Loxley is the place to be

By Dale Liesch (Contact) | Dadeville Record

Published Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I never really know what to tell people when they meet me and ask where I’m from.

That’s because, generally I can answer it three ways depending on the reaction I want to achieve.

Folks around the office have heard me exclaim with glee that I hail from Portland, Ore, which is true. I lived there for seven years until we moved to Alabama right around my 10th birthday.

I have also been known to reluctantly announce my Arkansas roots – having been born in that state, but never actually living there. This also happens to be true.

I will occasionally presume to know the ways of the world because of my brief time in Chicago, although to say I’m from there would kind of be a lie. I’m no Carl Sandburg to the hog butchers of the world.

Usually though when asked I tell folks what I consider to be most accurate. I hail from Loxley, but I’m no Robin Hood.

While Portland has its charms - nice little coffee shops, liberals and hills – it also has its disappointments – the Trail Blazers, ugly women and lots of rain.

I love Chicago for many reasons too. The Cubs, Da’ Bulls, the food – like deep dish pizza and the best hot dogs – and the fact that my sister lives there now all make it a place I would love to call home.

However, Loxley is where I lived the majority of my life and I like it.

The town should have nearly 1,700 people after the next census is complete, so by all accounts it’s still a town. The most famous retailer in town is a produce store – Burris Farm Market - and if you don’t know where Loxley is that’s a clue.

Loxley has a strawberry festival each year in April and you’d be hard pressed to find a better piece of strawberry shortcake anywhere in the world.

Interstate 10 runs right through Loxley so we have a McDonald’s, a Hardees, a Dairy Queen and a Waffle House all nearby. I know I feel so lucky and I bet you’re jealous.

My house is almost exactly 32 miles from Gulf Shores and I know this for two reasons. For one, I can read those green mile markers and two, I spent three years working at a Burger King on Pleasure Island because it was the only place that would hire me at 15 years old.

I loved living in Loxley because I could sit on my porch at night and see just about every star in the sky. It was beautiful and amazing. My family could also raise a veritable zoo full of animals and there was no neighborhood group to bother us. At one time or another, we raised ducks – named C3PO, R2D2 and Luke – nameless, but mean chickens, four dogs, two cats and a horse named Whiskey.

It was the simple life and no matter how much I complained about it when I lived there I miss it now from time to time and cannot believe I took it for granted for so long.

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Dale Liesch is print editor for The Alexander City Outlook.