they didn’t want industry coming in. A lot of people will tell you that. Most of that is gone and young people would like to see something happen.
I'm on the opera house committee. If we can get that going there is hope for the downtown area. A lot of people are critical of the opera house project, but I wouldn't be on it if I didn't think it would do good. If we get the opera house fixed it will bring programs and people into Greensboro and more shops will open. We want to have plays, operas, and speakers. Someone from Birmingham wants to come donate a Steinway piano and give a concert. It would just be wonderful. I feel like it’s a new beginning.
I think it would be wonderful if we had a community place, it would help race relations. I think it would help to get different social groups together in the community. There are so many talented people here who can do so many things, like your French hand sewing and your smocking. Those are lost arts, but they're coming back. We could learn how to play bridge, we could knit, and crochet. I would love to teach that. It’s a social thing just to get people together and work on some kind of project like that.
It could grow if we had the right events, I think there's a need for it. A lot of the young people today want to learn some of the things and preserve some of our heritage. I've had people ask me would I teach a smocking class, and I said yes. I would love to!
I would like us to work together as a community for the good of the community instead of pulling against one another. I think maybe with the young ones the division isn't there as much. We should try to do everything we can here in the county because the tax money helps out with the schools. I do think the mindset is becoming less and less divisive. Maybe I just want it to be, but I feel like it is.
Maryanna Williams
Greensboro, Alabama
Outsidein. A Community Space for Hale County.
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